So Melbourne done. Congratulations to Brawn and Button. A great start to a season when a smaller team starts by winning, so we know the major teams will tend to get better during the season, so good to have a dark horse start off by leading in both championships.
Jensen Button's race was pretty uneventful and he led from pole position and with Barrichello falling back and then still climbing all the way to second place, clearly Brawn was a superior car in Australia. Not much more to say really, about that. Lets examine the fortunes of the three champion drivers.
LUCK OF THE ALONSO
Alonso the two-time champion had a disappointing preseason, the Renault seemed to be faster than the McLaren but not on par with Ferrari, and the cars with the radical diffuser were clearly faster. So Alonso probably thought that this was headed to a rough season. But Alonso had little bits of luck going his way. He started on 9th position but was unlucky in the start midfield crashes and was down to 15th. From there you'd think there is not much to do except finish the race and hope for the best. Melbourne tends to be an endurance race and many cars retire. A point or two were best he could hope for. And annoyingly team mate Piquet was 6 positions ahead of him in 9th place.
At the first safety car roughly speaking half point of the race, Alonso was running 13th and Piquet 7th. A long-shot to get any points from there. And most cars were still in the running. Looked bad for the Spaniard. So then Alonso's luck starts to get better. Piquet loses it at the restart, beaching his car. Alonso starts to move ahead, and is in 11th place at Lap 27. Perhaps a point or two are in the cards after all. But after the second set of pits, and Alonso's was very late, he has only climbed up to 9th place. It looks like he is going to have that worst feeling, to be the first driver not to score a point in this race.
Then we get the late incident with Kubica and Vettel, and we get the second safety car. Alonso is in luck and Alonso is able to finish the race in 6th position, three points. A less-than-impressive finish, but considering he started 9th, the start went badly and he was back to 15th, and at half point of the race was running 11th, to finish 6th is not bad. What is better for Alonso is the luck that befell his three primary rivals if we consider the past season (Hamilton, Raikkonen and Massa). And this was before the reviews and relegations of the aftermath, where in the end, Alonso gains yet another position and is classified 5th with 4 points. Not at all a bad start for the season, all things considering.
LUCK OF THE KLIMSTER
Kimi's luck is not nearly as good. He headed to Melbourne with a car that was considered best of the three front-runner teams (McLaren, Ferrari and Renault). Obviously not as fast as the new diffuser cars, but Kimi is clearly in a faster car than his two primary rivals, Hamilton and Alonso. His qualifying did not go too well, so Kimi starts in 7th place one behind Massa. But Kimi has one lap more fuel than Massa. And knowing Hamilton is starting last on the grid, should also add a bit of a smile to the Ferrari pilot.
Taking advantage of KERS, Kimi is able to jump to 5th but Massa gets up to 3rd. Kimi tries to get up but soon ruins his soft tyres and then struggles to finish the first stint. By mid-race and the safety car, Kimi was still in 5th and Massa still in 3rd. This was not looking like a great race for Finnish champ but at least the McLaren and Renault drivers were behind him.
Kimi's luck seems to change, and its all bad luck from here to Kimi again. He makes his late race mistake - these are becoming alarmingly common for Raikkonen - and throws away a position that was likely to give a 4th or 5th place finish before Kubica-Vettel - and put Kimi on the podium if he had only held his position from mid race. With Massa retiring with 12 laps to go and Kimi retiring a few laps before the end, this meant also no points for Ferrari.
LUCK OF THE LEWIS
If Kimi has bad luck, Lewis has positively miserable luck. Cruel, is how we must consider Hamilton's fortunes. He starts on a very weak car, and in last place 18th on the grid. He drives like a maniac and is up to 10th place by mid race and after the second set of pit stops he is in the points, running in 6th place. Considering that Kimi is out of it and Alonso behind him at this point, Lewis should be quite happy for how he's managed his race.
It then gets even better. With the Kubica-Vettel incident and both out, Lewis is headed to 4th place and 5 points. A very impressive points-haul for a "lost race" and starting from last on the grid, with a non-competitive car. Very impressive indeed.
So then the Toyota Trulli incident after the race. Trulli is first penalized and then - mysteriously - it emerges that McLaren had not been truthful (so they lied) - to get one extra point for Hamilton. WHY? Why not be happy with the 4th place, all their real rivals were far behind. But yes, the worst fate. He is briefly teased with a 3rd place 6 points finish, in the race aftermath, and then it is removed and he has nothing. That must hurt!
LUCK OF THE ROSS
So there is Ross Brawn. Wow. He does know how to design cars, doesn't he. Two championship cars at Benetton, five championship cars at Ferrari and now he has clearly the fastest car for the start of 2009. He is another champion even though Ross Brawn himself doesn't race them.
LUCK OF THE BUTTON
But then there is Jensen. He won fair and square. He now has the fastest car. And even more, he knows from many seasons in the midfield and backfield, how much to cherish this one chance he has. If the Brawn is not disqualified due to its diffuser, and if Button manages to turn this second race into his second win, as his nearest rival seems to be Barrichello, and not quite as fast as Button; and as the four other fast drivers in fast cars - Hamilton, Raikkonen, Alonso and Massa - are in such weak cars at the start of the season, ie losing points to Toyota, BMW and Williams - this is very strongly Button's season to win the championship...
That is why five champs in this blog. If Jensen wins this race today in Malaysia, then he is probably our champion too.
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