Sebastian Vettel Wins a Great F1 2011 Opener in Australia

Patrick AllenMar 27, 2011

I must admit I was concerned after qualifying that we would get a bit of a dull race this afternoon, but thankfully the Australian GP delivered, and the 2011 Formula One season has started with a bang.

Now I’m not saying that this race was a stunner, because to be frank, it wasn’t. However, I think there was enough action at key moments to prevent this from being a dull procession.

I also think great performances from the likes of Fernando Alonso, Vitaly Petrov, the McLarens, and new boy Sergio Perez all contributed to a worthy opener to the 2011 account.

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The race was gripping from the start.

Mark Webber passed Lewis Hamilton as the cars pulled away, but the McLaren driver stormed back into P2 after a lovely first corner. Felipe Massa had a rocket start as well, slotting up into P5.

Meanwhile, Alonso wasn’t able to hold onto a decent start and found himself going wide into turn one and dropping back to P9!

A small collision between Jamie Alguersuari and Michael Schumacher forced both men into the pits and as the drivers crossed the line after the first lap, the positions were as follows:

Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton, Mark Webber, Vitaly Petrov, Felipe Massa, Jenson Button, Nico Rosberg, Kamui Kobayashi, Fernando Alonso, Paul di Resta, Sebastien Buemi, Adrian Sutil, Nick Heidfeld, Sergio Perez, Rubens Barrichello, Heikki Kovalainen, Pastor Maldonado, Jarno Trulli, Jerome d’Ambrosio, Timo Glock, Jamie Alguersuari, Michael Schumacher

By lap two, Alonso had begun to move in the right direction by easily dispatching Kamui Kobayashi; TV cameras missed this though as we were now all concentrating on a huge fight between Massa and Jenson Button.

The Ferrari had managed to slot in just in front of Button off the start, but the McLaren was a much faster car.

It was simply great to see these two old rivals (the teams I mean, not Massa and Button), battling like the good old days.

All through turns 10, 11, and then 13 Button pressured Massa but the Ferrari held. Button then tried down the opening straight, but again the Ferrari fended its nemesis off.

This fight continued for well over five laps and was certainly more gripping than the little scraps further back.

It was worth cutting away to see Alonso vitally take Nico Rosberg’s P7, as it now freed Ferrari’s No. 1 man to join the back of the Button/Massa fight.

Alonso quickly caught up and this simply added to the tension. I must stress that the cars were very close, this wasn’t a case of lap maths, you know, “ohhh, Alonso just took a tenth off Button…blah blah”. No, the cars were physically close and looking to make moves.

There were some lovely moments throughout the battle, but one of my favourites was around lap 9 when Massa went a little wide into turn two. Button got right beside the Ferrari, but Massa held on!

A couple of laps later, both Red Bulls were complaining about tyre wear and we got our first retirement from Pastor Malonado.

It was around this time that Button tried something a bit ballsy. The McLaren man tried a daring manoeuvre at turn 11. He tried to go around the outside of Massa but their was no room and Button was forced wide and off the track. The McLaren gained track position, but was it legal?

If not, then Button would have to let both Ferraris through as Alonso had now passed Massa. I can honestly tell you, as a huge Ferrari fan and Button fan (so neutral by cancelling the loyalties out), it was tough, but Button was in the wrong. Sure enough, the McLaren driver was investigated and given a drive-through penalty.

The first pit stop of 2011 was Webber’s on lap 11. The Red Bull man rejoined in P9 and had clearly started a little trickle of stops. Over the next four or five laps, both Ferraris, Lewis Hamilton, and Sebastian Vettel pitted.

McLaren had played with their strategy a little when Vettel rejoined the race behind Button. Jenson seemed to slow Sebastian down a bit in an attempt to help Hamilton out when he pitted but after Lewis had stopped on lap 16, Vettel had long passed the pit exit and held onto the lead having crucially passed Button.

By lap 20 the positions were as follows:

Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton, Mark Webber, Vitaly Petrov, Fernando Alosno, Felipe Massa, Sergio Perez, Nico Rosberg, Kamui Kobayashi, Rubens Barrichello, Sebastien Buemi, Jenson Button, Paul di Resta, Adrian Sutil, Nick Heidfeld, Timo Glock, Jamie Alguersuari, Heikki Kovalainen, Jarno Trulli, Jerome d’Ambrosio, Michael Schumacher

Around this sort of time the race cooled a bit, but we got a couple of interesting retirements from Heikki Kovalainen and Michael Schumacher. Both men and teams had very poor weekends.

In fact Mercedes GP’s day went from bad to worse when Rubens Barrichello stupidly dived into the side of Nico Rosberg going into turn three. Barrichello came away with a bruised ego and needing a new front wing. Rosberg left the incident in a cloud of smoke, probably due to a busted radiator.

This all led to a drive-through for Barrichello and a full team retirement for Mercedes within a few short laps.

The action continued at a steady pace with a move from Button taking P7 from a pretty tame Kobayashi, and second stops for Webber and Alonso (who was quickly turning into the fastest driver on the track).

Around lap 32, it became clear what an excellent job Hamilton was doing when we saw that the underside of his car was very damaged. It is also worth mentioning that it looks as if the Red Bulls finished the race without the use of KERS.

Whilst we’re on the subject of commendations…there wasn’t much to write about them, but Vitaly Petrov and Sergio Perez were both having phenomenal races.

Petrov was doing a great job holding onto P3, and Perez was looking good for points on just one pit stop! One last mention should also go out to Jenson Button who was quietly making his way back up the standings having had a disappointing start.

As the race drew to a close the momentum was maintained by the sheer class of Fernando Alonso.

The Ferrari man had caught up to Mark Webber and was all over the Red Bull driver in a fight for P4.

The duel was close and tense, but it was a bit of a shame when Webber pitted on lap 42, releasing Alonso.

Unfortunately, the race between these two guys then came down to how quickly Webber could lap before Alonso pitted. The Red Bull man didn’t quite have enough, though, as Fernando pitted one lap later and slotted back into P4 pretty comfortably.

Mark did manage to pull right back up to Fernando, but that small race fizzled out after a few laps.

The last few laps of the race were great, too. Jenson Button got some payback by overtaking Felipe Massa into turn 1 for P6 and when Massa pitted a lap later Sergio Perez found himself in P7!

If you just looked at the race result cold, you could say.. “Taking 2010 into account, Vettel has now easily won the last three races, the positions don’t seem to have changed that much, surely the race was a bust?”

Well, whilst I’d agree that the fight for the front was rubbish, the action from P3 backwards was great.

As I said in the opening comments, the 2011 Australian GP was by no means an awesome race, but there was enough action in all the right places to make it very interesting and far from disappointing.

I think we might be in for another great season here….

Result:

1 Sebastian Vettel, RBR-Renault

2 Lewis Hamilton, McLaren-Mercedes

3 Vitaly Petrov, Renault

4 Fernando Alonso, Ferrari

5 Mark Webber, RBR-Renault

6 Jenson Button, McLaren-Mercedes

7 Sergio Perez, Sauber-Ferrari

8 Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber-Ferrari

9 Felipe Massa, Ferrari

10 Sebastien Buemi, STR-Ferrari