It was a fantastic drive from him and given the appearance of the straight line speed of the Mclaren yesterday, I don’t think Vettel would have been able to hold of Jenson had his brakes stayed in one piece. Cool, calm, collected and great tire change timing is what will get you a good race and respect in a team.

This win will hopefully help justify his decision to change teams for this year for all the doubters. One thing it will do for sure is help his stature in the team. Nothing like a win backed up by more wins or solid performances to help cement your place in a team, even if that is “Lewis’” team!

The one thing that is doubtful about his skills though. If the car isn’t perfect I think he struggles. Many other top drivers get around them and seem to just adjust more than Button does. If the car isn’t in top form, then neither is Jenson.

I think that maybe the one problem he’ll have with Mclaren. Shuey for Ferrari, Lewis to an extent for Mclaren and many others both got more out of a bad car than Jenson can. Until he can run that car ragged, I just cannot see the Mclaren going OTT to help JB. He got the win and Mclaren will love that, but for a team ( any ), it’s the win first and none of them care who gets it.

But have to say, so far the new points system actually works!! As long as you have varied winners then there could be many position changes and a race win for a lower placed driver could make a huge difference.

Anyways, great write up as usual Elton. Here’s hoping that the next race which will be this weekend already will be another good one. Not putting a single pound bet on it though!

Brilliant, just brilliant!. Massa’s leap at the start was just incredible and was the sole reason for his podium finish.

Jensons decision to change to slicks was excellent as getting those early few laps in before everyone else meant he had hot tyres and so keep or overtake with ease.

On the other hand the teams decision to change Lewis’ tyres late on was mental. Being no slower than anyone else does not mean it’s time to change tyres. Prats. But then as always, Lewis gave in and did what he was told. Grow some bollocks man! But then being a team player means that when these stupid orders take place and go wrong, THEN you can complain with full rights. Before all that, I think I must give Lewis “driver of the race”. He did some excellent overtaking. Dunno what it was, but that straight line speed was incredible! It’s just a shame Webber was driving like a complete c**t!

Then of course we had Vettels brake failure. This is not good news for Red Bull as having a fast car means squat if it doesn’t finish the race ( or being driven by a twat ). Nothing in the last two races has pushed the car to braking point. I hope they get things sorted as they are a great team and on any other day both fantastic drivers.

Kubica did a good job of being completely unnoticed for the race lol. Though as always, the damn/wet tracks do a great leveling job of the teams, so we’ll see how Renault do in a completely dry race.

It was again awesome to see the quick pit stops and to see the cars drive off still bouncing after being dropped off the jacks. With last years fuelling, they had to wait for the hose to be cleared ( or not in some cases! ) before driving off. Glad to see the allowed gap time was decreased also. Seeing all those cars come in at once to change to slicks could have meant many penalties if they had kept to the 55m min gap rules.
I do like the total pit-stop times that get posted along with the stationary time, but I do wish they would stick with showing the stationary time in real time; now it means we have to wait for the car to get racing again before we find out how lightening quick the tyre change was. It’s really annoying.

But yet again, the BBC have done a stirling job. Great pre show after show and as always, inspired music choices that get played at the end of the show. They nearly always get a really apt choice of song/s. The one thing I would like to see though is a slightly bigger/better highlight package. A bit more discussion before and afterwards would be great.

So a wet race proves yet again, it normally makes for a great race. Maybe we should have those huge Hollywood rain curtains all over each track!

I fear the worst again for this weekend, but, just like 24 no matter how bad it can be, I’ll still be watching!

Jenson Button hopes that his Australian Grand Prix victory acts as a platform to spur his McLaren team on to even greater success this season.

The world champion outclassed the opposition with a well-timed early switch to slick tyres in the rain-affected race in Melbourne – before brilliantly conserving his rubber over the remainder of the race distance to grab the win.

And although Button is not shying away from the fact that McLaren still needs to improve its pace if it is to take the world title fight to Red Bull Racing, the Briton thinks that the Australian triumph will help motivate that push forwards.

“I just want to run around and scream because this is the most amazing experience,” said Button on Sunday night as he prepared for some quiet celebrations with his team and family. “For this moment in my career, it is very special and hopefully this is something we can build on for this year.

“This has given us a bit of direction. We are very hungry for victory – and this one is just a taster. Hopefully with a few improvements, this is going to continue.

