It was a sunny day and a lively atmosphere surrounded the Melbourne track in Australia as fans,
spectators, supports, teams, drivers and a whole host of other celebrities, famous personalities and staff turned out for what would have been the second event on the Formula 1 calendar but turned out to be the first. After what we had all witnessed in the practice and qualifying, we knew that Vettel was fast and we knew that Hamilton would be hot on his heels, we were all expecting a tense race with many pit-stops and strategic use of tyre wear to optimise the driver’s chance of getting better positions for overtaking. If you managed to watch the Grand Prix you’ll have noticed a few changes with the on-screen overlay of the driver’s telemetry. Remember this season they have the use of KERS and a moveable rear-wing, which only become activated when they are within a one second gap of the driver in front. This enables them to lose some down-force in order to gain a speed advantage of their opponent increasing the possibility of overtaking. It was rather fun watching the cars chase each other waiting for that green light to come to let the driver know he could use his boosting options to try and make the advantage. As for the race we had a few bumps and collisions but nothing serious. Schumacher’s tyres were the first casualty of the race, making him come into the pits for a change early on in the race and eventually forcing him to retire after the team were concerned for safety reasons. Vettel kept the lead from the start and played his pit-stops tactfully in order to stay ahead of any slower drivers in which he may be hindered. He had to make a pass on Button after one of his stops and this pretty much ensured his victory. Button had an unfortunate race but brought upon himself a drive-through penalty after cutting a corner to avoid an accident, had he let Massa back through, the driver that he gained an advantage over because of the short-cut, he would have also risked letting Alonso through at the same time. In hindsight it would have been best to relinquish the place to the two of them, as the drive-through penalty cost him dear. Hamilton was excited about a second-place finish and is confident that he can improve his performance as well as keep pushing Vettel and his Red Bull to the extreme to hopefully come out on top. Lewis is looking forward to a hot title contention this year and will never surrender pursuing that second Formula 1 World Driver’s Championship trophy. Vitaly Petrov had an incredible race and really shone in his Renault placing him third for a podium win and 15 lovely points. Red Bull take the constructors lead followed by McLaren and Ferrari with Renault hot on their heels.