Jinxed Webber fails in the clutch

GONE in a split second. On a day when Kimi Raikkonen claimed the Australian Grand Prix, that is how long it took to end Mark Webber's dream.

GONE in a split second. On a day when former world champion Kimi Raikkonen and his Lotus team outsmarted their rivals to claim the Australian Grand Prix, that is how long it took to end Mark Webber's dream of winning in Melbourne.

There was hope that luck might finally swing the way of the home hero when he qualified second behind his teammate Sebastian Vettel in a morning race for pole.

But as has happened so regularly in the past, Webber botched the start and slid from the front row to seventh by the first turn. It was a beginning that not only blew his chance of winning at home for the first time but any chance of standing atop the podium.

As his triple world championship-winning teammate Vettel pinged from pole, Webber was jumped by both the Ferrari and Mercedes drivers and Lewis Hamilton in his Lotus, in the process deflating the hopes of many of the 100,000-plus in attendance.

After driving his way to sixth position - Ferrari's Fernando Alonso finished 12 seconds adrift of Raikkonen in second, with Vettel third - Webber said his Red Bull car had experienced problems with both the clutch and communications system back to the team in pit lane.

"It was pretty much a mess. Even from the formation lap we had a lot of telemetry issues," he said.

"We had a quite a few things we needed to manage.

"We didn't have a clue where to put the clutch from the start either. There was no telemetry back to the guys, so we were just rolling the dice with that.

"We then decided to pit early to try and get out of that mess ... so, wow, the first 15 to 20 minutes was a difficult part of the grand prix."

With the retirement of Michael Schumacher at the end of last season leaving Webber the oldest man in the championship - he turns 37 in August - the clock is ticking on his chances in Melbourne as he is signed to Red Bull on a year-by-year basis.

Webber, however, said his effort to finish second in qualifying and then work his way into sixth despite a string of issues gave him hope he could challenge for the championship as the Formula One season heads to Malaysia for its next race in a week.

"To get back somewhere towards the points at the end, I think, was not too bad but ultimately, even if we had a smooth day, I think we were going to get done today," he said.

There were no such issues for Raikkonen, who posted his second win in Melbourne after driving a Ferrari to victory here in 2007.

He started that season with a bang when he took pole position, set the fastest lap and became the first driver since Nigel Mansell in 1989 to win his first grand prix with Ferrari. It was the perfect start to a season in which he finished world champion.

Having walked away from Formula One for two seasons to drive rally cars before returning with Lotus last year, the Finn qualified in seventh but claimed control of the race midway through, with the deliberate strategy to pit only twice proving critical as other teams worried about the wear and tear on their tyres.

"That was our plan for the race. I thought it should be easy to do it," Raikkonen said.

"It is a similar feeling because we won the first race and are leading the championship.

"But to start from seventh place and fight through the field to win ... is fantastic."

Webber's compatriot Daniel Ricciardo had even less reason to savour this grand prix.

Although the West Australian was never going to be a podium threat in his slower Toro Rosso, he may have hoped to scoot into the top 10 from a starting position of 14. Instead, within a couple of laps, he was sitting in 20th and by lap 42 he had retired from the race. Three other drivers failed to finish.

For a significant period early in a race that changed by the lap as teams adopted different strategies in changing tyres, the race was led by Force India's Adrian Sutil, who had also adopted the two-pitstop strategy.