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Finland's Raikkonen wins Aust GP

MELBOURNE, March 18 (UPI) -- Finland's Kimi Raikkonen, driving a Ferrari, led from start to finish Sunday to win the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.

The defending Formula-1 world champion, Fernando Alonso of Spain, in a McLaren-Mercedes finished 7.24 seconds behind the winner, with his teammate, rookie British driver Lewis Hamilton coming in third 11.3 seconds away.

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Raikkonen, who replaced seven-times world champion Michael Schumacher as Ferrari's top driver, ended a run of two straight wins by the Renault team, for whom Alonso drove before switching to McLaren.

Ferrari employed a two-stop pit strategy to to take out the race, the first on the Formula-1 2007 calendar, and Raikkonen completed the 192 miles around the Albert Park circuit in 1 hour, 25 minutes, 28.77 seconds.

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