Britain's Jenson Button Wins Australian Grand Prix, While Australian Hope Mark Webber Crashes

Britain's Jenson Button claims his second Australian Grand Prix, while local hopeful Mark Webber has a day to forget.

McLaren’s Jenson Button survived a first-corner collision and successfully gambled on a bold tire strategy to win a thrilling Australian Grand Prix on Sunday.



Button was the first driver prepared to change from intermediate tires to slicks on a drying track, and drove the final 52 laps on a wearing set of soft tires to claim back-to-back race victories in Melbourne.

Button, the 2009 Formula One world champion, tangled with Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso at the first corner, and he inherited the lead just before the halfway point when the pole sitter and race leader Sebastian Vettel ended up in a gravel trap after the brakes on his Red Bull car failed.

Renault’s Robert Kubica was 12 seconds behind in second place, driving doggedly to hold off faster rivals and finish ahead of Felipe Massa and Alonso.

Button changed to slicks when the track was still damp, carefully navigated while he got heat into his tires and was rewarded with a victory in his second race with McLaren.

“I thought it was a terrible call initially,” Button said. “I thought it was a catastrophic mistake. Once I got it going and up to speed, the pace was pretty good. It was the right call, and I am very happy.”

If fortune favored Button, it deserted Vettel, who for the second straight race was let down by a mechanical failure while comfortably leading. RAIN PUSHES BACK I.R.L. RACE With several inches of water pooling on many sections of the low-lying track, the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg (Fla.) was postponed a day after a band of thunderstorms pounded the course for much of the afternoon.

Rain began falling at the 1.8-mile street circuit just before 1 p.m. Eastern, and a band of strong storms arrived about 90 minutes later. The race was rescheduled for 10 a.m. Monday.

SPRINT CUP RACE POSTPONED Nascar’s bad weather luck at Martinsville Speedway reared its head again as rain forced the postponement of the Sprint Cup race until noon Monday.

It is the second year in a row that rain pushed an event into the work week at the track in southwest Virginia. Last spring, the truck series event had to be run on a Monday.

Rain also has washed out Sprint Cup qualifying for the past three spring races, putting the points leader Kevin Harvick on the pole for the race.