4 weeks ago, Brawn GP did not exist, now they are on top of the F1 world after becoming the first team to win their debut race since Jody Scheckter won on the debut of the Wolf team in 1977, the man courtesy of bringing this historic achievement to Brawn GP was Jenson Button who drove brilliantly in a lights to flag win. Even better for Brawn was teammate Rubens Barrichello coming through to finish 2nd giving Brawn a memorable 1-2 finish. F1's established order however struggled to make an impact although McLaren's Lewis Hamilton drove a storming race from 18th on the grid to finish 4th which would later become 3rd after a 25 second penalty was handed out to the original 3rd placed finisher Jarno Trulli for overtaking during safety car conditions.
THE RACE
The Brawns were all set after locking out the front row in qualifying ahead of Sebastian Vettel, Robert Kubica and the fastest man in practice Nico Rosberg, as the lights went out, Button's start was perfect but Barrichello suffered an anti-stall system fault and fell down the field initially, he was then part of the now normal opening race 1st corner pileup after being shoved by McLaren driver Heikki Kovalainen into the side of Mark Webber's Red Bull causing carnage involving those 2, and Nick Heidfeld all of which resulting in the retirement of Kovalainen due to a wrecked left front suspension, the big winners were the Ferrari's who took advantage of starting with the super soft compound tyres to jump up 3 places each as did Nico Rosberg who emerged from the mayhem in 3rd place, Rosberg however lost 3 places to Massa, Kubica and Raikkonen after runnign wide in turn 3, but upfront, Button and Vettel were racing well clear of the chasing pack.
Rosberg and Barrichello were now together on the track in 6th and 7th places respectively and settled to a steady pace, they got their chance to move up the field on lap 8 as Ferrari's soft tyre gamble failed miserably as their tyres began to lose grip ealier than expected, after a hurry up from Rosberg's race engineer he made the pass on Raikkonen at the beginning of lap 9, Barrichello then took advantage of a struggling Raikkonen 2 corners later losing part of his front wing in the process but the damage was only superficial. Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton had managed to pick his way through the mayhem and was progressing through the field at a rate of knots, using the advantage of his KERS system, he made a clean pass on Nelson Piquet on lap 8 meaning Hamilton in that time had moved up from 18th to 9th, but he also had started on the super soft tyres.
One driver that had suprised many in the early stages was Kazuki Nakajima who had fought his way into an excellent 5th place, but he proceeded to throw away his good work after getting the exit to turn 4 all wrong and smashing into the barrier on lap 17, this brought out the safety car for the first time, during which everyone that started on the harder compound of tyres made their 1st pitstops and all bar Rosberg and Giancarlo Fisichella had smooth stops, the latter had trouble after nearly running over half of his own pit crew. 6 laps later the race restarted, a restart which only lasted one corner for Piquet who got his braking all wrong while trying to defend his 6th place from a recovering Nico Rosberg, as a result he slid off into the gravel into retirement and very likely into the path of a big verbal rollocking form his team boss.
The race then settled down with the only interruptions being the completion of a bad day for Ferrari, Kimi Raikkonen spun out of 10th place with 15 laps to go and just 3 laps later, Felipe Massa pulled into the pits to retire with a rear suspension failure. But the drama didnt end there, Button suffered a slow final pitstop after his original refuelling rig failed, now he had both Vettel and Robert Kubica breathing down his neck with barrichello lurking in 4th ahead of an ever charging Lewis Hamilton and the Toyota pairing of Trulli and Timo Glock sandwiching Rosberg.
But the race was brought to a premature end with just 3 laps to go, Kubica who clearly had the faster car attempted to take advantage of a mistake by Vettel, but Vettel (trying desperately to defend his 2nd place) turned into the side of Kubica eliminating both drivers and earning Vettel the wrath of the stewards, the race finished under safety car conditions, only the second time in the history of F1 that it has ever happened, and Button was left to celebrate an emotional win with his teammate in 2nd place. But arguably the happiest man in the paddock was Lewis Hamilton managing to claim a top 3 finish with what was universally described as a poor car. As a result of his penalty, Jarno Trulli was demoted to 12th place promoting Hamilton to 3rd, Trulli's teammate Timo Glock inherited 4th, 5th was a relieved Fernando Alonso with Nico Rosberg 6th, Sebastien Buemi capped a fine debut to finish 7th ahead of his teammate Sebastien Bourdais who took the final point
AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX TOP 10 FINISHERS
1st. JENSON BUTTON - Brawn Mercedes ................ 1h 34m 15.784
2nd. RUBENS BARRICHELLO - Brawn Mercedes ................ + 0.807
3rd. LEWIS HAMILTON - McLaren Mercedes ............... + 2.914
4th. TIMO GLOCK - Toyota ................ + 4.435
5th. FERNANDO ALONSO - Renault ................ + 4.880
6th. NICO ROSBERG - Williams Toyota ................ + 5.728
7th. SEBASTIEN BUEMI - Toro Rosso Ferrari ................ + 6.004
8th. SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS - Toro Rosso Ferrari ................ + 6.298
9th. ADRIAN SUTIL - Force India Mercedes ................ + 6.335
10th. NICK HEIDFELD - BMW Sauber ................ + 7.085
DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIP: 1st Jenson Button 10pts, 2nd Rubens Barrichello 8pts, 3rd Lewis Hamilton 6pts, 4th Timo Glock 5pts, 5th Fernando Alonso 4pts, 6th Nico Rosberg 3pts, 7th Sebastien Buemi 2pts, 8th Sebastien Bourdais 1pt
CONSTRUCTORS CHAMPIONSHIP: 1st Brawn Mercedes 18pts, 2nd McLaren Mercedes 6pts, 3rd Toyota 5pts, 4th Renault 4pts, =5th, Williams Toyota 3pts, =5th. Toro Rosso Ferrari 3pts
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