The Australian Grand Prix - Highlights Formula 1

afternoon. Formula One is back, but today no team can afford to be

caught napping. Today is all about building points, momentum and

acceleration for the new season. Welcome to the 2012 Australian

hand # He grabs me by my heart

# Give me them gold coins # You are my one true love

love # Alonso is in the gravel. He is out.

He is furious. Where are Red Bull? They are on the

third row of the grid? Michael Schumacher fourth. What a stunning

effort from the young Frenchman, Romain Grosjean, but for McLaren

qualifying has been perfect. Here we go again, the first of 20

races in the company of DAVID COULTHARof David and Eddie.

Yesterday was St Patrick's Day. What better day to celebrate St Pal

pal trick's -- Patrick's Day. This looks like an exciting season.

are off to Texas. It will be a long one, but it looks like it could be

an exciting one, David, if judging by qualifying? There is a mix of

cars in the first few rows and the time difference between those cars

is a crucial thing. We saw a gap of seven tenths last year. There is a

smaller gap than that covering the front-runners.

We will be be finding out how the drivers are feeling. There are no

changes at the top teams, but down the Iceman returns. Kimi Raikkonen

is back and makes it six world champions on the grid. Here this

season is Romain Grosjean. Force India enjoyed two sixth place

finishes last year, but there have been changes. Adrian Sutil has been

replaced by by Nico Hulkenberg. The mid-field battle was tough for

drivers and construction and Sauber finished seventh behind Force India.

Qualifying yesterday didn't show the steps ahead that had been are

predicted. Tor owe Ross sew is seen as the

training ground for Red Bull drivers of the future. Two new

potential stars have been brought together, Daniel Ricciardo and.

Rubens Barrichello had been dropped for Bruno Senna. He should be

pleased with his performance this weekend.

What was Lotus has become Caterham. Vitaly Petrov joins the team.

Marussia ran a new car for the first time and they are starting

this season on the back foot. Timo Glock finds the car responsive and

fun, but Charles Pic becomes the third French driver on the grid.

HRT have been running late with their programme and the cars are

virtually untried, unlike their drivers who have a combined age of

76! Unfortunately, they have failed to qualify here in Melbourne.

It has been a tough winter and a tough qualifying sees season

yesterday for for HRT. Outside the HRT garage, there is nothing going

on. It is a difficult weekend for them, but a perfect weekend for

McLaren. Lewis Hamilton is preparing to climb into his car.

Last time there were two British drivers on the the front row, Damon

Hill and David Coulthard. It is an exciting day for Lewis. Last time

he was on poll position, he took the win and took the world title in

2008. He has Nicole Scherzinger here today and his mum. How are the

rest of the drivers feeling today? Let's find out.

I'm here with Jenson Button. Only a tenth away from your team-mate in

qualifying. How do you feel about your race set-up? We had a great

day yesterday. I think it surprised us being three tenths in front of

the pack, but today is the important day as we both know. So

yeah, we will see what happens, but this place is normally difficult to

get past into turn one, but you always got to have a go, I think.

It is a long race. This is new to us. The tyres working on this

circuit, no one really knows because we haven't had any long

runs because of the weather. It will be interesting to see what

happens. It is nice to be here. It is a good way to start the year and

we will see what we can achieve today.

Mark, it is not been the Red Bull qualifying, but the sun is shining

and it is your home Grand Prix and the crowds are here today. What can

you do for them? We have got some strong opposition around us, there

is no question about it. We will need to have a good clean first lap,

a good clean first sector and knuckle down. We need to be there

with ten laps to go. There is a lot that is going to happen. It

normally does at Melbourne and if we can get bubbles at the end, you

know, leave here in reasonable shape.

Have a begun one. Thank you.

16th on the grid, you are the boss, it is not good enough, really is

it? I am not happy at all, but this is something that we know and I

have asked, you know, to my people to react straightaway. There is no

time for crying, time to react. That's not the position of the car,

but it is the position of the Australian Grand Prix and the

Australian Grand Prix is one of the Grand Prixs of the championships.

It is a difficult starting point and we need to do a better job

today during the race. Does that mean building a new car?

No, we know where we have to improve and we will do it and I

have asked my people to do it as quick as possible.

Thank you very much. I wish you well.

Less than a second separates the top eight cars on the grid. We have

six world champions, a British battle at the front and cars out of

position up and down the grid. The Grand Prix starts this afternoon in

Melbourne for the 2012 Australian within the teams as well as

hundreds of suppliers from the outside world is now in the hands

of 22 determined and very fired up drivers, all going for a perfect

start to the season. We have had answers in qualifying as to how

things might work out, but David, which teams do we really think have

conquered all season? McLaren have learned from the troubled testing

they had pre-season last year and they have come here, a solid

winter's testing, great reliability and they have rewarded themselves

with a lock out at the front row, but what I take encouragement from

is if we look at the qualifying session, no one team dominated the

sectors around this lap. We had McLaren fastest in the first and

Mercedes second and Romain Grosjean quickest in the last sector.

We are looking at the tyres that are being used this weekend and it

is if you take a look, it is the medium and the soft and the dry

weather tyres so the white writing on the outside means the harder of

the two tyres being used. The yellow is the softer of the two

tyres, but hopefully we won't be using the int ter meadates -- int

ter meadates or the wets. An interesting statistic for

youment only twice in the 16 year history of Albert Park has the car

that started on poll position not gone on to be the car, the world

champion drove. Jenson Button took poll in a BAR and didn't win the

World Championship and Mika Hakkinen took pole in 2000 and

Michael Schumacher won the championship, but it bodes well for

the McLaren guys. It does, indeed. Both their drivers

won around this racetrack. Lewis Hamilton looking, the Lewis

Hamilton that we were used at the beginning of his career, it is

looking forward and here he is, he has got full sight of how to

prepare his tyres, his brakes, he will be doing final burnouts and

clutch setting. Look at that, a little bit of acceleration to do

the preparations as he runs up to the grade.

Nicole watches. Romain Grosjean outstanding in third. Michael

Schumacher is fourth. Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel fifth and

sixth. Nico Rosberg is seventh. Looking at the the tyres wet Petrov.

The Australian is tenth. Alonso is twelfth and Kobayashi and Senna and

Raikkonen is 17th on the grid with Kovalainen and Petrov and Glock. No

HRTs on the grid. They failed to qualify for this first race of the

season. That means we have 22 instead of 24 cars ready to take

the start. It is a 58 lap Grand Prix here in Australia. Sergio

Perez moving into place. It looks as if the grid is is ready

and set. Now we are going to watch those lights and watch the the

count down to the start of the first race of the season!

Lewis Hamilton versus Jenson Button off the front row.

Lights out. Away we go. Hamilton and Button going for the first

corner and Button got a good start. Jenson Button is ahead. Button

takes the lead. Oh, we have got cars spinning. That might have been

Senna caught up. We will have to look at that in a moment. Alonso

got through cleanly, but Button leads and Michael Schumacher is

third and Rosberg is fourth. Rosberg up from seventh.

The Mercedes is a fast starter. Jenson Button said he was going to

go for it and that's what he has done and let's just keep an eye

whether they are going to get that incident cleared away at turn one

otherwise we can see the safety car being deployed. There is a high

percentage of safety cars around this circuit.

Alonso battling away with the Williams.

Alonso in the Ferrari tucked in behind the Williams, trying to get

alongside up to turn 11. Now into the fastest, one of the fastest

corners. Look at Alonso's car! One other bit of news for the race

fans, sector one is clear. There will not be a safety car, but Mark

Webber, let's look at the front of his car and judge how much damage

is there and how it will affect his performance.

He is having a battle. At he is still there. He is in tenth place,

battling with Kobayashi. Jenson Button leads and Hamilton by 1.3

seconds. Rosberg under attack from Vettel. The debris flag being shown.

