After a close-season dominated by the spying allegations, it was a relief to focus on racing once again. The season opener from Albert Park, Melbourne again drew massive crowds, and was supported by a non-championship outing from the V8 Supercars.

After the disappointing narrow championship defeat in 2007, Lewis Hamilton has been installed as many critics tip to dominate the 2008 season, and claim the world crown. He couldn’t have wished for a better start, taking pole position in a qualifying session, which saw only BMW Sauber driver Robert Kubica come close. It may, however, have been a different story if Kubica had not over-steered out of the final corner on his fastest lap. Hamilton’s McLaren team mate Heikki Kovalainen completed the top three. 2007 World Champion Kimi Raikkonen endured a poor qualifying. A problem with fuel pressure meant he would start well out of the top ten.

The start saw Hamilton and Kubica storm away, enjoying their own private battle into, and successfully through, turn one. They were clearly ahead of the field and also, more importantly, ahead of the incidents that would result in five retirements. Giancarlo Fisichella, Nelson Piquet Jnr, Jenson Button, Mark Webber and Anthony Davidson being forced out of the race in two separate collisions. Meanwhile, Ferrari’s Felipe Massa was having his own incident, as he lost control exiting turn one and hit the wall damaging his nose cone; he remained in the race and made it back to the pits, to have the damaged nose cone replaced. A safety car was deployed to deal with the incidents, and on lap three the race re-started. Raikkonen was in 8th at this point, after profiting greatly from the retirements. Hamilton streaked ahead and seemed relentless in his opening up of the gap to Kubica in second. There was a battle beginning between Raikkonen and Rubens Barrichello, as the World Champion tried to make a pass, but was kept at bay by the Honda driver. Hamilton negotiated his pit stop and rejoined in fourth place, as Raikkonen eventually passed the Honda of Barrichello. Massa and David Coulthard were both forced to retire as the two came together, meaning the safety car was again back on track. At the restart Raikkonen was involved in more action. He managed to pass Heikki Kovalainen, but missed his braking point and made a detour to the gravel trap. This, combined with his pit stop, meant he was at the back of the pack. Hamilton was some six seconds ahead, as a charging Raikkonen again went off track losing yet more time. Barichello’s race was getting worse, not only did he enter the pit lane after the safety car had been deployed, after an accident involving Toyota’s Timo Glock, but he also left his pit box too early. As he did, the fuel line was still attached, and an unlucky mechanic was taken off his feet as the hose swept by. It was later reported that the mechanic did not duffer any serious injuries. A drive through penalty was handed to Barrichello, pushing him further back. An amazing day’s work from Robert Kubica was ended abruptly after an accident with Williams driver Kazuki Nakajima. On lap 54, Kimi Raikkonen pulled into the pits for the final time, and retired from a generally poor weekend for Ferrari. One lap later F1 rookie Sebastien Bourdais retired with engine failure, ending an otherwise superb debut performance. Double World Champion Fernando Alonso and Heikki Kovalainen, who in close season swapped race seats, were busy swapping position on track. Two passing moves meant that the positions stayed the same as the drivers crossed the line. Hamilton took the spoils with Nick Heidfeld and Nico Rosberg making up the podium positions. Barrichello, who finished in sixth place, was later disqualified for the leaving the pit lane when the red light was on during a safety car period. This meant that Kimi Raikkonen salvaged a point when he was promoted to 8th place. With Barichello’s disqualification it meant that only 6 cars had actually finished the race. The final two points positions being the retired cars of Nakajima and Raikkonen.

Final Race 1 Standings (Top 8):
    1.  Lewis Hamilton
    2.  Nick Heidfeld
    3.  Nico Rosberg
    4.  Fernando Alonso
    5.  Heikki Kovalainen
    6.  Kazuki Nakajima
    7.  Sebastien Bourdais
    8.  Kimi Raikkonen

   Disqualified
        Rubens Barrichello

  NB: 1. Rubens Barrichello Disqualified for ignoring red lights at pit exit
         during safety car period.
      2. Six finished. Sebastien Bourdais and Kimi Raikkonen DNF.

Driver's Championship Standings (Top 8):
    1.  Lewis Hamilton      10 Pts
    2.  Nick Heidfeld        8 Pts
    3.  Nico Rosberg         6 Pts
    4.  Fernando Alonso      5 Pts
    5.  Heikki Kovalainen    4 Pts
    6.  Kazuki Nakajima      3 Pts
    7.  Sebastien Bourdais   2 Pts
    8.  Kimi Raikkonen       1 Pts

Team's Championship Standings:
    1.  McLaren-Mercedes    14 Pts
    2.  Williams-Toyota      9 Pts
    3.  BMW                  8 Pts
    4.  Renault              5 Pts
    5.  STR-Ferrari          2 Pts
    6.  Ferrari              1 Pts
    7.  Toyota               0 Pts
    8.  Super Aguri-Honda    0 Pts
    9.  Red Bull-Renault     0 Pts
   10.  Force India-Ferrari  0 Pts
   11.  Honda                0 Pts