Tander takes V8 Challenge

Garth Tander is the BRC IMPCO V8 Supercar GP Challenge Champion of Albert Park, having won the third and final race for Holden at the 2010 Qantas Australian Grand Prix.

Tander’s win is his second of weekend, the 2007 series champ having taken Saturday’s second hit-out after finishing second in the meeting opener on Friday.

The Race 3 win was a straightforward one for Tander, but it did have an element of fortune.

Saturday’s runner-up and championship leader Jamie Whincup bolted into the lead at the start and built a healthy gap in the opening laps before his engine dropped to seven cylinders, forcing Whincup into the pits and out of the race. As a result, Tander inherited the lead.

Then with five laps to go Ford front-runner James Courtney, who was shadowing Tander in second place and looking like a threat for the win, also retired with an engine problem, leaving Tander way out in front.

“It’s a shame that Jamie went out, and then James, because it deprived everyone of a good race,” said Tander,

“But you only have to beat the guys that finish the race, and we did that. I couldn’t be happier for the team and the sponsors.”

Shane van Gisbergen had a lonely race to second place in his Falcon after his closest challenger, Mark Winterbottom, slowed with brake problems.

“Our car was good,” said van Gisbergen.

“Each race we’ve changed it. We’re not quite up to speed with Garth and Jamie, but we’re getting closer.”

Behind him was Tander’s Toll Holden Racing Team sidekick Will Davison, who scored his best result of the 2010 V8 Supercar season with third place.

Craig Lowndes finished fourth for TeamVodafone, having stolen that place from Steven Johnson with only a handful of laps remaining. Johnson hung on to fifth, ahead of Paul Dumbrell, Jason Richards, Russell Ingall, Greg Murphy and Todd Kelly.

The race featured an action-packed start, with team-mates Rick Kelly and Jason Bargwanna both spinning at the first turn, which left Tim Slade with race-ending damage on his Stone Brothers Racing Falcon.

Then, on the second lap, Tony Ricciardello – also a team-mate of Kelly and Bargwanna – spun at Turn 10, clipping the wall and bringing out a mid-race Safety Car period.

Button Wins Wild Australian Grand Prix

MELBOURNE – After two weeks of criticism over a processional race at the season opener in Bahrain and accusations that the Formula One’s new rules had made the series a bore, the second race of the season proved to be one of the most exciting in the last decade.

With three world champion drivers colliding with each other in the first corner at the start of the race and John Travolta on hand as a guest to wave the checkered flag over the winner, it looked like a Hollywood production from start to finish.

And what a finish it was as the reigning world champion Jenson Button – who started fourth before dropping to seventh after the early crash – made a bold tire change decision and climbed quickly up the pack to second position, before taking the lead by Lap 26 after the race leader, Sebastian Vettel, spun off with a brake failure.

 

William West/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Button sprayed champagne after winning the Australian Grand Prix.

Button took the eighth victory of his career and his second in a row in Melbourne, where he started his victorious campaign last season at the Brawn team. This time, however, it was in only his second race with the McLaren Mercedes team.

“It’s a very special feeling, I feel I’m building confidence and hopefully we’ll do similar at the next race,” said Button. “It was great to see because Bahrain wasn’t the most exciting race. I did see the TV screen and it looked like a very exciting race, and hopefully we’re going to have a lot more races like this, because this is what we all love.”

The race began in the evening and Button said he found it very difficult to see toward the end of the 58 laps.

A sudden drizzle that dampened the track about 16 minutes before the race began was the catalyst for the chaotic start, but the excitement continued long after the track dried out, right to the final laps.

At the first corner of the first lap, Fernando Alonso, a double world champion, Button and Michael Schumacher, a seven-time world champion, entered the corner side-by-side and Alonso, in a Ferrari, spun into Button. Button’s car pushed off Alonso into a spin and the Ferrari hit Schumacher’s car and broke the front wing of the Mercedes.

“The start of the race wasn’t perfect with me, I touched with Fernando at Turn 1,” said Button. “I was halfway inside of him and I don’t know if he didn’t see me, but we touched and it cost me a lot.”

In fact, Button only dropped to seventh place after starting the race in fourth, whereas Alonson dropped to third last and Schumacher fell to the last position because of the collision.

Alonso managed to climb up the pack and finish the race in fourth, but Schumacher spent most of the race trailing behind Jaime Alguersuari in a Toro Rosso, and the German finished in tenth position, finally passing the Spaniard with two laps left before passing another Spanish driver, Pedro de la Rosa.

The race ended with a battle between Hamilton – the only other world champion in the series – and Alonso, with a grand finale for fourth between world champions, the way the race had started. But Mark Webber the local driver in the other Red Bull, was less than half a second behind Hamilton, making it a three-way battle for fourth.

With one and a half laps left in the race, Webber ran into the back of Hamilton’s car as Hamilton tried to pass Alonso. Hamilton nevertheless finished sixth, and Webber finished ninth.

Felipe Massa finished in third, behind Robert Kubica, the Polish driver for Renault, who finished second, at 12 seconds behind Button.