Sebastian Vettel dominates Australian GP

Sebastian Vettel has won the opening round of the 2011 Formula One World Championship at Albert Park in dominant fashion.

The Red Bull Racing driver led away from pole position and controlled the gap to eventual second place finisher Lewis Hamilton for the duration of the race.

Mark Webber ended up fifth after running a three-stop strategy – one more than Vettel and Hamilton.

Webber was the only front-runner to finish the race on the soft tyre, but could not find a way around the Ferrari in the closing stages.

The Australian had fallen behind the Spaniard during during his third pitstop – which included a sticky right-front wheel, and a minor off at Turn 3 on his out-lap. Alonso ran just one lap longer before pitting and leap-frogged the Red Bull driver.

Vitaly Petrov took a tremendous podium for Renault, overcoming Alonso and Webber with a two-stop strategy.

Jenson Button, Sergio Perez, Kamui Kobayashi, Felipe Massa and Sebastien Buemi rounded out the top 10.

Button’s day was ruined early by a drive-through penalty for passing Felipe Massa outside the bounds of the circuit at the Turn 11-12 chicane on Lap 11.

Mercedes also had a fraught race, with Michael Schumacher hit from behind by Jaime Alguersuari at Turn 3 on the opening lap.

The German suffered a puncture and was forced to pit, before eventually retiring on Lap 23.

Team-mate Nico Rosberg was also out before half distance after being the victim of an optimistic move from Rubens Barrichello at Turn 3 on Lap 24. Barrichello had also been off at the right-hander on the opening lap.

Perez was the only driver to complete just one pitstop during the race to score points on debut, with team-mate Kobayashi’s eighth place completing a fine day for Sauber.

See below for the race result

Pos	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired
1	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	58	Winner
2	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	58	+22.2 secs
3	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	58	+30.5 secs
4	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	58	+31.7 secs
5	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	58	+38.1 secs
6	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	58	+54.3 secs
7	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	58	+65.8 secs
8	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	58	+76.8 secs
9	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	58	+85.1 secs
10	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	57	+1 Lap
11	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	57	+1 Lap
12	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	57	+1 Lap
13	Jaime Alguersuari	STR-Ferrari	57	+1 Lap
14	Nick Heidfeld	Renault	57	+1 Lap
15	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Renault	56	+2 Laps
16	Jerome d’Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	54	+4 Laps
Ret	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	49	+9 Laps
Ret	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	48	+10 Lap
Ret	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes GP	22	+36 Laps
Ret	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Renault	19	+39 Laps
Ret	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes GP	19	+39 Laps
Ret	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	9	+49 Laps