The streets of Albert Park rarely fail to deliver an entertaining and exiting race and this was no exception as the Australian grand prix rewarded all those who awoke early; providing the perfect remedy to banish the Bahrain blues.
There has been a lot said about how F1 should make sweeping, rapid changes to spice up the show. Everyone from drivers, team bosses, engineers, pundits and even (occasionally) fans have had their say but only the sensible people are reserving judgement for when we are a few races into the season. To put it simply, Melbourne doesn't do boring. If this race had turned into a snooze-fest then panic buttons could have been pressed but from the off you just knew it was going to be a classic.
The reason this circuit brings the racer out in everyone is that it is a track which doesn't benefit one type of car over any other; it is all medium speed so being able to cope with fast, flowing corners isn't a necessity but the car doesn't need to be nimble and ultra grippy either. There are walls but not as close as in Monaco, Montreal, Singapore or Valencia - a factor which means that the driver is never scared to go full-pelt. The track is only temporary; a feature which means that the grip is harder to find at the start of the weekend and the temperature isn't too hot either (it is autumn over there) meaning that being ultra kind on your tyres isn't a prerequisite and being too hard on them isn't badly punished either. All of this makes for a situation where it is never too difficult for any driver to find the sweet-spot of their car; giving them enough confidence to try and overtake.
The Red Bulls predictably filled the front row of the grid; there is no doubt that this car is the best in the field at the moment - just look at Vettels pole lap; there will not be a better show of how to hustle a car than that all year. For every ounce of aggression Seb gave it, every bump that he rode and curb that he bounced over, Lucious Liz delivered only sheer speed - the young German was never going to be beaten to pole. Such is the order at the moment it was no surprise to see Alonso in 3rd in his Ferrari and Massa probably should have been fourth but seemed overly conservative. Felipe has a poor record in Melbourne and probably just wanted a smooth and simple weekend ending in lots of points - he didn't really want to have to race for them. This left the door open for Button to steal fourth in his McLaren. The Mercedes were next up in 6th and 7th with Rosberg making it 2-0 over Schumi. The only name missing from this list? Lewis Hamilton. Lewis suffered a tyre pressure problem in quali 2 which put him out of sync with the other front runners and on worn out tyres when he needed some fresh rubber to see him through - P11 on the grid was not what he expected after an encouraging (if fortuitous) podium in Bahrain. 
It must be remembered that between qualifying and the race the cars are filled to the brim with fuel, this means that the breaking points change overnight, making the first corner particularly treacherous. Australia decided to throw another ingredient into the pot though - rain; just a sprinkling, stopping within a few laps but it was enough to ensure that starting on the intermediate tyres was a must. Now the drivers had the extra challenge of stopping their heavy cars on a very slippery track; a crash was surely inevitable. So it proved, a coming together between Button and Alonso left both running but the latter had spun and was now well down the order. Jenson didn't lose too much in the incident - falling only as far as 6th but it put the fast-starting Hamilton right on his tail and the even faster starting Kubica up to 4th. Massa had also had a good start; hooking the Ferrari up perfectly to launch himself from 5th to 2nd. Further back F1 2010 enjoyed its first proper crash; the Sauber of Kamui Kobayashi launching into the side of Nico Hulkenberg's Williams after it lost its front wing. This wasn't the first time that Kobayashi had suffered a loss of wing this weekend and one wonders whether they were caused by technical or driver faults - he certainly hasn't looked as impressive as he did in those late races in 2009. Time for the safety car to make its first appearance.
Vettel caught Massa napping at the restart and it wasn't long before Webber had reformed the Red Bull 1-2. Kubica and Rosberg held their positions in 4th and 5th respectively leaving the McLarens to have their first in-house fight of the season. Round 1 went to Hamilton; the pass was easy. Button was struggling on the intermediates and knew it. He didn't really have a choice, he had to roll the dice; there was no way that he could let Lewis embarrass him - something that would have happened had he stayed out. He pitted and went for the slicks, he thought that there was enough of a dry line - he was right. He tiptoed around the first few corners; learning where the grip level was (even taking a grassy detour in the process) but by the end of the lap he was faster than anything else out there by a mile. Suddenly there was a rush; almost everyone else pitted and while they tripped over each other in the extremely slow pitlane Jenson cruised past them all. All except Vettel that is; the Red Bull was so good that he managed to pit and return in front of the McLaren. Still, rolling the dice had given Jenson a net 2nd - he was 7th before the gamble. It is no surprise that Vettel started to pull away from Button; the Red Bull was giving him so much performance that it was inviting him to push harder and harder. Jenson didn't worry though; he had seen this in Bahrain - the Red Bull started well but things closed up as the fuel burnt all he had to do was manage the tyres and see how things played out. As it turned out, Bahrain was mirrored all too well as another mechanical problem deprived Vettel of a probable win; this time it was the breaks and it was terminal. Jenson was leading.
Having Kubica and Massa 2nd and 3rd helped Button; he could pull away from them without pushing too hard and they would also act as a buffer should the faster Alonso, Hamilton or Webber manage to catch up. Catch up they did; the slicks seemed to be working well for all of them. Lewis, Mark and Fernando almost followed each other through the field overtaking at will until they reached Massa. Hamilton and Webber got by and Lewis was quickly onto the back of Kubica's Renault. At this stage Lewis was seriously quick; he could smell a McLaren victory and wanted to make sure that it was him. However, Kubica is made of stern stuff and had saved his tyres well - he could keep Lewis at bay. At the same time, Jenson responded. Now over the graining phase of the slicks, he was Prost-like in his metronomic lapping - every time he circulated he got faster and faster. It was a message: Lewis Hamilton, I am no push-over, 1-1. Now it was Hamilton's turn to roll the dice, pitting for fresh rubber in the hope that he could catch his team-mate or at least get past Kubica. The trouble is that where everyone copied Jenson, only Webber copied Lewis. The Ferraris fancied their chances of holding their positions in 3rd and 4th, likewise Renault. The pace of the now light McLaren and Red Bull was astonishing as they forged their way back to the leading pack but once there they only met Fernando's Ferrari. Had they cleared him they would have got Massa and Kubica too but Alonso is a double world Champ and wouldn't let them past. Lewis's gamble hadn't paid off, neither had Webber's. Mark was desperate to impress on home soil but a weekend that promised so much ended badly for both him and Lewis as the Red Bull and McLaren collided late on.
Championships are not won this early in the season but they can certainly be lost. Red Bull clearly have a pace advantage over the field but yet they have 18 points compared to Ferrari's 70! McLaren will be the most satisfied though; they are mopping up the points gifted by the Bulls and staying in the hunt with a car that clearly isn't the best. In particular though, Jenson Button will gain a lot of credibility from rolling the dice and making the strategy work; only a Champion could do that.
***
A quick mention of a few other stars of this race:
- Lotus for once again being the best of the newbies,
- Karun Chandhok for registering Hispania's first race finish,
- Vitantonio Liuzzi for again scoring in the Force India,
- Jamie Aluersuari for giving his best performance in F1; fighting tooth and nail with one M. Schumacher
- Lucas di Grassi for compounding Schumi's lacklustre day when he overtook him in the Virgin car; something to give any F1 neutral something to smile about.
No comments:
Post a Comment