Wow. What a race!
Compared to Bahrain, Australia was the complete opposite. There was hardly a lap without any action, something interesting happened constantly. But that's what we really need, a race where it keeps you at the edge of your seat, one where the audience are surprised all the time and get to see their favourite driver show their skills. This is what F1 has to be. Still, there was the fact that there wasn't the amount of overtaking there should be, at multiple points during the race, there was 'trains' behind certain drivers. Let's say Massa in this instance, Massa at one point had 4 drivers behind him, and drivers were still struggling to pass anyone. It has improved but still hasn't hit the mark where it needs to be.
For the race, people thought Red Bull would be unstoppable. However, the race didn't quite go to plan for the team. At the start things were mixed up due to rain, multiple collisions and a safety car. Webber slid down the grid pretty quickly, but things weren't over yet; Vettel was still strong in front. Webber started the hard climb back up the pack and things seemed alright for Red Bull.
But during the mid-point of the race Red Bull suffered yet another reliability issue, this time it was in the form of the right front brake (disc). The big, burly, bullish team are now looking fragile, as if the bull is ready for the abattoir. So now Red Bull only had one man, home favourite Mark Webber. He followed Hamilton into the pits and came out following him. On the new tyres they caught Alonso and the 'Massa train'. Lewis took a go at Alonso but it didn't work out. So he let back and let Alonso carry on. Leaving Webber to smash into the back of him. This summed up Red Bull's day and left them only bringing home 2 points from such a perfect opportunity.
As for McLaren, they had a great race. Button won an incredible race in the end. The awesome thing was though, was that he won it not by being on pole, but by putting in a cool drive and making a outstanding decision on tyre choice. Hamilton however, was a different story, starting in 11th the odds were against him. But he put in a great drive and at one point it looked like a McLaren 1-2 would be the result. Then the British team told him to pit for a set 0f new tyres, so Lewis had to get back all the places he had previously earned. It didn't work out like that though as he immediately started struggling with his car as he got close to Alonso. Later he got caught up with the Webber incident and ended 6th.
"It was one of the drives of my life," Hamilton said. "Unfortunately because of the strategy I got put back and then I drove my heart out today and I think I deserved better. Everyone else in front of me did one stop and I did two."Ferrari had a fairly lacklustre performance, they had a good pair of results but the car didn't really look fast at any point during the race. Massa probably had the best day in the red car but that's because no one could get past him. The prancing horse seemed to be limping today.
Robert Kubica, however had a completely surprise performance on Sunday for Renault. He finished second which is an admirable performance in the car he's got and from where he started.
Again, at the slow end of the grid it was Lotus who dominated. Heikki Kovaleinen was the fastest of the new teams and Karun Chandhok made his team Hispania become the second new team to finish a race.
All in all it was a great race and definitely worth getting up for! Let's just hope that Malaysia can give a spectacle as good as today. Red Bull are incredibly fast but they do have some major mechanical issues, Ferrari are looking fast but aren't anything special in the race and McLaren aren't particularly fast but have a wicked race pace. So with the top three teams like this, the season is looking pretty good! Joe Ryland
Classification
| Pos | No | Driver | Team | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 58 | 1:33:36.531 | 4 | 25 |
| 2 | 11 | Robert Kubica | Renault | 58 | +12.0 secs | 9 | 18 |
| 3 | 7 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 58 | +14.4 secs | 5 | 15 |
| 4 | 8 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 58 | +16.3 secs | 3 | 12 |
| 5 | 4 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes GP | 58 | +16.6 secs | 6 | 10 |
| 6 | 2 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 58 | +29.8 secs | 11 | 8 |
| 7 | 15 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | Force India-Mercedes | 58 | +59.8 secs | 13 | 6 |
| 8 | 9 | Rubens Barrichello | Williams-Cosworth | 58 | +60.5 secs | 8 | 4 |
| 9 | 6 | Mark Webber | RBR-Renault | 58 | +67.3 secs | 2 | 2 |
| 10 | 3 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes GP | 58 | +69.3 secs | 7 | 1 |
| 11 | 17 | Jaime Alguersuari | STR-Ferrari | 58 | +71.3 secs | 17 | |
| 12 | 22 | Pedro de la Rosa | BMW Sauber-Ferrari | 58 | +74.0 secs | 14 | |
| 13 | 19 | Heikki Kovalainen | Lotus-Cosworth | 56 | +2 Laps | 19 | |
| 14 | 20 | Karun Chandhok | HRT-Cosworth | 53 | +5 Laps | 22 | |
| Ret | 24 | Timo Glock | Virgin-Cosworth | 41 | +17 Laps | 23 | |
| Ret | 25 | Lucas di Grassi | Virgin-Cosworth | 26 | +32 Laps | 24 | |
| Ret | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | RBR-Renault | 25 | +33 Laps | 1 | |
| Ret | 14 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 9 | Engine | 10 | |
| Ret | 12 | Vitaly Petrov | Renault | 9 | +49 Laps | 18 | |
| Ret | 21 | Bruno Senna | HRT-Cosworth | 4 | +54 Laps | 21 | |
| Ret | 16 | Sebastien Buemi | STR-Ferrari | 0 | Accident | 12 | |
| Ret | 10 | Nico Hulkenberg | Williams-Cosworth | 0 | Accident | 15 | |
| Ret | 23 | Kamui Kobayashi | BMW Sauber-Ferrari | 0 | Accident | 16 | |
| Ret | 18 | Jarno Trulli | Lotus-Cosworth | 0 | Hydraulics | 20 |