That's for bits and pieces after the the incident down there at turn

one. Vettel is fifth. Romain Grosjean is in sixth place

Webber has dropped down to 8/9. He does not seem to find any luck in

his home grand prix. Out front, Jenson Button knows he has to break.

Will they touch? Beautiful driving from both of them. I was not

expecting an attack but Sebastian Vettel has taken 4th Place. People

are asking, can Sebastian Vettel race? He is trying to get past

romance she -- Romain Grosjean. The race is over already for him. We

are losing several cars in the early stages of the race. Fernando

Alonso will come past us. Jenson Button leads, Lewis Hamilton second.

Nico Rosberg is 5 position Macro -- an advantage to Mark Cueto birth.

The speeds in qualifying were 10 kilometres an hour over the

Mercedes. -- Mark Webber. Clean stuff from Jenson Button. Lewis

Hamilton had to make way. Nico Rosberg went round the outside.

Nico Rosberg was close nipping through. Jenson Button just had

enough. He was attacked from the way it end and it all kicks off

from there. -- rear end. It was not a great start. You could see the

cars going past him. For Mark Webber, he started in 5th place.

would have deployed KERS at 100 kilometres an hour. Both of the

cars that came around, Mark Webber sandwiched him together. This was

the Toro Rosso. We saw Nico Hulkenberg. He was in a Force India.

Daniel Ricciardo went into the back of Kimi Raikkonen, I think it was.

It is a very tight ran into that corner. We can see a replay of the

coming together of Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado. Romain

Grosjean should have gone out of the power. He was unsighted. You

have to do the sensible thing. Out front, Jenson Button seems to be

controlling things quite nicely. Sebastian Vettel is honing in on

Michael Schumacher. That is where the car went off. Sebastian Vettel

is catching Michael Schumacher at the moment. The advantage for

Jenson Button is 2.4 seconds. The two McLarens are both in front.

Mark Webber is in 8th Place. Sergio Perez is 11th. You will see the

black and gold colours of the Lotus. He started in 17th and now is in

12th place Macro. We need to see if he sustains any damage. He would

have opened the DRS up earlier. Gary Anderson will be able to give

us more information on that later. We believe it is 160 kilos of load

when you open up DRS. It is disappointing for Pastor Maldonado.

He was having a good run in the top 10. They would have gone off the

grid with about 160 kilos of fuel. That is why the lap times are

several seconds slower. Let's find out a bit more about that with Gary

in the pits. What about the prospective strategies? It is one

of the warmest days we have had. I think the tyres will last longer

than everyone is expecting because, it always happens here, it always

gets better. People will aim at a two stop race, perhaps three big it

is too quick. Oh! Sebastian Vettel went off at Turn One. Nico Rosberg

was only just behind him. He is still battling. Meanwhile Fernando

Alonso is going to join in. He is breathing all over the back of the

Mercedes. The Ferrari is trying to make some progress. Behind them of

course it is Mark Webber. This is a sign of how hard they are having to

push in at Red Bull. Seemingly struggling to find their form

around the circuit. That was a good recovery from Sebastian Vettel. He

would have lost a bit of downforce. He has lost the Rea and had to

correct. He was lucky to get away with it. That is where you are

running in the dirty air of the car in front. You go through the wake

of another plane or a cloud, and it shakes. Michael Schumacher is under

attack from Sebastian Vettel. Two German champions about to go wheel

to wheel. Look at this! This is the Sauber of Kamui Kobayashi. The two

of Saubers are running absolutely together at the moment. Those sort

of under qualifiers, I feel, yesterday, and now they're

beginning to show what they can do. They had very good winter testing

and were looking very strong. We have Fernando Alonso in the other

Ferrari and Filipe Massa is having to defend. It looks like he is

holding up the entire pack. He was complaining he has Byrne that his

rear tyre. We were expecting the first stop to be around lap 18, 28.

Lap 11 and he has lost his tyres already. So bastion battle getting

closer to the back of Michael Schumacher. -- Sebastian Vettel.

Michael Schumacher has gone off and Sebastian Vettel is straight into

third place. Michael has sun damage. Look at this! It will be better

than that, this battle is for of forth. The battle for the two

Germans has been in favour of Sebastian Vettel. When I saw him I

thought he had parties on the left side of the circuit. -- party to --

parted. It does not look like he made a mistake. Was that an issue

with KERS? We will find out soon enough. Michael Schumacher was

running strong. It does not look as though he whacked the kerb hard or

pulled the front wing off or anything. There was no visible

damage. He did not lock up. Kimi Raikkonen has gained another place.

Into the pits comes Filipe Massa her. He was struggling on tyres and

he comes in after 12 laps. This will be vital information for all

the teams. That Ferrari is running not quite as quick as the front

runners but it will give an indication. He came in so slowly.

He has put the yellow band attack on again. He will make at least one

more stock in the race. Jenson Button still leads this raised

overt Lewis Hamilton. Sebastian Vettel is third. -- this race over

Lewis Hamilton. Pastor Maldonado is still running really well. He is in

7th place. It is a good effort. Michael Schumacher and his back in

the pit lane but it is end of the day for him. The technical issue he

has had he has been able to get it back to the start of the pit lane.

The Mercedes again is very early and that frees up Fernando Alonso.

We will be able to see what the Ferrari can do in clean air. The

speed limit is 60 kilometres an hour. That is for the safety of the

mechanics. We can expect a total time loss in the pit lane to be

around 26 seconds, maybe a bit less if the pit crew concern us the car

quickly. That is a nice piece of clean air. -- can service the car.

Romain Grosjean, so disappointing for you. The start was pretty good.

It was passed on -- Pastor Maldonado who broke and the race

was over. How difficult was the start? It was your first race back

for a while. I wanted to be really careful. I did not want it to shift.

It is what it is. I have a race next Sunday and I would do better.

Kimi Raikkonen is battling away with Kamui Kobayashi. It is great

to see him back in Formula One. Filipe Massa made the early pit

stop. That is a bit of a mistake. Kimi Raikkonen may have a chance.

Can he take advantage? Into the pits for Kamui Kobayashi. Fernando

Alonso as well is in the pits. He is getting this phase of the harder

tyre - a new set of tyres going on. We expect, under normal conditions,

to be a bit of difference between the two sets of tyres. What can we

learn about the timing of the pit stops? It is very early. We

predicted a three stop, I think maybe we will see some fours. I

think everybody is finding their feet. We have seen how big a cliff-

face it drops of. The rear tyres go awake so dramatically. That is why

the teams are going to be alert in the pit wall. I do not think

anybody knows how many stops there Kimi Raikkonen has just set fastest

first sector. He had a huge amount of oversteer.

He is using up every last part of his option tyres. Look at that 60

kilometres an hour. He clears his visor.

60 kilometres an hour because it is a street track. Normally it would

be faster than that in a pit lane. You see the harder of the tyres

going on. Kobayashi has set fastest lap. He

has been into the pits. Now, we are going to see a McLaren pit stop.

Now is this Jenson? It is Jenson. He entered into the pit lane and as

you would expect the leader gets the priority of the pit stop call.

That's why it is important to get in front in the front corner.

I love it. When we spoke to him in the grid he said, "I'm going to

have a go." We see the Red Bull guyss coming out for Sebastian

Vettel. This is going to hurt Hamilton

because Vettel coming in now will hurt Hamilton. Will Vettel close

that gap up to second position. We could see a bit of a difference.

Sebastian Vettel will have a new set of Hards. He has come out in

front of Alonso so I'm wondering how that will pan out. Ahead of

Rosberg, but Alonso there ahead of Vettel. It shows Alonso has been

going well since he put the second set of tyres on.

That is impressive. Now Button has got himself out and

he has got himself out ahead of Raikkonen and that's crucial, but

Mark Webber has just set fastest lap in his Red Bull. This is

fascinating. We're still learning so much about the relative

performance of the cars in race conditions.

