The lights have gone out on the start of the 2012 season. Australia went off with a huge bang. It definitely didn't fail to disappoint us, with an action packed race, from the get go.
Jenson Button stormed ahead of his pole-sitting team mate at the start of the race, and managed to keep his cool over the 58 laps to take the win.
Lewis Hamilton's race was affectively ruined when the safety car had to be deployed, after the Caterham of Vitaly Petrov stopped on the pit straight and had to be removed.
McLaren pitted both drivers on the lap before the safety car, whilst Red Bull kept Sebastian Vettel out before the Caterham stopped.
The current world champion took his first of two pit stops for another set of option tyres and rejoined the pack, ahead of Lewis Hamilton but behind Jenson Button. Hamilton couldn't keep up with the back-to-back world champion's pace and finished 3rd.
A strong finish by Mark Webber, who nursed a problem with the RB8, throughout the race after having contact at the start, and brought the Red Bull home in 4th. Mark's best finish at his home Grand Prix. Another strong performer was Fernando Alonso. The Ferrari has been a handful all weekend, and with Felipe Massa retiring after a coming together with Bruno Senna, they still have plenty more to do.
Focus was off of the front runners and on to the mid field pack, where, on the last lap, the battle for 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th position was separated by only 4 tenths of a second. Can't ask for a closer finish than that.
Paul Di Resta got the final point on offer in the Force India, with both Saubers finishing strongly in 6th and 8th. Daniel Ricciardo scored his highest ever finish at his home Grand Prix and a stunning performance from Kimi Raikkonen after starting 18th on the grid to finish up in 7th. Raikkonen's team mate, Romain Grosjean was hit by Pastor Maldonado, broke the front wishbone on the Lotus causing the frenchman to retire on his first Grand Prix back in Formula 1.
Mercedes struggled in the race, with Michael Schumacher only lasting 10 laps due to a gearbox problem. Nico Rosberg looked promising to get some good points but tumbled down the running order and finished 12th.
Another team who struggled was Williams. Pastor Maldonado was racing up along side Fernando Alonso and other big names, but dipped a tyre onto the grass on the last lap, causing him to spin and hit the wall.
Marussia had a steady, drama free race with Charles Pic finishing 15th in his first Grand Prix, and birthday boy Timo Glock finished 14th.
Both Caterham drivers retired, and after the race Heikki Kovalainen was given a 5 place grid penalty for overtaking before the safety car line, under the new safety car rule. The new rule has been put in place this season, that under a safety car, lapped cars can unlap themselves before the restart.
Below is the full classified table from the 2012 Australian Grand Prix
Next weekend is the Malaysian Grand Prix in Sepang. Can McLaren hold off Red Bull's charge or will the world champions come back with a vengeance?
Let's see what it has install.
No comments:
Post a Comment