World champion Jenson Button took a thrilling win in the 2010 Australian Grand Prix, in what was only his second start in the McLaren. Robert Kubica in the Renault showed that his Friday form wasn’t a flash in the pan as he came in a deserved second ahead of Felipe Massa’s Ferrari in third (full results). The race on a whole was in direct contrast to the first one in Bahrain with plentiful action for everyone watching to savor.  

Button’s win was down to a huge gamble that paid off when he pitted on Lap 7. He hadn’t enjoyed the best of starts and was struggling to match the race pace after every one had started on intermediates after showers in the morning had left the Albert Park circuit a bit wet. It seemed a foolhardy and desperate move at that time – a knee jerk reaction possibly as he had just lost a pace to team-mate Lewis Hamilton who made a fast start from 11th on the grid. But Button made it all work as he nursed his tyres for an astonishing 51 laps to drive his way to an eighth career win.

The two Red Bulls ahead of him at the start were in self-destruct mode today. Sebastien Vettel was in fine form, leading away the field until Lap 26 when down Turn 13, his brakes just gave out on him. Mark Webber made a torrid start losing to Massa and then had moments of madness throughout – he twice barged into Hamilton’s car – quite clearly trying too hard for him home race. The biggest losers on the opening lap though were Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher.

Going into the first corner, Alonso had contact with Button’s McLaren which had the inside line and the impact thrust him into Schumacher’s front wing. Alonso spun to find himself at the back of the grid, from where he drove a fantastic race to finish fourth. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened had he not suffered initially for he clearly had the pace to battle out in the front. Schumacher though suffered throughout the race, where he jostled with a Virgin and Toro Rosso, unable to find a way past easily. He got a new front wing on his Mercedes but conditions didn’t permit a tyre change then. He wasn’t really impressed with the lack of overtaking in Bahrain and here he couldn’t find a way past Jaime Alguersuari’s Toro Rosso. But then no one said that his comeback would be a walk in the park, pun unintended.

There was a safety car on Lap 2 thanks to Kamuyi Kobayashi losing his third front wing of the weekend and his Sauber also collecting Nico Hulkenberg’s Williams and Sebastien Buemi’s Toro Rosso. But again, it was too early in the race for major tyre changes thanks to the wet track and the cars mostly stayed out on track. Rubens Barrichello and Vitantonio Liuzzi in the Force India collected more points after Bahrain but had relatively quiet races. Schumacher scrapped past Alguesuari and Pedro de la Rosa late in the day to get one point for his troubles. The attrition rate was high though with as many as ten non-finishes. Karun Chandhok however had a good race by Hispania Racing standards as he brought home his car five laps down. Also a useful stint was that of Heikki Kovalainen who finished his second consecutive race.

The star of the race though has to be Lewis Hamilton despite twice getting tagged by Webber twice. After a rather good start, he was pretty decent on the intermediates but started his charge when he stuck on the dry tyres. Since the cars all started on intermediates, they didn’t have to run both compounds and this meant he could attack as much as he wanted. He clipped his front wing when taking in Massa on Lap 22 and a most staggering move off Nico Rosberg on Lap 26, but then pitted on Lap 35 in what was not his call and sort of ruined his race for no one else in front pitted later on. You could argue that Lewis is so hard on his tyres that he couldn’t have continued to be aggressive to see the Chequered Flag as Button nursed his way through. But try telling him that!

Red Bull must be wondering what they need to do to win after taking pole twice in two races. Vettel is now 25 points behind championship leader Alonso already and the team is even further, a huge 52 points in arrears from Ferrari. This just isn’t the return acceptable from arguably the fastest car out on track at the moment.