Current World Champion, Sebastian Vettel, has won the opening race of the Formula One season, ahead of Lewis Hamilton and podium newcomer Vitaly Petrov, to win his third straight race.
The Red Bull driver led the race from start to finish, following a blistering pole-setting time yesterday, and marks a perfect start to his title defence.
McLaren's Lewis Hamilton finished the race as he started, in second, despite breaking the undertray of his car on lap 33. The 2008 World Champion finished clear of Renault's Vitaly Petrov, who displaced local hope Mark Webber for a spot on the podium.
The young Russian held off a late charge from Fernando Alonso, in a repeat of their stand-off in Abu Dhabi last year, to claim his first top three finish.
But there was no wiping the smile off the World Champ, who found himself on an Australian podium for the first time, let alone on top of it.
Vettel was challenged in the first fifteen laps by Hamilton, when his tyres looked to be wearing quicker than the McLaren behind him.
"The first thing was to try to hold the gap. But you see the cliff... the degradation... [meant] I couldn't do more laps," the World Champ said.
Things looked a touch sketchy for Vettel as he was forced to pit several laps before Hamilton, but he managed to hold a consistent and comfortable lead throughout the remainder of the race, as his tyres held strong.
"I think we have to make some compliments to Pirelli" he added, in reference to the recent criticisms of the new rubber for 2011, "after the tests we were scared."
It is the first win of the Australian Grand Prix for Renault since 2006, when Alonso won the race after winning the championship in the previous year, as did Vettel today.
RACE REPORT:
A relatively quiet Melbourne race was seen, devoid of the carnage seen in some of the previous editions, including a clean start on the notorious first turn.
Notable movers in the first lap included Petrov bolting up two places to fourth, Formula One debutant Paul Di Resta piloting his Force India up to tenth after starting four spots further back as well as Felipe Massa making a surprise move up to fifth on the first corner.
Massa soon found himself under attack from Jenson Button. In the first use of the DRS (Drag Reduction System) moveable rear wing during a race, Button was unable to make the pass on the Ferrari at turn 1.
Things got worse for Button on lap 11, when an attempted inside pass on Massa at turn 12 resulted in him being forced to cut the turn. When both Ferrari's pitted before him, leaving him unable to let them through, stewards were given no option but to give Button a drive through penalty.
With the decision coming before his first pit stop for tyres, the penalty virtually ended Button's hopes of winning a third straight Australian Grand Prix. But the Briton had it lucky compared to many other teams coming to Melbourne with high expectations.
Mercedes and Williams both had no cars left on the track after separate incidents. Seven time World Champion Michael Schumacher, already having a horror weekend after missing the top 10 in qualifying yesterday, was forced to pit in the opening lap with a puncture. His tyre issues translated to others problems around the wheel, and was forced to retire later.
Just laps later, Rubens Barrichello plowed his Williams carelessly into the side of Nico Rosberg's Mercedes to put the latter out of the race, before the Brazilian was slowly brought to a halt as his car never recovered.
Williams' new man Pastor Maldonado also had mechanical issues, along with Lotus' Heikki Kovalainen, and both called it quits around the same time with the lap count in the mid twenties.
Button passed Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi with the only successful DRS move of the day down the main straight to take 7th place away from the Japanese driver, just laps later.
Alonso continued creeping closer to Webber for 4th, as the Red Bull's tyres were giving way far more than the red machine behind. After a smooth pit stop from Alonso and a bumbled one from Webber's crew on his front right wheel, the two would exchange spots and stay there for the remaining 17 laps.
Petrov was soon put into a familiar position of having to hold off Alonso, after the super soft compounds on the Renault were fading fast.
Although his teammate was unsuccessful in his overtaking attempt, Massa was able to move by Toro Rosso's Sebastian Buemi to take 9th, and send the Swiss driver back down to his starting position of 10th.
The most impressive team effort of the day was by Team Sauber. The Swiss outfit consisting of Kobayashi and young Mexican debutant Sergio Perez finished 7th and 8th respectively to place their team at an unprecedented 5th in the constructors title race.
But there was nothing stopping a Red Bull Renault that had spent almost every moment of the weekend on top of the timesheets, even without the new KERS boost system.
Vettel will look to defend his Malaysian Grand Prix victory of 2010 in two weeks time.
No comments:
Post a Comment