New F1 team + Rare major upset + Controversies = Best F1 race ever!

Brawn-Mercedes F1 teammates Jenson Button and Rubens Barichello
celebrate their win at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.
(Eurosport/ASSOCIATED PRESS)

The Australian F1 Grand Prix '09 was perhaps the best one I've ever watched. That race really made my day as I don't get to watch some good sports action on a hot yet lazy Sunday afternoon. I've waited months for the new season of Formula One and after all the hype, it surely didn't disappoint. I was very happy of the results and I'm thankful I watched the whole race.

Now, who would've thought a new F1 team (with not so new drivers) could win their first race on their season debut? The Brawn-Mercedes F1 team did just that. Having qualified for the 1st and 2nd positions at the starting grid, both Jenson Button and Rubens Barichello finished the race with same way they started it. Nobody saw this coming but as I watched everything happen, I knew something special was gonna happen in Melbourne.

New Cars.

Let me go back to the new look of the cars, for a second. It was my first time to see the 2009 cars for all teams. A lot of changes were made like the specs and tires but the most notable were the aerodynamics. The new cars looked somewhat sexier now. It could be a cost cutting measure of sorts by the FIA but I'm sure it's gonna take a lot of getting used to watching those new cars. The rear spoilers are narrower than before, the nose looked a bit thinker and the front spoilers are wider and lowered a bit more. Bottomline is, they all look faster now. I'm still not feeling the narrow rear spoilers.

Too Aggressive.

Red Bull F1 team's Sebastien Vettel would've won the race at 2nd place had he not been too 'competitive' with Williams F1 team's Robert Kubica in the last 3 laps of the race (56th lap). His aggressiveness made him pay, literally. Although, he apologized to the Swedish driver, that thing he did took a toll on his chances of earning his first championship points of the season.

Got 'Button'?

It was like a cinderella story for one Jenson Button. Since Japanese car maker Honda pulled out of the F1, it was a new beginning for Button. Change proved to be a fruitful one as the British driver and Brazilian teammate Rubens Barichello pulled a huge upset in the F1 stage. The Brawn-Mercedes team made history as the only rookie team to complete a 1-2 finish in their season debut. Button was the leader all throughout the race and the chequered flag got his name on it. Clearly, a well deserved win for him. As they say, "it's one for the books." Toyota's Jarno Trulli placed 3rd and Mclaren's Lewis Hamilton finished at 4th.

Demoted.

Despite the 3rd place finish, Trulli was disqualified and moved Hamilton from 4th to 3rd place. A very controversial decision on the part of the FIA. It all when the safety car was deployed after Vettel-Kubica collision at the 56th lap:

Race stewards later ruled that Trulli, driving a Toyota, had overtaken Lewis while the safety car was on the course and handed him a 25-second penalty, which saw him relegated from third and out of the points.

"Lewis had to go past him because he went onto the grass, he was not on the circuit," McLaren Team Principal Martin Whitmarsh said.

"Trulli then took back the place under the safety car, which ordinarily you wouldn't do."

Despite celebrating with Button and Barichello at the winners podium (and press conference), everything was for naught. His trophy and championship points were all taken away from him (except for that champagne he had consumed after the celebration). That sucks for Trulli, I'm sure.

Something to look forward to.

At one point, I thought I was gonna see yet another win from either Lewis Hamilton or Kimi Raikkonen but this particular race made the F1 more exciting to watch. Unpredictability is one thing that keeps me glued on a certain sport. The 2009 F1 season renewed my interest with motorsports. I'm looking forward to seeing more of these great finishes in the upcoming GP's. I'm gonna try to watch each race live and be up to date with the news. Hopefully, I get to write some stuff for each race including the qualifiers. It's gonna be a challenge for me.

See y'all in my next post for the Malaysian GP.