F1 Australian GP

I stayed up early this morning and watched the F1 Australian GP and I'm glad I did. It was an exciting race and provided my only racing fix today; both NASCAR and IndyCar have been rained out until tomorrow. For much of the race Massa, Alonso, Hamilton, and Webber had a great fight (up until Hamilton tried to pass Alonso and Webber slammed into the back of him). Vettel went out due to brake failure and left the race in the hands of Button, who had stopped first for slicks after the track began to dry. Button ran a tire management race and did a great job of it; he went close to 3/4 distance on soft tires while some of the other cars stopped for new softs halfway through and used up the new tires trying to get back toward the front. Kubica did an outstanding job in a lesser car, finishing second in the Renault with Massa coming in third.

Here's some of my observations and commentary from Twitter (end of race at top, beginning of race at bottom):

• Good race by Button and Kubica, Massa follows in P3. Thinking McLarens are being built by Audi after seeing Hamilton's car survive! #F1 (Hamilton's car survived several instances of contact; it reminded me of how well the Audi R-8 and R-10 stood up to crashes)
  
• Webber and Hamilton crash as Hamilton tries to pass Alonso! #F1
  
• Heck of a race for P4-P6 now. Great Stuff!! #F1
  
• Hamilton and Webber almost to rear wing of Alonso and Massa. Business is about to pick up. #F1
  
• Kubica doing great job holding off the Ferraris, surprised that Ferrari hasn't pulled a shennanigan to get Alonso in front of Massa. #F1
• Can't see these tires lasting the whole #F1 race, already blistering on rears. (Boy was I wrong!)
  
• Vettel Off!!!! Brand New Race in #F1. Bad luck...
  
• Good action for P5-P8 in #F1
• Massa holding up Hamilton and Alonso is stalking them both. Still the Vettel show at the front though. #F1
• What a series of passes and errors: Webber, Hamilton, and Massa #F1
• Button is the guinea pig for slicks, let's see what happens #F1
  
• At least 4 cars off to start the race and the Safety Car is out due to massive crash. Good start by Massa though.
  
• I NEVER get tired of Sam Posey's intros to the #F1 races on #SpeedTV.
• Rain starting to fall in Melborne! #F1 race could get interesting

Mac McCormick III