Snapshots from Albert Park

Australia was a fantastic race, and at the end just about every driver had a story to tell. Perhaps the man with the least eventful afternoon was race winner Lewis Hamilton, but behind the McLaren driver there was much to talk about, not least the way the safety cars shook things up. Here, then, are a few snapshots from an afternoon of high drama.

Anthony Davidson: It never rains but...

Williams driver Kazuki Nakajima may well have set some kind of record by twice losing his front wing and yet still finishing in the points - although I seem to remember Jacques Villeneuve in his BMW Sauber days had something of a penchant for losing bits from the front of his car on a regular basis.

Nakajima should be thankful that he was not driving for Super Aguri, for he would not have been able to finish the race. Thanks to the rush to get the cars to Melbourne, the team had just one spare nose for Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson's use on race day.

Bearing in mind that the grid had that sort of 'look' about it - a bunch of rookies in the field, some quick guys out of position, and Sato right at the back and not keen to stay there - there did seem to be a chance that we might have some first lap turbulence. I had visions of Takuma and Anthony both getting involved and then competing in a drag race back to the pits to see who would get the nose...

In the even, both men avoided the first corner chaos, in part perhaps because Sato didn't get away well. But poor Davidson was an innocent victim at Turn 3, where the year before he hurt his back in a tangle with Adrian Sutil.

"The race is always unpredictable here, unfortunately I was one of the statistics today!" he rued when I bumped into him after the race. "I got a good start, bearing in mind I haven't done one start ever with the [new electronics] system. I managed to get past Takuma, and then I just backed off and watched the group go into Turn One.

"I just knew that something was going to happen when I saw too many cars side by side. It must have been about five abreast going into there! [Renault's Nelson] Piquet was right on the inside of everyone, after a good start, and I just backed out of it because I thought this looks wrong. And sure enough, cars were going through the air and spinning, carbon-fibre was going everywhere.

"So I avoided everything there and picked my way through the chaos. Then I tagged alongside [Red Bull's] Mark Webber. We were being sensible into Turn 3, with Nakajima ahead of me, and then he went wide, because he was struggling under brakes, locked up, and went off the circuit."

The damaged Super Aguri of Anthony Davidson © XPB/LAT

What Davidson didn't know at the time was that the Japanese driver had left his front wing at the first corner, after the clash between Sebastian Vettel Jenson Button clash sent the Toro Rosso man sideways into Nakajima's path.

"Oh, OK, that would have been some of the carbon I saw, then," Davidson said when he heard of the Williams driver's fate. "And he wouldn't have known that his front wing was damaged, because he can't see as a driver. So that's why he went wide, and then naturally he wanted to come back across to take his line into Turn 4, but he didn't realise that A, I was alongside him, and B, that Mark was alongside me!

"Mark was doing me on the inside and I was letting him go, but then as Nakajima rejoined, the two guys either side of me just sandwiched me completely. I tried to brake and get out of it; I could see it unfolding in front of me. They both climbed over my front tyres, and that broke my left steering arm. And that was it.

"I don't think it was my fault at all, and thinking about it again, I really don't know what I could have done to have avoided that incident. The aim of the game today was to finish."

Gerhard Berger: So near and yet...

The last man to retire in Australia was Sebastien Bourdais, when running a pretty impressive fourth. The Frenchman's disappointment was at least tempered when he realised that he still earned a point for eighth, and then Rubens Barrichello's exclusion gifted Bourdais another point.

This was a respectable reward for the Toro Rosso team, who looked so good in the last few races of 2007 and appear to have carried that form over. Vettel did a great job to qualify in the top 10, and it was a shame that his race was so short.

On Sunday morning I had a long chat with Bourdais, who was clearly disappointed with his qualifying form. I pointed out that he shouldn't fret too much, for if he kept out of trouble at the start and played any safety cars right, the race would come to him. And after all, he learned quite a lot about that sort of thing in the Champ Car series. Plus, this was a track where passing was hard and if he got ahead, he could keep a train of cars behind.

Sure enough, that's exactly how it panned out. He was a little lucky to get around the outside of the first lap trouble that involved his fellow rookies, and then he had a great break when the pitlane opened for him after the safety car at just the right time, and he was able to get in and out while others were stuck in the queue. That's what bumped him up the order.

Nevertheless, he did a pretty impressive job to run ahead of the battle between Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen, and Renault's Fernando Alonso - just as he had done well to hold off BMW's Robert Kubica early in the race.

