Race day in Australia was dry, slightly on the cooler side but still warmer than Europe (not that that's hard to beat) as the teams and fans geared up for the first Grand Prix of the season.
22 cars lined up on the grid (no HRT) and the five lights went red, we were in for a treat!
Jenson Button got off to a cracking start, passing Lewis Hamilton and lead the pack in to the first corner. Further down the grid first lap chaos was in full swing, Romain Grosjean was unable to translate his qualifying result and slipped back to 6th behind Michael Schumacher.
The home Grand Prix curse hit Mark Webber again, getting off to a bad start hitting Williams driver Bruno Senna while fellow Aussie Daniel Ricciardo got caught up in the first corner mayhem.
Nico Hulkenberg was the first driver out, a dismal return for the promising young gun.
Sebastian Vettel proved critics wrong when he climbed (or drove rather fast) up the grid over taking Nico Rosberg outside turn three in to four, the German was on a mission to prove 1) he can overtake and 2) that Red Bull had race pace.
On Lap 2 Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado had a wheel-to-wheel kiss, ending Grosjean's race, he went off in to the gravel after his suspension buckled, the Frenchman gave Maldonado room but a combination of Grosjean's rookie error of presuming the Venezuelan would give him enough track space and Maldonado barging him in the gravel meant it was all over for the Lotus driver.
Ferrari seemed to have impressive race pace compared to the rest of the weekend, Fernando Alonso managed to stay in the running for the podium throughout the race.
Lap 10 - Michael Schumacher, who had been battling with the front runners, gave up the ghost and steered in to the run-off, slowly managing to get to the pits to retire after gear trouble.
Kimi Raikkonen found himself in the top 10 after starting in 17th finishing up the race in 7th, the iceman made everyone chuckle when he asked why he kept getting the blue flags 'Blue flags are for cars behind Kimi. They're not for you' ... it's good to have him back.
Lap 19, Lewis Hamilton's race didn't go as smoothly as he hoped it would, after pitting for fresh tyres he got stuck behind a very determined Sergio Perez in the Sauber, Perez had a brilliant race being in the mix of the top 5, holding his place on several occasions - he's obviously a big fan of Albert Park after his second strong drive at the Aus GP, he finished in 8th and this year got to keep the points!
The first safety car of the season came out on Lap 37 after Vitaly Petrov pulled up his Caterham on the pit straight, it came in on Lap 42. A lap later Petrov's teammate Heikki Kovalainen boxed and retired from the race, not good start for the team. *Kovalainen will face a five place grid drop in Malaysia because he crossed the safety car line before the leader -while the safety car was out- when ducking in to the pits.*
Felipe Massa old ways creeped back from last season, however this time it wasn't Lewis Hamilton he was crashing in to but Williams driver Bruno Senna, both having damage to the car pitting straight away, Senna got cleared but Massa parked up his Ferrari (eventually), Bruno Senna later retired on Lap 52.
On the final lap, Pastor Maldonado crashed in an unusual situation; he got his tyres on the grass and vered off in to and up the wall with a heavy bash back down to the tarmac, drivers fine but Williams have missed out of valuable points which would have been more than they scored all last season.
Jenson Button was victorious leading from start to finish, a cool, calm outing for the Brit who has every belief he is going to win the WC again, mentioning the 2009 season over the radio after he won.
An exciting start to what is set to be an exciting season!
FASTEST LAP: Jenson Button : 1:29.187
RESULTS:
[The podium - Jenson Button 1st, Sebastian Vettel 2nd, Lewis Hamilton 3rd]
Favourite Helmet (Yes, the feature is back!):
Of course it has to be Heikki Kovalainen's Angry Bird lid!! 
Last but not least...
Here's the driver photo for the season (the first half at least) Lewis and Kimi; like a boss. Though i think they should have been told to take their shades off, can't have them looking more bad ass then the rest of them!
The start of hopefully a safe and thrilling season.
Next up Sepang, Malaysia at the end of the week.
Don't forget if you have Twitter you can follow me @Maddyyf1
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