Vettel's way
Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel (center) made
an ideal start to his Formula One title defense, driving a flawless
race to outpace McLaren's Lewis Hamilton and win the season-opening
Australian Grand Prix on Sunday.
Starting from pole position, Vettel maintained his lead after the
first turn and had already opeed a gap of more than 2 seconds over
Hamilton following the first lap and the German was never seriously
threatened.
Renault's Vitaly Petrov was a surprise third, claiming his first
ever podium finish with a strong drive.
Vettel, who drove a two-stop strategy on the new Pirelli tires,
made his first pt to change to softer rubber in the 14th lap,
emerging still in 3rd ahead of McLaren's Jenson Button. He regained
the lead two laps later when Hamilton took a tire change and never
looked like being threatened from then on, eventually winning by
more than 22 seconds.
"Very cool," he radioed to his team ater taking the checkered
flag. "Excellent car. Excellent stops."
Fernando Alonso finished fourth, while Australian Mark Webber was
fifth, as both used three-stop strategies - one more than the podium
finishers.
Button was sixth, falling short in his bid to win the race for a
third straight year. He had to do a drivethrough penalty after using
a slip road to pass Ferrari's Felipe Massa in the early part of the
race, and that cost him a shot at third.
Sauber's Sergio Perez was an impressive seventh in his first
grand prix; remarkably only pitting once. He finished ahead of
teammate Kamui Kobayashi, while Massa was ninth and Toro Rosso's
Sebastian Buemi took the last point in tenth.
It was a bad day for Mercedes, with both Michael Schumacher and
Nico Rosberg forced to retire.
"I had a good start, made up quite a few positions, then had a
good run into turn three, but as I turned in someone (Jaime
Alguersuari) knocked on to my right rear," Schumacher said. "The
consequence was I had a puncture which destroyed the right tire, and
driving back to the pits basically destroyed the right floor. In the
end the team decided for safety it wasn't worth staying out."
Hamilton also damaged the floor of his car when he went wide on
turn one of his 32nd lap. He continued on, even though the team
warned him late to nurse the car into second rather than try to
mount a challenge for the lead.
Rosbedrg was forced to retire shortly after colliding with
Ruben's Barrichelo in the 24th lap as the Williams driver attempted
to find. Barichello was handed a drive through penalty for causing
the crash.
