The victory was Button's first of the season; the result moved him to third place in the Drivers' Championship, two points behind Massa and a further four adrift of Fernando Alonso.

The teams (also known as constructors) were Red Bull, Mercedes, McLaren, Ferrari, Renault, Williams, Force India, Sauber, Toro Rosso, Lotus, Hispania and Virgin.

[6] As was the case for all of the 2010 Grands Prix, the rules stipulated that all cars should use both types of tyre during the course of the race unless the driver used any one of two wet-weather compounds.

The reigning Drivers' Champion Jenson Button who had won the 2009 Australian Grand Prix was pleased to be returning to Albert Park and set himself the target of finishing on the podium.

The start time was moved later in the day to allow European audiences to not get up early to view the event on television but it courted controversy as visibility was poor and it was retained for 2010.

Virgin Racing were granted permission from Formula One's governing body the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) to change the size of their car's fuel tanks because their capacity was not large enough for their drivers to complete a Grand Prix at full speed; the chassis would not be ready until the Spanish Grand Prix on 9 May.

[15] The team was also requested by the stewards in Bahrain to change the configuration of their front wing end-plates to a safer rounded shape for Australia.

Alonso, Hamilton, Sébastien Buemi, Vitaly Petrov and Vitantonio Liuzzi rounded out the session's top ten drivers.

Vettel lost control of the rear of his car and beached it in the turn six gravel trap in the final three minutes of the session.

Sutil, Massa and Liuzzi completed the top ten ahead of qualifying and were within one second off Webber's pace.

Button lacked grip and had excessive oversteer which caused him to lose time and set the fourth quickest lap but was happy with the package of his car.

[22] The two Mercedes drivers used the soft compound tyres but only managed sixth and seventh positions with Rosberg ahead of Schumacher;[23] Rosberg was disappointed after he made mistakes on his final run which cost him time while Schumacher also used the hard compound tyre and was caught up in traffic.

Sutil rounded out the top ten but believed he could have done better as he struggled to get his soft compound tyres up to temperature after doing two runs in the third session.

[23] He was held up by traffic during the first run of the second session which meant he made an early pit stop for new tyres and to have a clear track.

Pedro de la Rosa pushed hard in qualifying to take 14th position with Nico Hülkenberg in the slower Williams 15th.

At the first corner Button's front left wheel made contact with Alonso's right rear tyre,[26] causing the Spanish driver to spin and dropped to 22nd position.

[25] Racing resumed at the end of lap four when the safety car pulled into the pit-lane with Vettel leading Massa.

[25] At the end of the first racing lap, Vettel led Massa by 1.1 seconds,[25] who in turn was followed by Webber, Kubica, Rosberg, Button, Hamilton, Sutil, Barrichello and Petrov.

Button called his team to bring out slick tyres and endured a large amount of water to enter the pit lane on lap seven.

[25] Petrov missed the braking point for Whiteford corner on lap ten and spun off into the gravel trap which caused his car to become beached and retired.

[29] Sutil briefly took over the lead until he made a pit stop on lap twelve and got out of his car to retire because he lost power in his engine.

[30] This caused Vettel to lose torque drive between the front left axle and wheel,[31] and spun into the gravel trap at Ascari corner on lap 26.

[25] Glock made a pit stop and his mechanics retired him from the race on the 45th lap because a camber shim on his car was loose and it caused the left rear suspension to move around.

Webber took advantage but missed his braking point because his front wing stopped producing downforce which prevented him from reducing his speed and locked his tyres.

[25][26][32] Button had maintained his lead upfront and crossed the start/finish line after 58 laps to win his first race of the 2010 season and his second consecutive Australian Grand Prix.

[33] Kubica said that he had not been expecting to finish on the podium and thanked the effort of his Renault team for helping him achieving his second-place result.

He praised his team for selecting a strategy of not making a pit stop after 20 laps of the race had been completed and felt it was good for all of the top three finishers.

[33] Hamilton was disappointed not to have finished in a higher position and accused Webber of "not thinking" following the collision between the two drivers on the 57th lap.

He said that he wanted to achieve a podium finish but that it was a "tough day" for the Red Bull team and had been determined to not give up.

[32] Vettel believed he could have won the race had he not been affected by a car failure saying that Red Bull were pushing and trying to do the best they could and wanted to ensure that he clinched victory in the Malaysian Grand Prix.