(RacingWire) - Jenson Button was the first driver to change from intermediate to dry tires in the early stages of a damp Australian Grand Prix and that decision led to his first win of 2010.
Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull was the class of the field until a mechancial failure ended his chance at victory for a second race in a row. Vettel had a brake failure on lap 25 that ended his day.
Button and his McLaren team took a gamble and changed to soft dry tires early and was able to nurse those tire for more than 50 laps to victory.
Robert Kubica (Renault) was second and Felipe Massa's Ferrari was third.
Michael Schumacher (Mercedes) made the call to change tires just past the half way point and quickly clicked off a fast lap. This was the trigger for most of the field to come in and change tires.
Four drivers, Button, Kubica, Massa and Fernando Alonso chose to stay out and complete the race on one set of dry tires. This decision turned out to be the right one as these drivers outpaced all those who stopped.
"I never thought of putting on a second set," said Button. I didn’t think that would be an option really. It was always to run the race on one set of tyres if we could after it stopped raining."
Button's teammate Louis Hamilton, who changed tires, was in fifth and pressuring Alonso late in the race. Hamilton was taken out by Mark Webber who ran him over while he was making a move on Alonso.
Three cars were taken out during a scarey opening lap crash. Kamui Kobayashi's front wing failed, causing him to loose control of his Sauber and take out Sebastien Buemi (Toro Rosso) and Nico Hulkenberg (Williams). None of the drivers were hurt but the incident did cause the safety car to circulate for several laps.
Heikke Kovalainen was the fastest of the new F1 teams. His piloted his Lotus to 13th place finish. Karun Chandhok brought HRT F1 Team it's first F1 finish with a 14th place finish.
