Raikkonen wins the Australian Grand Prix

 Formula One

Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen of Finland won the Australian Grand Prix, finishing ahead of second placed Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso and Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel.

WIZARDS IN OZ... Lewis Hamilton tries to fight off the attention of Kimi Raikkonen at Albert Park

KIMI RAIKKONEN was the shock winner of the Australian Grand Prix as he showed Lotus he knows exactly what he is doing.

The Finnish ace — who famously told his team to “leave me alone, I know what I am doing” as he masterminded his win in Abu Dhabi last year — stunned bookies’ favourites Red Bull to take his 20th win.

Raikkonen, 33, who started in seventh place, made up two spots on his opening lap.

And the 2007 world champion comfortably swatted away the challenge from Fernando Alonso, who was second and Sebastian Vettel, who finished third.

Raikkonen said: “I was confident the tyres would be ok and I had a good car all week. I got a good start and it worked out well.

“I had doubts whether I could win because it is the first race. You have to get through the first few laps with no problem.”

Alonso added: “It was a fantastic race and we were fighting throughout. Kimi was fantastic and we have to congratulate him.”

Lewis Hamilton beat Mark Webber to snatch fifth spot behind Felipe Massa, to make a steady start to his Mercedes career.

It was a disappointing race for McLaren’s Jenson Button, who finished in ninth place behind Force India’s Adrian Sutil and Paul Di Resta.

Sergio Perez was 11th while Brit Max Chilton was in 17th place on his F1 debut with Marussia.

Earlier in the day Red Bull pair Vettel and Webber had sent alarm bells ringing across the F1 paddock after blitzing their way to make it a front row lock-out.

Despite tricky track conditions, Vettel had posted a time 0.6seconds ahead of Hamilton, who had started in third place.

It was a huge statement of intent that the Milton Keynes-based team are out to retain their two titles they have won for the previous three years.

But this was not a straightforward race for Red Bull, who struggled for race pace despite dominating qualifying.

Vettel got away cleanly and breezed into turn one but Webber made a dreadful start as his car got bogged down.

He was quickly leapfrogged by the Ferrari’s of Massa and Alonso, while Hamilton surrendered a spot while he was overtaken by Raikkonen on the second lap.

Meanwhile, further back McLaren were always going to have a difficult race as Button started in 10th while Perez made his team debut from P15.

Perez quickly made up two spots while Button decided to pit early for fresh tyres in an attempt for a change of fortune.

Out in front, Vettel quickly found himself under pressure from the Ferrari duo as the Red Bull showed a lack of the blistering pace that was expected.

However, Vettel managed to hold them off during the early pitstop shuffle, which saw Adrian Sutil as the shock leader.

The returning racer, who was making his second debut for Force India after a 12 month absence following his charge for GBH, wasted no time impressing his rivals.

While every other driver had pitted at least once, the German was able to nurse the fragile tyres to stay out in front until the end of the 21st lap when he went into the pits.

His lead was a big problem for Vettel, who was held up, and needed to pit at the same time as Sutil – perhaps somewhat earlier than the team had planned.

A flurry of pitstops rejigged the order at the front while Nico Rosberg, who had been running in third place at the time, pulled over on lap 27 with an electrical problem.

It was a huge blow to the German who had also suffered a gearbox problem on Friday.

Rosberg’s retirement meant this race was going to be a shoot-out between four former world champions in Raikkonen, Alonso, Hamilton and Vettel.

It made for some great battles as Hamilton bravely fended off Alonso on lap 31 before the Spaniard finally overtook the Brit, whose tyres were in a worse state.

Last year’s runner-up was then able to press ahead while Raikkonen was also on the pace as both opened a gap over Vettel and Hamilton.

The final juggle from the pitstops put Sutil back out in the lead, although he still needed to make a final stop.

Raikkonen eventually made his pass on lap 44 while Alonso did the same two laps later making it a fight between the two for the win.

Further back, Webber recovered to have a solid end to the race as he slugged it out with Hamilton, who also had a brief duel with Sutil.

But despite seriously degrading tyres, Raikkonen was somehow able to put in the fastest lap of the race.

That simply made Alonso’s life too difficult as Raikkonen built up a 12 second lead ahead of Alonso.

Meanwhile, Vettel said he was disappointed not to have taken more points having started on pole, but admitted he was still happy to be on the podium.

He said: “We can be happy. We wanted more when you start from pole. We had a good first few laps but the tyres fell apart and we could not keep up.

“The others had incredible pace and I think we were third quickest, so I am happy with third place.

“Sometimes we have to admit other people are faster, but it is a good start.”

It was certainly a strong race for Ferrari, with Alonso coming home second (he was a miraculous fifth here a year ago, with a dog of a car) and Felipe Massa fourth.

The qualifying session in the morning, held over from the night before, had suggested a dominating performance from Red Bull, and perhaps a podium place for a revitalised Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes. But it certainly didn't work out that way.

Vettel was third, three places ahead of Mark Webber. But Hamilton will still be happy with his fifth place. His new team-mate Nico Rosberg dropped out on the 27th lap with electronic problems and his old team McLaren struggled, as predicted, with Jenson Button ninth and Sergio Pérez 11th.

Vettel streaked away when the lights went out but his team-mate Webber must have felt he was going backwards at the start of the race. The only driver who made a worse start than Webber was Nico Hulkenberg, who didn't even make it onto the grid after being forced out with a fuel problem.

Alonso, like Vettel, made a stunning start, going through on the inside of Hamilton to take third and then putting one over on his team-mate Massa to take second. But Raikkonen was also impressive in the first lap, moving up two places from seventh to fifth.

The leading drivers started with super-softs in order to pit early and get down to business with the harder tyres. Adrian Sutil did not come in for a change until after 21 laps. It was a good race for Force India, with Sutil coming seventh and Paul di Resta eighth.

It looked good for Alonso when he pitted a lap before Sutil and Vettel and managed to leapfrog both. But in the end it was Raikkonen's two-stop strategy which paid off. "It was one of the easiest races I did to win," he said. Without smiling.