Button fires for McLaren

McLaren driver Jenson Button won the Formula One season-opening Australian Grand Prix on Sunday, taking the chequered flag at Albert Park for the third time in four years and signaling a tight season ahead. Button won by 2.1 seconds ahead of reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull, with the race turned into a 17-lap shootout following the late emergence of the safety car.

Pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton was third, just ahead of local hope Mark Webber of Red Bull. The result indicated McLaren has closed the gap on Red Bull, which dominated 2011. The top 12 finishers were separated by less than a minute, bearing out pre-season predictions of a hard-fought campaign in 2012. "It was an amazing day," Button said. "Starting the year strong for this team is really important. The past two years for us have been tricky for us coming into the first race. It points us in a great position for the next few races and on the right foot."

Fernando Alonso of Ferrari was fifth, with Williams' Pastor Maldonado crashing heavily into a wall on the final lap while on the tail of the Spaniard. Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi inherited sixth from Maldonado, and team mate Sergio Perez was eighth after starting last on the grid. They were separated by Lotus's Kimi Raikkonen.

Toro Rosso's Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo was ninth to claim points in his first home race, overtaking team mate Jean-Eric Vergne on the final sequence of corners. Vergne was shuffled down to 11th, with Force India's Paul di Resta snatching the last points-paying position in 10th.

Button got off the line better than Hamilton and immediately took the lead, extending the gap on his team mate to a maximum of 11.8 seconds on lap 23 of 58. However, that buffer was negated when the Caterham of Vitaly Petrov stopped on the main straight and brought out the safety car.

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