Albert Park, Melbourne, Sunday 18th March 2007
Fernando Alonso MP4-22 03
Lewis Hamilton MP4-22 04
T-car (Fernando) MP4-22 01
2007 AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX
Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton finished today's Australian
Grand Prix in second and third places respectively achieving
an almost perfect start to the season for the Vodafone McLaren
Mercedes team. Lewis' third place was the best performance
from a rookie driver since 1996 and the English man even lead
the race for a few laps. Today's result puts the team in the
lead of the Constructors' Championship. Both drivers were
on a two-stop strategy. Fernando came in on laps 22 (9.3 seconds)
and 45 (6.5 seconds) and Lewis entered the pitlane on laps
23 (8.7 seconds) and 43 (8.2 seconds).
FERNANDO ALONSO
"What a great way to start the season and my career
as a Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver. Of course it's always
better to win but Kimi was a little bit quicker than us today,
however we scored the maximum points that were possible, and
I'm really pleased. My start was a bit strange with both BMWs
being very quick off the line, and I was so busy defending
my line from Heidfeld on the outside that it was not possible
for me to stay ahead of him. I was then behind Lewis for a
while and was just focusing on keeping up with him and sometimes
dropping back to allow the car to cool down. I took second
after the second pitstop as I was able to stay out for an
additional two laps. Originally it was meant to be one lap
but because I was behind Lewis I managed to save enough fuel
for one more lap. Both of the Bridgestone Potenza tyre options
worked well. We will now continue to work hard to give us
the best opportunity to beat Ferrari at the Malaysian Grand
Prix."
LEWIS HAMILTON
"I'm absolutely ecstatic – today's result is more
than I ever dreamed of achieving on my Grand Prix debut. A
big thank you to the team who have worked so hard during the
winter to make sure I was as prepared as I possible could
be. I made a good start but the BMWs were quick off the line
and Kubica managed to get past. There was no room on the inside
so I got on the left and managed to outbrake both Kubica and
Fernando coming into the first corner to take third. The race
was intense, and I was working very hard. I made a few mistakes
but nothing major and really enjoyed myself. It was great
to lead the race for a few laps, but I knew it was only a
temporary thing. Fernando got past me at the second pitstop
as he was able to stay out a bit longer and I lost some time
behind backmarkers. We now have a lot of work ahead of us
with the Malaysia test and the rest of the season, but there
is no doubt that we can build from what has been achieved
today."
RON DENNIS
"Of course as always we came to Australia to win, but
a somewhat unexpected strategy adopted by BMW was very disruptive
to our race. Following Heidfeld's first pitstop the gap was
just too big to realistically close it and the additional
range from our strategy was subsequently wasted. Both drivers
did an excellent job giving us a narrow lead in the Constructors'
Championship. A special thank you to the test team and the
workforce back at the McLaren Technology Centre who have worked
so hard during the winter and contributed so much to the faultless
reliability that we have enjoyed throughout the weekend. The
coming Malaysian test should give us every opportunity to
further improve the competitiveness of our cars."
NORBERT HAUG
"The season started well with Fernando and Lewis scoring
14 points out of 18 possible on their debut race for Vodafone
McLaren Mercedes. Fernando showed with his performance exactly
why he is the double world champion whilst Lewis made a perfect
start to his Grand Prix career and proved absolutely worthy
of the confidence we have had in him for the past ten years.
Although we still have to work hard to further improve our
technical package we showed today that throughout the winter
we have made
improvements. We will now focus on the Malaysia test and are
looking forward to the next race. Thanks to everybody in the
team in Woking, Brixworth and Stuttgart, all their efforts
will pay off."
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