Flawed start consigns Mark Webber to sixth place in Australian Grand Prix Australian Mark Webber finished sixth in the Australian Grand Prix. MARK Webber's many thousands of fans were left disappointed again and might now be resigning themselves that he is destined never to win the Australian Grand Prix. The veteran racing driver, one of Australia's most accomplished and popular international sportsmen, finished sixth behind winner Kimi Raikkonen in one of the best of the 18 races Melbourne has hosted. Motor sport experts believe it was Webber's best chance to win the race that means the most to him. And given that he is 36 - the oldest driver still competing - and is employed by the Red Bull team on one-year contracts, time is running out. Webber's fatal flaw - his chronic inability to make a good start, even from the front of the grid - cost him dearly again. At the age of 36 - and given that he is employed by Red Bull on one-year contracts - time could be running out for Mark Webber. Picture: Clive Mason/Getty Images Australia's other driver, Daniel Ricciardo, failed to finish because of engine problems, ensuring a double dose of deflation for the big crowd. However, they still got their money's worth. Finland's Raikkonen delivered a brilliant performance in his Lotus to upstage third-placed German superstar Sebastian Vettel, of Red Bull, and runner-up Spaniard Fernando Alonso, in a Ferrari. Vettel and Alonso finished first and second in the drivers championship last year, and were widely expected to start the new season in similar fashion. The race delivered a podium full of world champions: two more, Britons Lewis Hamilton (5th) and Jenson Button (9th), were in the top 10. Raikkonen, 33, won the title in 2007 after claiming the Melbourne race, but abandoned Formula One for two years to race in another class of motor sport in 2010-11. He is regarded as a freakishly talented crowd-pleaser, although you would never hear that from him. He is famously reluctant to talk about himself and doesn't even seem to smile much. Webber had nothing to laugh about despite qualifying in second spot on the grid beside teammate - and rival - Vettel, the best he has ever been positioned in his 12 lakeside challenges. Old hands in the international media room conducted a poll on how effectively he would be able to use this advantage on the first lap, and they almost unanimously predicted from 5th to 9th - which was pretty much on the money, as he was rapidly shuffled back to seventh. Already, there was really no way back, though he displayed his customary fighting spirit to salvage a share of the points. He has finished fifth, fourth and sixth in the past three years - but never on the podium, let alone adding to the nine wins he has in other countries. He said it had been just an all-round difficult day at the office. There were problems with the KERS energy system before the race even started and then with the tyres, with the telemetry and even with a slow pit-stop. We had quite a few things that we needed to manage, he said. The first 15-20 minutes was a real, real difficult part of the Grand Prix for us. But ultimately even if we had a smooth day, I think we were going to get done. "Probably the disappointing thing for us as a team is that we weren't probably as strong as we thought we'd be," he said. That's Formula One. We try and tell you guys that's always the case - you never count your chickens until it happens. We knew we had to work towards a cleaner race and we did everything we could. Ultimately it's not good enough.