It has to be said that, had Sebastian Vettel not retired after a wheel failure on his Red Bull, Jenson Button would probably have been celebrating second place rather than victory.
However it was notable that McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh went to great lengths after the Australian Grand Prix to point out that Button's early pit stop gamble was the driver's personal decision, while Hamilton's two stop strategy was devised by the team.
Button's inspired choice, to become the first driver to switch from intermediate wet weather tires to dry-weather slicks could so easily have backfired. In fact it almost did, as he promptly slid straight off the still-wet track on the first corner after leaving the pits.
Having recovered, Button took on the challenge of making the soft-compound "option" tires last for a further 50 laps, when most pundits expected them to last at most for 20. Whitmarsh's comment perhaps hints that it even went in the face of advice from the McLaren team.
If that is the case, all credit to Button and to his race engineer Jakob Andreasson for holding to their plan. It paid off and it was notable that a similar strategy benefited Renault's Robert Kubica and the Ferrari duo of Massa and Alonso.
The highest-placed car to run the two stop-strategy was 5th placed Nico Rosberg, although that could so easily have been Lewis Hamilton, had he not been torpedoed by home-hero-turned-zero Mark Webber, who demonstrated that gutsy drives don't always pay off.
After the race Hamilton was relatively sanguine about his late race clash with Webber, but bristled with indignation when asked about his second pit stop. Lewis clearly would like us to think that it was an error of judgement by his team, but I suspect his engineers were right.
The fact is that Jenson Button has a silky-smooth driving style which allowed him to conserve his tires while at the same time, maintaining a crushing pace.
Hamilton's more aggressive style, not to mention the fact that he was battling for almost the whole race with Webber, Alonso, Massa and Rosberg, probably ensured his first set of dry weather tires were never destined to go the distance.
Button's win was a masterly performance, but it was not for me the drive of the race.
That accolade should go to Robert Kubica, whose wet weather charge from ninth on the starting grid propelled him into fourth place on the opening lap.
Kubica then resolutely fought off all attacks, while at the same time conserving his tires to bring the unfancied Renault home in second place. It was a brilliant performance, demonstrating that he is one of the best pure racers on the starting grid.
In terms of racing, Melbourne had the lot in terms of action. Sometimes it was a bit too fast and furious - and no, I am not referring to Hamilton's street burnouts on Friday night!
"Too fast, too furious" perfectly sums up Mark Webber's race. A strategic bungle, making the first pit stop too late, wasted his front row start, meaning that the home hero had to fight his way back up the order. A string of incidents, culminating in his collision with Hamilton and an eventual ninth place was small reward for obvious effort.
Fernando Alonso's spin at the opening corner was self-inflicted when he moved across the track into Jenson Button's path, but his fight back from the tail of the field was awesome, in contrast to a lackluster performance from Michael Schumacher when he found himself in a similar position.
It was notable though, that when the Spaniard closed on team-mate Felipe Massa, there was no way that the Brazilian was giving way.
Whatever the team press releases may say, we were witnessing a true battle for pecking order in the Ferrari team. It will be fascinating to watch as that battle develops again in Malaysia in just a week's time.
Catch F1 race commentator Steve Slater on STAR Sports' coverage of the Formula One
