Cool Button steers McLaren to Melbourne win

By Nick Mulvenney

Button's compatriot and team mate Lewis Hamilton, who started on pole, finished third to round out the podium while Vettel's team mate Mark Webber was fourth, his best ever finish in his 11th attempt to win his home race.

"Oh fantastic, what a great way to start the year, guys! Seriously, fantastic!" former world champion Button said on the team radio. "The car is beautiful and she's quick. Thanks guys."

Finland's Kimi Raikkonen, one of six former world champions in the field, impressed on his return from two years out of the sport to finish seventh for Lotus.

Mexican Sergio Perez had started right from the back after changing his gearbox overnight but finished eighth - the same place he claimed on his Formula One debut here last year before he and Kobayashi were disqualified for technical infringements.

Australian Daniel Ricciardo finished ninth on his home race debut for Toro Rosso despite an accident at the start, while the last point was won by Force India's Paul Di Resta in 10th.

Webber and Ricciardo were not so fortunate, the former sandwiched between two rivals as he dropped from fifth to ninth and the latter's car spinning 360 degrees and taking out the Williams of Bruno Senna in the process.

Vettel, who started sixth on the grid, made the most of Webber's misfortune and by the end of lap two had passed Nico Rosberg with a superb move into fourth place behind the other Mercedes of Michael Schumacher.

When seven-times champion Schumacher went off the track onto the grass on lap 10 to effectively end his race, Vettel swept through into third place and started trying to eat into the 10-second gap to the McLarens.

An opportune safety car when Vitaly Petrov's Caterham ground to a halt on the start-finish straight 20 laps from the end allowed the German to leap-frog Hamilton.

But when the track was finally cleared at the end of lap 41, Button simply eased away from the world champion and took the chequered flag after one hour 34.09 minutes, 2.1 seconds in front of the German.

"I think Jenson was unbeatable today," said Vettel. "I'm very happy with second, it's a lot of points. They are the ones to beat at the moment and we'll see what happens next week."

Raikkonen carved his way through the field from 17th on the grid and made up in part for his Lotus team mate Romain Grosjean's early exit.

The Frenchman had lined up third on the grid and was sixth when Maldonado overtook and in the process smashed his front right wheel.

Six cars retired from the race, including the departure of Petrov, which effectively cost Hamilton second place.

(Editing by Alastair Himmer)