1 Fernando Alonso 25
2 Felipe Massa 18
3 Lewis Hamilton 15
4 Sebastian Vettel 12
5 Nico Rosberg 10
6 Michael Schumacher 8
7 Jenson Button 6
8 Mark Webber 4
9 Vitantonio Liuzzi 2
10 Rubens Barrichello 1
11 Robert Kubica 0
12 Adrian Sutil 0
13 Jaime Alguersuari 0
14 Nico Hulkenberg 0
15 Heikki Kovalainen 0
16 Jarno Trulli 0
17 Bruno Senna 0
18 Vitaly Petrov 0
19 Kamui Kobayashi 0
20 Timo Glock 0
21 Lucas di Grassi 0
22 Karun Chandhok 0
23 Pedro de la Rosa 0
24 Sébastien Buemi 0

The starting grid changed little except Alonso overtook Massa on the second turn. Massa could have easily blocked him but it would have been too undiplomatic for the first race as teammates.

No refueling rules are making this interesting to watch. Pit stops are incredibly quick and in Polish TV the on screen timer starts when the cars enter pit lane and stop when they exit…much more valuable info in my opinion.

17 laps in… Vettel is still ahead and pitted followed by Massa. Looks like Vettel will win this thing. Nico Rosberg is holding Schumacher back quite well.

My two other Brazilian hopefuls are out… Di Grassi and Senna… very disappointing start for their F1 careers…would have been nice if they had at least finished the race.

Hamilton flew past Barrichello on the straightaway…sign that the Cosworth engine is still not up to snuff…at least in my opinion.

Hamilton is holding Rosberg back…I’m impressed with Rosberg right now. Massa keeps setting fastest lap but still behind Alonso.

Lap 23 and a very nice fight for 9th place between Barrichello and a Toro Rosso car… I don’t understand Polish!

Jenson Button is faster than Schumacher and is gaining on him.

Will post this and continue later..

These changes however will only happen if the controversial diffusers (currently used by Brawn, Williams and Toyota) are approved by the FIA Court of Appeals on April 14th.

Possible changes in the flat bottom of the A29 would be the preparation for the final installation of the diffuser of Renault – which happen in the Grand Prix of Spain in Barcelona, 5th stage of the championship in 2009, scheduled for the month of May.

But not only the French have a plan B to Shanghai. The teams McLaren and Ferrari will have a new aerodynamic element in the 3rd race of the season, which is called ‘double diffuser’. The gain is estimated at around 0s5 by teams.

Englishman Jenson Button was the clear leader when the race was stopped and was declared the winner.  He dropped from the pole position, recovered from a poor start where he had lost two positions and lead again. Nick Heidfeld came in second. Timo Glock who benefited from the rain stops came in third.

Since less than two-thirds of the race had been completed, only half the points will be awarded. Rubens Barrichello finished in fifth, Felipe Massa, in the ninth, and Nelsinho Piquet in 13th.

By the 32nd lap the cars stopped at the starting line, most drivers left the cars covered by canvas’.  The race would have resumed but the lack of daylight ended the race prematurely.

The race
The start was not good for Button.  He fell to third place being overtaken by Nico Rosberg and Jarno Trulli but ultimately recovered.

Barrichello, unlike his teammate did well in the start. The Brazilian lost five positions on the grid, the exchange rate of the box before the training of classification, and came in eighth place. Once the first round, however, was the fifth placed and quickly passed the Spanish Fernando Alonso, with the fourth position.

The rain began in the 19th round, but only after the 21st the runway was wet. Like most pilots had already made their stops, had to return the boxes to change tires. Button, who had taken the lead in the first stop, followed on the front, with Rosberg, Trulli and Barrichello behind. In the 27th round, the Brazilian took the second place, passing Trulli and Rosberg then. Barrichello, however, slipped and fell back into fourth place.

The big benefit was stopped by Timo Glock. The German broker raised tire, ideal for the track with little water as it was, and left the squad for the lead intermediary. Seeing the performance of the pilot’s Toyota in 29th round already returned all the boxes, to mimic Glock.

