Race one has now been completed and the field is now packing up and heading off and preparing for the next event in the tropical climate of Malaysia. But what about this mornings event... well the race was a little down on madness then some previous Australian GPs the field were being to well behaved with the odd exception.
Things started in an unnaturally orderly fashion with brilliant starts for both of the Renault cars, a speciality of their design that was prevalent in the Trulli/Alonso days back when they were at the top of the grid. Both Heidfeld and Petrov made improvements on their grid slots, with Petrov diving to the inside of Button into the first corner. Suffering contrasting fates in the opening sequence were the Ferraris - Massa who had a disappointing qualifying managed to jump from 8th to following Petrov into 5th. Alonso however got held out on the outside of Button and lost places to Rosberg and Kobayashi.
The orderly nature of things came to an end in turn three when Torro Rosso pilot Aguersuari determined the field was all together too German and removed Schumacher in his Mercedes from the equation. The contact punctured Schumey's rear tyre which upon his return to the pit shredded and damaged the bodywork and suspension. Rubens Barrichello also had an excursion into the gravel at the same corner after approaching three wide with Perez and Di Resta.
The cars then settled down with Vettel as expected ran off into the distance pulling 2.5s in the first lap alone. Lewis and Webber followed in behind and the opening quartet being fairly spread out with Petrov rounding off the group in 4th.
The field was in smaller tighter groups behind them with Button held up by a much slower Massa in his Ferrari the battle raged on for several laps Massa proving to be an immovable object. In the pursuing group of Rosberg, Kobayshi and Alonso - the recovering Ferrari was making up ground for some unfortunate positioning early on. Kamui was the first to be passed by the charging Fernando being passed all to easily in to the fast turn 11. Rosberg fell to Alonso in quick succession as he charged up to the back of Button who was still pinned behind Massa.
Futher down the field things were close between the Force Indias, Perez and the two Willams, with Perez moving to the front of the queue ahead of Paul Di Resta. The struggle ahead between Button and Massa was coming to a conclusion as Button dove to the inside at T11, but ran out of room as the track curved back for T12. Instead of introducing his wheels to Massa's sidepod he opted to cut the corner and re-emerged ahead of the Ferrari. Now Ferrari being the devious team they are moved Alonso ahead of Massa and then pitted Massa so they the illegal position gain couldn't be redressed, consequently Button was given a penalty and dropped down the field.
This left Alonso chasing the next car in line - his buddy from Abu-Dhabi last year Vitaly Petrov, who managed to keep Fernando at bay then effectively stifling his championship challenge. We were spared a resumption of the epic battle when Petrov pitted. Tyres were preforming roughly as the previous sessions of the weekend had shown 12-15 laps before becoming less effective - Webber was having more problems with the wear rates having to make three stops during the race.
The mid-race was mainly populated by the charges of both Barrichello and Button after their respective difficulties, Jenson was far more efficient getting by Kobayashi and finally and legally past Massa using the DRS into T1. Rubens was more entertaining making his was past Buemi and motoring on after his next target Rosberg in the Mercedes, making use of the DRS to close the gap to get into position. Then in a bizarre lunge into T3, the corner he ran off on the first lap, Rubens came from a long way back and also had decided that the field was too German, and plunged into the rear section of Nico's sidepod. The Mercedes started leaking fluids from the assault and retired a few corners later. As a result of his manic attempt at a pass Rubens became the second driver to be penalised by the stewards.
Out front things were very straight forward Vettel was more than comfortable in the lead and was an untouchable force, with Hamilton in clear air in second now with a broken floor after an off in the first chicane. By virtue of making one less stop then those around him Petrov had jumped into 3rd ahead of Alonso and a unusually slow Webber still struggling with tyres. In very contrasting fortunes rookie Sergio Perez had only made one stop during the race and was still keeping a strong pace, even to the point where he held the fastest lap before being bested by Alonso.
In the final few laps of the race the order settled with the only changes occurring after Massa had given up hanging onto his ruined tyres and pitted handing more points to the single stopping Sergio and Sauber team-mate Kamui for a double points scoring finish for the team. At the other end of the grid reliability was becoming an issue with both Williams dropping out along with Kovalainen and Glock. Of course both HRT cars were absent as a result of being awful.
Vettel headed the field to the chequered flag with Hamilton's damaged McLaren second and an impressive final place on the podium for Petrov for his and Russia's first podium finish.
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| Picture from eurosport |
Bonus Points
It is time to award the bonus points from todays race and after some more deliberation between myself and a packet of today's race snack - which was coated peanuts Mmmmm - anyway the bonus point system will award 8 cars/drivers/ anyone in general points for events over the course of the day.
And the winners are as follows:
- Perez - For defying all the pre-season worries about major tyre degradation and managing to finish the race in 7th ahead of a faster teammate in Kobayashi by making only one stop. (10 Points)
- Petrov - Very strong performance in what isn't the fastest car on the grid, and giving a more experienced Heidfeld a thorough beating. (8 Points)
- Vettel - Suppose winning the race and being miles faster than anyone has to count for something including being a lot quicker than Webber in identical machines (6 Points)
- Button - Strong recovery drive after a penalty that Ferrari ensured happened, pulling places back to only being two spots behind his starting place (5 Points)
- McLaren - For making such a turnaround after pre-season pace and a developing a car that can still work reasonably well when in a state of disrepair (4 Points)
- Buemi - Gets some points for a strong passing manouvre round the outside in turn four of Di Resta in what is an usual spot. (3 Points)
- Barrichello - For having a go, a mad unreasonable go but for being entertaining none the less (2 Points)
- The grid as a whole - For completing an Australian GP without hitting each other too much and not needing to see the safety car.
- Sergio Perez - 10pts
- Vitaly Petrov - 9pts
- Sebasten Vettel - 7pts
- Jenson Button 5pts
- McLaren 4pts
- Sebastien Buemi 3pts
- Barrichello 2pts
- Hispania Racing 1pt
- Adrian Sutil 1pt
- Ron Dennis 1pt
- The grid 1pt
- Jenson Button - 1 Drive through
- Rubens Barrichello - 1 Drive through
And to finish off a final championship for dodgy dealing that weren't flagged but were very suspicious.
- Ferrari (no surprise) - swapping team order and pitting Massa to doom button (1 penalty point)
- Force India - Using team orders to swap Sutil ahead of Di Resta mid-race (1 penalty point)
Now we look forward to the next race in a fortnight's time over in Sepang Malaysia - see you then.
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