Sebastian Vettel secured the first win of the season at the Australian Grand Prix to give his championship defence the best start possible.
The German finished over 22 seconds ahead of second placed man Lewis Hamilton who struggled with a broken floor, but managed to get the finish line in the position he began.
Vitaly Petrov made a lightning start to jump to fourth from sixth, finally finishing third, making his debut on the podium.
Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber rounded off the top five, both having fairly trouble-free races.
Jenson Button however was handed a drive-through penalty for his overtake on Felipe Massa which saw him resort to cutting the corner.
The race wasn’t as action packed as had been expected with the Pirelli tyres holding up better than expected, with Sergio Perez managing just one-stop.
The Mexican driver finished seventh on his debut thanks to a clever tyre strategy, whilst team-mate Kamui Kobayashi was just behind in eighth.
A poor showing from both Mercedes and Williams saw them suffer double-DNF’s.
Australian GP Results (* = denotes disqualification)
| Pos | Driver | Team | Gap | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01. | S. Vettel | Red Bull | 1:29:30.259 | 25 |
| 02. | L. Hamilton | McLaren | +22.297 | 18 |
| 03. | V. Petrov | Renault | +30.560 | 15 |
| 04. | F. Alonso | Ferrari | +31.772 | 12 |
| 05. | M. Webber | Red Bull | +38.171 | 10 |
| 06. | J. Button | McLaren | +54.300 | 8 |
| 21. | S. Perez* | Sauber | +1:05.800 | |
| 22. | K. Kobayashi* | Sauber | +1:16.800 | |
| 07. | F. Massa | Ferrari | +1:25.100 | 6 |
| 08. | S. Buemi | Toro Rosso | +1 lap | 4 |
| 09. | A. Sutil | Force India | +1 lap | 2 |
| 10. | P. di Resta | Force India | +1 lap | 1 |
| 11. | J. Alguersuari | Toro Rosso | +1 lap | |
| 12. | N. Heidfeld | Renault | +1 lap | |
| 13. | J. Trulli | Team Lotus | +2 laps | |
| 14. | J. d’Ambrosio | Virgin | +3 laps | |
| 15. | T. Glock | Virgin | ||
| 16. | R. Barrichello | Williams | ||
| 17. | N. Rosberg | Mercedes | ||
| 18. | H. Kovalainen | Team Lotus | ||
| 19. | M. Schumacher | Mercedes | ||
| 20. | P. Maldonado | Williams | ||
| 23. | V. Liuzzi | Hispania | DNS | |
| 24. | N,. Karthikeyan | Hispania | DNS |
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