Brave Jenson Button wins thrilling Australian GP

Jenson Button brilliantly answered the critics who had written off his chances of retaining his Formula 1 crown by winning an incident packed Australian Grand Prix at Melbourne.

After the opening race at Bahrain proved to be a processional damp squib, this race was anything but, as changeable weather, crashes and sensational driving all played their part. The race more than made up for the boredom of the season opener, with enough overtaking for both of the races.

The tone was set at the start, which took place in the wet, and saw Felipe Massa catapult from seventh to second, Fernando Alonso spin and lose ground, and Lewis Hamilton, who qualified a disappointing 11th, moved up to sixth.

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The rain stopped after a couple of laps and when Hamilton then overtook Button, but that prompted the key strategic decision of the afternoon - to switch Button to dry tyres weather on just the sixth lap.

The McLaren driver's decision to change so early was a brave one as it was still very wet and afterwards Button admitted he feared he had made a "catastrophic" mistake when he saw the amount of water in the pit lane.

But it paid off and the Briton, after a couple of slides in the still damp conditions, set a blistering pace, knocking two seconds of the leader Sebastian Vettel's fastest lap time as he raced through the field and into second place as his rivals ducked into the pits themselves.

Button seemed stuck in second behind Sebastian Vettel, unable to match the Red Bull's speed. But on lap 27 Vettel, who missed out in Bahrain because of an engine problem, appeared to suffer a brake failure and slid out of the race.

That left Button with clear track in front of him and he consolidated his position at the front of the field.

Another unfancied driver, Roebrt Kubica of Renault, held onto second place as all kinds of excitement developed behind him as Nico Rosberg, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, Mark Webber and Felipe Massa jostled for position.

After some thrilling racing Hamilton seemed to have shaken off his rivals and began to bear down on second-placed Kubica. But on lap 34 he pitted for new tyres, soon after Webber had done the same, and came out down the field. The cars in front of him elected to stick with their tyres and not pit, leaving Hamilton trapped behind them and for all his efforts he could only finish in sixth behind the Ferraris of Massa and Alonso in third and fourth, and Nico Rosberg in fifth.

The Briton was obviously unhappy after the race. Hamilton put the blame for his sixth place squarely on the team. "I drove my heart out today and I think I deserved better. Everyone else in front of me did one stop and I did two," he moaned.

Button on the other hand was delighted, and he revealed that the race-winning decision to switch to dry-weather tyres was his. "The pit stop was my call. It's a lot easier for the driver to feel the conditions than the guys in the pits. It was the right call and I'm very happy that I made it. We'll take a lot from this," he said.

Michael Schumacher's underwhelming return to the sport continued as he finished down in 10th. The man they used to call the regenmeister because of his skill in the wet failed to challenge but at the end of the race declared that it had been "good fun".

Thanks to the new scoring system that gives race winners 25 points, Button is third in the table after two races with 31 points. Behind the Ferrari drivers Fernando Alonso (37) and Felipe Massa (33). Hamilton is fourth with 23 points.