McLaren's Lewis Hamilton Hamilton stamped his name on the 2008 Formula One season when he started from pole position and avoided the carnage behind him to win an accident-filled Australian Formula One Grand Prix on Sunday. Hamilton was never seriously threatened and won in 1 hour, 34 minutes and 50.616 seconds to claim his fifth victory in 18 Grand Prix starts. The 23-year-old Briton blasted away from pole position and won by 5.4 seconds from the BMW of Nick Heidfeld and the Williams of Nico Rosberg, who claimed his first podium. It was a frantic race in which just seven of the 22 cars survived to the checkered flag. Neiter of the Ferarri cars managed to finish the race. While the champions contemplated their worst start to a season since 1992 since neither Ferrari finished the race, Hamilton was ecstatic. “Coming into a new season, turning over a new leaf, we really wanted to get off on the right foot,” said Hamilton, who missed out on the title last year by a single point to Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen. “It's quite different to my first win in Montreal, just because that was really not expected,” he added. “This win perhaps feels better than any because I feel I've improved in many areas.” The safety car was deployed three times as cars crashed and collided at a circuit with limited run-off areas. Through it all, and despite the safety car interventions eroding his lead and the pressure of expectation, Hamilton lapped in a league of his own. Raikkonen retired five laps from the end with an engine problem after a torrid afternoon at the wheel, with the Finn also skidding off on lap 31 after overtaking McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen for second place and rejoining at the back. “The results speak for themselves. Unfortunately, it was really a dreadful weekend,” new Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali said. Raikkonen grabbed a consolation point however after Honda's Rubens Barrichello, who had finished sixth, was excluded for exiting the pit lane when the lights were still red. The Brazilian also sent a mechanic flying when he accelerated away before the fuel hose was detached. Fernando Alonso, Hamilton's feuding teammate last year in a season blighted by a spying controversy that cost McLaren the constructors' title, was fourth on his return to the Renault team with which he won his two titles. Kovalainen was fifth, his hopes of anchoring a one-two on his McLaren debut dashed by a late pitstop, and set the fastest lap of the race. He might have been fourth had he not hit the pit lane speed limiter button by accident when tearing off a visor strip after overtaking Alonso. Kazuki Nakajima moved up to sixth for Williams, despite the Japanese tangling with Red Bull's Mark Webber at the start and again with the BMW Sauber of Poland's Robert Kubica nine laps from the end. Stewards gave the rookie a 10-place penalty on the starting grid for the Malaysian Grand Prix next weekend. Four-time Champ Car champion Sebastien Bourdais, the first Frenchman to start a season since 2004, joined the elite group of drivers to score on their debuts with seventh place despite his Toro Rosso's engine blowing two laps from the end. First corner carnage brought out the safety car on the opening lap and led to the retirement of five drivers including Webber, Australia's only participant. Honda's Jenson Button, one of the immediate casualties after a coming together with fellow-Briton Anthony Davidson and Germany's Sebastian Vettel, said it had been “mayhem everywhere”. “Somebody came on the right hand side of my car like a kamikaze and pushed me out,” added Force India's Italian Giancarlo Fisichella. Ferrari's Brazilian Felipe Massa, who started in fourth place, was forced to pit for a new front wing after spinning into the wall. The safety car was deployed for a second time just before the halfway point when Massa and Red Bull's David Coulthard collided at the end of the main straight. The Scot, who had a big accident at the circuit last year when his car flew over the Williams of Austrian Alex Wurz, flew off again and blamed the Ferrari driver. Germany's Timo Glock brought out the safety car for the third and final time on lap 44 when his Toyota hit a kerb and flew into the air before plunging into the barriers. __
