Sebastian Vettel started his title defence with an emphatic victory in Australia, easily heads and shoulders above the rest.
Starting from pole position, the German, who was seventh-tenths quicker than his nearest rival in qualifying, carried that pace over into the grand prix. He stormed into the lead and despite an early challenge from Lewis Hamilton, maintained it through to the end of a surprisingly low-key grand prix.
Bright sunshine bathed the Melbourne track at Albert Park before the start of the Australian Grand Prix. Although the ambient temperature wasn't a whole lot different from qualifying - an autumnal 17C with the track slightly higher at 23C.
All the front, ten cars were starting on the soft tyres and you had to look back to Sergio Perez in P13 as the highest placed hard tyre runner. As the lights went out Sebastian Vettel got a perfect get-away from the very clean side of the grid. After the race Red Bull team boss Christian Horner admitted that they hadn't got KERS on the car at all and were relying on sheer traction.
Lewis Hamilton - with KERS in P2 - was immediately passed by Mark Webber and looked to be losing a position to him. He managed to get inside the Red Bull driver into Turn 1 and held his line and position. Behind, there was a hurly burly as Vitaly Petrov had a great start from P6 and jumped up to P4 in his Renault.
Best start of all was from Felipe Massa who started from the slow side of the grid, jinked inside and was up past Rosberg, and his team-mate. It was a fabulous start to make up for poor qualifying. Petrov's squeeze up the inside pushed Button wide and Felipe followed him through in the gap. He tried to get Petrov into Turn 3 but Petrov was having none of it.
On the other hand his team-mate was more wary into Turn 1, having had a nightmare there last year. Alonso chose the outside of Button and got pushed almost onto the grass, lost pace and lost places. However joint worst start was from Rubens Barrichello who went straight on into the gravel run-off at Turn 3 and Michael Schumacher, whose rear wheel got tagged by Alguersuari and developed a puncture forcing him back into the pits.
The positions at the end of Lap one were: 1.Vettel, 2.Hamilton, 3.Webber, 4.Petrov, 5.Massa, 6.Button, 7.Rosberg, 8.Kobayashi, 9.Alonso, 10.DiResta, 11.Buemi, 12.Sutil
Michael Schumacher's floor was damaged by the punctured tyre flapping round on his way back to the pits on the opening lap and he continued on for another 20 laps before calling it a day.
On Lap 2 Fernando Alonso forced his way past Kamui Kobayashi, while Jenson Button tried to find a way past Massa. Massa was blocking fairly and proving very difficult to pass even when Jenson deployed his DRS (Drag Reduction System)
At the front Sebastian Vettel opened up an immediate gap of three seconds over two laps, but then Lewis Hamilton pegged it back and the two drivers began to exchange fastest lap. Behind them, Webber and Petrov were dropping back while Button was darting behind Massa's rear wing. By Lap 8 he'd had enough and tried to overtake on the outside into Turn 12 but Massa didn't oblige and give way.
It was a question of bounce wheels at 180mph or take the exit road. Button took the exit road and passed Massa. The complication was that Alonso was now right behind Massa and if Button moved over to let Massa past he'd be letting both Ferraris past. McLaren asked Race Control what they should do and were told they'd get back to them. But didn't.
Button stayed in position and then the Ferraris pitted so he couldn't give the position back. A few laps later he was awarded a drive-through by stewards.
Mark Webber started off the first round of pit-stops at the end of Lap 11, followed by Alonso and then Massa, By Lap 13 the gap at the front between Vettel and Hamilton had reduced to just 1.5 seconds. Vettel pitted first and came out behind Jenson Button who was due his drive-through penalty in two laps' time. Vettel drove straight past him and straight off the road to make the passing move between Turns 4 and 5.
Hamilton pitted on Lap 16 but Vettel had already opened up a bigger gap using his second set of soft tyres and putting in a new Fastest Lap along the way. Button served his drive-through and dropped down to P.12.
