Lotus position as Finn puts party back in Formula One

KIMI Raikkonen has returned the Australian Grand Prix to a forgotten era of fast driving, hard partying and drivers.

Kimi Raikkonen

IN the nostalgic black-and-gold livery of his flying Lotus, Kimi Raikkonen has returned the Australian Grand Prix to a forgotten era of fast driving, hard partying and drivers rather than team bosses calling the shots.

The famously taciturn Finn has never been one for expansive oratory, but his sharp rebuke to a team engineer last year on the way to winning in Abu Dhabi - "leave me alone, I know what I'm doing" - inspired anyone yearning for stars rather than science to take the driver's seat.

Raikkonen's line, broadcast on the Lotus team radio, went viral. Within weeks, it was appearing on T-shirts all over the world, including those he had printed for his own team.

There was nothing quite so memorable uttered by the 33-year-old at Albert Park, Melbourne, yesterday. But his near flawless drive was the talk of the track as he found the secret of unlocking more mileage than anyone from the prescribed Pirelli tyres.

Raikkonen, a former world champion who quit the sport for two years to drive rally cars, finished his day in stellar company, with fellow world champs Fernando Alonso and Sebastien Vettel joining him on the podium.

Both Alonso in his Ferrari and Vettel in his Red Bull pitted three times for new tyres, but Raikkonen stopped just twice: "That was our plan before the race. I thought it should be easy to do it."

In keeping with his previous visits to Melbourne, nothing came easy for Australia's Mark Webber. Having secured a front-row start in the morning's qualifying session, Webber was again plagued by a failure to launch, a shortcoming that has dogged his Formula One career.

As Webber limped his Red Bull off the starting line, he was immediately swamped by both Ferraris, the two Mercedes and Raikkonen's Lotus; a brilliant qualifying performance counting for nought by the first corner. He was the first car to pit after a mere six laps, no doubt cursing the super-soft tyres all the way in.

From there, Webber drove a competitive race, finishing sixth.

Having started his Grand Prix at Albert Park so memorably 11 years ago in the points and a dying Minardi, Webber is yet to record a podium finish in Melbourne. He said his start was ruined by technical issues. "It was pretty much a mess," he said.

The second Australian on the grid, Toro Rosso's Daniel Ricciardo, spent most of his race midfield before retiring after 42 laps with mechanical problems.

The big questions heading into the start of another Formula One season were whether a driver would emerge to challenge Vettel and his run of three consecutive world championships, and which teams would best come to grips with the softer tyre compounds on offer from Pirelli, the mandatory supplier.

Raikkonen and his team appear to have answered both in the first two hours of racing, with Ferrari also providing a strong early challenge to Red Bull's dominance of recent seasons.

This is Raikkonen's second year back in Formula One, with the Finn determined to do things his own way. Just don't ask him to tell you much about it.