Melbourne, March 18:

Kimi Raikkonen showed he’s the man to step into Michael Schumacher’s shoes at Ferrari, winning his first race with his new team at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

Raikkonen has already beaten a Schumacher mark at the Italian team. The German had to wait until his seventh race to notch his first win with Ferrari. Raikkonen started from pole position, and led almost throughout the race to notch his 10th win and edge world champion Fernando Alonso, who was making his McLaren debut. McLaren teammate Lewis Hamilton, F1’s first black driver, finished third.

Raikkonen’s Ferrari teammate, Felipe Massa, finished sixth after starting the race from the back of the grid.