The Formula 1 season finally got under way again today, 2 weeks late following the postponemnat of the intended season-opener in Bahrain, and what a race it was. With new tyres, moveable rear wings and re-instated 'kers', there were many unknowns; add to these the pre-season woes of McLaren and some high expectations from Renault and Sauber, and the outcome was clearly uncertain.
After pre-season testing, it had seemed a certainty that Red Bull would be at thr front with Ferrari and that Renault and Sauber could well compete for places in the top 10, while McLaren might be lucky to be anywhere. In the event, qualifying saw Red Bull, through Sebastien Vettel, take pole position but, out of the blue, Lewis Hamilton joined him on the front row; Mark Webber, and another surprise, Jensen Button, filled the second row, while Ferrari struggled. Somehow, McLaren had found oodles of speed while Ferrari had lost theirs, and it all looked pretty interesting.
The race itself was almost 2 races. At the front, Vettel and Hamilton gradually pulled away from the rest, and stayed in position, while there was a fair amount of 'chopping and changing' throughout the field. The new adjustable rear wing, apparently called the 'DRS' seemed to be of limited use and 'kers' was similarly lacking in its impact. The new tyres had all the drivers, bar one, making 2 or 3 stops to counter degradation, but Mexican rookie, Perez, in the Sauber, managed to make full distance with just one stop. No doubt the other teams will want to know how he did it as the tyres really are supposed to last for much less time than they did for him.
From the start, Jensen Button found himself falling back behind the surprise package of the race, Vitaly Petrov, as well as Felipe Massa and, try as he might, he could not re-pass the Ferrari; eventually, he managed it, only to be penalised for doing so by illegally leaving the racing circuit and a drive through penalty saw him pushed back to 12th spot. He did claw his way back to 6th, but he was more than half a minute behind his team mate who'd driven much of the race with a damaged underfloor. Petrov proved a revelation, maintaining 3rd place to the finish, with Alonso in 4th and Mark Webber 5th, also after having some less well defined problems with the car.
Further back, Sergio Perez in his debut in Formula 1 was a highly creditable 7th (how did he preserve those tyres ?), Kobayashi in the second Sauber was 8th, Felipe Massa came in 9th and Sebastien Buemi was 10th for Torro Ross. Paul di Resta in his first race was 12th but both Mercedes, of Rosberg and Schumacher, went out, Rosberg after a collision with Barrichello and Schumacher as a delayed result of a very early rear end impact from Jaime Alguersuari.
And so the 2011 championship started as that of 2010 ended, with a dominant drive from World Champion Sebastien Vettel and Lewis Hamilton following him home. While Red Bull, and Vettel, must be highly satisfied with the result, McLaren must surely be purring; that they could turn around such a poor pre-season to finish 2nd and 6th, while Ferrari clearly had slower cars, must bode well for the next few races at least. Expect Lewis and Jensen to be well in the mix in Malaysia in a fortnight's time.
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