Button wins in Australia for McLaren
Jenson Button gave a masterclass to the other drivers, he was the bravest man on the tyres and his smooth style meant that he could finish the race on the same tyres that that he drove 4/5ths of the race on. While all the other drivers were fighting and struggling on the worn tyres Jenson Button serenely drove on at the front on his way to his first victory at McLaren.
The race itself was a much better show than in Bahrain and it seems clear that it would have been even if there hadn’t been the rain at the start. The track lends itself more to overtaking than Bahrain though Michael Schumacher will probably disagree given the amount of time that he spent behind Jaime Alguersuari.
The Red Bulls suffered from mechanical failure again as Sebastien Vettel had a brake failure on his way to retirement and Mark Webber misjudged a corner and smashed into the back on Lewis Hamilton. They take home two points from a race that they seemed to have the pace to dominate. It seems that even had Vettel continued he’d had to have changed his tyres and Jenson Button could have taken the win but we’ll never know for sure.
The new teams had a better race with them putting many more laps on the cars, except that is Jarno Trulli who didn’t even start after hydraulic faliure before start. Virgin didn’t manage to finish but did manage about 45laps in their car which is a massive improvement and HRT Cosworth managed to get Karun Chandhok to the finish – great news for them. What can these teams do in a weeks time.
So Alonso leave for Malaysia still leading the championship but it won’t be by nearly as much as he hoped – Sebastien Vettel will be starting to get frustrated and Jenson Button will be confident that he can form a challenge this year – roll on next weekend.
Full Result:
Winner: Jenson Button McLaren
2. Robert Kubica Renault
3. Felipe Massa Ferrari
4. Fernando Alonso Ferrari
5. Nico Rosberg Mercedes
6. Lewis Hamilton McLaren
7. Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India
8. Rubens Barrichello Williams
9. Mark Webber Red Bull
10. Michael Schumacher Mercedes
11. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso
12. Pedro de la Rosa Sauber
13. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus +2 laps
14. Karun Chandhok HRT Cosworth +5 laps
15. Timo Glock Virgin DNF
16. Lucas di Grassi Virgin DNF
17. Sebastien Vettel Red Bull DNF
18. Adrain Sutil Force India DNF
19. Vitaly Petrov Renault DNF
20. Bruno Senna HRT Cosworth DNF
21. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso DNF
22. Nico Hulkenberg Williams DNF
23. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber DNF
24. Jarno Trulli Lotus DNS
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3 Comments to “Button wins in Australia for McLaren”
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I disagree – with the exception of Lewis being 11th, if it hadn’t have rained, I don’t think the order would have changed much from lap 1 – maybe Massa dropping back – but other than fast cars being out of sync (and packs being held up by slower cars) I didn’t see anything to suggest the new rules are working.
That aside, it was a great race.
I’m not sure that the new rules are ‘working’ either but I do think that it would have been a better race than in Bahrain regardless.
The difference in the tyres was more apparent here in Australia – as was the fact that the older tyres were slower than new ones. I think that we’d have seen much more tactical tyre changes, and possibly all of the racing around those stops. The teams seemed to be wearing their tyres at much different rates so that would have scattered the pit stops a little too.
One thing that does mean it would have been more processional is that the teams might not have seen the differences that the tyres made had the race been normal and they would have all played it safe – so you may be right… Perhaps this will liven up the next few races as the teams take risks on the tyres rather than play it safe?
The tyres only made a difference once some of the drivers had done 2/3 race distance, without the wet, that would not have happened – the option (soft) tyres were holding out for at least half distance – even without going slow under saftey, a driver could have managed nearly half, switched to the hard compound, and I don’t think we’d have seen a 3 second a lap difference (i.e. a quick dash for options) with only 15laps to go. Would Lewis have pitted for tyres under normal circumstances – I think not!