Lotus’ Kimi Raikkonen picked up a surprising victory as he crossed the line to take the chequered flag in Australia this morning. The Finnish driver secured his 20th race win having started from 7th on the grid.
The 2007 World Champion was also joined by two others to make it a trio of World Champions on the podium. Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso came second and polesitter, Sebastian Vettel, a respectable third.
Felipe Massa narrowly missed out on a podium spot but showed good form and completed the race in fourth place ahead of Lewis Hamilton who enjoyed a solid first race with Mercedes.
One of the two local heroes competing in the Grand Prix, Mark Webber failed to finish in the top three but brought his car home and took sixth place ahead of the Force Indias of Adrian Sutil and Paul Di Resta.
Raikkonen’s team-mate, Romain Grosjean was the final driver to pick up a top 10 point scoring position, behind a struggling Jenson Button in ninth.
Pos Driver Team Time/Gap 1. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1h30m03.225s 2. Fernando Alonso Ferrari + 12.451s 3. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault + 22.346s 4. Felipe Massa Ferrari + 33.577s 5. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes + 45.561s 6. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault + 46.800s 7. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 1m05.068s 8. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes + 1m08.449s 9. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes + 1m21.630s 10. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault + 1m22.759s 11. Sergio Perez McLaren-Mercedes + 1m23.367s 12. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1m23.857s 13. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari + 1 lap 14. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Renault + 1 lap 15. Jules Bianchi Marussia-Cosworth + 1 lap 16. Charles Pic Caterham-Renault + 2 laps 17. Max Chilton Marussia-Cosworth + 2 laps 18. Giedo van der Garde Caterham-Renault + 2 laps