Alonso wins, Button blows on finish line

It was an incredible Grand Prix in Melbourne once more, with several safety car periods and most of all a lot of driver errors, accidents and mechanical failures. Only 13 cars finished this race as Button even saw his engine blow in the last straight line. Alonso however was a class of his own and is joined by Raikkonen and Ralf Schumacher on the podium.

Welcome to Australia, where for the first time this year a start has been aborted. While JP Montoya spins in the warmup lap, Giancarlo Fisichella waves to note he has a problem when already on the starting grid. Immediately this means yellow flags and another formation lap. Fisichella is consequently rolled into the pitlane to start the race from there.

When shortly after, the race finally got underway with several accidents in the first corner. As Klien moves to the outside, he pushes Rosberg away who hits Massa hard. The latter hits the barrier while Rosberg drives a lap towards the pitlane to give up there. Several corners further in the pack, Trulli hits Coulthard and sees himself blocked on the circuit, basically ending his race. Both events require a sefety car period for 2 laps.

While during the actual start all positions remained the same at the front, Alonso quickly chose the inside of the last corner when the SC lights went out, putting himself into the slipstream of poleman Button to overtake him on the straight. Jenson was quickly challenged by Raikkonen too but was able to hold off that threat.

That was however not all, as only 3 laps later, Klien hardly hit the barrier, probably a consequence of a car poblem because of touching Rosberg in the first lap. Unfortunately for an unleashed Alonso, this again lead to a lap safety car period.

Again, when the cars were allowed to race at full speed, Button is once more passed, this time by Raikkonen. A close battle follows but Kimi is able to pull away from the Honda after half a lap of close encounters. Button furthermore made a mistake that allowed Montoya to come really close to also overtake Button, but without succes. As Alonso again pulls away, Raikkonen realises the fastest lap so far in lap 11.

On lap 13, it's Alonso's time to put in the fastest lap, leading with a margin of 4.1 seconds. Fisichella at that time is 11th while Takuma Sato in 13th is followed by several cars, somewhat alike the Trulli train of last year. Michael Schumacher is having a worse time, as he is passed by Liuzzi, gets in trouble in front of Speed and heavily blocks his tyres at the end of the straight. Fisichella meanwhile quickly closes on both Schumi and Speed. As a result, Fisico passes the STR in lap 16.

Lap 18 and already the first car comes into the pitlane as Montoya requires fuel and new tyres from his pitcrew. Earlier, Monteiro performed a pitstop when other cars were behind the safety car. One lap later, Button enters the pitlane too, accompanied by Ralf Schumacher. Both fuelled for about 16 laps. Fisico thereafter also came in. The Roman at that time was closely chasing the suffering Schumacher. Alonso on the other hand had a around 22 laps of fuel charged.

When just one lap later Raikkonn comes in for an equal amount of 22 laps of fuel, Mark Webber leads his home GP in a Williams Cosworth. The pitstops resulted for Button lose another place in favour of Montoya. Lap 23 however is the end for Williams, as Mark has to give up with an apparent hydraulics problem.

In lap 28, leader Alonso is 14s ahead of Raikkonen and is 2 seconds faster per lap. Even Kimi's teammate Montoya is 1.5s faster that Raikkonen. Meanwhile, Fisico is reprimanded by his team as he is also 2 seconds slower that Alonso.

With 24 laps to go, Michael Schumacher ruins his car as he smashes into the wall as he comes onto the straight. Schumi already went wide in several consecutive corners and looked like to be forcing his car, wanting more than was in it. The event is bad news once more for Alonso as the safety car is again deployed. Most cars come into the pitlane for a final stop, while on Raikkonen's McLaren the front wing is also replaced. The second Renault profits a lot from the SC period as Fisico is now in 7th place.

The safety car left the track 4 laps later but was to come out only one lap later after Liuzzi also met the fences. The positions at that time are Alonso, Raikkonen, Ralf Schumacher, Heidfeld, Montoya, Button, Fisichella, Villeneuve. hat same lap, Barrichello informs his team that he "is struggling like a pig" as his brake pedal is annoying him.

17 laps to go and the cars are unleashed again. Only one lap later, Alonso is 5s up on Raikkonen thanks once more to a quick start after the safety car period. That same lap is also the end for Monteiro who came slowly into the pitlane. It's even not the end of this GP, as with 11 laps left, Montoya also loses his car on the curbs in the same corner as Schumacher did, but while not hitting the wall, something apparently broke in the car as he moved aside and stepped out of his MP4-21.

2 laps later Alonso sets the fastest lap in the race while still quite confortably in the lead of Raikkonen. At the same time, Pat Symonds strangely looks saddened and made people thinking about a problem with one of the Renault cars. Fisico though closed up on Button in order to challenge him for the 5th place.

Raikkonen managed to put in the fastest lap of the race in the very last lap while Alonso won the race masterly. Jenson Button though blew his engine in the last corner. The Honda went up in flames just before the finish, handing 5th place to Fisico.

The race results are as follows:
1 F. Alonso Renault 1:34:27.870 10
2 K. Räikkönen McLaren + 1.829 8
3 R. Schumacher Toyota + 24.824 6
4 N. Heidfeld BMW + 31.032 5
5 G. Fisichella Renault + 38.421 4
6 J. Villeneuve BMW + 49.554 3
7 R. Barrichello Honda + 51.904 2
8 S. Speed Scuderia Toro Rosso + 53.817 1
9 D. Coulthard Red Bull + 53.983 10 J. Button Honda + 1 laps 11 C. Albers Midland F1 + 0 laps 12 T. Sato Super Aguri + 0 laps 13 Y. Ide Super Aguri + 0 laps Did not finish
14 JP. Montoya McLaren + 11 laps 15 T. Monteiro Midland F1 + 17 laps 16 V. Liuzzi Scuderia Toro Rosso + 20 laps 17 M. Schumacher Ferrari + 25 laps 18 M. Webber Williams + 34 laps 19 C. Klien Red Bull + 53 laps 20 J. Trulli Toyota + 57 laps 21 N. Rosberg Williams + 57 laps 22 F. Massa Ferrari + 57 laps