Adrian Sutil shines for Force India in Melbourne

© Sahara Force India Formula One Team

As the Formula 1 season kicked of in the wet conditions of Melbourne, Australia, teams were eager to find out where they stand in the competition. The Red-Bull of Vettel took pole in the postponed Sunday Qualifying session since Saturday's Q2 and Q3 were washed away by heavy rains.

Well it looked like the Red Bulls will continue their domination from last season and win the Australian GP with ease. But that didn't happen, it was the Ice-man Kimi Raikkonen who took the honours of clinching the trophy "easily" (according to the Lotus driver)


Vettel started of nicely to hold on to the lead in the opening lap. But had to pit early to switch to medium compound tyres from the super-soft used in qualifying in only Lap7. After that he never really could manage to lead the race again. The Red Bulls never looked threatening throughout the race altough they were competitive enough to hold on to their places. Webber finished 6th after staring the race in row1 behind his team-mate.

© Sahara Force India Formula One Team

The Ferrari's were very good. But not good enough to challenge the Lotus of Raikkonen or Red Bull of Vettel. Alonso finished 2nd behind winner Kimi and Mass finished 4th behind the RedBull of Vettel.

The most impressive of all was the comeback boy Adrian Sutil of Sahara Force India. Sutil started the race in P12 and finished the race in P7 collecting 6 valuable points to Force India. That's not all the heroics of Sutil. For a first in his Formula1 career sutil lead the Australian GP for around 12 out of 58 laps. An impressive feat from someone who has not raced since 2011 Brazilian GP 16 months before!!!
A podium finish was on the cards for Sutil in P3 only to be spoilt by the second pit-stop for the softer compound tyres (sadly they were mandatory once in the race). This still didn't affect the overall result. The positive side for the whole team was that Sutil held 3 World Championship behind him for more than 7 laps while leading the race comfortable, affirming that the VJM06 is a real contender for podium finishes and could eventually wins races!!!!! Force India team mate Paul di Resta finished just behind Sutil in a strong 8th position, making a total of 10points to the team.

That's all from Melbourne, see you in Sepang, Malaysia next weekend. Stay Tuned!!


A quick look at the standings :

Pos	Driver	Nationality	Team	Points
1	Kimi Räikkönen	Finnish	Lotus-Renault	25
2	Fernando Alonso	Spanish	Ferrari	18
3	Sebastian Vettel	German	Red Bull Racing-Renault	15
4	Felipe Massa	Brazilian	Ferrari	12
5	Lewis Hamilton	British	Mercedes	10
6	Mark Webber	Australian	Red Bull Racing-Renault	8
7	Adrian Sutil	German	Force India-Mercedes	6
8	Paul di Resta	British	Force India-Mercedes	4
9	Jenson Button	British	McLaren-Mercedes	2
10	Romain Grosjean	French	Lotus-Renault	1
11	Sergio Perez	Mexican	McLaren-Mercedes	0
12	Jean-Eric Vergne	French	STR-Ferrari	0
13	Esteban Gutierrez	Mexican	Sauber-Ferrari	0
14	Valtteri Bottas	Finnish	Williams-Renault	0
15	Jules Bianchi	French	Marussia-Cosworth	0
16	Charles Pic	French	Caterham-Renault	0
17	Max Chilton	British	Marussia-Cosworth	0
18	Giedo van der Garde	Dutch	Caterham-Renault	0
19	Daniel Ricciardo	Australian	STR-Ferrari	0
20	Nico Rosberg	German	Mercedes	0
21	Pastor Maldonado	Venezuelan	Williams-Renault	0
22	Nico Hulkenberg	German	Sauber-Ferrari	0

Pos	Team	Points
1	Ferrari	30
2	Lotus-Renault	26
3	Red Bull Racing-Renault	23
4	Mercedes	10
5	Force India-Mercedes	10
6	McLaren-Mercedes	2
7	STR-Ferrari	0
8	Sauber-Ferrari	0
9	Williams-Renault	0
10	Marussia-Cosworth	0
11	Caterham-Renault	0