Welcome back ladies and gentlemen; I hope your weekends were all as marvelous as mine was.  To kick things off this bright March morning, we a recap of the inaugural F1 race of the season which took place in Melbourne, Australia over the weekend.  As with all our McLaren Mercedes race recaps, if you have the race TIVO'd and plan on catching it later, read no further; otherwise, keep scrolling for the full details of how the team fared in their first outing together.

In qualifying, reigning world champion Fernando Alonso and teammate Lewis Hamilton both performed well, with the pair capturing the second and fourth starting spots, respectively. From the onset of the race, the duo managed to maintain positions at the head of the pack, with Alonso dropping back to fourth by the first corner but Hamilton moving into third - trailing BMW's Nick Heidfeld and former McLaren Mercedes driver Kimi Raikkonen.

On lap 14, Heidfeld entered the pits for the first time, allowing Lewis and Fernando to move into the second and third spots, respectively; and on lap 19 Kimi entered the pits, moving each of the McLaren Mercedes up another spot. On lap 22 and 23, Alonso and Lewis each entered the pits for the first time, with the pair resuming in their former positions of third and second when the dust had settled.  On lap 42, Kimi made his second stop, allowing Lewis to take the lead, but a lapped car slowed his pace and allowed Fernando to close the gap between he and his teammate.  At the end of lap 43, Lewis made his second pit stop, allowing Fernando to take the lead until he pitted two laps later.  When he rejoined the race, Alonso accelerated back into second ahead of teammate Lewis and behind Kimi , positions all three drivers held through the end of the race. 

Overall, it was a great inaugural outing for Team Vodafone McLaren Mercedes and hopefully the start of a season more productive than last year's dismal showing.

To learn more, keep scrolling for a pair of additional photos from this weekend's festivities followed by the full press release detailing the race and loaded with team interviews.

Enjoy.








OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE


F1 Melbourne: Fernando Alonso Second, Lewis Hamilton Third

Melbourne, Mar 18, 2007

The start: Fernando qualified second but was beaten away from the start by Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber) and his team mate Hamilton, dropping to fourth as a result. Lewis began the first Grand Prix of his career in fourth place and overtook Fernando at the first corner to complete the opening lap third behind Räikkönen and Heidfeld.

The race: After Nick Heidfeld made his first refuelling stop on lap 14 Lewis and Fernando were running in second and third places. When Räikkönen made his first stop at the end of lap 19, Lewis took the lead with Fernando second. On lap 22, Fernando made his first stop in 9.3sec and went back into the race third behind Lewis and Räikkönen. On the next lap, Lewis pitted for the first time in 8.7sec and resumed second ahead of his teammate. On lap 42 Räikkönen made his second stop allowing Lewis through into the lead, but he was held up by a lapped car and Fernando closed the gap. Lewis came in at the end of lap 43 (8.2sec). Fernando took the lead and stayed out another two laps before making his second stop in 6.5sec. The Spaniard accelerated back into the race in second place ahead of Lewis. Fernando took the chequered flag after 58 laps in second place with Lewis finishing third on his first Grand Prix outing.

Comments

Fernando Alonso: "What a great way to start the season and my career as a Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver. Of course it's always better to win but Kimi was a little bit quicker than us today, but we scored the maximum points that were possible, and I'm really pleased. My start was a bit strange with both BMWs being very quick off the line, and I was so busy defending my line from Heidfeld on the outside that it was not possible for me to defend the corner. I was then behind the Lewis for a while and was just focusing on keeping up with him and sometimes dropping back to allow the car to cool down. I took second after the second pitstop as I was able to stay out for an additional two laps. Originally it was meant to be one lap but because I was behind Lewis I managed to save enough fuel for one more lap. Both of the Bridgestone Potenza tyre options worked well. We will now continue to work hard to give us the best opportunity to beat Ferrari at the Malaysian Grand Prix."

Lewis Hamilton: "I'm absolutely ecstatic – today's result is more than I ever dreamed of achieving on my Grand Prix debut. A big thank you to the team who have worked so hard during the winter to make sure I was as prepared as I possible could be. I made a good start but the BMWs were quick off the line and Kubica managed to get past. There was no room on the inside so I got on the left and managed to outbrake both Kubica and Fernando coming into the first corner to take third. The race was intense, and I was working very hard. I made a few mistakes but nothing major and really enjoyed myself. It was great to lead the race for a few laps, but I knew it was only a temporary thing. Fernando got past me in the second pitstop as he was able to stay out a bit longer and I lost some time behind backmarkers. We now have a lot of work ahead of us with the Malaysia test and the rest of the season, but there is no doubt that we can build from what has been achieved today."

Ron Dennis, Team Principal: "Of course as always we came to Australia to win but a somewhat unexpected strategy adopted by BMW was very disruptive to our race. Following Heidfeld's first pitstop the gap was just too big to realistically close it and the additional range from our strategy was subsequently wasted. Both drivers did an excellent job giving us a narrow lead in the Constructors' Championship. A special thank you to the test team and the workforce back at the McLaren Technology Centre who have worked so hard during the winter and contributed so much to the faultless reliability that we have enjoyed throughout the weekend. The coming Malaysian test should give us every opportunity to further improve the competitiveness of our cars."

Norbert Haug, Vice President Mercedes-Benz Motorsport: "The season started well with Fernando and Lewis scoring 14 points out of 18 possible on their debut race for Vodafone McLaren Mercedes. Fernando showed with his performance exactly why he is the double world champion whilst Lewis made a perfect start to his Grand Prix career and proved absolutely worthy of the confidence we have had in him for the past ten years. Although we still have to work hard to further improve our technical package, we showed today that throughout the winter we have made improvements. We will now focus on the Malaysia test and are looking forward to the next race. Thanks to everybody in the team in Woking, Brixworth and Stuttgart, all their efforts will pay off."

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