Australian Grand Prix: Car cemetary.

An eventful race was presented today for the first leg of the 2008 Formula One championship as only seven cars managed to cross the finish line. The safety car has been used three times during the lenght of the race.

Lewis Hamilton in his McLaren-Mercedes was imperial as he dominated his opponents all race long. The young British driver starts his season on the right foot with a solid victory. His march towards the 2008 drivers championship has begun.

As for the rest of the field, many spectacular incidents ponctuated this race. The most spectacular one involved Timo Glock in his Toyota. His car litterally took off and disintegrated on the impact.

The clowns of this first race of the season are without any doubt both Ferrari drivers who didn't manage to cross the finish line. First, Felipe Massa took out David Coulthard who was rightfully running in front of him. Massa continued for a couple of laps after the incident before retiring. As for the defending champion, Kimi Raikkonen, his aggressive driving made him visit the gravel road a couple of times. Kimi's race ended when his engine died towards the end of the race.

The biggest surprize of this race came from Sebastien Bourdais in his Toro Rosso. Bourdais was at his very first Formula One Grand Prix and opened some eyes as he was running in fourth place with under 10 laps to go. But his engine exploded as he was resisting to Fernando Alonso's attacks. Even retired, Bourdais finished in seventh position.

Australian Grand Prix results:

Winner: Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)
2-Nick Heidfeld (BMW-Sauber)
3-Nico Rosberg (Williams)
4-Fernando Alonso (Renault)
5-Heikki Kovalainen (McLaren)
6-Kazuki Nakajima (Williams)
7-Sebastien Bourdais (Toro Rosso)
8-Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari)

Drivers championship after 1/18 races:

1-Lewis Hamilton 10 points
2-Nick Heidfeld 8 points
3-Nico Rosberg 6 points
4-Fernando Alonso 5 points
5-Heikki Kovalainen 4 points
6-Kazuki Nakajima 3 points
7-Sebastien Bourdais 2 points
8-Kimi Raikkonen 1 point

Constructors championship:

1-McLaren-Mercedes 14 points
2-Williams 9 points
3-BMW-Sauber 8 points
4-Renault 5 points
5-Toro Rosso 2 points
6-Ferrari 1 point

(Picture: Lewis Hamilton, Getty Images.)