Jenson Button won the rain-dogged Australian Grand Prix on the streets of Melbourne with an inspired decision to change to slicks at the earliest possible time. The decision was quite reminiscent of David Coulthard’s drive in 2003 when he pitted early and availed of the extra speed of dry weather tyres to win that year’s season opener. Button’s gamble did not look like paying off as the world champion misjudged his braking at turn three after changing tyres but he immediately set fastest times in the next two sectors. The leaders knew that they were now on the wrong tyres and pitted en mass to change tyres. In the melee on pit lane Renault’s Robert Kubica managed to get ahead of the pack and fed back into the race in third position behind Button and Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel.
The top two drivers in last year’s world championship fought it out at the head of the field with Vettel pulling away. The German though would be foiled by the team’s Achilles heel of the last two years- poor reliability. The team demonstrably had the fastest car in Formula 1 over the most of last year’s championship, but consistently had various issues with reliability. Today it was the brakes, and Vettel’s finally failed at turn 13 and he spun off into the gravel. Last year it could be argued that he lost the title because he lost points at the start of the year and this year, when he could have won the first two races, he has only 12 points to show for two poles and having led each race comfortably.
Button passed his stricken rival and went on to win comfortably, however his teammate had a contrasting day. Lewis Hamilton struggled in qualifying and started in 11th place on the grid. With the race starting in wet conditions it was expected that the Englishman would excel and move towards the front of the field. This duly occurred but after pitting for dry tyres his race started to unravel. Hamilton battled with Mark Webber for most of the race and they had two clashes, the last of which scuppered both their chances of overtaking Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari.
Both Webber and Hamilton needed a second pitstop for tyres after having had marginal wear on their first sets of slicks. Both drivers obviously expected that Ferrari and Renault would have to pit their drivers with whom they were challenging for track position. This turned out to be an incorrect assumption as both Ferrari’s stayed out on track to chase down Kubica and while their tyres were in very bad condition they made it to the flag intact and the now out of synch Hamilton and Webber were unable to overtake. With the current rules banning in race refuelling track position has become king and even though they had significantly more grip from their fresh tyres, and had caught the group ahead of them (at two seconds per lap) Hamilton was unable to overtake Alonso.
His best efforts came with only two laps to go as the McLaren driver had a great run on the Spaniard down the back straight but coming into turn 13 both Hamilton and Alonso braked harder than Webber anticipated and the home crowd’s hero crashed into the rear of Hamilton spinning both into the gravel. They resumed but Hamilton lost a place to Rosberg and Webber needed to pit for a new front wing. The Australian took the blame for the accident afterwards and left his home race disappointed, after a front row qualifying position that ultimately only netted him a lowly ninth position and just two points.
Michael Schumacher had an eventful race but will surely be disappointed that the best he could manage was the final points paying position. The seven times world champion clashed with Alonso at the first turn and needed to change his front wing from damage sustained and from there on in he was stuck in the middle of the field, unable to overtake Jamie Alguersuari for long periods. It is highly doubtful that he expected to come back for performances like this one! Outside of the points scorers both Lotus and Hispania got a car to the finish which is a sign of progress for both teams as they attempt to prove their abilities to be on the grid.
Next weekend brings with it the Malaysian Grand Prix in Sepang and the promise of exceptional heat and the potential for more rain. Formula 1 will have gotten some breathing room from expectant fans after the excitement of Melbourne but the teams will not rest on their laurels with a meeting planned to discuss ways to improve the racing throughout the year. Formula 1 got a great shot in the arm in Australia and now it must carry the momentum of this race onto Malaysia.
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