TEAM RADIO: Everything these tyres have got now.

We know that Lewis Hamilton will be coming in, if not this lap, the one

after. He lost a lot on the last lap. He

did a 1.36.4 and it would have hurt him to have stayed out that little

bit longerment Lewis Hamilton -- long. Lewis Hamilton comes into the

pits. Vettel are having a great day. Hamilton should come out in front.

Let's watch the stop. A set of the medium tyres going on.

That will be a new set. Both Button and Hamilton qualified with the

faster of the tyres. He lost a lot of time.

He will come out behind Raikkonen. Raikkonen comes through.

He had has to pit Raikkonen. But there is Vettel. That's the guy

he is racing with and Alonso so he is still in front of them by a a

reasonable chunk there, Hamilton and a little bit of a lock-up on

the right-front for him. Vettel is having to work hard to keep that

Ferrari behind him. The Ferrari looking better than I expected.

Mark Webber fastest lap then. We are a long way off the qualifying

pace and Felipe Massa is on the move on Vitaly Petrov. This is

partly through the pit stops because Vitaly Petrov hasn't

stopped yet and Massa claiming a position there and Vitaly Petrov

continuing in the Caterham. Both Caterhams are running in the race.

Kovalainen down in 17th. Bruno Senna still running despite the

incident. There is Vettel picking his way through the traffic. The

young Frenchman is making his debut in Formula One this weekend. Daniel

Ricciardo going quickly in his Williams. He stopped and put the

soft tyre on. The Williams, they have taken a big jump forwards

compared to last year. Alonso has to deal with the traffic. This has

cost Alonso a lot of time. He is being held up by the youngster.

He is entitled to go racing at this stage.

Look at speed difference there. He won't be able to make the pass into

turn one. That corner is two tight. Look at that, deploying the KERS as

well and this will be a straightforward pass for Alonso,

but it will cost him a lot of time. He has dropped a fair bit to Vettel,

you can see up ahead there, Alonso does get through and it is Vergne.

They come past. It has allowed Alonso to brake free.

Vergne on the older tyres. He is entitled to go racing, but you can

see the influence that has. They were all all stalked up, but not

anymore. Rosberg is on the attack. He is down the inside. Can he hold

it? Vergne doesn't want to give it Vergne does give way and he

probably is doing the sensible thing. Vergne staying out of

trouble. He is in Torro Rosso to make a move

into Red Bull Racing, probably a wise move not getting in the way of

sister team. An impressive debut for the young Frenchmen. We have

three Frenchmen and no Italians. Kimi Raikkonen, and what a great

stint this has been, David, because he came from 17th on the the grid,

there is his team-mate, Romain Grosjean, and the tyres have held

up reasonably well. This has been a good performance

from the Lotus Team. Kimi Raikkonen expected big things and it didn't

work out, and his team-mate was the star.

Remember what Sauber did last year. They only went for one stop and

they are doing a similar strategy. They would try to do that. That's

unquestionably what they are doing. This is costing Lewis Hamilton. He

is almost ten seconds behind Jenson Button.

Yes... Allowing Vettel to close that gap. You can see visibly

that's down to a second. Vettel is in the background closing

on the two. You have the young Mexican in his second year of

Formula One in the black and white Sauber chased by Lewis Hamilton who

is in third place, so second, third and fourth, all in shot together

with Sebastian Vettel, the double world champion bearing down on them.

Perez started at the back due to a change box problem and because of

the pit stop sequence finds himself in second place.

The back end of that car is sliding around. It will be tough for him.

He is, indeed and this is the zone where Lewis Hamilton has to make

use of his DRS, he is within the one second activation, the

detection line we have just crossed. He won't be able to make the pass

until turn one, but certainly... Well, he has got the speed and

straight past and Vettel will surely use the second DRS zone.

Let's ride with him and going down the inside into turns three, no, he

can't because he had the outside of Perez. Perfectly justifiably,

defended the inside and defends, this is good clean driving by Perez.

There is no reason why he should get Vettel through and Vettel can't

find a way past. What that shows is the ma McLaren

top speed is speed with the DRS open is ten seconds faster than Red

Bull. Vettel wasn't able to make it. I'm

going to check. TEAM RADIO: Lewis Hamilton is freer.

A bit of traffic there. There is settle. He gets through, he didn't

need the DRA and Perez stuck to his -- DRS and Perez stuck to his line.

Perez is running in fourth place. I wonder how long he will stay out

there. Alonso is catching him now. Gary, where are we in terms of pit

stops, strategy? What are your thoughts? Everybody is on different

tyres and everybody is doing different things. I was surprised

how late McLaren left it. We saw saw their lap times dropping.

Hamilton had to do another lap and he lost four seconds. McLaren were

two laps later than they should have pitted. It has been a very

good race. Vettel 1.8 seconds behind Hamilton, it was 7.5 seconds

behind before the pit stops, a big error there for McLaren with

Hamilton. They have got to go racing.

Here comes Alonso. Perez is holding his ground here.

He is entitled to do that and this Sauber was very fast in a straight

line during the qualifying sessions. Of course, he didn't have the drag

reduction system available, but nonetheless Sauber going on the

different strategy as you mentioned, it worked well for them last year.

We expect Alonso, who has got a bit of speed as he was coming off off

turn six, certainly around the next sector of the lap, we expect him to

make a pass. This is where Sebastian Vettel was

quick. Perez drives that car, we know it hasn't got great grip, but

it is a lovely driving style Perez has. He doesn't work the car too

hard. Behind Alonso is Rosberg who might put the Ferrari under

pressure. We have Mark Webber and in ninth place is Kobayashi.

Raikkonen is eleventh. A good bit of driving from Rosberg. Of course,

you want to push to get beyond the car in front of you. Mark Webber

just in the distance. Alonso will get DRA, Rosberg will get DRS. Look

at the difference of speed. Alonso didn't use his KERS. We have a

marker down the side, the battery bar. That means full KRA and no

KERS. -- KRS and no KERS.

He might try and get turned in ahead of the Sauber. Yes, he does!

Perez was managing to get out of that. When you are trying to

overtake, that is Nico Hulkenberg who is in the pits after making an

early retirement. We have had two, three, in fact go out of this race

already. Nico Hulkenberg, Grosjean and Michael Schumacher are retired.

But we have 19 cars running. We are on board with Mark Webber as he

runs around in seventh. This is impressive stuff by Perez.

It is lap 23 and he is yet to stop. He did 32.52 on that lap. We are

committed to that strategy as we see Alonso breaking free of the

traffic. That is is Charles Pic. He is doing

a solid job. The new - that is Rosberg going through. An all new

car. There is plenty to do. They only got the car running in

Melbourne on Friday. Just squeezing through was Mark Webber there,

getting a little tight. Hamilton is second. 11.8 seconds behind Jenson

Button. Vettel is now only 1.2 seconds behind Lewis Hamilton. This

Red Bull is still a major threat for victory today. Vettel is going

after Lewis Hamilton first. This. This Ferrari has race pace. Alonso

has opened up the gap 177 seconds to Rosberg -- -- 1.77 seconds.

TEAM RADIO: I am picking up vibrations from these guys.

I understand. Well, if he is getting vibrations

from the tyres, it could be a wheel. You do need to put a little wheel

weight there to balance the wheels. Maybe that got knocked off during

the pit stop. What I was going to say, this is Vergne, Alonso's lap

time was quicker than Hamilton. Ferrari have overnight recovered

their mojo. We saw Michael Schumacher go out of this race with

some gearbox problem. Michael, you ran off wide. Was the damage to the

car done then? No, the damage was in the braking in turn one and in

the moment thaw don't have a drive -- that you don't have a drive, I

can't stop the car properly. I opted to go straight on, not

forcing the car into a spin or something spupd because I -- stupid

because I knew already it was the end of the weekend.

