A Review Of The 2010 Australian Grand Prix

A Review Of The 2010 Australian Grand Prix

The 2010 Australian Grand Prix was the second race of the F1 season and was held on March 28 in Melbourne, Australia at the famed Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit. Before the Grand Prix became part of the World Championship circuit, drivers still raced courses at different venues throughout Australia. The race became permanent in 1985 and moved to Melbourne in 1996.

The qualifying round was held the day before the race itself and Sebastian Vettel, driving for Red Bull-Renault, won pole position with an impressive lap time of 1:23. Due to wet conditions during the remainder of the weekend, no driver during the race was able to beat this time.

Race day started off slowly. Due to rainy weather, the track was declared "wet" and drivers first had to change their tires before the racing started. With intermediate tires on their fast cars, the F1 drivers were having control problems from the onset. Eventual winner Jenson Button tangled up with Fernando Alonso in the first turn. Schumacher's car was also damaged in the incident.

Button would set the tone for the race nearly the entire way. With more accidents happening due to the tires, Jenson was the first to stop in at the pits and undergo a tire change. In a risky move that, depending on the track surface, could have gone badly, Jenson switched from intermediates to soft tires.

Once Button returned to the track, he seemed to have much more control over maneuvering, and other drivers started to stop in and have their tires replaced. The crash out of the gate caused Button some suffering as it put him far from the lead. However, being first to change tires helped him a lot and he gained ground up to second position, behind Sebastian Vettel.

A shock came when Vettel's car suffered a serious malfunction with the torque drive and Button was able to pick up the lead, which he kept for the rest of the race. The fastest lap of the race went to Mark Webber, who got around in 1:28 on lap 47, though at the end he came in at a mediocre 9th place.

As Jenson led the race, the drivers behind him were dueling for position in the latter laps. Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa struggled to make up ground, and Mark Webber, also vying for position, hit Hamilton in the rear and exploded his car's nose cone.

The only driver to even remotely close the gap with Button was Robert Kubica, with Button still winning by an impressive 12 seconds. Kubica, driving for Renault, finished second, beating Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso, driving Ferraris.

The Australian Grand Prix is one of the longer tracks on the F1 circuit. Known as a street circuit race, the course is riddled with various turns and slopes. There are 58 laps around the long track, totaling around 191 miles (307 kilometers).

Racing legend Michael Schumacher has been one of the track's most notable racers and until this year, he was the track's last consecutive winner. He took center-stage with champagne on the podium in all three years 2000-02. In the races of 2010 and 2009, Jenson Button took all the glory as winner in both years.