“The team has done a great job this weekend, we’ve made some good steps forward, but we are still not quick enough. We still want to be quicker than we are, but this is a great result and to win here with what we have is spectacular – and we have to keep building on this.”

Button reckons that his first win for McLaren means just as much to him as his victory in last year’s Australian Grand Prix when he was racing for Brawn GP.

“It is massive. It really is,” he said. “It means so much to me because last year was a very special season. This winter has been very long getting to know the team, and they have been great.

“They’ve really welcomed me in, and it has been a big part of that. I thought I would struggle a little with it and haven’t so far. The car is taking me a little bit longer to get used to than the team itself, but I am happy – and this wouldn’t have happened if I wasn’t happy in the cockpit.”

The key to Button’s victory was his early switch to slick tyres which, although viewed by some as inspired, the man himself reckons was a necessity.

“For me it was a must – I was losing places left, right and centre [on the intermediates]. They are normally conditions I really enjoy, but I didn’t have a balance, and I thought I am going to end up sixth, seventh or eighth if I don’t do something. I thought if I am destroying tyres this quickly it must be dry.

“When we put the tyre on it was always let’s put them on to the end, as one stop is always the way at the moment. Then after seven or eight laps I had been pushing so hard to catch the cars that had just come out on slicks that the rears starting going off and I thought, ‘oh no this could all end in tears’.

“I did everything I could then to change the settings on the car to give me understeer, and I got it about right. I had to conserve the tyres until the final 20 laps when I could kick it in.”

He added: “We didn’t have the pace of the quick cars on the front row in qualifying, but our race pace has been better over the past two grands prix. The conditions helped us today and we made some good calls – but F1 is not just about being the quickest out there. It is about making the right calls, conserving the car and the tyres, and I think we did everything right.

“I am very, very happy. The team has done a very good job – we should enjoy ourselves tonight. This is a special day for me.”

Autosport’s Q&A with Alonso – http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/82508

Fernando Alonso declared himself extremely happy after recovering to fourth position at the Australian Grand Prix.

The Spanish driver, starting from third position, dropped to the back of the field after spinning when making contact with Jenson Button’s McLaren.

From there, however, Alonso charged through the field to finish right behind Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa.

“I was P22 so I was not thinking about my team-mate at that moment, I was just thinking about scoring some points,” said Alonso of the start, when Massa overtook him.

“Then, it was a fantastic result in the end for the team, and for myself as well. So, I was ready to sign before the race for this result – if you win the race you take seven points to your main competitor.

“Now, I took 12 points to Vettel, to Michael and to some of the main rivals for the championship. So it has been a much better race in terms of points than Bahrain, if you compare with your main competitor.

“So, I am extremely happy – especially how the race developed. Being last at the first corner, and then the reward at the end of the race has been much better than I expected.”

Alonso admitted he did not think he could recover to score, but claimed his car was perfect and that could have won even from the back of the grid.

“I was not convinced that I could recover the positions to get into the points,” he added. “The first laps with the intermediate tyres, if you see the times I was like two seconds quicker than anyone because I was not caring too much. I thought maybe I will crash or maybe I will recover my position – so it was maximum attack.

“The car was perfect, and now even thinking through the race and all the analysis – there is the possibility that you can win the race even starting last because the car was so much quicker today than all the others.

“I was very, very happy and very confident with the car. I enjoyed it – and I prefer to start first and be bored until the end of the race, but it was an interesting race in terms of overtaking and in terms of battles.”

The two-time champion also made it clear that he did not think Massa should have let him through, despite being slower than him when he caught the Brazilian.

“No. I don’t think so. We are racing also with your team-mate. This is the second race of the championship, so there is nothing you can do. Also, when I arrive behind Felipe my tyres were not in any more a good shape because I was pushing very hard at the beginning.

“I don’t think at that time that I could do any more than that. I was more concentrating on Hamilton and Webber – who were coming behind, than attacking Felipe and Robert. I was super happy with fourth, so I stayed there.”

Mark Webber was given a reprimand by the race stewards after the Australian Grand Prix for his part in a collision with Lewis Hamilton.

The Red Bull Racing driver was locked in a thrilling duel with Hamilton and Fernando Alonso for fourth place in the closing stages of the race when he slid into the back of Hamilton.

Webber lost his front wing and Hamilton was pushed off into the gravel trap – although the pair recovered to finish ninth and sixth respectively.

Hamilton saw the race stewards after the event to explain how he saw the accident – and it was decided that Webber would be handed a reprimand for causing a crash.