Not Just Brawn, But Brains As Well: Australian Grand Prix Analysis

For all the talk of what the new F1 season would bring up, the Australian Grand Prix was, in the end, only about one team: Brawn GP.

The Mercedes-engined outfit, who came within a few weeks of not even making the grid for 2009, rounded off a dream weekend by finishing first and second in the first race of the season, Britain's Jenson Button coming home ahead of Brazilian Rubens Barrichello.

It hadn't all been plain sailing, though, especially for Barrichello: A poor getaway from his front-row grid slot left him down the order, and he only regained second in the closing laps when Robert Kubica and Sebastian Vettel collided.

The German, driving in his first race for the Red Bull team, was defending a second position he had held for most of the race from a resurgent Kubica, the Pole's BMW on the better-performing harder tyre compound.

Vettel, struggling as his softer tyres degraded, desperately tried to keep Kubica at bay and the two came together three laps from the end.

Trying to recover their cars to the pits and at least finish the race, the suspension on both cars broke and they suffered separate, heavy secondary accidents.

Vettel took advantage of the resultant safety car to attempt to keep his wrecked car on the road and in the points, an audacious and potentially dangerous decision which could and should be punished by the race stewards.

It was all academic for the young German anyway, as he was forced to pull off the road before the race was completed behind the safety car.

BMW say that Kubica could have caught and passed Button for victory had he not collided with Vettel.

Though the Pole was catching the leader at the time of the incident, he was probably not lapping fast enough to have reached Button by the end of the race.

Lewis Hamilton takes third after Toyota's Jarno Trulli was penalised for overtaking under the safety car; the reigning world champion should be pleased with a result that seemed so elusive after his woes in practice and qualifying.

Despite this setback, however, Toyota had an excellent race; had they not had to start the race from the pit lane due to a technical infringement, they could have got both drivers on the podium.

Another driver unlucky to miss out was Nelson Piquet.

For perhaps the first time in his career, the Brazilian was genuinely quicker than his teammate Fernando Alonso throughout his race; at the first safety car restart, however, a lingering brake problem caught up with him and he spun out.

Ferrari will want to forget this weekend as they were plagued by reliability troubles, a potentially promising result for Felipe Massa ruined by strategic foul-ups and an eventual mechanical failure.

2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen showed precious little of his title-winning form, instead conjuring up memories of last season as he tagged the barriers in a seemingly unforced error late in the race.

The Finn eventually retired with mechanical problems, reliability and strategy again proving to be the Italian team's biggest difficulties.

Williams' promising pace, by their own admission, was wasted on their drivers.

Kazuki Nakajima clouted the wall early on, prompting the first safety car intervention; Nico Rosberg could not cope with the softer tyres and lost six places in the final ten laps.

Rosberg eventually claimed sixth after the Kubica-Vettel collision elevated him into the points.

Aside from Brawn, who delivered what many observers had expected, another team that can be satisfied with their performance today is Scuderia Toro Rosso.

Swiss rookie Sebastien Buemi was a revelation, driving a solid and relatively error-free race to pick up a point with eighth place, which became seventh after Trulli's penalty.

Toyota's loss is Sebastien Bourdais' gain, the second Toro Rosso driver being classified in eighth.

Force India claim to be pleased with their progress as well, Adrian Sutil finishing ninth and Giancarlo Fisichella eleventh.

The Italian could have achieved more, however, if he had not overshot his pit box at his first stop.

In general it was refreshing to see the cars racing again after a long winter break.

The new-for-2009 aerodynamic regulations produced a marked increase in overtaking, everywhere except first place being hotly contested throughout the race.

The regulations also seem to have made the cars more difficult to handle; the sight of rear ends twitching as the drivers fought to remain on the track was a joy to behold, and will certainly separate the men from the boys as the season progresses.

But the best job of adapting to the new rules has undoubtedly been done by the boys from Brackley, who can justifiably be proud of Button's lights-to-flag domination of today's race, as well as Barrichello's somewhat fortuitous runner-up spot.

We eagerly await Malaysia next weekend, to see whether anyone can challenge the supremacy of Ross Brawn's dream team.