Englishman Jenson Button led the race from start to end to win the Australian Formula 1 GP . The driver led all 58 laps and brought home the victory to the new team Brawn GP.
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.
