Melbourne, 29th March 2009

The Australian Grand Prix often
provides a surprise result and it did so again today, but it was not a
pleasant surprise for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, as the team failed to
score a single point, with both Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen
retiring from the 58 lap race, the Brazilian on lap 45, with a broken
nose support and the Finn two laps from the finish with a differential
problem, although Kimi was actually classified sixteenth.
Saturday’s qualifying produced the unusual result of a new team –
Brawn GP – monopolising the front row of the grid, with Jenson
Button on pole and Rubens Barrichello second and that is the order
in which they finished today, although while Button dominated the
race, Barrichello had to recover from a poor start and took second
spot on in the final laps, after Vettel and Kubica, running second and
third, collided and retired.


Joining the Brawn boys on the podium was
Jarno Trulli for Toyota. However, he was later penalised for
overtaking under a yellow flag, so that although he was on the
podium, the points for third go to Lewis Hamilton in the McLaren
Mercedes, fourth was Timo Glock in the second Toyota, with
Fernando Alonso fifth for Renault. Nico Rosberg ended up sixth in
the Williams, while Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Buemi became the 58th
driver in the world championship to score points in his F1 debut,
finishing seventh, with team-mate Sebastien Bourdais taking the
final point for eighth spot.
At the start, world champion Lewis Hamilton was at the back, having
changed a gearbox and both Toyotas started from pit lane.
Barrichello’s poor start led to a few collisions with several drivers
pitting for repairs, so that after the first lap, Button led Vettel, Massa
third, Kubica, Raikkonen fifth, Rosberg, Barrichello, Nakajima and
Piquet completing the top ten. Hamilton was coming up the order
fast, while the gap between the two leaders was around the 4 second
mark.
At the front, the gap between Button and Vettel has stabilized at
around four seconds, the two trading fastest laps. On lap 10 Rosberg
passed Raikkonen for 5th place, as the Ferrari men had opted to
start on the softer tyres and were struggling, so that Barrichello also
got by the Ferrari man so the team brought him in ahead of schedule
for new tyres. On lap 12 Massa pitted from third place, with similar
problems to his team-mate.
The new strategy, especially in Felipe’s case did not work, as the
Safety Car appearance on lap 18, after Nakajima’s accident did not
help the Prancing Horse cars.
After Felipe made his second stop on lap 32 he rejoined in 14th spot.
Seven laps later, Kimi came in from fourth place, making a third stop
on lap 44. But one lap later, he ran wide and brushed the safety wall,
as Felipe slowed right down and limped back to the pits to retire. On
lap 56, Kubica in third tried to pass second placed Vettel which
resulted in both men crashing out, bringing out the Safety Car again,
while Kimi was forced to retire with a faulty differential. So the race
actually ended under the Safety Car and yet again, the Melbourne
circuit had provided plenty of surprises. The teams immediately
began packing up in haste, as Round 2, the Malaysian Grand Prix
takes place in just one week’s time and, just like the Australian race,
it is scheduled to take place in the late afternoon.