Australia - Race day

Image credit: Sauber Motorsport AG

You know what was missing today, sausage sandwiches. Remind me to not make that mistake again. The co-op isn't open at 4:30am.

As you'd expect, Mark Webber had a bad start, there was a collision at turn one and we saw the safety car. At least some things are consistent in F1.

After Romain Grosjean's great qualifying, a tangle with Pastor Maldonado on the second lap left him with broken front suspension causing him to retire. Nico Hulkenberg also picked up damage early on and had to retire the car.

Another disappointment was Michael Schumacher, after great performance during the rest of the weekend he slowed on lap 10 only to come into the pits with gearbox issues. He stopped the car and that was the end of his race.

Jenson Button stormed ahead early on. Not only is that car beautiful but it's got the pace to rival the less aesthetically pleasing cars on the grid!

Sergio Perez, who started 23rd on the grid after a five place penalty for a gearbox change, managed to carve his way up the field. As predicted, he was on a one-stop strategy which meant he could hold his position in the mid-field.

On lap 32 Kimi Raikkonen came on the team radio to say: "Why do I get all the time blue flags!" Kimi's race engineer replied: "The blue flags are not for you, Kimi, they are for people who need to be lapped." Another reason to love the Iceman.

Image credit: Caterham F1 Team

There was a lot of change of position and, as a Caterham fan, I was excited to see that Vitaly Petrov was up to 13th at one point. That was until lap 37 when he parked his car on the start-finish straight. He had to retire due to power-steering issues. (Jarno Trulli may have had cause to moan about that a lot last year, it seems.)

The parked Caterham called for the first safety car of the season. Both McLarens had just pitted but Sebastian was heading to the pits when the yellow flags went up. He was already out of the area so was able to continue at full speed to box. Hamilton had to slow down and as a result Vettel ended up sandwiched in between the two McLarens in second.

Lap 42 and we are back to racing! Button, Vettel and Hamilton lead the pack.

The following lap there's more disappointment for my beloved Caterham. Heikki Kovalianen retires with similar power-steering issues. That's a bad start to the season for the team.

Lap 47 and Felipe Massa finds a new ballet partner. He clashes with Bruno Senna and both sustain damage. Senna manages to make it to the pits for a quick fix but Massa has to retire.

For the last few laps I thought Webber, in 4th, was going to catch Hamilton and grab the 3rd podium place but even with the DRS wide open he couldn't close the gap.

On the last lap it looked like Maldonado was going to grab sixth, a brilliant result considering Williams only scored five points in 2011. However, he put a wheel on the grass and spun. I am not a Maldonado fan (because he bashes his way through the field) but I was disappointed for him. He'd driven well and the car is clearly much more worthy this season.

Chequered flag goes and Jenson Button is the winner of the 2012 Australian Grand Prix!

Final result: 1. Button. 2. Vettel. 3. Hamilton. 4. Webber. 5. Alonso. 6. Kobayashi. 7. Raikkonen. 8. Perez. 9. Riccadio. 10. Di Resta. 11. Vergne. 12. Rosberg. 13. Glock. 14. Pic. 15. Maldonado. 16. Senna. 17. Massa. 18. Kovalainen. 19. Petrov. 20. Schumacher. 21. Grosjean. 22. Hulkenberg. 

Both Marussias managed to finish the race without too much trouble. That in itself is great for the team who a few weeks ago couldn't pass a crash test and weren't even able to test!