AusGP: Jenson Button wins in Melbourne

Jenson Button has won the 2012 Australian Grand Prix by 2.1 seconds from Sebastian Vettel. Lewis Hamilton, a further 1.9 seconds back, claimed the final podium position.

Despite yet another poor start, in which he dropped four places, Mark Webber recovered well to fight back to fourth place. That’s his best result in Melbourne following a trio of fifth places in 2002, 2005 and 2011.

In the early corners Webber found himself mid-pack and was sandwiched between two other cars who both made contact with the Red Bull’s front wheels. In a rare stroke of luck for Mark in Melbourne his car was not damaged and he showed excellent race pace from that point forward.

Jenson Button claimed the race lead from teammate and pole sitter Lewis Hamilton at the first corner and controlled the race thereafter. He would have become a little tense with around 15 laps to go after the Safety Car was deployed to allow an expired Caterham to be removed from pit straight.

However, on the restart he quickly established a 2.5 second lead over second-placed Vettel. For the remainder of the race the top four cars were spread by little more than five seconds, but with clean racing and no mistakes being made there were no late race dramas and Button comfortably claimed his third Australian Grand Prix title.

Meanwhile the fight over the lower points positions did indeed deliver some high drama on the last lap.

Pastor Maldonado was driving a great race for Williams and was mixing it with Webber and Alonso for extended periods. But the last lap dramas were triggered when he lost the rear end of his car and speared off the track and into the wall.

While not affected by the Maldonado incident more drama followed in positions seven through 12. Daniel Ricciardo was at the tail of that group but managed to avoid his teammate Jean-Eric Vergne who ran wide. Soon after he made the most of other errors ahead of him and found himself inside the top 10. His ninth place finished saw him score his first two world championship points.

Like Webber, the young West Aussie got tangled up in first lap issues, making contact with Senna. He had to pit at the end of that lap and resumed in last place. To fight back within range of a points scoring position and then capitalise on the mistakes of others showed solid maturity from the 22-year-old.

Nico Rosberg lost out from that final lap battle with a problem and stumbled across the line in P12. In contrast, Paul di Resta also made the most of the troubles ahead of him to claim the final point offered by tenth place.

Early contact with Pastor Maldonado ended Romain Grosjean’s race and robbed us of a chance to see how well the Lotus could perform at the head of the field. Although, Lotus will be happy that Kimi Raikkonen finished in P7 after he too made the most of the dramas that saw Ricciardo move into the points.

Overall it was a gripping battle right through the field, albeit one that gained spice from the Safety Car. What we have learned is the McLarens have a great all-round package able to perform in qualifying and during the race.

Red Bull will be boosted by their race performance and that will give them confidence for next weekend’s race in Malaysia. Ferrari, too, will be happy that Alonso has shown their car is perhaps not quite as bad as they first thought. On the other hand Felipe Massa again failed to shine. Despite his race ending after making contact with Bruno Senna he was nowhere near the pace of Alonso.

Williams will leave Australia with increased hopes of what the rest of the season could bring. It was only a split second failure of concentration from Maldonado that robbed the team of sixth place and eight points, more than Williams scored in all of 2011.

Lotus probably deserved much better results than they achieved today, but will be another team to leave Australia very happy with what they have learned.

All in all it is shaping up as a cracking F1 season with interest and intrigue sure to follow across the entire field.

The post-race press conference transcript will be added later tonight and our F1 in pictures gallery will return in the next day or two.

2012 Australian Grand Prix finishing order

1. Button (McLaren) 58 laps
2. Vettel (Red Bull) +2.1 seconds
3. Hamilton (McLaren) +1.9s
4. Webber (Red Bull) +0.4s
5. Alonso (Ferrari) +17.0s
6. Kobayashi (Sauber) +15.2s
7. Raikkonen (Lotus) +1.2s
8. Perez (Sauber) +1.4s
9. Ricciardo (Toro Rosso) +0.1s
10. Di Resta (Force India) +0.1s
11. Vergne (Toro Rosso) +0.1s
12. Rosberg (Mercedes AMG) +17.7s
13. Maldonado (Williams) +1 lap
14. Glock (Marussia) +1 lap
15. Pic (Marussia) retired*
16. Senna (Williams) retired*

Massa (Ferrari) retired
Kovaleinen (Caterham) retired
Petrov (Caterham) retired
Scumacher (Mercedes AMG) retired
Grosjean (Lotus) retired
Hulkenberg (Force India) retired

*Classified as finishers, despite ending the race in the garage