Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/oranje/3411355966/

Yes the race may have been cut short by the crazy amount of rain that was dumped from the sky in just a few minutes, but I’m pretty sure that Jenson Button doesn’t mind at all, the only disappointment he might have is that the race hadn’t gone a little longer so that he could have claimed full points (only half points were awarded because the race didn’t reach 75% completion).

Brawn GP’s dream start has continued with Button claiming victory after the race was red flagged with 20-odd laps still remaining. It was a case of choosing the right tyres at the right time, even though by the time the red flag came out it didn’t matter what rubber anyone was wearing nobody was finding it easy it stay on the track, even at very low speeds.

Nick Heidfeld was second and Timo Glock got up to third after choosing to go to intermediate tyres at just the right time, for several laps before the deluge he was up to 10 seconds per lap quicker than Button and co at the front of the race, passing people at his own will.

The same couldn’t be said for Ferrari who sent Raikkonen out on full-wet tyres on a full-dry track, it only took a handful of laps to destroy the tyres, and this was still several laps before the rain even begun to arrive. His penalty was the was being passed like he was standing still, and there was nothing he could do about it. Even if he’d gone straight back into the pits and put more sensible rubber on he still would have sacrificed the same number of positions.

Mark Webber had a much stronger race than in Melbourne (where he didn’t make it pas the first corner) at time he was looking a chance for the podium. In the end it was the shuffling around with pitstops and tyres the probably kept him off the podium, but when the race ended he was in 6th, especially since it was ahead of both factory Renaults, both Ferraris and both McLarens.

I really enjoyed Webber’s battle with Hamilton for a handful of laps early in the race, yes Hamilton is struggling, but its great to see that this years rule changes have definitely even up thing between the top teams and the traditional mid-pack runners. They swapped positions a number of times, with most of Hamilton’s passes aided by his KERS system (which Red Bull isn’t using yet). Good close, fair racing, its just what has been missing in the last few years where one or two teams have been miles ahead of the rest. 2009 is looking good.

Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/coldtrackdays/3396554980/

Following the completion of yesterdays race Jarno Trulli was penalised for overtaking Lewis Hamilton under the safety car, he had 25 seconds added to his time which dropped him back to 12th and lifted Hamilton on to the podium. Sebastien Vettel was handed a $50,000 fine and a 10 position grid penalty for next weeks Malaysian GP for causing the accident that took both Kubica and himself out of the race with only a handful of laps remaining.

Update: The incident has been reinvestigated by the stewards, they found that Hamilton and Vodafone McLaren Mercedes “acted in a manner prejudicial to the conduct of the event by providing evidence deliberately misleading to the Stewards”, and as a result Hamilton has been excluded from the results, and Trulli’s 25s penalty has been reversed. McLeran won’t be appealing the findings.

Source: http://www.formula1.com/gallery/race/2009/805/tv_images/

As the commentators expressed at the end of the race, anybody who picked the trifecta of Button, Barrichello and Trulli did exceptionally well. I think Brawn’s performance in their first testing session let everyone know that they meant business, and despite being the last team confirmed, the last car revealed and the last car tested they came out well and truly on top with the first win of the season.

Button had things go his way pretty much all race, the only things that seemed to threaten were the regular safety cars which brought him back to the rest of the field. Behind him there was a little more happening. McLaren’s weekend went from bad to worse with Kovalainen’s race ending shortly after the first corner incident that also involved Heidfeld, Barichello and Webber.

Ferrari looked to have decent speed early on but Kimi had issues and finished 16, and Massa crashed out 13 laps from the end. While his teammates races was short Hamilton, who started from the rear of the grid gradually clawed his way through the field and wound up finishing 4th. I dare say that given who the rest of his weekend had gone he was pretty happy with that.

Trulli and Glock from Toyota, who had both received grid penalties overnight for an illegal rear wing, stayed consistent to finish 3rd and 5th respectively. Sebastien Buemi had a strong debut race for “Team Sebastien” picking up a point for his efforts, closely followed by his teammate Bourdais.

Webber again hit bad luck in his home GP after being tangled up in the first corner incident with Kovalainen and co, he had to pit to get his front wing replaced and from then on he was basically stuck at the back of the pack, although the brain snap of Vettel and Kubica gave him a couple of extra spots right at the end.

And then there was that brain snap. With only a couple of laps left sitting second Vettel had a bad exit out of one corner and on the run in the next corner Kubica looked to go around the outside, Vettel hit the stoppers (too) late, the touched mid corner which half spun Kubica, both ended up with damaged front ends.

They looked like they might have gotten away with it until they both reached the next bend and promptly found that their cars weren’t steering as well as they had been, Kubica hit the wall hard removing both left hand wheels in the process and Vettal stuck the left hand corner of his car into the wall breaking the suspension. Vettel tried to limp it back to the pits, but gave up before he got there. Because of their incident the safety car came out again and when it peeled off into the pits there was just one corner left.

The odd moves of Vettel and Kubica promoted Barrichello (who has now started more Formula 1 GPs than anybody else in history) to second to complete the dream 1-2 finish for Brawn GP on debut. Its a nice change to see someone other than Ferrari or McLaren win, so lets hope that they can keep it up and it wasn’t just a one off fluke.

Full results after the jump.

Provisional Results

Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/broadview/3392019736/

Now come the questions as to why on earth they couldn’t manage this during all those the years that Honda was throwing copious amounts of money into the team. Lets take a quick look at it, same drivers, mostly same personnel, new cars (but everyone is in the same boat), new owner (yes, but Brawn was there before too) and new Mercedes engines… yeah that’s probably got something to do with it…

Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/broadview/3393953562/

In the weeks before it was announced that Ross Brawn would be the new owner of the deceased Honda F1 team, the rumours were doing the rounds that Richard Branson was a potential candidate to become the newest team owner in the Formula 1 paddock. As it has turned out and owner he is not, a major sponsor though he is.

On Saturday morning prior to the second practice session for the opening round of the Formula 1 season at Melbourne’s Albert Park circuit, Branson announced that he would be sponsoring the newly formed Brawn GP team though his Virgin brand. And sure enough the next time the cars rolled out, filling small sections of the pain white cars were Virgin logos, I would imagine that come round 2 we’ll see a much more prominent livery to reflect the sponsorship.

Branson also talked briefly about how he hope to contribute to Formula 1 through areas such as making the sport greener – one way he is hoping to do this is through an eco-friendly fuel that one of his companies has been developing. Like most things, if Richard Branson says he wants something to happen, he will probably make it happen.

I think you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who would see Branson’s involvement in the sport as a negative thing, he wouldn’t be just getting involved for the fun of it (well, maybe a little bit), he means business, as does Ross Brawn.