Button roars to victory Down Under

Jenson Button’s celebratory message over the team radio said it all as he launched his bid for a second Formula 1 world title with a stunning victory in Australia.

With adrenaline naturally pumping after arguably one of the most perfect drives of his career, and after having led at Melbourne’s Albert Park for all but one of the 58 laps, Button said: “The car is beautiful and she’s quick. What a way to start the season.”

It was Button’s third victory in the past four years Down Under and his 13th in Formula One, six of them now with McLaren.

Even runner-up Sebastian Vettel, who knows a thing or two about dominating races after winning 11 of 19 last season en route to back-to-back titles, described Button as “unbeatable”.

Certainly after passing McLaren team-mate and polesitter Lewis Hamilton on the run to the first corner, his fellow Briton only third, there was no looking back for the 32-year-old.

Not even the arrival of the safety car on lap 37, after Vitaly Petrov had stopped on the start-finish straight in his Caterham, failed to disrupt Button’s rhythm. Once the safety car disappeared, so did Button into the sunset that falls on this race as it is one of two twilight events on the calendar.

“Every win means a lot to you, and for us as a team it really shows how important the winter is,” said Button. “We’ve had a strong winter – yesterday’s qualifying really showed that – so it’s nice to come away with a victory at the first race of the new season.

“The starts of the past two seasons have both been tricky for us, so today is really encouraging. Today means a lot to me, and I’m sure it’ll mean a lot to all of the team too. It will make those extra hours worked in the early hours of the morning all the more worthwhile, because we know we can do great things with this car.”

Crucially from Button’s perspective, and with a nod towards the year ahead he said: “There’s a huge amount of positives to take away from this weekend.

“We’ve a great car and we can fight for the world championships. This is a perfect start to my season, and I’m already looking forward to Malaysia.”

Perhaps his victory owes something to a ‘lucky bedroom’ as he added: “I’ve stayed in the same room the three years I’ve won here. When we arrived, my missus [girlfriend Jessica Michibata] said, ‘We’re actually in the same bedroom when you won the two previous years’ – so maybe that’s the reason why.”

Vettel’s second place was a relief after only qualifying sixth yesterday in a car that was all-conquering last year. The 24-year-old was aided by Romain Grosjean’s woeful start from third, then Michael Schumacher suffering a gearbox problem on lap 11 when he was challenging his compatriot.

The biggest assist came via the safety car as he leapfrogged Hamilton during that phase to deny McLaren a one-two. Magnanimous in defeat, Vettel said: “Congratulations to McLaren and Jenson. He drove a fantastic race and was unbeatable. But I’m very happy to come away with second. It’s a lot of points.

“I think a lot of people would not have expected that after the result of yesterday [in qualifying]. But we had a better car in the race and it seems to have a lot of potential. It’s now up to us to get to it.”

There was an understandable look of disdain and frustration on Hamilton’s face, perhaps realising a chance had passed him by.

After admitting it was not his day, Hamilton said: “It is just a bit of a tough day, but we have plenty of races ahead, so I just have to keep my head down.”

Mark Webber was fourth in his Red Bull, his best result on home soil, with Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso a remarkable fifth in a Ferrari that only qualified 12th yesterday. Williams’ Pastor Maldonado should have finished a stunning sixth, which would have given the team more points from this one race than they scored in the whole of last season, only to spin into a wall on the last lap.

That allowed Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi to take sixth, with Kimi Raikkonen seventh on his Lotus debut and return to F1 after two years away in rallying.

The second Sauber of Sergio Perez was eighth, Daniel Ricciardo ninth for Toro Rosso in front of his home crowd, and Force India’s Paul di Resta tenth. “It’s always nice to start the season with a point,” said Livingston-born di Resta. “But it was not looking too promising until the last few laps when my engineer told me that I was catching the cars ahead of me. Fortunately, I had saved quite a bit of KERS for the last corner, which helped me get a good run on Vergne and beat him to the line for tenth. So it was a pretty exciting final lap.”