Sunday March 27th: Australian Grand Prix Race

I tried, I really did.  Anyone who knows me, knows that I cannot watch the races till after the first corner.  I don't know what it is but I cannot do it.... My nerves are shot if I do and this race proved no different.  Sure there were no accidents but there were a few drivers that where slow off the line.

When the lights went green, the new technology did not play a role, Red Bull's Vettel made it to first corner without the help of KERS (had read that later as I did not see it...). Alonso had gone wide dropping down to ninth place. For the next 11 laps, the telly was ablaze with the Massa - Button race.  It was great to see Massa back in his prime, fighting it out until his opponent cut a corner and took his position, which was soon followed by Alonso.

By lap ten, the cars where being pulled into the pits for a tyre change.  With the ban on refueling during the race, Pirelli has seemed to take charge and determined that the 2011 season would be a season of strategy. Teams and drivers will have to plan out a two or three stop race due to tyre degradation and setup.  Now, the tyre degradation is not always a bad thing, it can make the races more exciting. But can also cause much stress for the team if the track is bad and both their drivers are in need of new tyres.  Looking back at practice, RBR had thought of this and had practice a back to back stop for their drivers in case the future played an ironic twist and caused this to happen.

On lap 14, Button had to take a penalty of a driver through due to his cutting the corner and never fully recovered. Only being able to make his way back up to sixth.

What the Australian Grand Prix truly showed the fans and viewers is that KERS is back in full force. With the use of the DRS, it is also a necessary to be able to fight to points.  With the DRS being undefendable by anything else the driver could possibly posses, KERS gives the driver being overtaken, a chance.  It gives them a boost of power that can, as we witnessed, out perform the DRS system.

Up until lap 45, the race seemed to even it's self out.  You could easily walk away to get yourself a cup of coffee and not have to worry much.  Driver's pitted and we only witnessed one major incident where Barichello tried to overtake Rosberg and seemingly, drove into the side of him. Knocking Rosberg out of the race, leaving Mercedes without a full race data (Schumacher had retired three laps eariler).

Lap 43 and a big case of deja vu.  Vettel out in front, followed by Hamilton.  Back further on the grid, Petrov in front of Alonso and Webber.  It seemed to be taking on the form of the 2010 season finisher.  Abu Dhabi was playing out in front of the fans all over again. The difference, there was no way that Alonso and Webber could catch the Russian this time.

What caught both the paddock and fans off guard was the Mexican rookie, Sergio Perez, all over the back of the Ferrari in lap 50.  The commentators could be heard talking in disbelief.  Sauber had found a way to have the Pirelli tyres work with their set up, the 54-46 weight distribution and all.  We soon learnt once the race was over that the Sauber team had took 'bending the rules' a little too far and both Perez and Kobayashi were disqualified from the race, and their points taken away due to a technical infringement found on the rear wing during a random post-race test by the FIA. 

Race end, and like a stoll in the park, Germany's Sebastian Vettel passed the checkered flag first, followed by
Britain's Lewis Hamilton and Russia's Vital Petrov in third. Claiming both his own and Russia's first podium in Formula One ever.

Australian Grand Prix Race Results

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	58	1:29:30.259	1	25
2	3	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	58	+22.297	2	18
3	10	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	58	+30.560	6	15
4	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	58	+31.772	5	12
5	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	58	+38.171	3	10
6	4	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	58	+54.304	4	8
7	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	58	+1:25.186	8	6
8	18	Sébastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	57	+1 Lap	10	4
9	14	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	57	+1 Lap	16	2
10	15	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	57	+1 Lap	14	1
11	19	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	57	+1 Lap	12
12	9	Nick Heidfeld	Renault	57	+1 Lap	18
13	21	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Renault	56	+2 Laps	20
14	25	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	54	+4 Laps	22
NC	24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	49	+9 Laps	21
Ret	11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	48	Transmission	17
Ret	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	22	Collision damage	7
Ret	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Renault	19	Water leak	19
Ret	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	19	Collision damage	11
Ret	12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	9	Transmission	15
DSQ	17	Sergio Pérez	Sauber-Ferrari	58	Disqualified	13
DSQ	16	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	58	Disqualified	9