Melbourne race result 2008 : Coulthard swears in live ITV interview.

It's victory for Lewis Hamilton in Melbourne : Things could not have gone better for the British ace after winning the first race of the 2008 season in style with a lights to flag victory in a drama soaked Australian GP.

Lewis led from the start and continued to lead putting in blistering fast laps which enabled him to thwart off his opposition, Kubica, Massa, Kovalainen, and, well, everyone else by between 0.5 - 1.00sec per lap.

As well as ten points in the bag the victory was made sweeter by the fact that none of his main rivals made it on to the podium.Both Ferrari drivers retired from the race with a mechanical problem (and that wasn't their only problem in the race).Kubicas' pace dropped off only a few laps in to the race and a shunt with Nakajimas' williams resulted in retirement eleven laps from the finish, Kubica 9th.

Alonso drove the wheels off his Renault - putting the car sideways, shaking it's head and wagging it's tail - demonstrating visually the difference between TC and no TC (great stuff!) to finish fourth after being overtaken - in a daring wheel to wheel battle, two laps from the finish - by Kovalainen, only to take the place back giving Kovalainens' pit crew [his old team] a clenched celebratory fist punch in the air down the main straight.The pit crew were in the process of saluting Kovalainens' move on Alonso.But as the Fin tore off a rip on his visor he hit the pit-lane-limiter button by accident.This slowed him enough to let Alonso by right under the nose of McLaren boss Ron Dennis...doh!.Alonso 4th, Kovalainen 5th.

The Ferrari drivers had a nightmare.Raikkonen fought his way through the field - up to second place at one point - his car worked well in the race but Kimi out-braked him self and spun twice, attempting overtaking maneuvers on Barrichello and Heikki Kovalainen into turn three.This sent him back down the field.He retired with engine trouble five laps from the finish.Because so many drivers had DNF's by then Raikkonen was classified 9th.But this could be upgraded to 8th place if Barrichello gets disqualified because of a pit entry infringement.Raikkonen 9/8th (1 point).

Massa also had a troubled race, falling back to 19th place at the start he got court up in a multiple shunt coursed by three mid field and back mark drivers; he had to pit for a new nose.With 33 laps remaining Massa attempted a move on David Coulthard into the murderous turn three.The two drivers collided; Coulthards' Red Bull had both it's wings knocked off and the wheels smashed.Massas' car survived and he went on only to retire with mechanical problems 29 laps from the finish.

David Coulthard - fuming with rage - was interviewed after walking back to the pits by ITV's Louise Goodman.The square headed Scot terned the air blue when live on air he said 'i will expect Felipe to do the same, if he doesn't, i will kick three balls/colours/piles of sh*t out of the little Ba**ard!.'

(You can listen to the whole interview on the audio facility at the bottom of this post).

Formula one has gone back to the drivers controlling the cars - not software - and mistakes are being made.This makes great viewing for us, the F1 fans.The season has only just got underway and already we are seeing some real racing drama.

Australian Grand Prix result, Melbourne, 58 laps

1. HAMILTON Mclaren 1h34m50.616s
2. HEIDFELD BMW +5.4s
3. ROSBERG Williams +8.1s
4. ALONSO Renault +17.1s
5. KOVALAINEN McLaren +18.0s
6. BARRICHELLO Honda +52.4s
7. NAKAJIMA Williams +1 lap
8. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso +3 laps
9. RAIKKONEN Ferrari +5 laps
R. KUBICA BMW +11 laps
R. GLOCK Toyota +15 laps
R. SATO Super Aguri +26 laps

R. PIQUET Renault +28 laps

R. MASSA Ferrari +29 laps
R. COULTHARD Red Bull +33 laps

R. TRULLI Toyota +39 laps

R. SUTIL Force India +50 laps
R. WEBBER Red Bull +58 laps
R. BUTTON Honda +58 laps
R. DAVIDSON Super Aguri +58 laps
R. VETTEL Toro Rosso +58 laps
R. FISICHELLA Force India +58 laps
Fastest lap: KOVALAINEN - 1m27.418s

Play audio of Couthards blue interview with Louise Goodman, ITV.