[5] The teams, also known as constructors, were Ferrari, McLaren-Mercedes, Renault, Brawn-Mercedes, Force India-Mercedes, BMW Sauber, Toyota, Red Bull Racing-Renault, Williams-Toyota and Toro Rosso-Ferrari.

[14] Heikki Kovalainen was the faster of the two McLaren drivers in fifth, with teammate and reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton languishing all the way down in 16th, some 2.3 seconds off the pace of the Williams cars.

The only Australian in the field, Mark Webber ended up fourth for Red Bull Racing, ahead of Button, Glock and Nakajima.

[15] Webber's teammate Sebastian Vettel was eighth, after a morning session that was interrupted by a hydraulic failure which led him to pull his car off the road between turns six and seven.

[16] Nakajima again impressed in the Williams, finishing fifth, in front of Barrichello, Webber, and Glock, who took the next three fastest times and were split by around six hundredths of a second.

"The last five or six months for both of us have been so tough because of going from not having a drive or any future in racing to putting it on pole here is just amazing, it really is and I have got to give all credit to the team and Ross [Brawn] and Nick [Fry] for making this happen.

[13] After dominating all three practice sessions on Friday, and again on Saturday morning, Rosberg did not fare so well in qualifying, managing a time only good enough for fifth position.

After Glock was demoted, Massa was promoted to sixth and was the best KERS runner, ahead of teammate Räikkönen, with Heidfeld and Alonso completing the top ten, after the Toyotas' disqualification.

[19] The conditions on raceday were similar to what had been seen on both Friday and Saturday, the air temperature at 25 °C (77 °F);[20] clear skies throughout, with the race beginning at 17:00 AEDT.

After near-stalling, Barrichello had dropped from second to ninth, and challenged up the inside of Webber's Red Bull as they entered turn one.

After being hit from behind, Barrichello's left front tyre impacted with the right-hand sidepod of Webber's car which half-spun the Australian into the BMW Sauber of Heidfeld.

At the end of the lap, Webber, Sutil and Heidfeld all pitted to repair damage caused in the first corner incident.

[22] Massa and Hamilton both pitted on lap eleven,[22] with both drivers changing from the option tyres, moving onto the harder rubber.

[21] Rosberg was delayed by a slow left front tyre change, which was a major contribution to his nine-place fall in the race.

[21] At the restart, Button held position out front, ahead of Vettel, Massa, Kubica – who was still weaving his car to get temperature into his tyres after he had crossed the start/finish line – and Räikkönen.

However, Piquet lost control of his car under braking – and possibly due to the tyres not being up to the required temperature – and spun off into the turn one gravel and out of the race.

[20] Positions remained the same until lap 31, when Massa made his second and final pit stop of the race and emerged back into the fray in 14th place.

[21] At this time, Massa was slowly exiting the race with suspension damage, limping round before retiring the Ferrari in pit lane.

Meanwhile, Vettel also made an error on the way into the corner, sliding and hitting the wall, causing his left front tyre to bend back on itself.

As stated by Article 40.14 of the sporting regulations for Formula One, the safety car pulled in and the drivers proceeded over the line without overtaking.

This decision was later reversed: Trulli was eventually re-instated to his third finishing position and Hamilton was disqualified for misleading stewards during their investigation.

This is a fairy tale ending really to the first race of our career together and I hope that we can continue this way and I know we are going to fight to keep this car competitive and with the limited resources we have to keep it at the front.

I thought the car was done from that crash but I survived quite well, but on my first stint my nose was falling apart and I lost the braking stability when I hit Kimi as well.

"[29] Trulli was pleased with his third place on the road, but was however, unaware of the penalty that he was due to receive for his late race pass of Hamilton under the safety car.

"[29] After an investigation, stewards deemed that Sebastian Vettel was in the wrong after his collision with Robert Kubica, which resulted in both of them not finishing the race.

Red Bull Racing, Vettel's team, also received a $50,000 fine for letting him continue with a damaged car, for over a lap.

[31] Trulli's explanation of the incident was: "When the safety car came out towards the end of the race Lewis Hamilton passed me but soon after he suddenly slowed down and pulled over to the side of the road.

"[36] The Trulli/Hamilton case was reopened to examine new evidence, and both drivers were summoned to a stewards' inquiry on 2 April 2009, prior to the Malaysian Grand Prix.

McLaren continued to insist it had not given orders to allow Trulli past, even after being played an audio recording of such an instruction over team radio.

[40] McLaren's Sporting Director, Dave Ryan, was subsequently suspended by the team the day after Hamilton's disqualification was announced.