BUTTON, VETTEL, BANK WINS
In 1985, someone came up with the idea of finishing the Forula 1 season in Australia. Fast forward to '96 and someone thought it was a better idea to start the season down under, in Melbourne to be precise. Except the occasionally, the powers that be down under have been unable to pull off the season opener this year was one of those occasions. With one race down, the main curiosity pre-race was Force India hiring Scotsman Paul di Resta to take part in the practice sessions. The more established Brits in the McLarens however came Down Under with plenty to prove but it was Vettel who claimed his second pole in a row with Webber starting P2 for his best qualifying performance of the season so far and the first all-Red Bull front row in any of it's incarations, going back to '97 when it was the Stewart team. Alonso started P3, matching his qualifying performance in Bahrain and Jenson started P4 for his best qualifying performance of the season so far. Further down, off track distractions meant that Lewis only started P11.
So, given his qualifying disaster, what Lewis going to do - rip his way through the pack, that's what. Points were soon a certainly and initially Jenson was easilly disposed of and then after his pitstop he pretty much picked up where he left off. Webber and the Ferraris were easilly disposed of to put him in a comfortable 3rd but just as he was closing in on Kubica he got hauled into the pits for a second time. Lewis was fine with this...untill he found out that the Ferraris 'weren't' pitting. Well he set off after Alonso, who didn't "want to know" his old rival was after him, shot his mouth off at the team for their idiotic strategy...and got caught up in a tangle with the chasing Webber. He made it back on to the track to finish 6th but his display could have been so much better.
As for Jenson, well the early stages of his race were pretty much disasterous...untill he made the call to switch to intermediate tyres very early on, survived an early off...and waited while everyone else went to inters later on. That got him as far as 2nd with only Vettel to worry about...and then the Red Bull driver went spinning off the track! Somehow, effortlessly, Jenson had made his way to the front of the pack and after that, no one looked likely to stop him. This race offered the perfect study of the two McLaren drivers contrasting styles, Lewis all guns blazing, Jenson smooth as you like. And it was the reigning world champion that got his first win of the season here - though McLaren were still left to rue their chance of a 1-2.
The next stop for the F1 show was Malaysia, specifically the Sepang circuit in Kuala Lumpur. Again the qualifying and race were held late afternoon local time, running the risk of being upstaged by a monsoon. Well the monsoon hit qualifying. Webber was left to get his first pole of the season, Rosberg P2(best qualifying performance of an F1 career that started in Bahrain '06), Vettel P3, Sutil P4(best qualifying performance of the season so far) Hulkenburg P5(best qualifying performance of his career so far), Kubica P6(best qualifying performance of the season so far), Barrichello P7(best qualifying performance of the season so far), Schumacher P8, Kobayashi P9(best qualifying performance of an F1 career that started in Brazil '09), Liuzzi P10(best qualifying performance of the season so far), Petrov P11(best qualifying performance of his career so far), De la Rosa P12(best qualifying performance since Brazil '06), Buemi P13, Algusuari P14(best qualifying performance of the season so far), Kovalainen P15(best qualifying performance of the season so far), Glock P16(best qualifying performance of the season so far) with Jenson starting P17 having been unable to take part in Q2 after a Q1 spin. Further down Lewis started P20 - summing up a disaster for McLaren.
Well Jenson needed a good start early on but didn't get it and found himself stuck behind the also poorly qualifying Alonso in what turned out to be a dry race. An early pit stop again turned out to be a good call for the reigning world champion and it allowed him to move up the pack while everyone pitting. He got as far as 7th only for his tyres to run into graining trouble and though he tried to hold back Massa, ultimately he couldn't. He then had to deal with Alonso and nearly lost out to him as well, only for the Spaniard to go off while attempting an overtake. Still, he finished in 8th which was a comedown from the previous race, but at least he didn't come away empty handed.
Lewis also needed a good start...and they parted like the Red Sea for him, allowing him to immediately move up to 12th. Also on a long stint with the first set of tyres, he was soon mixing it in the right half of the pack as the leading McLaren. Slight problem though, his duel with Sutil for 5th didn't go so well with his old lower formulae sparring partner proving to be a stubborn git. In the latter stages of the race he even had Massa to deal with but at least he managed to hold him off. 6th place was no worse that he got last time around and at least this time it was no less than he deserved. Let's hope he can get his act together in qualifying next time.
Up front, the big move of the race was when Vettel edged past Webber in the early laps of the encounter. Again, the only thing that was going to stop the Red Bulls was unreliability and in the meantime, most of the action happened further down the field. The Red Bulls were not going anywhere this time around though and everyone else wound up having to bow down to them in this occasion as they cruised to an admittedly overdue victory. Vettel claimed his first win of the season. Webber got 2nd for his best result of the season so far, completing Red Bull's first 1-2 of the season. Rosberg finished 3rd(best result since Singapore '08), Kubica finished 4th and Sutil finished 5th(best result of the season so far).
And so now the championship looks like this. Massa moved up to the top of the table on 39 points, Alonso moves down to 2nd on 37 points(including a win in Bahrain and a 4th place in Australia), Vettel moves up to 3rd on 37 points(including a win in Malaysia but no further 4th place finishes), Jenson moves down to 4th(having moved up to 3rd after Australia) on 35 points(including his Aussie win). Further down, Lewis slides down to 6th on 31 points.
Still too close to call.
Comments go here
Click here to return to sports homepage
Click here to return to Matt G's homepage