To say that Ferrari did not have a good start to the 2008 F1 season in Australia today would be something of an understatement, with Kimi Raikkonen classified eighth, thus securing a "consolation point" and Felipe Massa posting a retirement at the halfway point on lap 29.

To say that Ferrari did not have a good start to the 2008 F1 season in Australia today would be something of an understatement, with Kimi Raikkonen classified eighth, thus securing a "consolation point" and Felipe Massa posting a retirement at the halfway point on lap 29. In fact, the Finn was originally classified ninth but moved up one place after Barrichello was disqualified.

Things went badly for Massa shortly after the start, as he spun out of fourth place, hitting the wall in a battle with Kovalainen, forcing him to pit for a new nose. Out in front, Hamilton, (McLaren-Mercedes) starting from pole for the seventh time, led Kubica (BMW-Sauber) and Kovalainen (McLaren-Mercedes.) Rosberg (Williams-Toyota) moved up to fourth ahead of Heidfeld (BMW-Sauber) and Trulli (Toyota.) Kimi had moved up from 15th on the grid to eighth at this point.

Button and Davidson collided in the Honda and Super Aguri and local boy Mark Webber in the Red Bull also went no further than the opening lap. The incidents saw the safety car deployed. Out in front, Hamilton was stepping up the pace and by lap 10, he led Kubica by 7.6s, while Kovalainen was on his own in third ahead of Rosberg, Heidfeld, Trulli. Behind them came the Honda of Barrichello who was now locked in a battle with Kimi who was right behind him and keen to get past.

Kubica was the first man to change tyres and take on fuel, while Massa's long hard afternoon improved by one place as he passed Nakajima in the Williams on lap 17. When Raikkonen finally disposed of Barrichello on lap 19, running on the softer tyres, he began to set personal best laps. Felipe's day took another downward turn on lap 26, when, having got his nose ahead of Coulthard, the two men collided at Turn 1, forcing the Scotsman to retire and bringing out the safety car yet again. Kimi actually thought of pitting at this point, but fortunately he realised that, according to the safety car regulations, the pit lane was not yet open.

Felipe's race ended on lap 30, as he pulled off the track to retire with an engine problem and one lap later, the race was on again as the safety car came in. Kimi charged past fellow Finn, Kovalainen but ended up having to run through the gravel trap at Turn 3, consequently slipping down the order and pitting. Lap 44 saw the most serious incident of the race, when Glock had a heavy crash in his Toyota, bringing out the Safety Car yet again. Barrichello refuelled before the pit lane was open and also knocked over the refueller in the Honda pit. By lap 50 it was obvious that Raikkonen was in trouble from looking at his lap times and on lap 54 he came back to the pits to retire with an engine failure. On lap 56, Bourdais, making his F1 debut for Toro Rosso retired from fourth place and in the final move of the day, Kovalainen passed Alonso but the Spaniard re-took fourth place on the finish straight. So the race ended with Hamilton taking his fifth F1 victory to be joined by Heidfeld and Rosberg on the podium. The remaining points then went to Alonso, Kovalainen, Nakajima, Bourdais and Raikkonen.

For the Scuderia this was a very poor start as the team management admitted, but on the plus side, we only have to wait one week to try again at Round 2 at the Sepang circuit in Malaysia. Ferrari has often managed to overturn seemingly impossible situations at much more critical moments of the season and therefore the mood in the camp is disappointed but not downhearted.

Stefano Domenicali: "This has definitely been a very difficult start to the season and we have got off on the wrong foot. However, we should not react in an over emotional way to this. We weren't a phenomenon before and we're not carthorses now. We have to work out exactly what happened to the engines on both F2008s and they are being sent immediately to Maranello for analysis. As for the performance, we saw that when we were not running in traffic, we could run a very competitive pace. This shows that the potential is there, but we have to be in a position to exploit it, which means starting from the front. The whole team has not performed to our usual standard. We have to roll our sleeves up and react, as we know we can."

Kimi Raikkonen: "It's really disappointing not to finish the race, but at least the point is better than nothing. I had an engine problem, the reason for which now needs to be analysed. The car was good and I had a good pace when I found a free track ahead of me. I spun a couple of times trying to pass those ahead of me, but the first time, with Glock, I put a wheel on the grass and the second time, with Kovalainen, I was a bit too optimistic. This result is obviously not the best start to the season but it is a very long one and we are well aware that we are capable of recovering from far worse situations than this. We have to put everything in place and then we will be really competitive."

Felipe Massa: "A horrible start to the season. We had engine problems which is unusual for a team like ours. We have to understand what happened and react immediately. I was fighting my way up the order all race long. At the first corner I lost control of the car while battling with Kovalainen and ended up off the track. Then I moved up the order and could have finished in the points. The incident with Coulthard? I was on the inside and he closed the door on me, probably because he hadn't seen me. Our championship will have to start again in Malaysia. We know we have a good car we have to work to be able to use it as intended."

Luca Baldisserri: "There's not much to say about a disastrous start to the season. We did not work well on any level and this is the consequence of that. We know how important is reliability and we were severely lacking on this front. It is absolutely ages since we have seen two engine failures in a race. We have to look at every detail of this weekend to understand what went wrong and how we can improve. We have seen the technical potential is there and we have to do everything to use it to its maximum, starting in qualifying."

Race details: K. Raikkonen 8th 1.27.55.340 DNF 53 laps chassis 268; F. Massa R 47.12.136 DNF 29 laps chassis 267; Weather: air temperature 37 °C, track temperature 50/48 °C, sunny