It’s good to have Formula 1 back, on the telly for most of you but on the laptop for me. The Australian GP just ended at Albert Park, Melbourne, and McLaren’s Jenson Button has carried over his good form from the end of last season by taking the chequered flag. It was a comfortable win for the Briton, ahead of defending champ Seb Vettel and teammate Lewis Hamilton.
Red Bull’s Vettel did the most he could have done, and benefited from a safety car period to get to second place. In contrast, pole man Hamilton looked dejected and stony faced after the race – he saw Button pip him to the lead at the start and never had a sniff from then on. The safety car period, caused by Caterham’s Vitaly Petrov stalling his car on the main straight, wasn’t too kind to him either.
It was worse for some. Pastor Maldonado in his new, much faster Renault-powered Williams car, was sixth behind Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso when he crashed out, unprovoked. It was a shame, as the Venezuelan looked comfortable until that moment. Alonso eventually finished fifth, behind Mark Webber. This fourth placed finish is the Red Bull No.2 driver’s best ever result in his home race.
Behind all these men were a big scrap, with Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi coming in sixth, ahead of returning ex-champ Kimi Raikkonen for Lotus. The Finn edged ahead of Kobayashi’s Sauber teammate Sergio Perez at the end, while Daniel Ricciardo took ninth in his Toro Rosso. Force India’s Paul di Resta took the last points paying place. STR new boy Jean-Eric Vergne nearly had a points scoring debut, but he showed flashes of speed, in patches.
It wasn’t a great start to the season for Caterham, the Tony Fernandes-owned team previously known as Team Lotus. New recruit Petrov retired with a steering problem on lap 36, and the ensuing safety car period saw Heikki Kovalainen go out with a left front suspension issue.
“Obviously we did not want to finish like that, but after both Heikki and Vitaly negotiated their way around the first corner clash, we were quickly up to speed with the likes of Force India, Williams and even Ferrari, and that’s very encouraging for next week,” said Riad Asmat, Caterham Group CEO.
The man responsible for the Ferrari name being dragged in there is Felipe Massa. The Brazilian was way off the pace battling with the new boys, and ended his evening by taking out compatriot Bruno Senna. That’s no place for a Ferrari to be, even for a slow one, and we wonder for how long more will the Scuderia persevere with Massa.
Click here for the full results. See you in Sepang next week!
Looking to sell your car? Sell it with Carro.
Darn malaysia tv, tv1, tv2, ntv 7 and 8tv, no free broadcast this year…..
I wont pay monthly subscription to astro just for watching 20 races of f1 per year!!!!!!!!!
stupidX3
then watch it online – I watched SkyTV’s coverage of the race.
i agree with you kimi_
Very sad no more free broadcast.
Pastor Maldonado crashed out probably because of the damage sustained when he boffed Romain Grosjean out of the way!
where is Merc? WTH happen?
I expect Massa will retire by the end of this year. Yet another race to demonstrate how far off his skills compared to Alonso’s. Alonso shows why many writers believe he is the best driver on the grid, finishing 5th, just behind the McLarens and Red Bulls proves his skills, even with shitty car.
Kimi, good start to his comeback. After disastrous qualifying, managed to finish 7th is not bad, although it probably could be 5th. Losing to Kobayashi is a bit frustrating, but hopefully he’ll get his mojo back. Good to see you back, Kimi.
McLaren looks very dominant for now, we could probably have another 2010 this year, a race for the champion’s title until the very last race. Almost feel sorry for Lewis, very very obvious he’s disappointed with today’s race.
Hi. Great race. Just one issue. Possibly for the next races and so on, would you kindly alert for spoilers, and not give away the winner for the heading of the post? Sometimes, some of us miss the races and would like to catch up with it later. Just for the sake of keeping it a surprise, a warning mentioning the post is a spoiler would be well received and appreciated. I’m sure readers wont mind clicking [Read More] for further details.
Thanks, hopefully this goes through the site’s admins.
Johnny.
Superb and controlled race performance from Jenson Button as always. Knows when the push the car and when to pace himself. A hallmark of a world champion. Lewis on the other hand was unlucky to be caught out by the Safety car period. Even without the SC, he was undoubtedly out raced by his teammate.
I really felt sorry for Maldando – a sure 6th place in the bag and possibly a 5th had not for the accident. The Williams FW34 with the Renault engine does look racy.
I found the race to be boring. Not sure what happened to the DRS and KERS systems in the cars which was supposed to make overtaking easier.
go go button!
An exciting start to the season. No longer a one team season. Hoping to see a 1-2-3 fight in the front. Nonetheless those guys from Alonso and back provided some real entertainment value.
Ferrari will bounce back and challenge the 2 front runners to really set the tone of the season.
Mid runners is very equal and would provide the bulk of the action.
Caterham F1 still struggling, hopefully they’ll move up to challenge the middle running teams, and we’ll have 3 Malaysians teams constantly in race track action rather than pit lane action.
Caterham: Different name, same rubbish.