Bridgestone motorsport wrap for 17th March 2008

Hamilton makes perfect start to season 2008

Britain's Lewis Hamilton drove a flawless race to take out the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne at the weekend to make a perfect start to the new Formula One season.

The McLaren driver started on medium compound Bridgestone Potenza tyres and stopped twice for fresh rubber in his serene start-to-finish win - but there was drama behind for his rivals.

Only seven cars made it to the finish with a host of accidents, incidents and safety car periods. Ferrari had a nightmare race with defending world champion Kimi Raikkonen just managing to come away with a point for eighth place while Felipe Massa made a series of errors before retiring with apparent accident damage.

BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld drove consistently to finish behind Hamlilton while Nico Rosberg claimed the first podium finish of his career for Williams.

Fernando Alonso and Heikki Kovalainen had a spirited battle throughout the race with the Renault driver just edging out the McLaren for fourth place.

"Today we had good tyre performance with both Bridgestone Potenza compounds performing very well. We will analyse our data, but initial indications are that generally the medium compound was slightly better in race conditions," said Hirohide Hamashima, Director of Bridgestone Motorsport Race Tyre Development.

"The soft compound did experience some graining, particularly when the track was dusty early in the race, but there was sufficient wear life to use a one stop strategy, and we are happy with tyre performance"

Hamilton leads the drivers' championship with ten points from Nick Heidfeld on eight while McLaren Mercedes leads the constructors' championship on 14 points. BMW Sauber and Williams are both tied on eight points.

Next weekend is the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang where Bridgestone's hard and medium compound Potenza tyres will be used.