18/03/2012
Jenson Button, the 32 year old former F1 World Champion dominated today's race inMelbourne,Australia. Button who started the race behind team-mate Lewis Hamilton in second place, managed to grab the chequered flag ahead of double world champion Sebastian Vettel. Lewis Hamilton managed to occupy the third spot on podium today.
Just after taking the chequered flag, Button said, "Oh fantastic, what a great way to start the year, guys! Seriously, fantastic! The car is beautiful and she's quick. Thanks guys."
After starting from fourth place, Michael Schumacher failed to impress as he was forced to retire due to gearbox problems in the 13th lap. After the race he said, "It was an unfortunate end to my race when I lost drive going into turn one. I was trying different gears and occasionally the drive came back, but in the end, I had to go onto the grass to avoid the risk of the car being forced into a spin. It was especially unfortunate as we have not had this problem during the winter tests and were very reliable. This is why I am not concerned, as I know things like this happen in racing, and our reliability is not in question. I believe I could have had a good race this afternoon, and I can still take some positives out of the weekend as we have seen our car was confirming our feelings, and is definitely a clear step forward. We can now build on that and start improving further."
Ferrari's Felipe Massa will not be happy as his right rear tire got punctured in the 47th lap of the 58 lap Australian Grand Prix. On the other hand, Alonso managed finished the race on fifth spot. Kimi Raikkonen finished seventh after starting the race from 18th spot while his team-mate, Romain Grosjean, who started third spot, crashed out in the second lap of the race. ForceIndia too had a bad start as Nico Hulkenberg crashed out in the third lap while Paul di Resta finished tenth.
Following is the final result of today's race;
1 - Jenson Button (McLaren-Mercedes),
2 - Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing-Renault),
3 - Lewis Hamilton (McLaren-Mercedes),
4 - Mark Webber (Red Bull Racing-Renault),
5 - Fernando Alonso (Ferrari),
6 - Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber-Ferrari),
7 - Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus-Renault),
8 - Sergio Perez (Sauber-Ferrari),
9 - Daniel Ricciardo (STR-Ferrari),
10 - Paul di Resta (Force India-Mercedes),
11 - Jean-Eric Vergne (STR-Ferrari),
12 – Nico Rosberg (Mercedes),
13 – Pastor Maldonado (Williams-Renault),
14 – Timo G***k (Marussia-Cosworth),
15 – Charles Pic (Marussia-Cosworth),
16 – Bruno Senna (Williams-Renault),
17 – Felipe Massa (Ferrari) (RET Lap 47 due to puncture in right rear tire),
18 – Heiki Kovalainen (Caterham-Renault) (RET Lap 41 due to car tilting problem),
19 – Vitaly Petrov (Caterham-Renault) (RET Lap 37 – lost power steering),
20 – Michael Schumacher (Mercedes) (RET Lap 13 due to gearbox problems),
21 – Romain Grosjean (Lotus-Renault) (RET Lap 2 due to contact with Maldonado),
22 – Nico Hulkenberg (Force-India Mercedes) (RET Lap 3 – contact with Webber),
23 – Pedro de la Rosa (HRT-Cosworth) (Penalised and not allowed to race)
24 – Narain Karthikeyan (HRT-Cosworth) (Penalised and not allowed to race).
