Sebastian Vettel Wins 2011 Formula One Season Opener In Melbourne

Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel, the current world champion, opened the 2011 Formula One season in victory and style as he led the Australian Grand Prix from start to finish, winning by 22 seconds ahead of McLaren's Lewis Hamilton in second and Lotus Renault's Vitaly Petrov in third.

Coming back from a difficult off-season, Hamilton had to contend with a “massively damaged” floor, which grazes the ground and affects the aerodynamic flow, severely limiting his ability to apply the pressure on Vettel towards the end of the race.

A very pleasantly surprised Petrov capitalised on his excellent start and fine performance throughout the race to claim his first-ever podium finish, a timely boost for the Lotus Renault team who lost Robert Kubica to a serious injury for the rest of the season.

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso and Red Bull's Mark Webber finished fourth and fifth, respectively, no thanks to their decisions to pit-stop three times in the race, compared with two for the top three. This is Australian Webber's third fifth-place finish on his home turf. McLaren's Jenson Button, who had to serve a drive-through penalty, took sixth.

AboutSeow Yaohan

Seow Yao Han strives to bring you the latest and the most comprehensive information on cars available in Malaysia. But it's never easy for him to talk and write cars in this part of the world because what you lust after is often not what you drive home. When the euphoria of test-driving that branded, super-expensive sports car dies down, he just goes home in his less-than-glamorous ride.