A couple of predictions for the new Formula One season:
1. Kimi Raikkonen will be this year's World Champion; and
2. Lewis Hamilton will win (at least) a race this season.
These come after the first round of the new season, at Albert Park in Melbourne, Australia.
Ferrari is definitely the smoothest, if not the quickest car in the entire field. They have done an excellent job in setting up the car, and Kimi was doing a fantastic job driving it. If you have watched Kimi's driving from his on-board camera, you wouldn't have noticed any understeering or oversteering at all, and Kimi negotiated every corner with consummate ease, without having to make any steering adjustment at all. The car was simply super-quick and ultra-smooth. Coupled with its brand-new all-red paint scheme, Ferrari is a marvel to watch, even for a Ferrari-hater like Yours Truly.
The only blemishes for Ferrari were Felipe Massa's gearbox trouble during the second qualifying session, which gave him a provisional 16th on the starting grid. And that became 22nd and last when the team decided to change his engine. But Massa drove brilliantly and thanks to his one-pitstop strategy, he oh so nearly overtook the once again day-dreaming Giancarlo Fisichella in a Renault for fifth.
The other blemish was Raikkonen's post-race interview, which was carried out in his trademark indecipherable and monotonous way. For Ferrari, they have certainly maintained their tradition of giving annoying interviews: From Michael Schumacher's way too politically correct stance to Kimi's talking style which, despite your very best effort, will tell you nothing as you simply cannot hear what he's talking about.
The race itself was a mere procession, but the main talking point is that the reigning World Champion, Fernando Alonso, being outpaced by his rookie teammate Hamilton.
Hamilton, the reigning GP2 Champion and the first black Formula One driver ever, became the first driver to have led his very first Grand Prix since Jacques Villeneuve in 1996, also held in Albert Park. And he wouldn't have done so had he not made such an audacious move to overtake Alonso at the first corner.
Hamilton, who started fourth in his McLaren Mercedes, was bundled up behind BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica, who started fifth, at the inside of the track. Meanwhile Alonso, who started second, stayed on the middle and had a chance to overtake Kimi, who was at the outside. But Kimi shut the door on everyone and went through the corner first. Kubica's teammate Nick Heidfeld, who was inside Alonso, went second. Seeing nowhere to go at fifth, Hamilton went around the outside of both Kubica AND Alonso and tucked nicely behind Heidfeld into third, in a spectacular move.
In qualifying, Hamilton was faster than Alonso in the first session. But when it matters the most, Alonso beat him in the final session for second place on the grid. And despite being quicker than Alonso during the early and middle portion of the race, Alonso once again was quicker when it matters the most, and managed to come out ahead of him after the second pitstop, thanks mainly to Hamilton's off-field excursions on a number of occasions.
Despite losing his hard-fought second place, Hamilton finished the race in a comfortable third place, thus becoming the 55th Formula One driver to score on his debut. It's a fantastic start to his Formula One career indeed, and a much better one than his fellow rookie, the highly-touted Finn Heikki Kovalainen of Renault, who finished out of the points in tenth place.
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