The race had been going well up to that point.

We have positive points we take from this weekend. Considering

where we came from last year, the boys in the factory at Mercedes

have done a fantastic job to get us there and we never had any issue

with the gearbox all winter long so it is a bit strange. I'm confident

we can fix that easily. The other guys are still running, but those

are prototype cars, it can always happen. You never have 100%

security in these cars. It is a shame, but that's the way it is.

We are watching Kobayashi and Raikkonen, ninth and tenth places

and that was Raikkonen getting the ninth place from Kobayashi, I think,

we just caught the end of that. Lewis Hamilton has done a great lap.

Let's see if we can find out. Ferrari, Sauber, Lotus, watch

Raikkonen the third of the three Ferrari holding position. Kimi

Raikkonen said he missed racing and this is what he came back four. I

do not think I have ever seen someone did that on this circuit!

That is why so many of his fans are delighted he is back. Boy, can he

race when he is in the car! Kimi Raikkonen is in 9th plates. --

place. There is Fernando Alonso and there is Nico Rosberg. What tyres

are they on? Mark Webber is on the medium, it yellow mark soft tyre

and Nico Rosberg is on the soft. Nico Rosberg has the speed edge?

The advantage should be slightly to the Mercedes in terms of the tyres

at this stage. There is less of a difference in the Grand Prix than

in qualifying. Roughly it halves the difference between the tyres.

No big surprise that Sebastian Vettel is showing better pace at

front. There is a speed disadvantage when you have the Red

Bull against the Mercedes. Difficult times for Mark Webber. He

is having to be patient with the tyres. The way these Pirelli tyres

are, you have a gauge of rubber available before you lose sight of

how much rubber is on top of the belt. That is when a fall off the

cliff and the performance drop-off is huge. The performance of Lewis

Hamilton is geared at the moment. Looking at the stats for own Nico

Rosberg and Mark Webber. This is on board with Kimi Raikkonen. That is

4 8th Place. Filipe Massa et is struggling. Has he got a problem?

Filipe Massa has not appeared comfortable in his car or weekend.

That is a bigger gap. It seems that he has one of the bigger gaps I

have seen at any time during their time as team-mates. He goes to the

inside and takes his defensive position and. That lays himself

open for a DRS Motors. It is for the car behind Kimi Raikkonen, it

is not for you. He was saying, why do I get all the time blue flags?

That is the girlfriend of Pastor Maldonado. The Venezuelan is doing

a fantastic job. He has caught the group of Nico Rosberg and Mark

Webber. He thought about that. We have occasionally seen moves like

that. I remember Mark Webber making a mistake at that very corn and a

few years ago. The pace off Nico Rosberg is very poor. You would

never imagine they would be in that position after last year. Mark

where there is in the BRS then there he is catching that 0.2 late.

-- Mark Webber is in the DRS zone but he is catching that point have

too late. Mark Webber went outside. That was good opportunism but he

was also sensible. Well done to all over the place. Here comes Mark

Webber again. Can he get through? Can he do it? You need to be brave.

Nico Rosberg has gone wide. We were holding our breath. It is the

fastest chicane on the race track. Nico Rosberg has missed out the

high-speed chicane defending his position. Is he coming in this lap?

Yes he is. That was a cheeky move from Nico Rosberg. He would have

gained that bit of that time by missing the corner. There will be

no penalty for that. Sensible driving by Nico Rosberg. He should

not lose out too much as a result. Nico Rosberg is on his way again.

This is entertaining stuff. I was literally holding my breath. The

last time we saw Mark Webber get so close to someone at high speed, it

was Fernando Alonso and he pulled that off. Sergio Perez has had the

fastest lap of the race. It is ahead of Nico Rosberg. That match

is pretty much Jenson Button, just a little bit quicker. Sauber is

looking really good for a solid points haul. Race leader Jenson

Button crosses the line. 32 laps completed. He has an advantage.

About 9 1/2 seconds over Lewis Hamilton. Hallaton protecting

second place from Sebastian Vettel. -- Hamilton. It might be possible

for some people to get through the race on just one pit stop. On board

with Lewis Hamilton as he turns in. New curbing on turn four. We need

to keep going for a few more laps if we can. He said the tyres were

going. There is only about 2.5 mm of rubber before you get down to

the bottom belt, which is the point where they fall off the cliff and

lose their grip. We call the circuit a front end circuit. You

need to be leaning on the front tyres. With so much fuel on board,

it is like having two heavy passengers in the back of the car.

We know that Sergio Perez is in 9th Place. We did wonder whether he

would be able to make it a one stop race. We will have to wait and see.

What are your thoughts? He managed it last year. Do you think he can

do it? It depends when the cliff- face arrives. If it arrives on club

-- lap 50, he might be in trouble. Hamilton is complaining about the

rear tyres but we have not heard Jenson Button complaining. The

harder of the two tyres seems quite durable. It looks possible for

Peshawar. Fernando Alonso is in. -- for Shaw. There are medium's going

on. That is interesting. Ferrari is declining to use the softer of the

tyres. Fernando Alonso has new tyres available, having gone out

and not made it through to the last part of qualifying. Is that an

attempt to try to make it to the end of the Grand Prix? As the fuel

massive burns off, at the club gets lighter and it takes more out of

the tyres. -- the car gets lighter. Fernando Alonso is on his way up

once again. Only the one stock for Jenson Button. We are wondering

whether Sergio Perez might try to do a one stop. Mark where that is

setting a good middle time. -- Mark Webber. Red Bull is looking after

its tyres pretty effectively. As the fuel is burnt off, Mark

Webber's tyres are working pretty well. At this phase of the race,

Red Bull it does seem to be hanging in there. We had cars that are

faster in qualifying. Other cars are looking up to their tyres

better, which should make for tremendous racing for the season.

The Lotus is running solidly for the moment. They had problems in

testing. They had a chassis mounting problem on the car. It

does seem a very fast car. Kimi Raikkonen was just down. He is

doing better than yesterday. Push, push, push! He was told to get on

with it. That could mean Peshawar and come in. -- push. That is lower

than for some race tracks. The second pit stop of the day for

Jenson Button. Hamilton is following him in. It will be very

busy. Great pit work from McLaren. They need to be careful that they

put the right wheels on the right car. If you put your team-mates

will unlock Cup, you get thrown out. Mechanics have to be very careful.

-- on your car. That will be a bit awkward for them to move the cup

away. Petrol has gone out of the car. We will need to find out what

the smoke is. That is a shame. Vitaly Petrov joins our list of

retirements. The rest of the runners are still going. I do not

want to see a safety car but we have won a. That will make life

interesting. McLaren have the advantage because they are fresh

tyres. This would be two, three laps of running behind the safety

car. On this sequence, Sebastian Vettel has lost out. The safety car

comes that as soon as it is called. It is almost as if McLaren sensed

there would be a safety car. You do not see that very often. It shows

how confident they are with their mechanics. Gary, what a real

thoughts on this? What about the timing of the safety car? If it

could be lucky, it could be unlucky. It depends whether Sebastian Vettel

lost much time. His time is OK as long as they get the pit stop done

pretty nippy. The other guys will be slowing down. He has a brand new

set of hard tyres so he would try to go to the end. I think it will

be OK for Sebastian Vettel. almost goes wide in the run damp

for the first corner. It is about way Iraq on the track. -- where you

are on the track. He should line up at worst in the same running order.

Sebastian Vettel has emerged in second. The safety car appears to

have helped him. He comes out in second position. How does that

work? Sebastian Vettel was in the last section heading for the pits.

He did not have to slow down. He could go at maximum speed. The

section time would have made him look as if he was going too fast.

Lewis Hamilton had to slow down. The way the luck of the draw. If

Sebastian Vettel had been further back, maybe he would have lost out.

