Dream Debut for Brawn GP

The last time it happened, it was in 1954 when Juan Manual Fangio and Karl Kling came one – two for Mercedes Benz at the French Grand Prix. Mercedes was again involved in a small way, on Sunday, for Brawn GP as they became only the second team ever to record first and second placed finishes on their debut grand prix in Australia.

Jenson Button had qualified on pole while teammate Rubens Barrichello began at two. The race began with some drama as Button pulled away from the rest of the pack while Barrichello’s car didn’t quite respond right, as the anti-stall device came on. His sluggish start meant that the Brazilian would soon be fighting with Nick Heidfeld on the first corner with Mark Webber, Adrian Sutil and Heikki Kovalainen also jumping into the fray.

Button was in a class of his own as he widened the gap between himself and Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull F1 car. However, things were to take a dramatic twist as Kazuki Nakajima crashed his Williams to bring out the safety car on lap 19. Button’s 47-odd second lead dwindled down to nothingness and he would need to renew his endeavours as the entire pack closed in on him. The safety car stayed out for 5 laps and Button was soon facing a problem with rapidly cooling tyres. The harder Bridgestone compound tyres helped Robert Kubica move away from the two scarlet race cars of Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen while Button again went about building his lead. Vettel was steadfast in second place but couldn’t keep up with Button and soon, with softer tyres, was under pressure from Kubica.

The battle for second place heated up as Kubica kept the pressure up on Vettel. Driving conditions worsened as the duo entered the 55th lap. Three laps to go, Kubica tried to force the issue and ended up alongside Vettel. Their cars touched, and then spun.

Both drivers got back immediately into the race but Kubica was now in second with Vettel chasing in third, sans a front-wing. The inevitable happened – Vettel crashed out with no time to stop for a change and no other options either. Kubica, almost in synchrony, did the same and suddenly, Rubens Barrichello was in second spot with the safety car out on the tracks again.

Barrichello had, himself, been involved in a dramatic race, what with a sluggish start and a damaged front-wing after a clash with Raikkonen’s Ferrari. After changing the wing, he would have never expected such a wonderful 1 – 2 finish for the Brawn GP team.

Drama continued as Jarno Trulli, who started from the pit lane after Toyota’s rear wing infringement on Saturday, drove magnificently to take the final podium place. However, Trulli had gone off track behind the safety car to hand third place to Lewis Hamilton in the dying stages. He recovered from the excursion and came back to take third place, thus overtaking under the safety car. This infringement made the stewards add 25 seconds to his final time as a penalty, dropping him to 12th and promoting a hard-fought drive by world champion Lewis Hamilton, up to third. Timo Glock, in the other Toyota, came in at fourth despite a pit lane start as well as a spin from a battle with Fernando Alonso. Alonso himself came in at fifth with Nico Rosberg at 6th. Rosberg faced heartbreak towards the end when, with 6 laps remaining, he was running at fourth. Setting the fastest lap time, Rosberg simply ran out of tyres and couldn’t defend against Alonso and Glock.

The Ferrari duo ended up with retirement after tyre wear and mechanical failure forced Raikkonen and Massa, respectively, to hit the showers early. Raikkonen eventually spun out of the race due to poor grip.

"It's not just for me but for the whole team,” he said, “a fairy tale ending really to the first race of our career together and I hope we can continue this way. We are going to fight every way we can to keep this car competitive and at the front. This has got to continue and this is where we want to be. Bring on Malaysia!”, said a clearly elated Jenson Button.