Raikkonen came through from seventh on the grid to win in Melbourne, joining Sebastian Vettel, Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso in a lead train after a good start, and then vaulting his rivals by two-stopping while they had to pit three times.
“Our plan was to do two stops and though it’s always difficult in the first races to know when to stop and not go too early, we got it exactly right,” he said.
“We followed the plan and it worked out perfectly for us. I could save the tyres and go fast if I needed.
“It was one of the easiest races I have done to win. Hopefully we can have many more of these races.”
Alonso was closing in on Raikkonen in the final stages, before the Finn raised his pace, set a new fastest lap and pulled away to win by 11 seconds.
“Fernando was catching me at some points when I was taking it a bit more easy and I had some traffic, so I just wanted to make sure that if the rain came or anything I had a bit more of a gap,” said Raikkonen.
“It was a pretty nice race, not so difficult.”
Despite his perfect start to the season, Raikkonen underlined that Lotus could not be confident it was a title contender yet.
“It feels good but it’s only one race so it doesn’t really change our aim or our work,” he said.
“We’re happy with the win and there’s a lot still to do to try to win the championship.”
AUTOSPORT Australian GP coverage:
Gimax Richie Ginther Yves Giraud Cabantous Ignazio Giunti Timo Glock
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