Valuable points for Ferrari

Both Scuderia Ferrari drivers finished in the points – fourth place for Fernando Alonso and ninth for Felipe Massa - in the Australian Grand Prix. However, it’s fair to say the team had hoped for better at the time they packed up the equipment in Barcelona after the last test of the winter. Effectively, yesterday’s disappointment in qualifying, with the Spaniard securing fifth place on the grid and the Brazilian eighth, meant that today’s 58 lap race was always going to be tough. The two men had contrasting fortunes: while Massa made a great start, moving up to fifth on the opening lap, before later slipping down the order, Alonso had a poor start, pushed wide at the first turn and dropping to ninth, before staging a great climb back up the order. Felipe had the consolation of setting the fastest lap of the race. The Scuderia picked up a total of 14 points which could prove very valuable later in the season, even if at the moment it is only enough to put Ferrari in fourth place in the Constructors’ championship.

Sebastian Vettel won in the dominant Red Bull, starting from pole and he was never troubled. He was joined on the podium by Lewis Hamilton for McLaren and Vitaly Petrov, who got his first ever top three finish by moving from sixth to third with a super start in the Lotus Renault. The other winners today were Formula 1 fans around the world because it seems that all the much talked about changes to the rules have indeed contrived to produce plenty of excitement on track. In fact, Massa was at the heart of the action, having a truly thrilling duel for fifth place, holding off Jenson Button in what was effectively the first Downforce Reduction System battle ever seen in F1, not forgetting the KERS of course. Alonso moved up to seventh and was closing on his team-mate and the McLaren man and on lap 11, both the Spaniard and the Englishman got past the Brazilian, but the McLaren driver was given a drive-through penalty for cutting a corner to achieve the move.

Webber started the first run of pit stops on lap 11, with Fernando coming in one lap later, with Massa changing tyres on lap 13. As others pitted they moved up to fifth and sixth places, with Vettel still leading from Hamilton, Webber and Petrov. Webber made a second stop on lap 26, Fernando coming in on 27 and Felipe on 31. With the leading trio yet to make a second stop, clearly Button and the two Ferrari men were going to have their possibilities blunted by the need to make a third tyre change, in the case of Fernando on lap 42, with Felipe coming in ten laps from the end.

Fernando closed on fourth placed Webber, but could not find a way past the Red Bull until the Australian pitted one lap earlier than the Ferrari. With his tyres suffering, Felipe could not hold off Button who took sixth place from him on lap 48 and the Brazilian dropped to tenth when he had to take on a third set of tyres. With new rubber, Felipe was flying, passing Buemi to go ninth after another thrilling battle and setting the fastest lap of the race just three laps from the flag.

Behind the podium trio, the remaining points went to Fernando, Webber and Button sixth. An impressive Sergio Perez finished seventh in his Formula 1 debut, all the more amazing as he made just a single pit stop, while his team-mate Kobayashi was eighth in the Ferrari powered Sauber, Felipe was ninth and Buemi tenth, also running a Ferrari engine in his Toro Rosso, making it five Prancing Horse engines in the top ten.