The positions on Lap 20 were: 1.Vettel, 2.Hamilton, 3.Webber, 4.Petrov, 5.Alonso, 6.Massa, 7.Perez, 8.Rosberg, 9.Kobayashi, 10.Barrichello, 11.Buemi, 12.Button.
Rubens Barrichello had recovered strongly from his first lap excursion and put in a crafty overtaking move to get past Kobayashi into Turn 3 as they lapped a slower car. Three laps later he came from too far back to have a go at Rosberg and speared his Williams-Cosworth into the side of the faultless Mercedes driver. Barrichello limped back to the pits for a new nose and a subsequent drive-through penalty.
Rosberg didn't fare quite so well from the sidepod impact. Only 23 laps gone and both Mercedes cars out.
Once Jenson Button had taken on his second set of tyres he was able to put pressure on Kamui Kobayashi and on Lap 25 we saw the first 'live' pictures of a DRS overtaking move as the McLaren just about got past the Sauber into Turn 1.
Mark Webber had fallen a long way back from the Vettel vs Hamilton duel at the front and pitted for more tyres on Lap 26 followed by Alonso on Lap 27. Both of them seemed to have opted for a three-stop strategy and would need to stop again.
The positions on Lap 34 were thus: 1.Vettel, 2.Hamilton, 3.Petrov, 4.Webber, 5. Alonso, 6.Button, 7.Massa, 8.Sutil, 9.Di Resta, 10.Perez, 11.Kobayashi, 12.Buemi
Attention switched to the front of Lewis Hamilton's car which looked to have a failure of the front tray strap allowing the bottom of the car to drag along the road. Despite the sparks flying, the damage didn't seem to have too much of an impact on Hamilton's lap time.
Alonso closed up on Webber, close enough to deploy his DRS down the straight without being able to catch the slippery Red Bull. In the end he didn't have to force a pass because Webber pitted early (for the third time). Apart from a slow tyre stop, Mark drove onto the grass as he misjudged his braking on the outlap. It was a free gift to Ferrari who immediately brought Alonso in and were able to get him out comfortably in front and up into P4.
Mark Webber, now on the softer tyre, was able to get close to Alonso as he got his hard tyres up to temperature. He couldn't get close enough for a pass and slowly began to drop away from Alonso.
Jenson Button was rapidly catching Felipe Massa and managed to pass him on the straight quite easily this time round. Button was being pursued by Perez who had stopped only once for tyres and would also not stop again. Once overtaken by Button, Massa dived into the pitlane rejoining in P10 with nine laps to go.
With Vettel, Hamilton, Petrov and Button only stopping twice for tyres, the race order was almost set with Vettel a manageable twelve seconds in front of Hamilton; Lewis almost twenty seconds in front of Petrov who was gradually being caught by Alonso in P4, with Webber P5, Button P6, Perez in P7 and Kobayashi in P8.
Alonso managed to reduce the gap to Petrov from 2.2 to 1.6 to 1.1 seconds on the final lap, but he was never close enough to make a pass, thus giving the Russian his first podium in F1. It was a good day for Red Bull as Sebastian Vettel's run of strong results from 2010 continued.
The biggest winner of the GP weekend was McLaren whose cars had run race distances for the first time this year. It remains tobe seen of there was enough of Lewis Hamilton's undertray left at the end to keep his car legal.
FH
Results
01. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1h29:30.259
2. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 22.297
3. Petrov Renault + 30.560
4. Alonso Ferrari + 31.772
5. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 38.171
6. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 54.300
7. Perez Sauber-Ferrari + 1:05.800
8. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari + 1:16.800
9. Massa Ferrari + 1:25.100
10. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap
11. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 1 lap
12. Di Resta Force India-Mercedes + 1 lap
13. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap
14. Heidfeld Renault + 1 lap
15. Trulli Lotus-Renault + 2 laps
16. D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth + 3 laps
Not classified/retirements:
Glock Virgin-Cosworth 50
Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 49
Rosberg Mercedes 22
Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 19
Schumacher Mercedes 19
Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 10