A round later, however, the rain increased and all the pilots who had changed the tires to intermediary had to go back to boxes to put rain tires again. With 24 laps to the end, the rain was so strong that the safety car entered the track. A round later, the committee stopped the trial.

Ferrari’s Finnish driver  Kimi Raikkonen will start seventh.  Massa’s flawed strategy led him to abandon qualifying during the first phase. The Brazilian believed his time would remain within the top few.  Massa shared the blame with team members for this mistake. this is bad news for the Italian team given that last year the team was always a strong contender for poor position.

“I will fight for the pole for the sixth,” said the pilot of 36 years who receive a five position penalty on this Sunday’s race.

“The transmission problem in Australia forced the structure of the box, and we chose to change here since China and  Bahrain could be more crucial. And here we have the element of rain,” he said.

According to Barrichello, the sixth position does not reflect the actual speed of Brawn since the team trained with a lot of fuel in both cars.

“I drove with a lot of fuel, and will do the same every Friday. The car is well balanced like our rivals, because I do not think the Ferrari went without fuel, it is well and that was expected,” he said.

On the difficult phase of the team, which was forced to dismiss 270 employees this week, the Brazilian states waiting for a final implementation of an agreement with Virgin.

“We spent the week in shambles after many layoffs. We have little money, but enough to close the year. I think this will be improved when the Virgin comes to mind. I do not know to what extent is this sponsorship,” he said.

In relation to the punishment of Lewis Hamilton, Rubinho said the current world champion is very new for F-1, and the fact is so embarrassing for the category as was the case for espionage between McLaren and Ferrari, two years ago.

“Lewis is very new for F-1. I do not know the whole story, but it is very ugly for Formula 1, as was the spying case [last year]. I never lied and paid my price several times, but always slept well “, he stressed.

“We have followed many orders, but always fought for my ideals and my opinion. If it is to lie, I’d rather not talk about. Of course, in big teams like Ferrari and McLaren, the pilots can not talk about what they should,” closed.

According Olafur Gudmundsson, Steve Chopping and Surinder Thatti responsible for the supervision of the first two tests of the championship, “Lewis Hamilton and McLaren Mercedes acted in a manner prejudicial to the conduct of the event,” the FIA said.

It added that Hamilton provided “evidence deliberately misleading to the stewards”.

The Italian, who had left the track during the safety car on the circuit, and reinstated its position on top of English in the same period, had been punished by the commissioners in 25 seconds, losing the third place, falling to 12 °.

“In accordance with Article 158 of the International Sporting Code, Lewis Hamilton and McLaren Mercedes team are excluded from the classification of the Australian GP in F-1, and the classification will be corrected in accordance with this decision,” added the communiqué.

With the result, the third placed Trulli recovers six points, while Hamilton will return to zero, as it will lose the six points earned at the time. The Toyota in turn jumps to the vice leadership of the team with 11 points, behind only the Brawn, 18.

The Brazilian retired while in 11th place after strategy issues. Ferrari’s focus now is to reduce the gap between them and Ross Brawn’s team.

“We have to improve the car quickly. But with my experience I say that it is not easy to move around a second of one day to another. I do not know if you can. When we are three or four tenths ago can pull, but a second is very difficult, “said.

Massa spoke to reporters in Australia. The Brazilian claimed that the real competitors in Melbourne were the tires, as the Italian team hasn’t adjusted them well.

“We fight a lot with the tires soft and hard compounds also not helped much. If you consider the race, had the Brawn who was on another planet and then to Red Bull, as Vettel was very strong, showing a rate better than our ” Massa concluded.

An accident between Robert Kubica and Sebastian Vettel put the Brazilian Rubens Barrichello in second place giving the English team a historic 1-2 win.

This was only the third time in history that a Formula 1 team takes the first and second position in its inaugural race. The first was the Alfa Romeo in the first GP of Formula 1, held at Silverstone, 1950 with a victory by Giuseppe Farina and Luigi Fagiolo the second position. Four years later, Mercedes did the same with Juan Manuel Fangio and Karl Kling at the French GP-1954.