It was just the right time for him. car. Sebastian Vettel took full

advantage of the safety car and Lewis Hughes has work to do to

reclaim second place. Mark Webber is in fourth. Then it is Alonso,

followed by mel by - Button will dictate thes pace and off goes

Jenson Button. He is on it straightaway. Out of that last

corner. A great restart by Jenson Button. Flat out, straightaway.

Sebastian Vettel will be under pressure from Lewis Hamilton. Mark

Webber chasing them both as well and they can't use use DRS for the

next lap or two because every time you restart the race the DR is not

enabled it is down to pure racing. Hamilton will close the gap up to

Vettel. Vettel seemed to be caught napping as Button let rip through

the last corner. When he opened it out through the last corner then

Sebastian Vettel was under pressure from Hamilton. That gap has opened

out slightly as they run around the back of the circuit, but Jenson

Button has gone. He has. Another amazing restart

from Jenson Button like the start of the race when he was able to get

past Hamilton into turn one. Alonso in the Ferrari chased by Maldonado

in the Williams. Sergio Perez And Rosberg and Raikkonen, but

Raikkonen just having a look at that. I think Kobayashi has gone

ahead of Raikkonen. There might have been a change around there.

Behind Raikkonen is De La scas Resta.

Down the outside into turn three, Kobayashi was so impressive and

once again he passes around the outside in turn three. It is a

difficult difficult corner to to that, but great stuff from the

Japanese driver. Jenson Button opening up a 2.5

second advantage over Sebastian Vettel. A great first lap after the

restart as well. A very impressive run from Jenson

Button. He is confident in this car. It is tricky after a period behind

the safety car to know where to position the the car and to know

how much braking distance you have. Alonso was wide in the Ferrari. He

did say after qualifying yesterday that his goal was top ten first and

top five would be fantastic. Well, he is in fifth place and that is

more than perhaps they they expected but will iamts were talk -

- Williams were talking to us and saying they have a chance of

beating Ferraris on current form. The difference between Williams

between this year and last year, they feel they can qualify. In the

case of Maldonado that was inside the top ten and what a year a --

and what a difference a year makes. I take my hat off to Ferrari. The

whole team stayed tight and Jenson Button with the fastest lap time.

The Ferrari team are remaining tight. Alonso seems to be

comfortable within that team despite their difficulties and

that's what the drivers reresponsibility is --

responsibility is to, to stay calm in difficult circumstances.

Alonso is keeping calm, Alonso, you be has to keep watch out.

DRS will be up and running again when they come around now. So we

will have to see if that makes any difference. We have got Kobayashi...

TEAM RADIO: Rear Rear wing is coming off.

That's got to be a worry. It could be a worry or a bit of

strategy from Kimi to get the stewards to look at that. If there

is any issue, you know, any safety issue with the integrity of a wing,

the team would be uncomfortable leaving a driver out there. Let's

see if we can see what it is. It is the rear end plate. It is broken

below. Now the trailing edge, we will get Gary to give us a word. My

understanding is that the trailing edge of the rear wing is more of a

regulation than a loading issue. I don't know if Gary has got his ears

on there. I mean, what you have got to be

careful of, they have an L-plate mounted upper wing as well. The

back is only a piece of bodywork. It is not structurally required,

but it depends how far forward that flapping piece is starting.

What would you be thinking if you were sitting in the pit wall and

you just saw that on one of your cars, would you bring it in for

inspection? I would have a good luck at it going past. I think the

structural, but it is the back piece that got damaged, maybe

somebody touched them at the back and because of the aerodynamics, it

has flapped backwards and forwards and cracked it.. We are watching

Alonso and Daniel and Maldonado. His best position was tenth last

year at Spa. If he finishes where he is now, it would be a career

best. Button is still ahead and then Lewis Hamilton and Mark Webber.

Then that gap back to Alonso. Pastor Maldonado stuck with Perez.

There is another world champion, Damon Hill, winner here in

Melbourne in 1996 at the first event.

He is looking like someone has stolen something.

That's right. He has good memories. I remember the race victory. It was

a significant win for Damon as he went on to win the title that year.

So looking at this battle going on, Vettel, Hamilton and Webber. Last

year the Red Bulls would have been disappearing a bit from the mac

Clarence. Webber -- McLarens, Webber not so much. Interesting

Interesting comments from Mark Webber talking about how he is

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 99 seconds

happier driving this car than last Massa and Bruno Senna as we we get

up on the kerb, they run together and they are sort of of... They are

welded together. The two Brazilians in the race, they managed to tangle

together. They look as if they are out of it. We will see where Massa

ends up. The other Williams is going quickly. He is only 0.7

behind Alonso. Alonso has got his work cut out to make this

Venezuelan behind him. Maldonado having his best Grand

Prix to date. Alonso at this stage of the Grand

Prix, he is 3.6 seconds behind Mark Webber. It looks he has given up

that hunt. I don't think he will be too dissatisfied with his place

over the difficulties he had in qualifying. This is a big moment

for Maldonado. If Maldonado finishes where he is, he will get

eight points which is more than Williams scored last year.

That would be a good start. Points mean prizes! It is important where

you finish in the constructors championship.

Williams had a difficult year last year. There is Bruno Senna.

I am amazed he managed to get that car back with the front suspension

damaged. What are they going to do here? Have a good look around,

please. They are sending him back out. I

thought maybe it was just a puncture, but he is going to try

and run for longer and and then he can report back to the team. Button

continues to lead by 3.3 seconds from Sebastian Vettel, Hamilton and

Webber as Senna returns to the fray after damage with Massa earlier.

He is coming out in front of Raikkonen and there is Massa being

pushed into his garage. It is difficult when the steering doesn't

work to get it in the garage. They will wheel it in. The Williams

guys sending Bruno Senna out. If the car can be driven, you want to

get as much information and data during race time as possible. So he

is not going to get points this afternoon, but they are going to

learn valuable information. It might have been a puncture

rather than suspension damage. A puncture can look the same way.

On board with Maldonado. The back end of the Ferrari sliding around.

Let's see them up into turns 11. Let's listen to how much power he

is using through here. Pretty good. Nice and tidy. What we

can be looking at, Ferrari have taken a pun and run less fuel --

punt and run less fuel. We maybe in a situation like we saw with

Rosberg in China where they don't have enough fuel on board to run at

full engine board. We could be seeing a compromised Alonso. Would

he be struggling more than what his performance showed at the beginning

of the race? Williams may have, you know, fuelled this car up and run

the car absolutely to allow them to capitalise in the top ten

qualifying position. You You know you don't take the top ten

qualifying for granted, that's giving them the advantage here.

What I'm trying to say, we may not be seeing full performance Ferrari

against full performance Williams. We will have to wait until after

the race to talk to the guys. There is the damage from the

contact with Senna. One of the Ferrari guys giving it a good old

prod! There is the other Ferrari still

out on track. Still hopeful of delivering points. Alonso, I know

I'm going to speak too soon here. But he has a remarkable finishing

record at Melbourne. He never failed to finish a race. I am bound

to put a curse on him. It is a remarkable record. An update, we

know that Alonso's tyres are three laps older than Maldonado which is

significant. There is normally tun one tenth of a second degradation.

It has been a quiet race for Paul di Resta, David.

This is something involving Paul. Has there been a change? Jean-Eric

Vergne going past. Daniel Ricciardo not far behind. So there has been a

change around there. On board with Daniel Ricciardo and yeah, then he

got past Paul di Resta as well. Paul di Resta lost two places. He

Rosberg, Canary Kebbi ashy and Kimi Raikkonen. -- Kamui Kobayashi. He

locks up and runs wide. He made the pass back into turn 14. We know

that Kamui Kobayashi loves to have a go. The corner arrived quicker

than he expected. He kept it on the tarmac. Nico Rosberg used his KERS.

