F1: Melbourne delivers amazing race

In Malaysia, there's a TV advert about "the return of a legend." In the UK, that would mean Lotus, and in time, Malaysians will feel the same way about that team as millions of Britons do. But for now, a country that's been fed sport based on Manchester United, Ferrari and Michael Schumacher, it means that Schumacher is back. Today's race showed three things:

1. Schumacher is not settling into this season's car as quickly as expected. Like it or not, he's almost a novice insofar as the available tech is concerned.

2. Schumacher has a target painted on his back. Far from his glory days when the sight of his Ferrari looming in the mirrors of another car - even one he was racing for position - intimidated his rivals, now he garners respect - but no one is going to move aside for him and if he takes a position the other driver is going to come back at him. His reputation, amongst the young turks, means nothing. After all, most of them were still karting in Schumacher's final season in F1 - and in karting pushing and shoving is illegal but commonplace.

3. Schumacher has lost none of his aggressive tendencies: he is quite prepared to bang wheels. His problem is that to do that he first has to get alongside. And today, he demonstrated that that is not as easy as he thought it would be.

Pushed to the back by the need to get a new nosecone at the end of lap one, under the safety car, by Alonso's first (or was it T2 or T3 - it's hard to tell at Melbourne) collision with Button (Button on inside, Alonso turned in and, making contact, spun out) Schumacher - in the wet - was expected to excel. Instead he battled with cars and drivers that no one expected to be able to match either his pace or that of his Mercedes.

Alonso fared better but only because he didn't have to pit for repairs.

Button, on the other hand, watched Hamilton pass him, muttered "no way" or words to that effect, passed Hamilton before the next corner and strode off.

But Button couldn't make the intermediate tyres work. He lost two places - including to his team-mate, and decided to make a potentially disastrous gamble. He piled into the pits, unannounced, and told his crew as he approached to fit new, soft, slicks. So out he went - on a damp track with tyres that were not even scrubbed.

A disclaimer: our UK Karting Team mechanic had previously been Jenson Button's mechanic. So we have an insight into Jenson's training. And we know this: going out in the damp on brand new slicks was totally contrary to everything the mechanics told us, and they told Jenson the same. But today's apparently rash decision was entirely Jenson's. And it was a rubbish decision - for the first two laps. He scrabbled for grip; he fell off the track; he lost time. But two to three laps later, when everyone else came in, Button capitalised: his tyres were hot, he knew where the grip was and he had made his change in an empty pit lane where others were held up under the new safety ruling.

In fact, had he not fallen off, Button would have been ahead of Vettel. For the next twenty or so laps he tracked Vettel who complained of a brake problem and then fell off: later he said that there were all the signs of a brake disintegrating with a bang.

That put Button in the lead with almost half the race to go.

After the race, Button hit home just how superior his performance had been - and why he had whipped his team-mate.

He had been set to do 90 % of the race on a single set of soft tyres. For a while, he was concerned about graining. For much of the race, viewers with an eye for detail would have seen a clear line developing around the rear tyres of almost all of the cars.

Button, deciding he was not going to lose half-a-minute in the pits, simply settled down to a pace that the tyres were happy with. Translation: Button slowed down.Talk about taking it easy: in the post race interviews, he said with a smile that he knew there was a lot of racing going on behind him because he was watching it on the big screens as he trolled around.

With 20 laps to go, as Hamilton and Webber were much quicker, Button thought that building a cushion was a good idea. He had already left second place man Kubica behind. And Massa and Alonso had more or less decided that racing each other was just going to lead to tears. But Hamilton and Webber, after a ding-dong battle, had sat line astern until they caught up with the Ferraris.

And here the Bahrain problems manifested themselves: just as Alonso had clearly not been able to get close enough to Massa, so Hamilton could not get close enough to Alonso. For lap after lap, he sat just outside the turbulent air, making the odd dive.

WIth just three laps to go, Hamilton made his move from 6 to 5 and Webber chased him through. So far so good - until just one corner later when Hamilton turned in and Webber hit him in the side as his aero became unstuck in the high-speed approach. Webber, ever the gentleman, expressed his apologies and took full responsibility for the incident. Both went off, Alonso who had been left for dead - proving that the Ferrari was no match for either the McLaren or the Red Bull - came back through. And with both of the others in the gravel trap there was a scramble for position. Webber's front wing was off and he pitted.

So, Button's gamble paid off, Hamilton's moaning he had an extra stop (but his rear tyres simply would not have lasted to the end).

Lotus got one car home: Trulli's hydraulics problem meant a no-start. And Chandok finished - five laps down but that was no disgrace.

Podium: Button, Kubica, Massa.

If F1 can deliver this every race, it will cement its place as a great race series.

But as Button said: in Bahrain the top eight cars had the top eight grid slots. In Melbourne it was mixed up. And by half-way round the first lap, even more so. But the aero problems are still very evident.

Having said that, as the teams pack up for their race to Malaysia for next week's event there is one over-riding feeling.

Formula One CAN deliver.

And today it did.