Dominant McLaren sails away to prove it is right on the Button

JENSON Button yesterday announced the return of McLaren to the top of motorsport, declaring: "The car was beautiful and she is quick."

Button

AS his team radio crackled to life, an elated Jenson Button yesterday announced the return of McLaren to the top of world motorsport, declaring: "The car was beautiful and she is quick."

Button will get no argument from anyone who saw his near-flawless race at Albert Park.

It began with a perfectly timed start from second place on the grid to shoot past his McLaren teammate Lewis Hamilton, and ended with a fist pump to the grandstand, as his father John, leading the trackside celebrations, wrapped himself in the Union Jack.

McLaren had good reason to hoist a flag, after Button led from the first corner and Hamilton held out a fast-closing Mark Webber to deny the Australian a place on the podium and give his team a jump start in the constructors' championship.

Only fluky circumstance prevented McLaren filling the top two places, after world champion Sebastian Vettel, the drivers' title holder of the past two seasons, made use of a safety car to quickly pit and sneak out in front of Hamilton, who had already gone in for a change of tyres.

The race began in earnest 38 laps in after Russian Vitaly Petrov felt his steering go and brought his Caterham to a halt in the middle of the pit straight.

By the time the flashing lights of the safety car disappeared from view, there were 17 laps to race and three world champions at the head of the field, with Button's McLaren leading Vettel and Hamilton with Webber in fourth place.

As Vettel later reflected, it was soon no race at all, with Button gunning his way clear to a third Australian Grand Prix win in four years.

"I thought I would be in a good place, in a good position, to have a go at Jenson, but I didn't," Vettel said.

"He was just too quick. Two corners and he seemed to be gone."

Webber kept pace with the race leaders until the finish line but could not find a way around Hamilton, who clinched the podium spot that has eluded the Australian in 11 trips to Albert Park.

For fellow Australian Daniel Ricciardo, a 22-year-old from Perth racing in his first grand prix at Albert Park, a near perfect preparation went pear-shaped at the very first corner.

While all eyes were on the front row of the grid and Button's shotgun start, a turn-one tangle between Ricciardo's Toro Rosso and Bruno Senna's Williams forced Ricciardo into the pits for repairs.

Fault appeared to belong to Ricciardo, who was slow off the line and blocked the path of Senna, who clipped the Toro Rosso.

From there, the best Ricciardo could do was to improve a few places from the back and finish the race.

Ricciardo eventually finished ninth, a place ahead of his spot on the starting grid and two places ahead of his teammate Jean-Eric Vergne, who he passed on the final frenetic lap.

He earned two points for his team and the praise of Toro Rosso boss Franz Tost.

Ricciardo was not the only casualty of the new season's first start. Contact between Webber and Force India's Nico Hulkenberg left Webber with a damaged rear wing and Hulkenberg out of the race.

The German was soon joined by Romain Grosjean, who had provided one of the feel-good stories of the grand prix weekend when he qualified third-fastest in his return to Formula One after seven forgettable races for Renault in 2009.

The 26-year-old Swiss missed the start and ended his day in a gravel pit after his front end was collected on the second lap.

Having waited two years for another chance in Formula One, he must now wait until the Malaysian Grand Prix.

If Grosjean needs to ponder the vagaries of F1 racing, he need look no further than his partner on yesterday's second row of the starting grid, seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher.

After revealing new-found pace for the Mercedes team in practice and qualifying, Schumacher was 11 laps into the race, trying to hold off his fellow German Vettel, when he suddenly felt his gearbox go.

In a show of courteous driving rarely seen in 287 previous races by Schumacher, the 43-year-old pulled over to the gravel and let Vettel pass, before cruising back to the pit lane.

"I knew already it was probably the finish of the weekend," Schumacher said.

"We never had any problems all winter long, so it is very strange."