Look at high kick -- Kimi Raikkonen now! Can he find a way past the

Sauber? John Eric Bana is only won a place out of the points. -- Jean

Eric Bana. There he is, the young Frenchman Foster if he could get

one more players can he could score points on his debut. -- one more

place, he could score points on his debut. It is quicker on this lap.

That is a really interesting battle. There is so much at stake for the

rookie drivers. They know the pressure is on to perform every

weekend. Mark Webber would love to get a good result. Currently he is

in his best finishing position. I have got to think that Mark Cueto

will go for it. I was going to say to get his first podium, they stuck

him on the podium. They were celebrating that he got the cup

into 5th. -- at the car. We saw earlier in the Grand Prix, Lewis

Hamilton is not able to use his tyres as well as Jenson Button.

Sebastian Vettel has just done the fastest lap of the race. Only eight

tenths quicker than Jenson Button did last time around. -- print one

of a second quicker. The Red Bulls are struggling. Is he right at the

point of burning out on these tyres? We will have to wait and see.

We are on lap 55 out of 58 and we're running out of time. What are

you thought? We're in the latter part of the race. Give us a little

bit of thought on what to have seen today. It has been very impressive

by McLaren. Hamilton lost out with the safety car. It was a good

recovery by Red Bull. They got their homework done last night and

make the cut a bit better. Ferrari with 5th place will be a bit of a

surprise. It was great racing. Very close. That is what we want. It is

fabulous to see all the different cars fighting against one another.

Three laps remaining and the advantage is with Jenson Button.

Let's just remind you. We're looking inside the pits of Bruno's

Senna. The car was damaged in the incident. He tangled with Filipe

Massa her. It started with Lewis Hamilton on pole but Jenson Button

made the better start and gradually eased away. Lewis Hamilton never

seem to have the same level of pace. The Red Bulls had done well. Romain

Grosjean went out very early and we lost him from the equation.

Sebastian Vettel worked his way through the order. He gained under

the safety car, which came out when we had the Caterham strop --

stopped on the straight. Nico Rosberg has been disappointing in

the latter part of the race. Mercedes looked strong early on but

they faded away. No such problems for these guys up front. Jenson

Button is leading. He has just set a new fastest lap. Hamilton is in

their place. He needs to keep his focus to keep Mark Webber behind

him. The Marie share is getting past by the Ferrari of Fernando

Alonso. This is great stuff. There are some great battles going along.

It would not take much for Pastor Maldonado to have a go. It is a

remarkable drive from this young driver. Also a remarkable drive.

Nico Rosberg has been overtaken by Kamui Kobayashi. We did not see so

much of this by him lasted that he is going for it today. -- last year

but he is going for it today. I am sorry, we got that wrong. It is

calorie cobia she and Kimi Raikkonen battling. -- Kamui

Kobayashi. It still is the case that the sad but is better. They

did finish top 10 last cheerful start -- the Sauber. Let's have a

look what happened. Kimi Raikkonen was still attacking. Kimi Raikkonen

is the predator. He is also the prey. He is being chased. Daniel

Ricciardo showed great qualifying yesterday. Very impressive.

Hopefully he will finish his first home race. Do not do anything silly

now. I think he might pull a pass on his team-mate. As long as he

gets it damn cleanly. Daniel Ricciardo on his homes -- home turf

wants to get past. That is the Williams and Pastor Maldonado.

is the man ran to turn eight. That is a very unusual place to have an

incident. -- the run round turn eight. He went down through turn

six, on to the artificial grass and he lost the back end of the car.

That is why they go through such stringent crash testing. Jenson

Button wins in Australia. Sebastian Vettel is second and Lewis Hamilton

in third. Mark Webber is in 4th place. Jenson Button takes his

third win in Melbourne. Nico Rosberg has some damage to his car.

Did they come together? That was the father of Jenson Button. Sergio

Perez was under pressure. There are points at stake across the line.

Daniel Ricciardo, the Australian, gets into the points on his first

time raised was dug Mark Webber gets his best ever result here.

That was fantastic. Great race, at great job. Fantastic! What a great

weight to start the year. Fantastic! The cut is beautiful and

she is quick. Brilliant stuff from Jenson Button. He has matched you

in wins now. Thoroughly deserved. A fantastic victory from Jenson

Button. He is saying, seriously, guys, that was a great afternoon!

Pastor Maldonado was close to his best ever Formula One result. Look

at it again! It does not look that wide. It does not look like he

really goes over the kerb big time. Tyres have lost a lot of their cage.

He may have deployed KERS or opened DRS. Nico us Beth was classified

12th. Did he come together? -- Nico Rosberg. Did they tangle? He got

through there. I do not know what was going on. Daniel Ricciardo was

batting away. There was a lock up and he went wide. It was all going

on between the Toro Rossos. Daniel Ricciardo has taken the honours

between those team-mates. Stressful stuff. McLaren, for them, it is

their 6th victory in Melbourne. That matches Ferrari. It is their

11th victory in Australia a drawer. McLaren is definitely the winning

team in Australia. It was not a one, two, which we thought it would be

at one stage. Jenson Button went at it from the start but Lewis

Hamilton did not seem to be able to make his tyres go as far as Jenson

Button. Then with the safety car, Sebastian Vettel could jump Lewis

Hamilton on the race track, rather than try to overtake him. Jenson

Button tip victory over Sebastian Vettel. Lewis Hamilton was third,

ahead of Mark Webber. Quite a list of retirements from this Australian

Grand Prix. What a race that was! great stuck by Jenson Button. Just

imagine the joy it on this podium right now. McLaren will be

delighted. We were discussed by Lewis Hamilton finished third. He

does not look very happy at the moment. Red Bull, after a difficult

qualifying yesterday, Sebastian Vettel will be very happy. He

finishes second at the first race of the season. Australia has a

habit of just producing these kind of races. It is a fabulous venue.

If they keep doing races like it, we will be here for ever. It is

strange will stop this kind of circuit should not really. Drama

should be hard to come by. We had overtaking and drama by the bucket

load. We have had the introduction of KERS and DRS. Pirelli has given

us a lot more strategy to play -- play with for the drivers. There

were two or three cars separated by 0.1 of a second. That is quite a

nice indicator of how the midfield will be this season - and at gate

this season. It was very close and bury tight at the end. -- very

tight. Fernando Alonso, and a lot of the big teams, got themselves

out of trouble today. I guess out of the two of them, Jenson Button

would have expected to be on the podium. Maybe Red Bull were

surprised at how quick the car was today. Where are they? They felt

they had good race pace through the winter testing. No one was doing

that type of running. What was the performance when you have DRS for

the whole track? What we have discovered is that McLaren have the

upper hand with qualifying. You would say that Sebastian Vettel was

fortunate with the safety car to be able to jump Lewis Hamilton but we

have a great season and lined up. very glum looking Lewis Hamilton on

the podium. If he had nailed it at the start, he would not have been

jumped by Sebastian Vettel and he could have won the race. This was

the turning point. Jenson Button made a fantastic start. He becomes

stronger. In the first couple of laps he pulled away such a gap he

probably caught Lewis Hamilton by surprise. I was disappointed with

the demeanour of Lewis Hamilton on the podium. The great thing about

the start for Jenson Button was he said, I am going to have a go. That

showed his mind set. On the clean part of the track, Lewis Hamilton

bob down initially. On the first corner, at once on the inside, you

are stuck. It was almost a Sebastian Vettel type start by him.

Lewis Hamilton was trying to get back straightaway but it was not to

be. Let's start at the beginning. Tell us about the start of the race.

