Lewis Hamilton and Team McLaren started their own version of unifinished business when they claimed the first race of the season.
Hamilton who finished second to the drivers championship behind Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen started at pole and never looked back.
He finished 5.4 seconds ahead of BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld in second place and 8.1 ahead of Williams’ Nico Rosberg in third.
“We got away to a really great start — we’ve done a superb job all weekend,” Hamilton said.
Raikkonen finished sixth and got alone championship point from the race. It represented the teams worst start since 1992.
15 cars never made it to the checkered flag.
Former teammate and back-to-old team Renault Fernando Alonso finished fourth.
1. McLaren - Hamilton
2. BMW Sauber - Nick Heidfeld
3. Williams - Nico Rosberg
4. Renault - Fernando Alonso
5. McLaren - Heikki Kovalainen
6. Honda - Rubens Barrichello **
Stewards on Sunday disqualified Rubens Barrichello from sixth position in the Australian Grand Prix because the Honda driver ran the red lights at the pit lane exit.
The news means that Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, who otherwise had a nightmare first race as reigning world champion before stopping with a technical defect, moves into the points, as he was provisionally classified ninth and last.
7. Williams - Kazuki Nakajima
Next race will be the Malaysian Grand Prix which will be held at Sepang Malaysia. 56 laps of Formula One racing which is slated on March 23, 2008.
