TheSportsCampus

Years & years of F1, over a hundred races, still "the starting grid, the 5 red lights and its go.... " at the start of a new year doesn't fail to get the goosebumps working overtime!! A season that holds a lot of promise - if qualifying is anything to by - with the new rules, throwing up new challenges & challengers. A controversial start as has been F1's wont with Bernie Ecclestone suggesting a medal system and the questions raised about a component on the rear of 6 cars. But some things remain the same - once again Albert Park plays host to the season opener and once again F1 fans the world over wait in anticipation over how things kick off & pan out.

Qualifying threw up surpr ises with last years top 2 teams all finishing outside the top 6, defending champion Hamilton starts at 15 and a team that wasn't even going to be here 4 weeks ago locks out the front row (read about the Qualifying round). What was going to be of interest was whether the pace of the newbies at the sharp end of the grid was going to be matched by their reliability and strategy over a full race distance. For that we wait for "the starting grid, the 5 red lights and its go.... "

The Start

"Its Australia & anything could happen" was the refrain at the start of the race. How true!! We expected fireworks and we got a stonking start from the Ferraris - Massa to 3rd and Kimi to 5th. Rubens went backwards to 7th after a poor start and a racing incident with Webber & Heidfeld the unfortunate fallout. Button though pulled away to keep a strong grip on P1. Kovalainen out on Lap1. Hamilton taking advantage of the confusion to move up to 10th within the first 5 laps.
Ferrari started on the soft tyres and though it gave them great position at the start, we saw Rosberg & Kubica crawling all over the Ferraris - Rosberg pulling off a textbook maneuver on Kimi. Barichello too bundled his way past the visibly slowing Kimi clipping him in an untidy move. Early pitstop for the Ferraris on lap11. With all the early racing, it looks like the new rules are working in what they were designed to achieve. The first proper round of pitstops was between laps 16 - 20 led by Vettel. Button pitting on lap18.

Safety Car

Nakajima crashed into the wall taking him out of the race bringing out the safety car. The safety car picked up Vettel as the race leader, spoiling things for a so far impeccable Button. Confusion reigns!! The safety car waves Vettel on, picks up Button as the race leader. The order behind the safety car - Button, Vettel, Massa, Kubica, Kimi, Rosberg are the top 6. This opened things up a bit - specially for Kubica, the Ferraris & Rosberg who were approximately half a minute off the race leaders time prior to the accident.
Lap 23, lights go out, safety car in. KERS charged and here we go.

Mid Race

Not quite. Nelson Piquet spins out on the restart. Rosberg went backwards. Button though is right on the button - No mistakes and smoothly starts rebuilding his lead. Hamilton & Alonso both make moves taking advantage of the restart.

The Force Indias had their own fun banging wheels a couple of times. Fisichella too did a good job off holding off a possibly charging Alonso in the mid third of the race.
Massa clearly totally out of sync with the field - different strategy - on the pit stop strategy, pit for the 2nd time early on lap 31-32. Kubica put in a minor charge as he closed in on Vettel. Round 2 of pitstops kicks off with Kubica & Kimi on lap 39. Timo Glock, who started the race from the pits and spent most afternoon recovering from that, spun trying to make a move on Alonso losing 3 places taking him to 11th.

End Game

Massa lost out heavily with his strategy as he fell to 11th, Hamilton pushing through from the back to 10th. Kimi making an unfortunately altogether familiar mistake as he spun on lap 45 - kept the car running though but down to 16th place. Massa with a problem - retirement on lap 46. Drama for Button - 13 sec pitstop problem with fuelling - but hangs on to 1st place.

With 10 laps to go: Button, Vettel, Barichello, Kubica, Alonso, Glock, Rosberg. Just 4.5 sec covering the top4. All the ingredients for a great finish.

Rosberg through to 4th after Barichello & Alonso pit. Vettel chasing Button shaving time every lap- the gap between them stays under 2sec - intriguing battle. Barichello takes advantage of the wonderfully performing Brawn Mercedes to get past the severely underperforming Williams of Rosberg. Hamilton follows suit into 6th place - Great recovery drive from 18th.

Madness & Mayhem !!! Vettel & Kubica take each other out. Two pure racers in a racing incident that unfortunately took them both off the podium and out of the race. This is what makes racing, racing.

Results

Effectively hands a debut 1-2 to Brawn GP under the safety car. The first ever team to do so on its debut. What a moment for them!! What a moment for the 3 Bs - Brawn, Button & Barichello. Immaculate from Button, typically bustling from Barichello & well Brawn somehow puts his cars in the right places as only he can. Podium celebrations for Brawn GP - that champagne must taste particularly sweet.

Trulli picks up a somewhat fortuitous podium having started in the pitlane. Hamilton in 4th place from a last row start. Glock 5th for Toyota - they are obviously mighty pleased with the way the chips have fallen in their favour. Alonso, a battling Rosberg & Buemi on his debut pick up the remaining points. The Force Indias both bring their cars home - Sutil in 10th, Fisichella in 12th, good start to the season for them.

That's all folks - "Its Australia & anything could happen" and right from the outset this proved to be on dot!!

Post race note: Hamilton finished fourth, was promoted to third after Trulli was penalised for passing him under the safety car, but was ultimately disqualified after stewards decided he and McLaren had provided 'misleading' evidence relating to the incident. (read about it in detail here)

Photograph Copyright: Hannah Crick (Podium Shot), Coldtrackdays.com (Brawn GP car)

Check out our motorsports photo gallery