Who said Formula 1 was boring? Critics this morning will have been silenced, certainly at least until the next race weekend, as an action packed Australian grand prix saw Jenson Button battle and cruse to his first win in the McLaren Mercedes.
The race victory was not an easy one for the current world champion. A rain soaked Melbourne saw all the cars start on the intermediate tyre and would ensure a treacherous few first laps for all teams.
Chaos ensued just after the lights went out as the cars went into the first corner. A coming together between Button and the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso caused the Spaniard to spin and make contact with Michael Schumacher, in only his second race since his return, putting Alonso to the back of the field and the German into the pits for a change of front wing.
Another front wing problem, this time for the Sauber of Kamui Kobayashi, saw the young Japanese driver turn into a kamikaze. Losing all control of his car he crashed and slid down the wall taking out the Williams of Hulkenberg and the Torro Rosso of Buemi who were unlucky enough to be in his path. The safety car was now needed meaning the grid was forced to close up until the re-start.Hamilton took the advantage over his team mate after the re-start and gained sixth position in the fast drying conditions at Albert Park. It was at this point the race move of the day would take place that would ultimately decide the win.
Jenson Button called the shots over his team and came in three laps early to switch to slicks. The move looked disastrous in the early running as he came out of the pits only to lose the car at turn three and find his McLaren almost beached in the gravel. Despite this he kept going a stuck to the fast continuing drying line and began to gain time over the rest of the field. By the time other teams had begun to pit Button had jumped from 7th to 2nd only outpaced by the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel whose lead charge was continuing into the distance.
Hamilton to now led a charge of his own on his fresh tyres and began to work his way through the field in front of him, including some stunning overtaking moves picking off Barrichello, Rosberg, Webber and Massa taking him up to third.
Vettel looked determined and almost certain to make up for the disapointment experienced in Bahrain two weeks ago by winning in Australia. But for the second race in succession the Red Bull succumbed to technical failure and was robbed of an almost certain victory when his front break disc failed on lap 26 leaving the German beached in the gravel. Button now led the race and never looked back!
Team mate Hamilton continued to chase down the Renault of Robert Kubica, a surprise package of the race fighting his way from 9th on the grid to 2nd. The young Brit no doubt would have caught the Polish driver had McLaren not called him in for a second change of tyre, predicting the Ferrari's of Alonso and Massa would follow suit.
The chase was now on for Hamilton as he once again had to drive flat out to make up a 25 second gap in order to hunt down the Ferrari’s of Massa and Alonso. With each lap that passed it began to dawn on team, driver and fans what a crucial error of judgement the second pit stop has been. At one point a radio conversation between Hamilton and his team engineer showed the enormity of the task ahead and that Ferrari were not playing by the form book McLaren had expected.
McLaren Team: “you will catch the Ferrari’s by the end of the race they are on old tyres”
L. Hamilton: “What! Are they not stopping again?!”
Nerves were also showing Alonso’s end as the Spaniard told his race engineer “I do not want to know” after being updated how much Hamilton was eating away at the gap with each lap.
Hamilton drove superbly to catch the two Ferrari’s with the Australian Mark Webber in tow. Now was the telling time, how easy could the former world champion take 4th spot off Alonso?
The answer was difficult for all Brit’s to bear, where as the McLaren sliced round the Albert Park circuit like a hot knife through butter in clear air, once in the dirty air of Alonso’s Ferrari Hamilton found the performance of the McLaren dropped off making it harder for him to over-take.
Hamilton’s frustration and anger was played out over the radio transmissions between him and the pit wall as he believed the performance of his tyres was used up even questioning the teams decision to bring him in for the second pit “whose decision was it to bring me in? That was a terrible idea!”
Hamilton kept pushing continuing to have a look at Alonso until two laps until the end where the Brit made his move at turn thirteen, however while doing so Webber in hot pursuit of both drivers missed his breaking point and took himself and Hamilton off the track. Webber went straight to the pits to change the broken front wing sustained in the incident while Hamilton salvaged sixth place. Team mate Button meanwhile cruised to his first win with McLaren and the eigth of his career.
This was a grand prix that wasn’t easy to pick out a driver of the day, it was action packed from start to finish and was a showcase for Formula 1 racing. This time I have a choice of five.
The Renault of Kubica for a superb start from 9th on the grid, making it up to 4th by the first corner and his battle to second that included holding off two Ferrari’s.
Alonso’s fantastic drive that saw him work his way back through the grid from the back after his first lap spin to earn a fouth place finish.Lewis Hamilton for one of the drives of his life from 11th that really deserved a better result. It included outstanding and at times stunning overtaking moves that at one point had him fighting for 2nd place with Robert Kubica. If the McLaren team had not brought him in for the second tyre change I am convinced he would have over taken the Renault for second and we would have witnessed a McLaren one-two for the first time in three seasons and perhaps the battle we are waiting for between two outstanding British drivers. However it’s not the first time McLaren have got the race strategy wrong when concerning Hamilton and tyres!
(Click Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8591447.stm)
Jenson Button for a ballsy decision to change his tyres when he did that ultimately was a huge deciding factor to earn him a win that looked easier than it was.
And finally not forgetting Indian driver Karun Chandhok in the Hispania – Cosworth. Yes! He finished five laps down from the rest of the runners and dead last in 14th, but the Spanish team are clearly the whipping boys of even the new teams. Considering Chandhok only drove the car for first time 14 days ago getting the car to the end in only their second F1 race will mean huge things for where team and driver go from here to progress.
Malaysia is now less than 7 days away, all eyes will now turn back to Red Bull to see if they can finally deliver a result on their early season promise. Vettel and Webber will no doubt be rueing missed opportunities on their overnight flight in South-East Asia today.Final Positions for the 2010 Australian GP:
1. Button (McLaren)
2. Kubica (Renault) +12
3. Massa (Ferrari) +14.4
4. Alonso (Ferrari) +16.3
5. Rosberg (Mercedes) +16.6
6. Hamilton (McLaren) +29.8
7. Liuzzi (Force India) +59.8
8. Barrichello (Williams) +60.5
9. Webber (Red Bull) +67.3
10. Schumacher (Mercedes) +69.3
11. Alguersuari (Torro Rosso) +71.3
12. de la Rosa (BMW Sauber) +74.0
13. Kovalainen (Lotus) +2 Laps
14. Chandhok (Hispania) +5 Laps
Retired
Glock (Virgin)
Vettel (Red Bull)
di Grassi (Virgin)
Sutil (Force India)
Petrov (Renault)
Senna (Hispania)
Buemi (Torro Rosso)
Hulkenberg (Williams)
Kobayashi (BMW Sauber)
Trulli (Lotus)
