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.

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Stefano Domenicali: “This was definitely not a start worthy of Ferrari, from any point of view. We were lacking on the reliability front, with two cars forced to retire. Our performance was not up to the potential we had expected after our winter testing: we struggled to manage the tyres. Furthermore, our strategy choices did not work out, especially in the case of Felipe. To sum up, it was a day to forget from the result point of view, but to remember well so as to try and analyse everything we failed in, in order to improve immediately. From that point of view, it’s good we have a race coming up immediately next week in Malaysia. It will give us the opportunity to react as long as we draw the right conclusions, calmly but also decisively. Australia does not seem to have been a happy hunting ground for us these last few years: the circuit is a bit untypical where it could be that the pecking order is not so clear. It will be more evident in Sepang, but we are well aware that, apart from one team that was untouchable today, there are numerous other strong competitors.”

Felipe Massa: “We knew the Brawn GP cars would be unbeatable today, but all the same, we thought we could have a good race. The start was great, but after five or six laps, we ran into trouble with the soft tyres, to such an extent that we had to pit early. We then switched to a very aggressive strategy, which with hindsight turned out to be the wrong one, as shortly after the pit stop, the safety car came out on track. I found myself third, but after the restart, I had less than ten laps to try and make up ground on those who were behind me, but with more fuel. At the second stop, we filled it for the finish, but then I was very slow and finally, I had the problem which forced me to retire. In my opinion, apart from the Brawns, we are competitive, but we have to work perfectly to get to the front. Here, it is very difficult to get the tyres to work, partly because the track surface does not provide much grip. The solution for Malaysia? Work and work hard.”

Kimi Raikkonen: “When I ended up in the wall it was my mistake. A shame as, given what happened later, I could have finished second. We lost valuable points but we will try and make up for it starting right away in Malaysia. There, we will get a clearer picture of the situation because this circuit is not very indicative of performance. The KERS worked well at the start, but there was not much room to go anywhere. If we did not think it gave an advantage, we would not use it. Definitely the main problem was in managing the tyres, but we also need to improve our overall performance.”

Luca Baldisserri: “We opted to start on the softer tyres, a gamble that did not pay off today, because, given the huge degradation suffered by both drivers, we had to bring the first stops forward. We then went on two different strategies: with Felipe, in hindsight, we went the wrong way, especially as the safety car period did not help. Apart from this, we must admit that today, our performance was not up to that of many of our rivals. We must work out why and react quickly, starting in Malaysia.”

Source - Ferrari Media