Two other teams managed a victory in his first GP, but taking only one podium position. Kurtis Kraft won the GP of Indianapolis in 1950 with Johnnie Parson. In 1977, it was Wolf’s turn to take the victory with Jody Scheckter in the Argentine GP

Button dominated the race from the start but  Barrichello had to recover after a bad start where he dropped to seventh place. Gradually overtaking others he reached fourth position with  four laps to go. Barrichello was more than 20 seconds behind the third position when Kubica and Vettel crashed while fighting for  second place ceding the podium position to the Brazilian.

“I am very happy, very happy with the outcome of the race. I never imagined it could be the second after the start. I am very happy to do a double podium,” said the veteran of 36 years, without hiding the broad smile. In turn, Button celebrated only their second victory in the F-1, the first being at the Hungarian GP in 2006.

The third position at first went to Italian Jarno Trulli, but ended up changing hands after the race.  The Italian took a 25 second penalty after passing Hamilton while the safety car was out and fell from the 3rd to the 12th place.

Hamilton inherited the third place, followed by German Timo Glock. Both recovered after a bad start, since they  dropped to 18 and 19 positions respectively.  Spaniard Fernando Alonso placed fifth, followed by German Nico Rosberg, rookie Sébastien Buemi, and Frenchman Sébastien Bourdais.

Brazilians Felipe Massa and Nelsinho Piquet abandoned. The Ferrari driver had mechanical troubles by the 46th lap., when the 11th was placed as the pilot of Renault alone Rodou in the 24th round. The next test of Formula 1 is scheduled for next Sunday at 6 am (schedule of Brasília) in Sepang, Malaysia.

The good performance of Barrichello at the start training soon collapsed. The Brazilian took to exit the grid, was exceeded by eight opponents and still managed to recover two positions at the end of the line. But in turn he shared the space with Webber and Heidfeld, and the clash was inevitable.

The fate of the pilot Brawn GP is that your car has not suffered much damage, while Webber hit the Finn Heikki Kovalainen, who had to abandon the race, and then touched Adrian Sutil. Only the Brazilian did not need to go boxes after the collision. Far from the confusion, Button continued the tip, followed by Vettel and Massa. Nelsinho Piquet was the highlight, jumping from 14th to 9th place.

“The car almost died, the clutch into neutral, I had to hook the first car and quickly followed. In turn, however, the strong beat McLaren, it threw me up from Red Bull and I thought the race would end up there , “noted the Brazilian.

Gradually, improved performance and Barrichello took sixth place in the tenth round of the GP, overtaking Kimi Räikkönen. Then, Massa made his stop in boxes. In the 17th round, the Japanese Kazuki Nakajima’s car lost control and hit the wall. Barrichello took to the pit stop, Button made the stop in the next round, but once in the output of English saw the safety car to go to the track, because of debris on the track left by Nakajima.

“The damage is great … I hope we raise and bust”

When the safety car came out in the 24th round, Brazil lost one of its representatives. Nelsinho Piquet Rodou alone in the first curve and left the race. “I had to restrain strong and had no pressure,” says the pilot of Renault, which was bad throughout the weekend. In the 47th round, it was the turn of Felipe Massa leaves the GP with mechanical problems.

At the same time, the pressure for Barrichello left on top of Vettel in the fight to win the third place, it still had not made the second stop. Have your team mate, Button, had so much difference on that front, even making his second pit stop, he kept the lead in the 48th round.

Seven laps from the end, Barrichello pitted but returned in fifth behind Rosberg and Kubica. The Brazilian topped the German’s Williams back in the next, but was more than 20s behind Kubica and Vettel.

But the miracle happened in the 54th round. The Polish and German is played when the disputed second place and gave farewell to the test. “Excuse me,” said Vettel by radio to the team while Barrichello completed the historic dobradinha with Button. “It was a great strategy of the team and I am very happy,” concluded the Brazilian, after celebrating with Button and boss Ross Brawn.