18th March 2012
It was a sports packed day on Sunday 18th March 2012. First it was the season opener in the biggest carnival of all the F-1 World Championships. Then came the cracker of a cricket match the most talked about rivalries in cricketing history India v/s Pakistan. It promised to be a great day and without doubt it delivered.
F-1 2012 Season Opener Australian GP - Albert Park
Jenson Button clinches the season opener decisively. He was faster off the Starting Line & he made the best restart after the safety car period. Vettel was good in his RBR, a smart bit of pit lane strategy saw him come through the safety car related fracas in 2nd place gaining a place on Hamilton. Hamilton had a bad day and it reflected in his body language. He's feeling the pressure of matching upto Jenson who outperformed him in the last season and did so again this race. It will be a tall task for him to bring his game up to the level Jenson has going at the current moment.
With the statistics showing that for the past 7/10 times the person who has won the Australian GP has gone on to win the WDC. The only exceptions being in 2010, 2005 & 2002. So thats a point in Jenson's favor.
Mark Webber's woes with race start continues. He made a hash of the start that saw him drop places and being condemned to an afternoon of fighting back to the top. He made gains, but ultimately could not finish on the podium, being held off by Hamilton till the race end. He was good in patches, though his was lapping better than Lewis, he could never make a move on him.
Mercedes has a lightining quick car, but the first corner incident put paid to the hopes of all expecting to see MS in the thick of action. His retirement and Rosbergs subsequent loss of form kept him in bottom of the top 10 the entire race while a last lap fracas with Perez saw him finish 12th.
Ferrari look way off pace and Felipe Massa looks set to get the boot from Luca Montezemolo for sure. Between his off color showing and the other drivers taking a liking to his car so much so that they drive into it, it looks like a difficult season for him. Alonso did well in his part with an ill handling car. He hung on to the 5th place finish fighting off a determined challenge from Pastor MacDonaldo in Williams.
So far so near again for Williams, Pastor MacDonaldo lost control of his Williams on the last lap of the race and crashed out from a sure shot 6th place prompting a scrap for the 6th place on the last lap. Kamikazi Kobayashi won the 6th place from Kimi Raikonnen (7th), while Sergio Perez finished on 8th ahead on Riccardo who finished 9th by 0.0s and Di Resta in 10th by just 0.1s back from Riccardo.
It was funny while during the race when blue flags were being waved for the car ahead of Kimi, he help asking the race engineers if it was for him. It shows how long he's been away from the F-1 track.
With no team being dominant enough to stand out, it's on to Malaysia.
Contd in Part 2.....
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