My (enjoyable) Australian GP!

Weirdly, people who criticised F1 like never before as being extremely boring two weeks ago in Bahrein said nothing about yesterday's race. F1 is never boring because if you watch it as a passionate guy who pay attention to every details and live timing, you always enjoy despite not a lot of spectacular action happens on track. If you are not passionate by motorsport but want to enjoy spectacular racing, watch BTCC for example, not F1.

Anyway, Melbourne was very interesting and some drivers/teams eventually tried different strategies. I am a bit disapointed to see that with fresher tyres, 2 sec quicker, it is still diffcult to overtake (Hamilton on Alonso at the end of the race). But this track is not easy for overtaking. But such enjoyable! I have heard that Australia thinks about moving their GP from this track to another one in Sidney, I hope they won't.

My stars now. And this, time, I swear, it was difficult to decide how much were deserving some drivers.

BUTTON: Waww! I never thought Button would be able to win so quickly with McLaren in 2010. I really thought that it was a very big risk for him to come in Hamilton's heaven. Outpaced as I expected in Bahrein, he reacted very well in Melbourne. First, in qualifcations, he outpaced massively Hamilton by a 6 tenth of a second gap, enormous between two teammates. And Hamilton was even not having any mechanical problem. Then the start was a bit more difficult as he touched Alonso. Actually it was not his fault, Alonso ignored him and cut his lane. He can be happy that he did not suffer too much on this event. But Hamilton who started very well overtook Button. Then Button took himself the decision to go on dry tyres. Everybody thought it was probably a too early decision when we saw his first sector. But directly in the last sector he was 2 sec quicker than anyone. The time other teams react on, Button ran 2 laps alone, 4 sec quicker than anyone else on track. A brilliant decision, which gave him the victory when Vettel's car broke. But he was still able to push then despite very old tyres. And at the end of the race he was still quicker than the Ferraris in the same situation (worn tyres). Very important win for him, and I am sure that with this race, he will be boosted psychologically. ***

KUBICA: Once again the Polish was brilliant behind the wheel of his Renault. But this time, compare to Bahrein, his efforts paid! He had a great start. A great pitstop where he overtook Massa. And then he resisted perfectly to Hamilton and the Ferraris despite a slower car, without destroying his tyres. Perfect race, great result for Renault as well! ***

MASSA: He achieved a great qualifying lap in Bahrein, not in Melbourne. Alonso was 7 tenth of a second quicker! A massive gap on this small track. Then Massa realised a stunning start. And I think that it is all what he has done great on his race Not enough to give him a star. He has never been able to overtake Kubica. He was just good enough to resist to Alonso who did not want to take any risk for the team.

ALONSO: Despite his slightly slower Ferrari, Alonso was the only man able to compete against the RedBull in qualifying. But he started very bad with an accident and he had to push hard to come back. He did! Much more than Shcumacher who was in the same situation at one point. Then he was unfortunately blocked by Massa. He did not want to try anything too risky despite he was much quicker. It is a shame because I really wanted to see if he could catch Kubica and then perhaps Button. His resistance to a 2 sec/lap quicker Hamilton at the end of race, with very worn tyres was very good too. 2 stars only because he did a mistake at the start and he should have try more to pass Massa. **

ROSBERG: The German did what he could with his slow Mercedes but nothing impressive though. At the moment, he scores good points and if the Mercedes becomes quicker in the future, these points will be very important. He is also the only driver who decided to change tyres twice to get an advantage from this strategy.

HAMILTON: Difficult to juge how much star he deserves. On this race he has shown both the best and the worse. The worse: in qualifying because he was outpaced a lot by Button. In the race, when he showed that he was not, compare to Button, able to take his own decisions on strategy. The problem is not that he is not able to decide, the problem is that he criticises his team for that decision while he is still in the race, trying to overtake Alonso. He showed the best in the first part of the race: attacking a lot, overtaking, very impressive. But too much bad points in this race to give him a star.

LIUZZI: Again slower than his teammate Sutil in qualifying, he showed one more time, that he was much more efficient and consistent during the race. A very important quality in racing. He scores the good points for Force India. *

BARRICHELLO: Still a lot quicker than his young teammate Hulkenberg. Still very motivated despite his age and despite being in an intermediate team after fighting for championship and victory last year. He does a very good job. *

WEBBER: Oh my God! What a bad race from Webber! Again...

SCHUMACHER: I do not know what to say. I am really not impressed. But I still want to see what he could do in front of the grid. Can Mercedes do it? If Mercedes improves, can he do it? Not sure at all.

ALGUERSUARI: The yound Spanish man does not score point but he does his job properly. Not great, not bad. Yesterday he has been very good, resisting to Shcumacher for 22 laps! *

DE LA ROSA: He was having a strong race in the points but he was not able to preserve his tyres. They were too worn. He tried to resist Alguersuari's and Schumacher's attacks and was apparently not very fairplay considering what I read. But I did not see it and anyway he eventually lost the positions.

KOVALAINEN: He finished again

CHANDHOK: He was only a tenth of a second slower than Senna, his teammate in qualifying. Not bad at all! And I am happy for him that he finished his race. I follow him on Twitter and he is a very cool guy!

GLOCK: A Virgin has not finished a race yet. Was it because of their supposedly too small fuel tank? No. Apparently because of a problem of suspension.

DI GRASSI: Hydraulics for the second Virgin

VETTEL: I think Raikkonen gave him his black cat before leaving F1. Again a reliability problem on the RedBull. Can it not strike Webber's car? The useless and slow driver has no problem, the great one always.. Frustrating. Anyway, his qualifying lap was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G, his start perfect and he was controling perfectly the race.. What to say? ***

SUTIL: Engine problem. Was he able to score point whithout this problem? I don't remember.

PETROV: A bad qualifying but a great start, perhaps a Russian speciality? He still need to learn F1 anyway. Yesterday's lesson was "how to drive on a wet track with dry tyres without having an accident?" He failed.

SENNA: Hydraulics for him as well.

BUEMI: Hit by Kobayashi's Sauber on the first lap. An horrible crash and a too short race. It's a shame, he was quite quick in qualifying.

HULKENBERG: He was in the same accident than Buemi. He is still a lot slower than veteran Barrichello, 7 tenth of a second. It's a shame, I was expecting more from him but he still has time to convice me.

KOBAYASHI: His accident he cause was horrible. But it is not his fault. His front wing break on a straight line and kept wedged inside his car. He could not break and he stroke in the cars already in the corner. Freaky!!

TRULLI: He even did not start. How could he finish?

The stars ranking:

Vettel 6

Kubica 5

Button 3

Alonso 3

Massa 2

Hamilton 1

Liuzzi 1

Barrichello 1

Alguersuari 1

Next race is straight next week in Malaysia. The track will be much less spectacular but big straight lines may enhance overtaking.