Sebastian Vettel stole the show again, with an easy victory at Melbourne, to take his first race win as World Champion. His victory was never in doubt. Lewis Hamilton posed little, if not, no threat to Vettel, as he cruised to his 11th victory in F1. The Red Bull driver easily lead through the first corner, but behind him there were several battles for position. Mark Webber momentarily took second, only for Lewis to outbreak him, and regain the place. Behind them though, Vitaly Petrov and Felipe Massa made big ground while Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso battled for position. Petrov and Massa took the inside line to take 4th and 5th. At the back, Michael Schumacher and Jaime Alguersuari collided, eventually ending the Germans race. Also, Rubens tried to find a short cut through the gravel trap, only for it to push him to the back.
At the front, positions stayed the same, with the DRS and KERS making little impact on the straights. Jenson Button was closing down Felipe Massa, but the Ferrari number two managed to make his car a mile wide. Eventually Button thought he had him going around the tight turns 11 and 12. JB ran out of run and cut the corner, thinking he had gained the position fairly. The stewards disagreed, and because Massa had also lost out to Fernando Alonso, Jenson had to take a driver through penalty.
Tyres were the main talking point of the afternoon. Posible suggestions of a five stopper never occurred, with teams either going for two or three stops. However, Sergio Perez tried to buck the trend, on his debut race, and pushed his tyres so he only had to pit once. His strategy worked, he earned not only a finish on his debut race, but points, and he he finished in front of teammate Kamui Kobayashi.
At the front, Vettel eased to victory. He did not have a stressful day, with pit stops going smoothly. Lewis Hamilton took second, even though the floor of his car was falling of at the end of the race. Vitaly Petrov managed to bring his Renault home in third. He only had tow stops, and he leapfrogged Mark Webber, who took three. Fernando Alonso also took Mark, mainly due to traffic issues on the Aussies inlap and outlap. The Saubers both came home in the points, behind Jenson Button. Felipe Massa, and Sebastian Buemi propped up the points scorers, meaning half of the cars in the top 10 were Ferrari powered.
So Sebastian Vettel takes a well deserved lead into Sepang, Malaysia. He will hope to extend his lead at the top, and make it four wins in a row for the young German.
Race Results
Pos Driver Team Rankings
1 - Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull - 2nd
2 - Lewis Hamilton - McLaren - 1st
3 - Vitaly Petrov - Renault - 25th
4 - Fernando Alonso - Ferrari - 4th
5 - Mark Webber - Red Bull - 3rd
6 - Jenson Button - McLaren - 6th
7 - Sergio Perez - Sauber - New
8 - Kamui Kobayashi - Sauber - 24th
9 - Felipe Massa - Ferrari - 5th
10 - Sebastian Buemi - Toro Rosso - 18th
11 - Adrian Sutil - Force India - 15th
12 - Paul DiResta - Force India - New
13 - Jaime Alguersuari - Toro Rosso - 22nd
14 - Nick Heidfeld - Renault - 12th
15 - Jarno Trulli - Lotus - 13th
16 - Jerome D'Ambrosio - Virgin - New
R - Timo Glock - Virgin - 14th
R - Rubens Barrichello - Williams - 9th
R - Nico Rosberg - Mercedes - 10th
R - Heikki Kovalainen - Lotus - 11th
R - Michael Schumacher - 19th
R - Pastor Maldonado - New
The New rankings will be released later today.
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