In two incredible career combacks Jensen Button and Rubens Barrichello finished one and two in their superbly designed Ross Brawn Car. Lewis Hamilton managed to drag his Mclaren into third place after a smart drive.
Despite all the protests and complaints, once the lights went out it was like they had never been away. First corner, first lap, first incident. Barrichello was slow away on the front row, and on his way to the first turn was given a slight nudge by the Mclaren of Kovalainen, Rubens hit Webber who hit Heidfeld and the now spinning Webber collected Kovalainen. Sutil also hit the back of team mate Fisichella as both tried to avoid the chaos. Of all the incidents, only the Mclaren had to retire.
Ahead of all this, Button had nailed his start and was 4 seconds ahead of vettel after just a few laps. The young German however, was thereafter able to maintain the gap to the rejuvenated Briton. Behind them, Kubica and the two Ferraris had got ahead of Rosberg. All 3 however, started on the super soft tyres which were going off badly, and fast, by lap 10 they were all lapping up to 5 seconds a lap slower, backing up Rosberg in the process.
The BMW and Ferraris were all forced to pit 4 or 5 laps earlier than scheduled, such was the extent of the super soft drop off. By the time the Williams of Rosberg got by, Vettel and Button were half a minute up the road!
Further back down the field, the only driver to make any progress had been Hamilton, using his KERS system to rise to 9th by lap 6. The two toyotas, sent to the back after qualy for rear wing technicalities, were struggling without a KERS system.
However, just before Button and Vettel were to pit, Nakajima, lying promisingly in 8th place behind Barrichello, spun and hit the wall hard at turn 4, the safety car was slow to be deployed but when it did the leaders were straight in.
The main implication of the safety car was the the Ferraris and Kubica had effectively used to the soft tyre for free. They were right back up with Button and could use the hard compound all the way home. Button and Vettal still had the super soft to use.
At the restart it was status quo at the front, but in the midfield, Piquet, who had made it up to 7th place at the time, lost it under braking and spun wildly into the gravel. Not the way to start what is a very important season for the Brazilian.
This incident cost Rosberg yet more time and places, and for all his speed over the weekend, seemed destined not to be able to do much with it.
S at the restart it was Button and Vettel, followed by Massa, Kubica and Raikkonen, nobody could be sure who would win, Button and Vettel had the pace, but they had to use to infamous super soft tyres.
Massa's challenge would fade as he would be forced to make 3 stops,while Raikkonen spun into a wall near turn 12. He continued, but the momentum had been lost.Both Ferrari's had to pit way before Button and Vettel and this also effectively ended their challenge. This left Kubica to challenge the so far untouchable front two.
And boy did he challenge, when Button and Vettel came out from their final stops with less than 15 laps to go, there was nothing to seperate the top 4.Barrichello had recovered some of his cool from his earlier shunts with Webber and Raikkonen. He had also recovered full downforce after a front wing change.
With 8 laps to go, Button was 1.7s ahead of Vettel,3.4s ahead of his team-mate and 4.4 ahead of Kubica. Kubica of course on the prime hard tyre.
The pole quickly disposed of the veteran Brazilian, struggling more so than the ultra smooth Button. With 3 laps to go Kubica was on Vettels tail and the two had an inevetible, yet evermore clumsy collision at turn 3. Both attempted to continue but hit the wall at the next corner, bringing out the safety car and effectively ending the race and handing a 1-2 to the Brawn Gp squad.
Vettel was handed a fine and a ten place grid drop for the next race in Malaysia, after what most people believe to have been a 50-50 incident.
Under the safety car, Trulli,now in 3rd, ran wide and allowed Hamilton through, believing he was within his right to re-take the place,Trulli moved back up to third, only to be given a time penalty of 25 seconds and all the way back to 12th. It would seem Trulli was destined not to get any points in Australia.
So Hamilton, somehow, from 18th on the grid, showing no pace whatsoever, found himself with 6 points! 6 possibly very crucial points if Mclaren can fix the car and get back to winning ways, something they are unlikely to do in Malaysia.
So Jensen Button is back, pole position and a win. In the quickest car hes ever had. Now we get to see what hes truly made of.
Results
1- J.Button, Brawn Mercedes, 10points
2- R.Barrichello, Brawn Mercedes, 8points
3- L.Hamilton, Mclaren Mercedes, 6points
4- T.GLock, Toyota, 5points
5- F.Alonso, Renault, 4points
6- N.Rosberg, Williams Toyota, 3points
7- S.Buemi, Torro Rosso Ferrari, 2points
8- S.Bourdais, Torro Rosso Ferrari, 1point
9- A.Sutil, Force India Mercedes
10-N.Heidfeld, BMW
11-G.Fisichella, Force India Mercedes
12-J.Trulli, Toyota
13-M.Webber, Red Bull Renault
Retirements
14-S.Vettel, Red Bull Renault, Collision
15-R.Kubica, BMW, Collision
16-K.Raikkonen, Ferrari, Technical
17-F.Massa, Ferrari, Technical
18-N.Piquet, Renault, Accident/Brakes
19-K.Nakajima, Williams Toyota, Accident
20-H.Kovalainen, Mclaren Mercedes, Accident
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