“The cream will always rise to the top”, and although Fernando Alonso’s victory in the Australian Grand Prix certainly proved the saying to be true, some experienced drivers’ lacklustre performances in Melbourne seemed to suggest the contrary.
By Mike Fourie, News Ed.
It is said that “the cream will always rise to the top”, and although Fernando Alonso’s victory in the Australian Grand Prix certainly proved the saying to be true, some experienced drivers’ lacklustre performances in Melbourne seemed to suggest the contrary.
Alonso breezed past pole-position starter Jenson Button when the safety period (deployed because of a collision between Felipe Massa’s Ferrari, Christian Klien’s Red Bull and Nico Rosberg’s Williams at the first corner) ended on lap four, and immediately stamped his authority on the race, pulling out an advantage of 2,7 seconds in his first lap, and the best part of a second on the next tour.
The brilliant Spaniard was in a race of his own for the rest of the afternoon, despite regular safety car interruptions that slashed his lead to nothing on three occasions. Alonso was indeed the cream of the crop, and McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen (who finished second after evading the wild driving antics of team-mate Juan-Pablo Montoya) and Ralf Schumacher (in a creditable third spot, despite foolishly incurring a pit lane speeding penalty) almost justified the exorbitant salaries that Formula One pilots – especially the top ones – earn.
“The race was a bit crazy. Some moments I didn’t understand. I was 20 seconds ahead and the gap disappeared after three or four safety cars in 10 laps,” Alonso said. Calling the grand prix “crazy” was an understatement… On a day when all drivers were affected by low track temperatures and struggled for grip, some experienced pilots (including a seven-time world champion) drove like amateurs.
Button was especially hindered by tyre problems and gradually descended down the running order. Having been picked off by Alonso, the Briton held off Raikkonen until the intervention of a second safety car on lap seven, after Klien lost control of his car heading into turn nine. At the re-start, Button lost a place to the Finn, and his lack of grip on cold tyres dropped him down to fifth place after the first pit stops, behind Montoya’s McLaren and BMW’s Nick Heidfeld.
Although it would be easy to degrade Button’s performance as another example of the Englishman being worked over by his rivals on a Sunday afternoon, he was eons ahead of his plodding team-mate, the once highly-rated Rubens Barrichello. Rubinho has had three races to “settle in the team” and has to start delivering soon. Being eliminated in the first qualifying session was a low for the Brazilian, although he circulated Albert Park often enough to finish seventh.
Similarly, I am annoyed with Giancarlo Fisichella for making me look silly! Two weeks ago, I wrote that the Malaysian Grand Prix winner had established himself as a world championship contender following a spirited drive at Sepang. But in Melbourne, the veteran Italian suffered the ignominy of having the world TV audience hear his race engineer chiding him for being two seconds a lap slower than Alonso! Gosh, many drivers have driven better to finish in fifth place…
But what about Schumi’s so-called “performance”? Michael Schumacher binned his Ferrari after pushing too hard in the final corner on lap 33. Who would have expected that the German would struggle to stay ahead of the Toro Rosso (formerly Minardi!) and Midland cars for most of the race… only to crash in front of the grandstand and then curiously stroll into the Toyota garage after climbing through the pit fence? Does he want to join his brother Ralf at Toyota and trade in his Enzo for a grand Camry or Lexus next year?
All the leading runners took advantage of the third safety-car period (triggered by Schumi’s crash) to make their final pit stops. Button was promoted to fourth when the mercurial Montoya was held up in the pits while queuing behind Raikkonen’s car, which
