Just the start F1 wanted

Martin Brundle reflects on the highs and lows of a fascinating season-opening Australian GP...

What a great race, 94 minutes of tense action all the way through the field from start to finish. We witnessed some quality driving especially from the six World Champions on the grid. Sebastian Vettel's pass on Nico Rosberg around the outside of turn nine was my personal highlight, but the pace and consistency of Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton, the dogged determination of both Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen, and the style and pace of Michael Schumacher were also outstanding. Quite how Mark Webber's Red Bull withstood the double assault into turn one I don't know, but thereafter he made the best of his car, tyres and the safety car for a very competitive fourth place. Nobody could match the classy pace of Jenson Button though. His start wasn't perfect, he told us on Sky Sports F1 after the race that he grabbed second gear too early, but it was better than Lewis's wheel spinning effort in the 300 metre drag race to turn one. That was a pivotal moment because Jenson would then pull away and have first choice on when to make his first pit stop which also played out well in traffic. His restart behind the safety car was spot on and he sailed away to win his third Australian GP in four years. Fastest lap was simply icing on the cake. In five of the past six seasons the winner of the first race has gone on to take the title... Thankfully Red Bull promised and delivered a more compelling performance in the race than in qualifying to keep the race alive. Fernando Alonso also somehow dragged a reluctant prancing horse through all 58 laps to seal a heartening fifth place for a Ferrari team under enormous pressure with a difficult and inconsistent car. Felipe Massa just couldnt get to grips with his car. Being a temporary parkland circuit, Albert Park doesn't have the perimeter roads of permanent facilities where cars can be quickly cleared away and accidents usually end up against the wall with debris bouncing back onto the track. However despite heavy multiple first corner contacts and plenty of nerfing and barging throughout the race, the inevitable safety car was actually for a broken down Caterham stranded on the pit straight with nowhere to hide. Having said that, Pastor Maldonado's painfully unlucky plunge with his Williams into the Turn Seven inside wall would have triggered another safety car had it not been the last lap for the leaders. We witnessed much brilliance but also plenty of bad luck and sob stories, not least Maldonado's crash out of sixth place when he was eagerly chasing to pass Alonso's Ferrari for a result which would have cemented a return to form for Williams. Many others talk of bitter sweet weekends, especially the Lotus team. Grosjean started from third but dropped to sixth after a poor start and then had his steering broken by a very ambitious overtake from Maldonado in which Grosjean just couldn't give him any more room. In the other Lotus, Kimi Raikkonen did a fine job driving from 17th on the grid to sixth with some feisty action and very solid lap times. Lotus have a good car which seems easy to set up and drive and which bodes well if they can maintain the development race. Along with Williams we can include Sauber, Force India and Toro Rosso in this group of teams with very solid pace and an ability to nurse the Pirelli tyres well. Once again Sergio Perez floated his Sauber around Albert Park on a one stop strategy with often impressive lap times. His tyres were finished at the end of each stint and avoiding Maldonado's stricken car and subsequently touching with Rosberg meant that he finished 8th from 22nd on the grid. Probably the most disappointed team after the race would be the Mercedes team. They had shown prodigeous pace all weekend especially in the top speed tables. So much so that other teams were speculating and pointing fingers about secondary drag reduction devices that piggy backs the driver-activated DRS rear wing system. The FIA seemed satisfied with the legality of the car but unfortunately Schumacher's car lost gears and Rosberg was in the wars at the end with a puncture. More of a concern though is that both drivers suffered from heavy tyre degradation which will hurt them if they can't find a fix. Lets hope we have as much action this weekend in Malaysia MB