F1 - Race 2 - Melbourne

After the disappointing start to the F1 season in Bahrain, the race in Melbourne reminded everyone how exciting the sport can be! Melbourne continued to be not the luckiest place in the world for Lewis Hamilton. Last year he was disqualified, this year he was late getting to Australia, only managed to start 11th on the grid and we won't mention his run in with the Melbourne police on Friday! With both Red Bull cars at the front of the grid, Fernando Alonso hoping for a second victory and the rain pouring down, anything could happen. And it didn't take long. Jarno Trulli had to be taken off the grid due to hydraulics problems and never managed to start. At the first corner Jenson Button spun Alonso who in turn hit Michael Schumacher causing him to return to the pits with a damaged front wing. Seconds later Sebastian Buemi and Nico Hulkenberg were in the gravel thanks to Kamui Kobayahi. Out came the safety car.

Button was in the pits in lap 6 for a tyre change which initially looked to be a wrong decision as he briefly slid off the track. But not the case, as two laps later he set the fastest lap time. Meanwhile 8 other drivers were in the pits some of whom lost precious seconds getting back onto the track because of traffic. Mark Webber was in the pits on lap 10 and was promptly targeted by Lewis Hamilton while his tyres were still cold. Lap 12 also saw Adrian Sutil retire with engine problems which had begun very early in the race. Vettel was still leading at lap 16 when Massa was overtaken by both Hamilton and Webber. Hamilton took advantage of Webber taking the turn wide but then Massa passed Hamilton! Lap 17 and Alonso was setting a good pace with another fastest lap but Vettel increased his lead to 4.4 seconds. Hamilton was after 5th place and managed to pass Massa in lap 22, losing a bit of his front wing in the process. Vettel's race finished in lap 26 when a problem with one of his wheels forced him into the gravel. The same lap saw Hamilton overtake Rosberg who couldn't do anything due to the yellow flag because of Vettel.

This left Button in the lead which, by lap 31 was 6.9 seconds and 9.2 seconds by lap 33. Hamilton was in the pits in lap 34 for a second time, which he later blamed for his failure to win the race. By lap 47 Button was 1st, Kubica 2nd, Massa 3rd, Alonso 4th and Hamilton 5th by just 1.5 seconds. Lap 56 proved disastrous for Webber and Hamilton when they collide as Hamilton tried to overtake Alonso. Whilst Hamilton managed to drive out of the gravel to finish the race in 6th place, Webber's race was over. Jenson Button cruised to victory at Albert Park with a 12.034 second gap between him and Robert Kubica in 2nd place.

All in all an exciting race with more lessons learnt and the prospect of Malaysia being just as exciting. Hopefully this year there won't be a storm to cut the race short like last year and Button can win again. I think I will go for Alonso to win next though.

Who do you think will win?

Driver	Team	Time
1. Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:33:36.531
2. Robert Kubica	Renault	+00:12.034
3. Filipe Massa	Ferrari	+00:14.488
4. Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	+00:16.304
5. Nico Rosberg	Mercedes GP	+00:16.683
6. Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	+00:29.989
7. Vitantonio Liuzzi	Force India-Mercedes	+00:59.847
8. Rubens Barichello	Williams-Cosworth	+01:00.536
9. Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	+01:07.319
10. Michael Schumacher	Mercedes GP	+01:09.391