Button was Leading

Button made a poor start and was engulfed by Williams' Nico Rosberg, who made a super getaway. Button tried to run round the outside of him in Turn One and lost out also to Toyota's Jarno Trulli, and Renault's Fernando Alonso got in on the act briefly too before Button snatched back third before the lap was over.

Further back, Rubens Barrichello had sprinted up to fifth in the second Brawn car ahead of Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, Red Bull's Mark Webber, Glock, Heidfeld and McLaren's Lewis Hamilton.

In the second McLaren Heikki Kovalainen went off the road in Turn Five, while Robert Kubica's BMW Sauber was all but left on the grid and expired on the second lap.

Rosberg pulled away a little from Trulli, who had his hands full with Button, but after the German stopped on the 15th lap and the Italian on the 17th, Button got the hammer down and was able to concede the lead just to team mate Barrichello before taking it back when Rubens stopped on lap 23.

The biggest gamble of the day came from Ferrari. When Raikkonen pitted on the 18th lap they put him on wets early, and it proved a disastrous decision as he lapped 21s slower than Button. Further back, team mate Felipe Massa struggled with Hamilton as the world champion lost out in fights with the Red Bulls of Webber and Sebastian Vettel, who had been the first to pit, on lap 13.

Just before the rain, the order was Button, six seconds ahead of Rosberg, Trulli and Barrichello. Alonso was fifth from Hamilton (both yet to stop), then came Heidfeld and Massa, Piquet and Nakajima, Webber, Glock and Trulli who had all stopped, Raikkonen, and then the Toro Rossos and Force €ndias.

Then came the wholesale stops on the 22nd lap as the rain came, followed by thunder and lightning and all the drama that had been predicted.

By lap 25 things had stabilised a little as the drivers splashed their way around, and parts of the track became less wet than others. Button was still leading, from Rosberg, Trulli and Barrichello, but Webber was now fifth from Heidfeld after Alonso had briefly fallen off, then came Hamilton, Glock, Massa, Piquet, Nakajima, Vettel (also, like Glock, flying on inters), Alonso, Raikkonen et al. But conditions were still so tricky that many decided to change to inters, only to find, as Button did, that wets were the answer after all.



When the red flag came out on lap 32, the order read: Button, Glock, Heidfeld (a long way behind after a spin), Trulli, Barrichello, Hamilton, Rosberg, Webber, Massa, Bourdais, Alonso, Nakajima, Piquet, Raikkonen, Sutil, Vettel, Buemi and Fisichella (who had spun twice).

That was when the guessing began. Would they restart the race, as the rain eased but the sky became darker with the onset of evening? If not, when would they backdate the result, because of all the pit stops?

At 18.52 the race directors finally called it off. Button had won, it was just a matter of deciding how far they would go back to decide the order behind him. In the end, that was lap 31, giving a race finishing order of:

Button, Heidfeld, Glock; Trulli, Barrichello, Webber, Hamilton and Rosberg as the points scorers. Then: Massa, Bourdais, Alonso, Nakajima, Piquet, Raikkonen, Vettel, Buemi, Sutil and Fisichella.

Since the race had gone past the 50 percent mark but not 75 percent, half points were awarded. But for Button, it was the chance to extend his championship lead from 10 points to 15, with Barrichello next on 10 from Trulli on 8.5. In the constructors' championship, Brawn have 25 to Toyota's 16.5.

Protests After Pre-Event

MELBOURNE, Australia -- Race stewards rejected a protest Thursday against the bodywork on the cars of three teams racing at this weekend's Formula One season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

Ferrari, Renault and Red Bull lodged protests after pre-event inspections approved the cars of Williams, Toyota and Brawn. The protest alleged the teams had broken new aerodynamic laws restricting the size of the rear diffuser.

After hours of hearings late into the night, the race stewards rejected the protest and cleared the three teams to race with "their designs unchanged."

"Following lengthy discussions with the various parties, stewards reiterated their belief that the cars are legal," FIA said in a statement. "That decision is expected to be appealed, which would require a hearing of the FIA's International Court of Appeal. That would be unlikely to take place until after next weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix."

Even before the stewards' hearing, the protesting teams had signaled their intention to appeal if the verdict went against them.

Williams, Toyota and race favorites Brawn will compete in Australia and Malaysia with their current bodywork design but with the fear that any points gained may be wiped out if the appeal succeeds.

BMW team principal Mario Thiessen indicated an intention to join Ferrari, Renault and Red Bull in the protest, but the team did not make the deadline to do so.

New F1 regulations limit the size of the diffuser, and the protesting teams say Williams, Toyota and Brawn had bent the rules by using bodywork at the rear of the car that connected with the diffuser and effectively increased its size.

The diffuser at the rear of car's under-tray acts to increase downforce, assisting speed, cornering and smooth performance.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner rejected suggestions that this row, three days ahead of the season's first GP, had already fractured the much-trumpeted cohesion between teams since the creation of the Formula One Teams' Association.



This is a sporting and competitive issue, it has nothing to do with the workings of FOTA. It's nothing personal against the teams, it's simply looking to clarify regulations and our interpretations and others has been different," Horner said. "Our purpose in all of this is to establish the clarity of the regulation, because it has significant impact on how we channel our development."

Toyota team principal John Howett said he had no ill will toward the protesting teams, and was confident the Toyota design would withstand any scrutiny.

"It's part of the sport we're in," Howett said. "We have studied the regulations in detail and are very confident we have interpreted them correctly. We now just wait for what the stewards or a subsequent court decides."

Should the ultimate decision go in favor of Williams, Toyota and Brawn, other teams would be forced to play catch-up to develop their own bodywork to match.

Horner said his team had done preliminary work to develop rear bodywork in similar fashion, but abandoned it to comply with new F1 rules.

"The cost implications are significant, but it depends on how far you want to go with it," Horner said. "We looked at the concept, we looked at it some time ago. We understood it was certainly not within the spirit, or within the regulations. We haven't committed any significant resource to it."