Button lays down marker in 2012 opener

Jenson Button started the 2012 Formula 1 season in style today, taking a dominant win even if it was by no more than a couple of seconds, he was untouchable throughout the race.

The McLaren driver got a great start to draw level with pole sitter Lewis Hamilton, he had the inside line for turn 1 and that was that, job all but done. He disappeared off into the distance, and only a safety car caused by Caterham’s Vitaly Petrov stopping on the start finish straight would let the rest have another bite at victory.

But as is typical of Button these days, he was calm and assured under pressure, had a perfect restart lap and promptly left the others behind before maintaining the gap back to the now second placed Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel.

 
It’s worth noting the McLaren was able to maintain its tyre temperature much better than the Red Bull through the slow laps of the safety car, showing how much of an improved car they have, as this was a trait Red Bull displayed many a time last year; this time though Button left Vettel trailing to take the win and lay down a marker for the year ahead.

Perhaps most bothered by this was Button’s team mate Hamilton who looked decidedly glum after the race. He’d taken an emphatic pole position, yet could offer no real challenge to Jenson something that he obviously hadn’t expected. I think Lewis expected this race to be his, but for whatever reason he couldn’t find the pace to compete for the victory.

However, he took third and if it hadn’t been for the safety car he probably would have had second, so it wasn’t such a bad day, but the man wants to win, and I think he still finds it difficult to comprehend that a team mate is giving him such a hard time and beating him.

I see things potentially getting pretty tense between them because Lewis is quicker than Jenson, there is no doubt but Jenson is clever, he’s got the team around him and the camaraderie and I think he’s out-psyching Hamilton and the more he wins, the worse it’ll get for Lewis. In the team photograph he looked alone. I’m sure that’s not really the case, but it was an interesting observation.

I’m curious to see how he responds in Malaysia and anyway, this was the first race and far too early for such analysis, but it was just a thought. I'm sure he's going to be a real threat this year.

Despite not being the dominant force that they have been in the recent past, Red Bull quietly got on with the job and rose from fifth and sixth on the grid to claim second and fourth for Vettel and Mark Webber respectively.

Both had strong drives through the pack, Webber particularly after his usual poor start got bogged down in traffic and had a fair few scraps, particularly with Mercedes Nico Rosberg whom he accused of weaving, so to end up just off the podium wasn’t a bad result at all. Also out qualifying Vettel and keeping him insight during the race will have given him cause to hope for a much better year.

Vettel actually put a fantastic move on Rosberg and matched the McLaren’s pace for most of the day. He retrieved what could have been a poor weekend and made it a perfectly adequate one. Second is not a bad way to start the year and he is not one for panic being the champion he is, he knows there’s another 19 races to go and he feels sure the Red Bull has a lot of untapped potential; he’ll be in the game for sure.

One of the stars of the race was Fernando Alonso who dragged his Ferrari from twelfth to fifth, a great drive in a car his team mate Felipe Massa could barely keep on the road. He believes there’s a lot to come from the Ferrari, and there’ll have to get to it quickly if he wants to challenge for the title, but today he had one of the drives of the day, while Massa had one of the worst. How long this driver line up remains if this form continues is open to debate.

The rest of the top ten was only decided in the final corners. Pastor Maldonado in a much improved Williams had been lying sixth and would have been my driver of the day if he hadn’t crashed with half a lap left while challenging Alonso. It was a great combative drive but he threw it away and it unleashed the following cars.

Rosberg was challenging Sergio Perez for seventh, the Sauber’s tyres were done as he tried to make it on only one pit stop. Rosberg though got a puncture and slowed to a crawl. This brought Kamui Kobayashi on to the back of Perez, overtaking his team mate to claim sixth.

Into the final two turns, Kimi Raikkonen who screwed up his qualifying, starting only 17^th finished his charge back through the field, taking Perez for seventh. Kimi showed he’d lost none of his race craft in an impressive race, but he’ll hope for a better weekend in Malaysia as this Lotus is fast.

This left the battling Toro Rosso’s of Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne right on his tail, with the Force India of Paul di Resta just behind. Final corner and they’re all crammed up together. Perez floors it, just keeping Ricciardo behind to take eighth and ninth respectively while di Resta who’d started the final lap in 13^th powers into tenth as Vergne slides on the kerb.

That last lap of the race shows just how tightly packed and competitive the midfield is going to be this year, Williams look like they might have turned the corner, Toro Rosso are going to be scrapping for the minor points, while Force India didn’t look as good as expected but there’s plenty of time to rectify that.

At the head of the group are Sauber, while Lotus appears to be hovering just above with ambitions of competing towards the big teams. Certainly Romain Grosjean proved they had good quali pace with third but retired after a clash with Maldonado, while Kimi’s charge through the field showed they had a good race car too. A team to watch out for, although you get a feeling these early races will be their best opportunity for some good results.

Not really mentioned Mercedes, Nico Rosberg dropped backwards during the race, which is no great surprise generally, but better things were hoped for. Their qualifying pace was good, and with their controversial F-duct behind the DRS helping increase straight line speed causing a stir, no points isn’t a great start.

Michael Schumacher actually out qualified Rosberg for once and then was looking fairly competitive in third trying to resist Vettel’s attacks before the car just lost drive on lap 13, but apparently Ross Brawn said both drivers were already complaining about tyre degradation, something they were concerned about in testing. But they and Ferrari will remain the teams most likely to challenge the big two.

The top four finishers were covered by under five seconds. Red Bull say there’s more to come, McLaren claim they could have pushed harder, this season looks like it’s going to be close, very close.

All photo's taken from autosport.com