The Australian Grand Prix often provides a surprise result and it did so again today, but it was not a pleasant surprise for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, as the team failed to score a single point, with both Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen retiring from the 58 lap race, the Brazilian on lap 45, with a broken nose support and the Finn two laps from the finish with a differential problem, although Kimi was actually classified sixteenth.

Saturday’s qualifying produced the unusual result of a new team – Brawn GP – monopolising the front row of the grid, with Jenson Button on pole and Rubens Barrichello second and that is the order in which they finished today, although while Button dominated the race, Barrichello had to recover from a poor start and took second spot on in the final laps, after Vettel and Kubica, running second and third, collided and retired. Joining the Brawn boys on the podium was Jarno Trulli for Toyota. However, he was later penalised for overtaking under a yellow flag, so that although he was on the podium, the points for third go to Lewis Hamilton in the McLaren Mercedes, fourth was Timo Glock in the second Toyota, with Fernando Alonso fifth for Renault. Nico Rosberg ended up sixth in the Williams, while Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Buemi became the 58th driver in the world championship to score points in his F1 debut, finishing seventh, with team-mate Sebastien Bourdais taking the final point for eighth spot.

At the start, world champion Lewis Hamilton was at the back, having changed a gearbox and both Toyotas started from pit lane. Barrichello’s poor start led to a few collisions with several drivers pitting for repairs, so that after the first lap, Button led Vettel, Massa third, Kubica, Raikkonen fifth, Rosberg, Barrichello, Nakajima and Piquet completing the top ten. Hamilton was coming up the order fast, while the gap between the two leaders was around the 4 second mark.

At the front, the gap between Button and Vettel has stabilized at around four seconds, the two trading fastest laps. On lap 10 Rosberg passed Raikkonen for 5th place, as the Ferrari men had opted to start on the softer tyres and were struggling, so that Barrichello also got by the Ferrari man so the team brought him in ahead of schedule for new tyres. On lap 12 Massa pitted from third place, with similar problems to his team-mate.

The new strategy, especially in Felipe’s case did not work, as the Safety Car appearance on lap 18, after Nakajima’s accident did not help the Prancing Horse cars.

After Felipe made his second stop on lap 32 he rejoined in 14th spot. Seven laps later, Kimi came in from fourth place, making a third stop on lap 44. But one lap later, he ran wide and brushed the safety wall, as Felipe slowed right down and limped back to the pits to retire. On lap 56, Kubica in third tried to pass second placed Vettel which resulted in both men crashing out, bringing out the Safety Car again, while Kimi was forced to retire with a faulty differential. So the race actually ended under the Safety Car and yet again, the Melbourne circuit had provided plenty of surprises. The teams immediately began packing up in haste, as Round 2, the Malaysian Grand Prix takes place in just one week’s time and, just like the Australian race, it is scheduled to take place in the late afternoon.