Formula One: Teammate Comparisons After Melbourne (Round One)

This will be a regular article where I will compare team mates against each other.

I will compare qualifying performance and judge them after the weight of the cars has been known.

I will then give my opinion of who had the better race, which is not necessarily the driver with the best result.

Drivers will be awarded 1 point for qualifying and 1 point for the race, come the end of the season we will see who did the better job.

Feel free to challenge my opinion.

Brawn GP

Qualifying: Button

Button may have had a little less fuel then Rubens, but he was three tenths of a second quicker and claiming pole on the teams debut deserves reward

Race: Button

Rubens may have had more to do in the race to claim second, but it was all his own fault after a poor start and he managed to hit Raikkonen. Had it not been for the safety car periods he would of finished further down, when he should have been pushing Jenson for the win.

Jenson Button 2 – 0 Rubens Barrichello

McLaren

Qualifying: Kovalainen

Hekki gets this by default as we won't know what Lewis would have been able to do thanks to his mechanical issue.

Race: Hamilton

No question that Lewis takes the race, Hekki ran into the back of Barrichello on the run down to turn one and became the first retirement of the 2009 season.

Hamilton was disqualified for lying to the stewards regarding the incident with Trulli during the last safety car, but he still did a better job than Kovlalinen.

Lewis Hamilton 1 – 1 Hekki Kovalainen

Ferrari

Qualifying: Massa

They both had basically the same fuel load and Massa was in front of Kimi.

Race: Massa

They both made fantastic starts and Raikkonen was having a good race until he put it in the wall.

Massa did flat spot his tyres behind the safety car, but he was also on for a good result until his prancing horse had enough and he was forced to return to the garage.

Felipe Massa 2 – 0 Kimi Raikkonen

Red Bull

Qualifying: Vettel

Webber had more fuel, but Vettel claimed third and it was a good lap from the German.

Race: Vettel

Webber keeps his unluckiest man in F1 title as he was taken out on the first corner by Barrichello through no fault of his own, and must have suffered some damage to his car as he never showed the pace of Vettel.

Although Vettel later collided with Kubica I saw it as a racing incident despite what the stewards said, and up to that point he had been keeping Jenson Button at the front honest.

Sebastian Vettel 2 – 0 Mark Webber

Toyota

Qualifying: Trulli

Trulli out qualified his team mate despite having 10kg more fuel on board at the time.

Race: Trulli

Both had a fantastic race coming from the pit lane through the field, and although there was some controversy over Trulli's third place he was eventually given it back.

Ok so Trulli went off behind the safety car, but Glock did have a spin and it was Trulli that claimed third and a spot on the podium from the pit lane.

That leaves only Glock collecting the points and even though he had a spin it wasn't a bad race for him, he can thank the stewards later.

Jarno Trulli 1 – 1 Timo Glock

Renault

Qualifying: Alonso

Need I bother with this? Piquet didn't even get out of the first part of qualifying.

Race:Alonso

Alonso didn't have a fantastic race, but Piquet crashed out and tried to blame his “Crazy” brakes when clearly he hadn't kept his tyre or brake temperatures up behind the safety car.

Fernando Alonso 2 – 0 Nelson Piquet Jr.

Williams

Qualifying: Rosberg

Dominating all three practices suggested he was a good shout for pole, as it was he ended up fifth, but at least he made it into finally qualifying when Nakajima didn't.

Race: Rosberg

Nakajima put his Williams in the wall and caused the first safety car, but he did hold his hands up and admit it was his mistake.

Rosberg looked quick at times, but I think mechanical gremlins crept in towards the end.

Nico Rosberg 2 – 0 Kazuki Nakajima

BMW

Qualifying: Kubica

Maybe the reason Heidfeld failed to make finally qualifying was down to him running KERS when Kubica wasn't, truth is we don't know, so it looks like Kubica did a better job.

Race: Kubica

Heidfeld finished, but wasn't showing the pace of Kubica. Had Kubica made it past Vettel without a collision there is no telling where he would have finished.

Robert Kubica 2 – 0 Nick Heidfeld

Force India

Qualifying: Fisichella

Fisichella was faster than Sutil in qualifying.

Race: Sutil

Considering Fisichella is one of the most experienced drivers on the grid it's unforgivable to miss your pit box and nearly run down your mechanics, he then went on to finish behind Sutil.

Giancarlo Fisichella 1 – 1 Adrian Sutil

Torro Rosso

Qualifying: Buemi

Buemi out qualified his more experienced team mate on his debut.

Race: Buemi

Buemi not only beat Bourdais in qualifying, he finished in front of him in the race and claimed a two points on his debut.

Sebastian Buemi 2 – 0 Sebastian Bourdais