The Australian Grand Prix

Of what was a absolutely bizarre grand prix, probably the most eventful Australian race in a few years, Fernando Alonso triumphed and took victory of what was an immaculate drive. The race was full of drama from the first formation lap, as Juan Pablo spinned after the last turn, resulting in another formation lap to pick up his grid place, and at the same time Fisichella stalled his car thus having to start from the pitlane. The race started with tense stomachs for Honda as Button was on pole and fought hard to keep his position. While he defended himself from Alonso, the two McLarens of Juan and Kimi were in a dog fight of their own and further down the field the Massa and Rosberg crashed out from the race in an accident involving a tag between Trulli and Coulthard.

Thus the safety car was deployed which was a disadvantage for Button, who ultimately lost his lead to the faster Renault, and Kimi was next in line to tackle however Button managed successfully to hold Kimi off, for a while. This caused Alonso to get away with a 2 second cushion lead in front as the brawl between Button and Kimi let them fall behind. Yet, another crash ensued of Klien’s in the Red Bull which resulted in another safety car interuption before any rhythm developed in the race. Button continued to struggle with poor tyre temperature, allowing Kimi to advantage and overtake into turn 1, though locked his wheel. Now Kimi began to catch up to Alonso, cutting the gap from 2.9 seconds to 1.9. However the result of a mildly flat spotted tyre were vibrations which broke off a part of his front wing end-plate, cutting down his pace, unfortunatly! This allowed Alonso to step on it and increase his lead to over 8 seconds until lap 20 where his first pit stop ensued.

Montoya having fallen back to 6th place, began to pursue Button in third place and continued to hound him down ahead of the pit stops. After Button’s stop, Juan Pablo took advantage of better tyre temperature and took Button down from turn 2. At the moment, Mark Webber set the Australian crowd in a super high cheer as he took lead of the race. Unfortunatly, his Williams retired and was forced onto the grass.

Michael Schumacher was embarassingly overtaken by the Torro Rosso of Liuzzi, but gathered his pace together and fought back, matching Alonso’s lap times. In his hunt to gain back position, he ran wide at turn 1, recovered ground and continued. However came another let down for Ferrari on lap 33 as Michael picked up too much kerb and dirty air out of the final turn and crashed into the side barrier.

The Safety car entered the race track yet again, ensuing the final of pit stops, which shattered McLaren’s hopes of victory, as both cars had just a few seconds between eachother when they came into the pits. Kimi was being served with a heating Juan Pablo was in queue for a pit stop! Kimi had his front wing replaced which kept Juan and himself delayed in the chase for victory. Kimi’s race was hampered by the faulted wing before and after the pitstop, which answered why Kimi seemed so uncharacteristic. Heidfeld in the BMW benefited from the McLaren predicament, and picked up 2nd place while Montoya fell back behind Ralf Schumacher and Button in 6th place. With Alonso being in lead, the restarts worked significantly to his victory. Reason being two slow Midland cars between him and the field, so Alonso left the field stuck behind the two Midlands, building a mesmerizing gap of almost six seconds into turn 1!

That gap however was deflated as another safety car interupted the race due to an accident of Liuzzi who was unable to rejoin the race. During the safety lap, Button was overhauled by Schumacher and Montoya, but kept in frame, even bumping Montoya out of a corner, but no damage was done. Heidfeld’s performance dropped as he ran over grass which let Schumacher and Montoya through. In his bid to catch Ralf Schumacher, Montoya got himself in what was a odd copy of Michael’s accidents out of the last turn, he understeered and his car quaked and lost absolutely all drive and was forced to pull out of the race, so a very disappointed McLaren team.

Alonso had a fairly quiet lead in front, in driving splendidly considering the hectic events of the race behind him. Of course, Kimi showed his nature as he pumped in fast laps, trying to cut down the lead, showing his true spirit by setting the fastest lap on the very last lap, however McLaren’s race was already spoiled. Ralf Schumacher in his Toyota suprisingly kept hold of his 3rd place, easily given by a retired Montoya, so a ecstatic Toyota team. Heidfeld drove to finish 4th in his BMW, his best finish this year so far. Button was bound to finish 5th ahead of a nearer Fisichella, but what became nightmare on the last two turns was an engine blow up just yards away from the finish line, allowing Fisichella and Renault to gain more points in 5th place.