Lewis Hamilton Wins Opening Grand Prix
17th March, 2008
Lewis Hamilton avoided all of the chaos in the Australian Grand Prix to win the opening race of the season. Only seven cars managed to complete all 58 laps of the race, in which the safety car was deployed three times.
Changes to the electronic set up of all the cars, including no more traction control, led to a far more exciting race as the driver continually battled to keep their cars on the track.
Hamilton had qualified in pole position, and led from the start, seeing off competition from the pacey BMWs and William’s cars. Ferrari had a torrid weekend despite clearly having the faster cars on race day, as aggressive driving saw them both compromise their cars and fail to make any real threat to Hamilton come the final stages of the race. Raikkonen did manage to score a point despite retiring five laps from the end of the race, as only seven other cars remained.
As a result of the race, the odds of Hamilton winning the driver’s championship shortened dramatically from around 3/1 down to evens, whilst Massa has seen his odds rocket from 6/1 to 14/1. Raikkonen remains Hamilton’s biggest contender, at best odds of 7/4 according to our odds comparison service.