It was a shocking start. I am not sure what happened. I let out the

clutch and it followed on with the spin. I lost a lot of ground, which

is unfortunate. After that it was impossible to overtake. It was

about keeping my spot and the safety car did not help. It was a

brave and inspired double pit stop but you ended up in the wrong place

at the wrong time. I am often like that. It was a great job by Jenson

Button and it is great for the team. We were very quick. The go forward

to the next race in good shape. is any race or one. Do you feel it

has been a good step over the winter and it might sneak your head

of Red Bull, or is it too early to tell? In qualifying we were quick

and competitive but they were quick in the race. They are still a force

to be reckoned with. If you are on pole position it is your

prerogative to do with the car what you well. I thought he stayed a

fraction too long. Jenson Button had the impetus to go into the

first corner. Normally it is a titanic battle. It was a subdued

Lewis Hamilton and he will have learned from this. A very popular

We will always say every win is special. But this one does mean a

lot to the team because we have started the last two years and it

hasn't been the easiest. The first couple of races has been tricky. To

come into this race and win, I would say we were dominant today.

It really does mean a lot. I spoke to my chief me me Khanic yesterday,

Luke. I said what's the matter, mate? He said "it has been flat

out." He said, "I'm looking forward to Sunday night when we get a

rest." I am not sure he is going to get one tonight! I don't think so.

You said that you were going to have a go into the first corner. So

you let out the clutch and you feel the traction build. Was that the

moment you knew you could win this race? I did react well to the

lights and then I got a little excited when I got alongside Lewis

and I pulled for second gear too early and when that that happens,

you get a poor shift. You see my head. It moved forward? You get a

poor shift and that really hurt me and it was a drag race. I wassen

the inside inside -- was on the inside. I spoke to your dad. And he

said you were very nervous this morning. But he said with

excitement. What does excited, nervousness mean? It is the first

time I have told anyone that I get nervous before a race.

He told me. No, no, it is true. I was in the

hotel room with my girlfriend and I said, "I am nervous today." I get

nervous, excited, and more so today. I don't know why it is. Yesterday

the old boy said, "Well done for qualifying." After the race when I

won the race, I did say that on the radio.

How were the nerves when you knew a safety car was coming out? We had

been pacing ourselves most of the race. Pushing as hard as we could.

Saving the the fuel and Saving the tyres. It is always tricky and when

you are the first one into the unknown, it is tricky. The car went

really well on the restart. I pulled out 2.5 seconds on the first

lap and that was really, that was key to the victory I think today

and then I could really hold that gap to Sebastian Vettel.

And those Red Bulls have pace, haven't they? They have. I said

that in the first corners yesterday. They didn't have a good day

yesterday. Seb put it in the gravel and didn't get the best lap in

qualifying. It is a role rehearsal from last year with Red Bull and

McLaren, you know. They had the pace in qualifying, but we couldn't

match them in the race. We have got to keep that.

If it was a one race championship, you would be the world champion so

there is another 19 to go. Well done, Jenson.

APPLAUSE A round of applause for you from

the crowd. There was no need for those nerves.

I imagine that the Red Bull drivers would have been nervous as well

because they looked shell-shocked after qualifying yesterday, Eddie.

Well, I think they qualified OK. Their qualifying was, if you like,

it was a mirror image of what the testing was, I don't think they

were good enough and they know they are not good good enough and they

are unhappy about the the interpretation of the rules. There

maybe protests, but there are certain rum, rumblings that Red

Bull don't think that some of the cars are running to the

specification that they understand. Let me go to David and talk about

Sebastian Vettel, because there were a couple of moments in that

race, uncharacteristic slips from him? Yes, he ran wide into turn one.

At the early stage of the Grand Prix, they have a lot of fuel on

board. He was hunting Michael Schumacher. A bit of oversteer. Out

across the grass and that put him under pressure with Rosberg who we

see coming up on his left-hand side. He loses the rear end as he goes

through the corner. He got lucky when it came to the safety car and

that's probably why Lewis Hamilton wasn't looking as satisfied as

maybe he should have been with the result. But nice to see that there

is a bit of a mix there, you know. Much as Red Bull would love to

continue their dominance, McLaren is a quality team and further down

the grid, Ferrari coming back up. And Mercedes slipping away. Let's

just hear from the current Formula One world champion, Sebastian

Vettel. A strong race and an eventful race for you. How are you

feeling? I am happy to be honest. I think starting sixth. I was

surprised yesterday with the questions I got and the answers I

had to give so yeah, I think it was not, you know, the preferred

position to start, but it wasn't disastrous. I think we had a good

start at the race. I was able to find the rhythm quickly and got

past a couple of people, especially the Mercedes because to get them is

tricky. They are quick on the straights. We have seen that last

year a couple of times that many people got got frustrated behind

them and that was crucial and pace was good. I was happier with the

car. It was an important race for us to understand more about the car

and learn about the car. The potential seems to be there. Surely

today, Jenson Button deserved to win. Congratulations, but to split

the me clarns the McLarens and to finish ahead of Lewis was great.

did fear the worst for Mark Webber. He is unlucky in Australia and he

came on the radio talking about the fact that he had damage to his car

and you think not another disappointing Aussie race for Mark

Webber? He didn't get off the line clean. He lost a number of places

and then you see two cars, it was the Force India, yes it was the

Force India and another car who I couldn't catch, they closed the gap

thinking he was going to disappear so he takes a hit. It was recardio.

There is contact and it kicks off. Is that an accurate view from

inside the cockpit? It is off centre, of course. Looking down too

much at cockpit, but it gives us another movement feel to what the

driver is is doing in the car. EDDIE JORDAN: I have a problem with

Mark about this. He is an sheernsed driver. He is one of the --

experienced driver. He is one of the oldest in the group. It is like

penalty shootouts, you have to go and he has shown us he is not good

enough at starting. So what do you do? You go to Silverstone or some

circuit and you just perfect it and do it time and time again. We did

it so many times, drivers where they couldn't hook it up together,

you do it so often that it becomes second nature. Mark hasn't learned

that. He wouldn't be ignoring the fact

that he struggles with starts. He was talking about his starts

becoming an Achilles heel. They practise starts during winter, but

times you want to go away and do nothing other than start after

start after start, we did it at McLaren over several years and

clearly, it is an issue he has to work on because if you do the good

work in qualifying and lose two or three places into the first corner

P And in this case more. Well done to to Mark Webber his best result

at the Australian Grand Prix. To a man who came from the back to

the front. He started 17th and finish sixth. He hasn't lost his

flair and pizzazz. There was disappointment after

qualifying yesterday. He was and upstaged by his team-mate, Grosjean.

This was inspired driving. He takes the car around the outside in turn

four and nice driving from Kobayashi and the Sauber. He has

not lost any of that. He has only been away a couple of years. It is

not like he has been sitting on a beach. He has been in a rally car

and anyone who has followed rallying will know that's scary

stuff. The sport moves on so much, Eddie,

but one thing that stays the same is marshals waving flags. Just as

David was saying he is not race rusty, he said this over the radio.

He gave us all a giggle. TEAM RADIO: Why do I get all the

flags? Blue flags are for cars behind Kimi,

they are not for you! It is a classic. This is the, "Why

Me?" Syndrome. Honestly, the why me? It is the same race for

everybody and everyone feels victimised, but that's never the

case. It goes around and comes around.

What he has forgotten, of course, if it is a Blue Flag for you, a

blue light will come on in your cockpit. Of course, the marshals do

it the old-fashioned way with a Blue Flag. Kimi has been so focused

on what is happening out of the cockpit, he has not been looking at

the lights on his dashboard. Clearly feeling persecuted. We are

glad to have him back. Let's talk about Ferrari and Fernando Alonso.

Bad qualifying yesterday and let's ride on board with Fernando Alonso.

Well, he gets the car hooked up nicely away from the inside part of

the track and the Ferrari form, it seems to be linked to what colour

flag and what name is on the side of the cockpit and in this case, it

is like the C has opened for him and the cars ran wide and that's

where he was a bigger through the early kerfuffle in turn one. The

pace of the Ferrari on testifyy tanks was good. He seems to be able

to find group in a way that Massa isn't at this stage of the season.

