What a difference a fortnight makes. Last time out in Bahrain, Formula One in 2010 served up a display that was…let’s not beat around the bush: devoid of on-track action, it was about as bad as it gets. 14 days later, and the race around Albert Park was the perfect juxtaposition to that drab affair. Standing tall after 58 laps of the race was the 2009 World Champion, who delivered a drive every bit as fitting as that honour deserved.

That’s not to say that Button had things easy, far from it. When the lights went out the pack proceeded to slip and slide down into turn one. As ever in these conditions, you watch the unfolding action with your hands over your eyes – peeping through the gaps in your fingers. You know that SOMETHING will happen early on, and morbid fascination compels your to keep eyes on the action. This time round, Melbourne delivered once more. Fernando Alonso, guilty of not using his mirrors turned in on Button at the first corner, and was subsequently nerfed into Michael Schumacher’s Mercedes. Alonso faced the terrifying prospect of being spun 180 degrees and watched the oncoming pack head on coming at him.

Fortunately for Button and Alonso no damage was done. Schumacher however, wasn’t so lucky and his trip across the kerbs cost him his front wing and a lap one visit to the pits for repairs.

The early action didn’t stop there, as Sauber rookie Kamui Kobayashi – a favorite of the F1Weekender staff after his introduction to the sport at the tail end of last season saw his front wing fail for the second time this weekend. The net result was a sickening crash as his car hit the barriers for turn 6 at racing speed, and was violently catapulted back onto the racing line to cannon between the Torro Rosso of Sebastian Buemi, and the Williams of Nico Rosberg. All 3 drivers were hugely lucky to escape without injury, and once more the fact they did so is a testament to how far the safety in the sport has come over the last 10 years.

With that the safety car was deployed, and it was time to take stock of the situation. Vettel led, from Massa and Webber. Webber stole second place back 2 laps after the restart, whilst Hamilton wasted no time in passing 6th placed Button between turns 3 and 4.

The track conditions were marginal as this point, as the field began to ponder the switch to dry tyres. Button made the call first and came in on lap 6 and left the pits with super-soft boots on his MP4-25. By his own admission he wasn’t sure if he’d made the right call in coming in when he did, and the teams watching on assessing whether or not it was prudent to make the same switch themselves saw the British driver understeer off of the circuit at turn 3 and tool a brief trip across the gravel trap.

Any questions as to whether or not it was the right decision to make at that time were swiftly dealt with, as Button began to light the timing screens up at the back of the circuit. This part of the track was much dryer that the rest, and the dividends paid for being on the right tyres far outweighed the time lost through the wetter part of the track.

Even though more rain was forecast, the rest of the grid – bar the two Red Bulls opted to stop at the end of the lap to take on dry weather tyres. It was this point, where F1 was at its unpredictable best. I have to confess, that with so much action going on at the same time I totally lost track of who was doing what.

The Red Bull cars took on dry rubber on lap 11, and it was clear that Button’s gamble to stop when he did had paid off as he was running in second place. At this point, it was a case of what might have been, had the McLaren driver not made a rare error on his out lap and lost crucial seconds to Vettel. Second, could well have been first.

This has been an excerpt from issue 4 of the F1Weekender. To read the rest of the review, and the magazine please click on the image below