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Australia - 26-28 Mar 2010
Qantas Australian Grand Prix
Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit, Albert Park, Melbourne, Australia
Race Distance: 58 laps, 307.574 km

Traditionally, the "streets" of the Albert Park Circuit are the venue for the opening round of the season. This year, Australia hosts Round 2 at the colorful circuit. Most of the year, this course is a park road, but for the GP weekend, it's converted into a dynamic 3.3 mile circuit.

The last four Australian GPs have been won by the driver that went on to win the championship. Last season it was Jenson Button's pole and win for Brawn GP. The 2009 race was plagued with controversy as Hamilton was excluded from the round due to giving the FIA "misleading information" about letting Trulli pass him behind the Safety Car.
Red Bull takes the front row with Vettel setting a new track record on his pole position lap, and local Australian Webber backing him up in 2nd.

Alonso shows that Ferrari may not be quite as far off Red Bull's pace as originally thought with a 3rd place position, his teammate Massa slots in behind him in 5th. The big surprise is Hamilton's failure to get out of Q2, ending up starting 11th.

The top 10 qualifiers in Australia:
VET WEB ALO BUT MAS ROS MSC BAR KUB SUT
A switch from Brawn to McLaren does Button well as he wins in Australia. After starting on intermediate tires, Button is the first to make the switch to slicks as the track dries out and the call sends him to the top of the podium.

With a brilliantly uneventful drive Kubica brings his Renault home in 2nd.

Behind the top two, five drivers run a very tight race for nearly every lap. Massa comes out on top of the pack, taking the 3rd spot on the podium. Alonso, Rosberg, Hamilton slot in 4th through 6th, while Webber who was in the hunt all along gets the short end of the stick in an incident with Hamilton with just 2 laps to go and falls to 9th.

For the second race in a row, Vettel loses was seems like an assured win due to mechanical failure, this time a brake failure turns his P1 into a DNF.
1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th 12th 13th 14th 15th 16th 17th 18th 19th 20th 21st 22nd 23rd 24th
BUT
(+25)
KUB
(+18)
MAS
(+15)
ALO
(+12)
ROS
(+10)
HAM
(+8)
LIU
(+6)
BAR
(+4)
WEB
(+2)
MSC
(+1)
ALG
 
DLR
 
KOV
 
CHD
 
GLO
 
DIG
 
VET
 
SUT
 
PET
 
SEN
 
BUE
 
HUL
 
KOB
 
TRU
 
Pos Participant Driver Picks Round
Points
Season
Points
Champ.
Standings
1 Van BUT HAM KUB ROS VET 61 133 2nd ↑ 7
2 Tahoe RX7 ALO BUT HAM MAS VET 60 140 1st  
3 Carrie HAM KUB LIU MAS ROS 57 110 8th ↑ 4
4 tysonk ALO BAR BUT MAS VET 56 106 9th ↑ 4
5 Rod R BUT HAM MAS MSC WEB 51 51 14th  
6 Nick ALO KUB MAS VET WEB 47 127 3rd ↓ 2
7 curley BUT KUB MSC SUT WEB 46 122 4th ↑ 3
8 David ALO HAM KUB MSC VET 39 119 5th ↓ 4
9 April ALO HAM MAS VET WEB 37 37 15th ↓ 1
10 7thBeatle ALO HAM MAS MSC VET 36 116 6th ↓ 5
11 lisaab ALO HAM MSC ROS WEB 33 94 12th ↓ 1
12 MattR ALO HAM ROS VET WEB 32 95 11th ↓ 1
13 Irfan Gilani ALO MAS MSC VET WEB 30 110 7th ↓ 6
14 sperry ALO HAM MSC SUT WEB 23 103 10th ↓ 9
15 zpeed MSC ROS SUT VET WEB 13 86 13th ↓ 5
Qantas Australian Grand Prix
Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit, Albert Park, Melbourne, Australia