Jenson Button Wins F1 Australian Grand Prix

Defending champion Jenson Button of McLaren has put his title-retention bid back on track after winning Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix, the F1 season’s second race. Button, who finished seventh in Bahrain two weeks ago, is now third in the rankings with 31 points.

Renault’s Robert Kubica came 12 seconds behind in seconds place followed by Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, who is second in the rankings with 33 points. Accidents marred the Australian Grand Prix with only 14 of the 24 cars that started completing the race. Among the casualties was pole-setter Sebastian Vettel, who led the race for 25 laps before experiencing what he thought was brake trouble.

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, who leads the Drivers’ Title race with 37 points, came in fourth followed by Mercedes GP’s Nico Rosberg. Button’s McLaren teammate Lewis Hamilton, who was flagged down by Australian traffic police earlier this weekend, came in sixth, with Force India-Mercedes’ Vitantonio Liuzzi, Ruben Barrichello of Williams-Cosworth, and RBR-Renault’s Mark Webber occupying the next three spots in that order. Michael Schumacher continued to struggle as he finished the race more than a minute behind Button for tenth place.