This is a huge relief to Ferrari after what happened yesterday in

qualifying. Let's hear from Alonso and we will

get Eddie's thoughts. Fernando from a great start, was it

a better race than you hoped for? Yeah, I think so. I think think it

is a better result regarding how - it is a good result. Being twelfth

in qualifying and one second off the pace. We didn't lose too many

points. We were far from pole position yesterday. Today we had

some interesting fights, but not at the top so we need to improve

quickly, but overall, quite happy with the points we get from this

crazy race. Crazy race indeed. Sending a

message back to Maldonado. I am not sure with the facial harp. Let's --

hair. Let's talk about the team- mate. A big coming together with

the two Brazilian drivers. Massa struggled for pace all weekend.

In this case, you cannot blame the car. Massa for me, a second off a

lap mate off his team-mate. He needs to up his game immediately.

We spoke before the race and I called to question where was

Ferrari going? The amount of money, �400 million a year to spend on

promotion and advertising to promote a product that actually is

probably at this moment damaging their product because what they are

doing on the track is not good enough for Ferrari.

It is no lack of money, no lack of talent, they have trawled Formula

One for the great and the good over is as drastic for them in terms of

lack of performance. The pace today during the race, it was within the

same second as the McLarens in front. The performance level during

qualifying left a lot to be desired. I take a lot of heart pull them out

of their performance at the beginning of the Grand breeze. You

do not expect to see a Ferrari battling with the Williams of old.

It is a bit too early to be putting the male in the coffin. They have

got away with this weekend. If they had had a bad result today, the

knives would have been out. mentioned the battle between

Williams and Ferrari. Let's have a look at that moment. Is someone

being a bit naughty, do you think? Let's have a quick look. What is

different? We saw Kimi Raikkonen on the outside. I really do not see

how the stewards are going to do much about at the start it was a

racing incident. Both cars were unwilling to give way. -- much

about that. I have only ever seen Kimi Raikkonen overtake round there.

I understand Bruno's Senna wanting to hold the position. We have seen

this a lot with Filipe Massa at last year. Is it because he sits

lower in the cockpit that he does not have good vision? That was a

bit clumsy. Was it a racing incident? The only difference is

that there was another car in front. They were not going into the corner

at the same speed. Do I blame Filipe Massa? I do not. Do I blame

whoever? I think this is a racing incident. I do not known who to

blame. One man who was plainness in parts was Pastor Maldonado. Not

blame us for the way his race ended. He had a dramatic weekend.

fantastic performance for him, right up -- right up until it

really counted. It was a racing incident. Possibly Romain Grosjean

should have backed out of it. This was the last lap and Fernando

Alonso was in front. This is a difficult corner as the sun goes

down. He rolls through the corner nicely. Humidity on the kerb. Old

tyres. A lack of concentration. Maybe he opened the DRS. It is

difficult to see on a monitor if it was open. It was a fairly

spectacular crash. Could I ask the question? Do you think Pastor

Maldonado was going to have a go on the next corner? Pastor Maldonado

has the message, he is in trouble. The Ferrari is in trouble. It is a

mindset thing. It is not to take out the racer. You need to look for

opportunities. Perhaps today should have been a case of saying, that is

a good enough result to start the season. I'm sure we as a happy to

see a Williams car fighting with a Ferrari. Sadly, it was not to be.

Pastor Maldonado, tell us how you are feeling. I'm OK at the moment.

I am disappointed. I was doing a great race. I'm was consistent. It

was a good pace. I'm happy for that was do it is looking strong for the

season. -- I am happy for that. We need to take positive things for

the weekend. The car was strong and consistent. You were on course to

score more points today than William Scott and the whole of last

season. Yes. -- Williams got. I feel confident. We are very

competitive. We need to keep pushing like that. The last lap of

Pastor Maldonado was not the only drama we saw at the end. Write to

the line in the midfield. This was a real scrap for points and a good

indicator have these young drivers are feeling. They are desperate to

impress, particularly this guy. This gives a lot of heart as to

whether mind sets of these young guys are. Team-mates are racing

will to wheel. He goes for the cutback. He loses the wreck of the

car. He runs into the setting sun. -- at the rear. Then the run-down

in to turn 15. It is right into the eyes of the driver. We have the run

for the line. It is encouraging stuff but they were able to battle

it out. This is a much better camera angle. He was able to use up

any of his DRS and KERS and pick up that vital point. It was more like

Formula three or four minutes for at Silverstone on a dark winter's

night. Everyone going hell-for- leather just to get over that line.

That is what makes Formula One exciting. You love racing talent.

am excited. They just want to perform. They get such a buzz out

of it. Yes, points for the team, they think about that later. They

just want to be the closest Guide to them. That is what that is a bad

and that is why I want to watch fantastic end to this race! It was

crazy. I do not really know what happened from start to finish. The

first corner was a bit disappointing. I do not know if I

was to blame. It was a decent start. I went to the outside. There were

too many of us. I think we had some damaged to the Left Front. It is

great to finish 9th. I am extremely happy. The car was very good. It

could have been much better. To come 9th was really good.

Congratulations. In the thick of what he described as the Crazy

last-lap is Paul di Resta. Give us your thoughts. I think today week

of is the struggle for pace, trying to get the tyres switched on. -- we

obviously struggled. On the last lap, we thought we would get points

if we could keep our nose clean. I saved a bit of KERS, trying to get

out of the last corner. I was able to use a bit more than everyone

else managed. We would have liked more. It was the KERS Button that

its cue from the back of the pack? It probably was. I positioned the

car well. It is quite a long run in Melbourne at the finish line.

During the race, there was any point where I could have lost the

front wing and stuff. In terms of performance, we are not where we

need to be. In Malaysia, Prix should be in better shape. White is

it's so tough here? -- why is it so tough here? The temperature will be

a bit different. I will not go into details why we think we are

struggling. In qualifying yesterday it I'm just 20 seconds on about lap.

That was the difference. It puts you in among the pack. With a race

car, it looks strong. My second last lap was the strongest of the

race. Everyone else was falling off the pace. The fire has to go out at

some point. Doesn't that says something about the strategy or the

way the car is set up? When I saw you go back to 13th, having been as

far as 10th, there was nothing in the tank. What happened? How come

you've finished in 10th? I think the safety car was not best. It got

the Toro Rossos back in the game. I saw I could concentrate on the ones

in front. They had soft tyres at the end, which were quicker. We

were on the mediums. Everybody dropped off and it allowed me to go

stronger at the end. Everything was there. We need things to switch on

a bit quicker in the next few races before we get upgrades, which hope

we will be a big package before the European season. Thank you for

joining us. I think the midfield battle will be interesting. Paul is

disappearing off. The drivers will be debriefing with engineers after

the race. A bit of a chance for a celebration with McLaren. You know

how it is to celebrate a win in the Australian Grand Prix! This is a

big victory for GBE. It was the straight fight. Benny had his first

win for McLaren, it was in changing conditions. -- when he had. There

was good tyre management. They were extremely happy. Lewis Hamilton was

smiling there. He can be different -- disappointed with the way the

safety car worked out. Last year was Red Bull doing all the

celebrating. They are getting ready to pack up for Malaysia. I would

not rule them out yet. Given the circumstances, it was important

that they did not have the fastest car for a change. I thought

Sebastian Vettel was very promising and very strong. What happens is -

what makes me excited - his McLaren have traditionally always been a

team that can develop best. If they can do that again this year, then

Red Bull have a big fight on their hands. Eddie is excited and so

should you. We return next weekend. Only a few days between this race

and the Malaysian Grand Prix. You can see all the highlights from

qualifying on Saturday, 24th March and a full race highlights