"It was a good performance, a very good performance," said a smiling Toro Rosso co-owner Gerhard Berger afterwards. "Because it wasn't easy for him to keep Alonso on fresh tyres behind - and before that Kubica - and make no mistakes. He did a good job on this, and it was a fantastic job by the team, with the pitstops.

Sebastien Bourdais holds off Robert Kubica and Fernando Alonso © XPB/LAT

"But you also need a guy who takes it, you know. It's one thing to change all the strategy and bang, bang, bang, and the guy would understand what you want, or other guys, who we know already, would take two laps to understand what he wants, you know."

As expected, the safety car periods produced some interesting strategic moves, such as the way Toro Rosso slowed Bourdais in the hopes of catching a pitlane-open signal. It wasn't by chance, and the driver played his part to perfection.

"No, we were not lucky, we were waiting for it, and we timed everything. That's what I said before, Scott Speed would not even understand now what you mean, and that's the difference! That's the difference of somebody who you can discuss everything with.

"I think it was very good for Bourdais building up confidence. I'm sure he's going to struggle in the first half of the year, because he's fresh. But today he showed he had a good performance, and in qualifying if you look at the sector times, he's there. I think we have two very, very strong drivers."

Of course it's no surprise that Gerhard is talking up his new driver, for after all, he went out on a limb to sign the Champ Car champion. It's quite different from inheriting guys who were headhunted by someone else, and not having a lot of choice about running them.

Flavio Briatore: Don't count your chickens...

When I went to into the Renault hospitality to talk to Flavio Briatore, he was busy watching a replay of the thrilling Kovalainen/Alonso battle, something that he clearly enjoyed first time around. But for Flav the best bit was not the actual dicing, but the replay that showed McLaren boss Ron Dennis punching the air as Heikki - ever so briefly, of course - got past Alonso.

"Ah yeah, just wait Ron, wait one more second," Briatore yelled at the screen. "You'll see..."

The only disappointment for Briatore is that we didn't really see the McLaren boss's reaction when Fernando snuck back past.

"We're happy with the result we have," said the Renault boss. "It was difficult to know what kind of pace we had, because you're always behind somebody when you start back there.

"I think it was great, the result of Fernando was fantastic for us. It gives us motivation to push him very hard, and today it was important to finish, only seven cars finished the race. I don't think today was a day to put comments on whether we have the performance or not, today is just the beginning. We'll see what happens in the future."

Perhaps, I ventured, the race had in some way reminded the world of why Briatore had tried so hard to get his man back.

Nelson Piquet battles with the Williams of Kazuki Nakajima © LAT

"What he's done is fantastic, he's Fernando Alonso," the Italian responded. "We know what kind of arguments we gave the company to have Fernando."

The downside was Nelson Piquet's frustrating weekend, but Flav was not too upset.

"We need to forget it. He did a very good start, but somebody punched him in the back, and the car was completely damaged. He's done the best possible in these conditions.

"I tell you, last year Kovalainen was the same, you remember? I told him in the beginning he's not in competition with Fernando, he needs to learn, and he's lucky to have Fernando in the team. Everybody is working for him as well. It's happy a team."

It wasn't quite the same as last year, of course, for then Briatore made it clear to the media that he wasn't very happy with Kovalainen's debut. Like Berger, this time around Briatore has a decision to defend, the one that saw Piquet guaranteed a job and Kovalainen farmed out to McLaren (where he still generates income for Briatore's management company) after Renault had paid for his apprenticeship over the last six years. Funny old business, Grand Prix racing...

Felipe Massa: Better luck next...

And finally a few words from Ferrari's Felipe Massa, who had a 'mare of a weekend in Australia. I was watching the race at the first corner, and when the Brazilian speared sideways into the tyre wall, I had to assume that he'd been punted. Indeed, the initial TV pictures gave the impression that he'd made contact with Kovalainen.

In fact he'd made a pretty basic error, one that was probably compounded by the lack of traction control. It's way too early to say that he's feeling a little pressured - after all, his mentor Jean Todt is not around anymore - but it'll be interesting to see how the next few races go.

"I went to first gear, and it's usually second," he told me after the race. "When I went to the throttle, I lost completely the car. And even after that I was doing a reasonably good race, even looking towards all the problems we had, and unfortunately I broke the engine."

Until I prompted him, Massa omitted any mention of the clash with red Bull's David Coulthard, which resulted in the RB4 falling to pieces like one of those clown cars you see in the circus. DC wasn't very happy, I pointed out.

"He didn't see me," the Brazilian responded. "Ask him, I don't know why he isn't very happy. Next time ask him to watch in the mirrors, because I was completely inside."

And would he be talking to the Scot about it?

"Definitely not..."