MELBOURNE, Australia — Lewis Hamilton cruised almost serenely to victory in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix as a chaotic, dramatic, incident- and accident-filled race rumbled and spewed out behind him.
Starting from the pole in his McLaren Mercedes, Hamilton led all but eight of the 58 laps to win the fifth Grand Prix of his career.
The accidents began in the first corner just after the start, and the action didn’t stop until the final laps. At the end of it all, only seven of the 22 starters crossed the finish line, and one of them — Rubens Barrichello who had been sixth — was later disqualified for leaving the pits when the red light was on.
Nick Heidfeld equaled his F-1 career-best finish with a second place in his BMW Sauber. Nico Rosberg grabbed the first podium of his F-1 career with a third place in his Williams Toyota.
Fernando Alonso [Renault] and Heikki Kovalainen [McLaren] battled it out in the final laps and finished fourth and fifth respectively.
Kazuki Nakajima survived two accidents to take sixth in his Williams.

BACK ON TOP: Lewis Hamilton celebrates his victory in Sunday's Australian Grand Prix, the season-opening race for Formula One. (Steve Etherington Photo)

Champ Car ace Sebastien Bourdais did well in his F-1 debut to be classed seventh in his Toro Rosso whose engine expired when he was in fourth with just four laps to go. And Kimi Raikkonen salvaged one point with an eighth place for Ferrari, who had a miserable weekend.
A series of accidents eliminated Anthony Davidson’s Super Aguri, Giancarlo Fisichella’s Force India, Mark Webber’s Red Bull, Jenson Button’s Honda and Sebastian Vettel’s Toro Rosso on the first lap and brought out the safety car for the first of its three tours.
Once the race restarted, Hamilton clicked off a set of fastest laps to ease away from Robert Kubica, who was second in his BMW Sauber ahead of Kovalainen.
Raikkonen, who started 15th because of a fuel-pump failure in qualifying, quickly sliced his way up to eighth.
The safety car came out again when Felipe Massa’s Ferrari and David Coulthard’s Red Bull collided. After the restart, Raikkonen, who had not pitted, passed Kovalainen only to slide off the track and head for the pits.
Timo Glock slid off the track, hit a berm, went airborne and slammed into the wall on lap 44 in his Toyota. Out came the safety car again.
Barrichello, out of fuel, had to pit, and that set off a chain of disasters for him and the Honda team.
Many of the incidents were caused by the drivers having to cope without traction control and electronic engine braking that have been banned.
The third and final safety car messed things up for a number of drivers. Kovalainen, who led twice during the pit stops, looked set to finish second. But having to pit during the safety-car period dropped him down to sixth behind Alonso.
After repeated attacks, Kovalainen finally passed Alonso only to suddenly slow because he accidently hit the pit lane speed limiter button.
Raikkonen eventually stopped with engine woes. The same fate had sidelined Massa earlier.
This was a race that nobody wanted to finish.