OK, the dust has settled and the first Grand Prix of the new season is over. So what did we think of it?
A friend of mine, who reports on these events and witnessed it live, described it as “bloody good, frankly” and pointed out that “Brazil last year and Australia this made sterling back-to-back Grands Prix”. And he suspects the status quo will be maintained in Malaysia, where he is headed right now.

Brawn has made F1 interesting for once

The rest of us had to settle for getting up early and watching it on the box, accompanied in my case by some very fine Cumberland sausage and scrambled egg rolls. Oh, and lots of coffee.

The general consensus seems to be that the BBC did a very good job of broadcasting its first Grand Prix in eleven years, even if their opening graphics were a bit naff. Good to the hear ‘The Chain’ again, though. Main commentators Jonathan Legard and Martin Brundle were good, although there’s no chemistry between them yet, something which hopefully will develop. The Radio 5 Live team of David Croft and Anthony Davis, who covered the practice sessions on the ‘red button’, seemed a bit more relaxed, but then they’re much more used to working together. David Coulthard was a good pundit, Jake Humphreys was competent, as he should be, and Eddie Jordan began to get annoying, as was predictable. Don’t be surprised if he doesn’t last the full season…

Will Mr Annoying last the season?

The only really bad bit for me was during the build-up and the discovery that Martin Brundle had man-boobs. I think we should have been spared that…

But it was the on-track action that really deserves our attention, and this was superb. There was no time to take a breath and, with no ad breaks, no time to take a pee either! I began to regret drinking so much coffee.
Anyway, in case you missed it or need a brief reminder, here is a quick summary of the salient points.

•    Before practice starts, teams protest legality of the diffusers on the Williams, Brawn and Toyota cars but the stewards declare them legal. The teams appeal and a date is set for 14 April.

The Stewards, messing up F1 since 1967

•    Button and Barrichello dominate qualifying in their new Brawn-Mercedes.
•    Hamilton struggles to qualify fifteenth and then is relegated to back of the grid after a gearbox change.
•    He is joined by the Toyotas after their times are disallowed for having flexing rear wings.
•    Williams protests legality of aerodynamics on Ferrari and Red Bull – and then withdraws its protest.
•    Barrichello makes an appalling start, holding up those behind him and helping Button make a getaway.
•    At the first corner, Kovalainen hits the back of Barrichello, who hits Webber, who hits Heidfeld, and there are broken cars all over the place. Sutil also gets caught up in it.
•    Heidfeld, Webber and Sutil pit for repairs. Kovalianen retires.
•    End of lap one, Button leads Vettel, Massa, Kubica, Raikkonen, Rosberg, Barrichello and Nakajima.
•    Barrichello gives Raikkonen’s Ferrari a hefty thump in the process of overtaking him.
•    Nakajima crashes heavily, bringing out the safety car.
•    Button pits without losing his lead.
•    Piquet spins off.

Is this Piquet waving bye to Formula 1?

•    Hamilton, who has made the most of his super-soft tyres and KERS system in the early laps, moves up to tenth. At the front, Button leads Vettel, Massa, Kubica, Raikkonen, Trulli and Barrichello.
•    Raikkonen runs wide and brushes the wall. Shortly afterwards, Massa slows and retires. Raikkonen pits and retires. Both Ferraris out.
•    After final stops, Button still leads from Vettel, Kubica, Rosberg, Barrichello, Trulli and Hamilton.
•    Button is not home and dry, though, as both Vettel and Kubica are closing on him with just a few laps left to run. Kubica has advantage of being on the medium tyre, while Button and Vettel’s super-softs are now lacking grip.
•    Vettel runs wide. Kubica gets alongside but Vettel fights back and the pair collide. Both crash out at the next corner, elevating Barrichello to second. Safety car deployed.
•    Button leads home a Brawn one-two with Trulli in third and Hamilton a highly unexpected fourth.
•    After the race, this becomes third as Trulli is given a time penalty for passing under the safety car, dropping him to twelfth.

Not me mate, I did nothing!

This fairy tale finish generated headlines like “The Brawn Supremacy” (which I thought was quite good) since only a couple of weeks ago, Button wasn’t even sure if he had a job anymore, let alone a chance of winning, since the Brawn team didn’t even exist.

Brawn, now Formula 1 maestro

In fact it’s the first time since the 1954 French Grand Prix at Reims that a new team has scored a one-two victory. On that occasion Juan Manuel Fangio and Karl Kling brought their Mercedes-Benz W196s home ahead of the rest of the field. This mirrors nicely the fact that the top three cars in this year’s Australian GP were powered by Mercedes-Benz engines, albeit with the privately-run Brawns beating the factory entry.
It’s not all good news for Brawn though – the team is having to shed 270 jobs at its Brackley HQ. It’s  partly to cut costs and partly because, like all the other F1 teams, it no longer has a requirement for a separate test team, now that in-season testing is banned.

Not everyone at Brawn will be celebrating

But the race result is still a shot in the arm for Formula One, which badly needed a shake-up. It’s not just the usual suspects at the front anymore – as well as Brawn, Toyota, Williams and BMW-Sauber have all upped their game. And for Lewis fans, who were expecting a miserable weekend, third place seemed almost like a victory. But the man himself is urging caution on his chances in next weekend’s Mayasian Grand Prix.

The smile is back

“We shouldn’t get carried away by our podium in Australia,” he said. “Yes, we had a fantastic race but we’re all aware that our car isn’t capable of repeating that sort of performance on sheer pace alone. And Sepang is one of the tougher tracks on the calendar, one where we will probably be further from the frontrunners than we were in Albert Park. The track is both fast and technical so requires good mechanical and aero grip. It’s much more aero-dependent and rear-limited than Melbourne so it may highlight some of the shortcomings in MP4-24. Nevertheless, we’re all really encouraged by the progress we’ve made and I know we’ll be pushing as hard as ever to put more points on the board in Sepang.”
Personally, I can’t wait.