Australian Grand Prix, 2011

By Erik Nielsen
Photos courtesy and copyright Ferrari Media

Sebastian Vettel’s number one on the nose of his Red Bull led the way in the season opener as the German took the momentum of winning the championship and converted the first pole into the first win. The Red Bull is quick out of the box; the question will be how long can they hold their advantage over the rest of the field.

Lewis Hamilton had complained most of the off-season that the car wasn’t any good and wouldn’t be competitive, then turns in a second place finish. So the choices are a) his whining got the engineers to sharpen their pencils or b) he’s full of it and the team told him to go and confuse the media pool. My vote is actual c) all of the above. He’s still a whiner and is likely full of it, but it does seem like he as a quick car.

The surprise of the weekend was Vitaly Petrov in the Renault. It would seem that the conspiracy that surrounded the parent company’s electric vehicle program for the last several weeks made sure that Inspector Clouseau was busy poking around elsewhere and let the race car engineers alone to focus on the task at hand. He had Alonso hot on his heels at the close of the race, but the Spaniard was unable to reach the podium.

Fernando Alonso suffered from a poor start and tried to use a three stop strategy to recover, but it did seem to be too little too late. Massa could do no better than 7th, not a good start for the Scuderia, too soon to see if it is a flashback to the mid 80’s type of performance.

Mark Webber proved that rumors of his retirement are still premature as he split the Ferraris and finished ahead of Button. Not a bad place to be until you realize that his team mate won, but a fifth place is a solid performance and come the end of the season, solid points may help out the team’s championship fight. Button’s performance was uneventful and while he did finish on the lead lap, he was more or less out in the wilderness on his own.

The junior Red Bull team finished a respectable 8th place (beating both Mercedes) with Sebastien Buemi. Most surprising were the last two points paying positions going to the Force Indias of Sutil and di Resta, with the latter picking up a single championship point in his F1 debut. Well done.

Both Williams and Mercedes drivers were out with DNFs, both Saubers were disqualified for wing infractions and neither Hispania’s made the grid with the 107% rule back in effect. With the first race cancelled due to civil unrest in Bahrain, probably not the best watched season opener. It’s way too soon to say if Japan is going to stay on the calendar as they still assess the Fukushima disaster, but fans can take solace that it is about 370 miles away. The question will still be if the fans will show up. We’ll see.

The Malaysian GP is in two weeks, way too soon to predict the weather.

Race Results

1	VETTEL	RBR-Renault	1h29m36.259s
2	HAMILTON	McLaren-Mercedes	+ 22.2s
3	PETROV	Renault	+ 30.5s
4	ALONSO	Ferrari	+ 31.7s
5	WEBBER	RBR-Renault	+ 38.1s
6	BUTTON	McLaren-Mercedes	+ 54.3s
7	MASSA	Ferrari	+ 85.1s
8	BUEMI	STR-Ferrari	+ 1 lap
9	SUTIL	Force India-Mercedes	+ 1 lap
10	DI RESTA	Force India-Mercedes	+ 1 lap
11	ALGUERSUARI	STR-Ferrari	+ 1 lap
12	HEIDFELD	Renault	+ 1 lap
13	TRULLI	Lotus-Renault	+ 2 laps
14	D’AMBROSIO	Virgin-Cosworth	+ 4 laps
NC	GLOCK	Virgin-Cosworth	+ 9 laps
DSQ	PEREZ	Sauber-Ferrari	+ 65.8s
DSQ	KOBAYASHI	Sauber-Ferrari	+ 76.8s
18	BARRICHELLO	Williams-Cosworth	+ 10 laps, transmission
19	ROSBERG	Mercedes GP	+ 36 laps, accident damage
20	KOVALAINEN	Lotus-Renault	+ 39 laps, water leak
21	SCHUMACHER	Mercedes GP	+ 39 laps, puncture damage
22	MALDONADO	Williams-Cosworth	+ 49 laps, transmission
Fastest Lap	MASSA	Ferrari	1m28.947s

NOTE: Perez and Kobayashi originally finished seventh and eighth, but were disqualified for rear wing infringements.

Driver’s Championship Standings

1	VETTEL	RBR-Renault	25 Points
2	HAMILTON	McLaren-Mercedes	18 Points
3	PETROV	Renault	15 Points
4	ALONSO	Ferrari	12 Points
5	WEBBER	RBR-Renault	10 Points
6	BUTTON	McLaren-Mercedes	8 Points
7	MASSA	Ferrari	6 Points
8	BUEMI	STR-Ferrari	4 Points
9	SUTIL	Force India-Mercedes	2 Points
10	DI RESTA	Force India-Mercedes	1 Point

Constructor’s Championship Standings

1	RBR-RENAULT	35 Points
2	McLAREN-MERCEDES	26 Points
3	FERRARI	18 Points
4	RENAULT	15 Points
5	STR-FERRARI	4 Points
6	FORCE INDIA-MERCEDES	3 Points