Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel got his world championship defense off to the best possible start in Albert Park on Sunday evening. The German beat Lewis Hamilton’s KERS-assisted rush as they had a drag race to the first corner, and thereafter that was all she wrote. Vettel was 2.4s ahead at the end of the opening lap, and simply controlled the pace to win by 22.2s after a problem with the floor of Hamilton’s McLaren caused an off-course moment in Turn One on Lap 32 and cost him some downforce. At times the Englishman was able to match Vettel’s pace and he did a better job controlling his tyres in the first part, as both ran two-stop strategies in a race in which all the gloomy predictions about Pirelli’s tires proved completely unfounded.
Behind them, Red Bull’s Mark Webber originally ran third ahead of fast-starting Vitaly Petrov in the Renault, who benefited when McLaren’s Jenson Button kept Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso out wide going into Turn One at the start. As Webber faded after being the first to change tires, Petrov moved into the third place he maintained throughout as he became the first Russian ever to stand on the podium after an excellent race.
