Australian Grand Prix

Proving that the power of hometown heroics should never be underestimated, Casey Stoner not only put on a great show for his fellow countrymen but once again proved to be dominant at the Australian GP. The starting grid at Phillip Island was the last time Stoner would be seen by competitors, as he converted pole-position to victory with a gap of nearly nine seconds. But was this really a fair fight?

Even when McLaren makes mistakes, it makes money. Lewis Hamilton was busted putting a little a lotta extra temperature into the tires of a Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG loaned to him during his stay in Melbourne for the Jonathon Ramsey

Police only recently released the name, after only confiding that a 25-year-old Briton with Swiss residency was arrested in a Mercedes sedan doing burnouts in a Melbourne, Australia suburb. Yep, that's Lewis Hamilton, driving down a stretch of section used for the Albert Park track in a Benz sedan and lighting the tires up (sounds oddly familiar). The road was open for public use, and the public watchdogs &ndash

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Last weekend's Australian Grand Prix, the season opener to the 2009 Formula One season, may have ushered in a new era in on-track competition, but the off-track politics are already back up to full swing.

It seems like F1 has been suffering the wrong kind of turmoil for the past few years: big and little teams failing; espionage; driver spats; owner-and-FIA spats; record penalties and fines; sex scandals; and regulations being changed like diapers - just to name a few things. The 2009 season has started off in a bit of turmoil as well, with six teams' car designs protested against.

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