Lewis Hamilton gives up before he’s started

Five months is a long time in motor racing. After a scintillating end to last year's Grand Prix season, the defending champion Lewis Hamilton goes into the new season, opening this weekend in Melbourne, in the almost certain knowledge that he is going to lose the race – and possibly by a long way. In his two practice sessions for the Australian Grand Prix, he has come 16th and 18th in a field of 20.

Hamilton and his McLaren team's hopes of emulating the domination of Michael Schumacher and Ferrari at the start of the century have been blown out of the water by rule changes that have turned the established order on its head and left the likes of Jenson Button – his fellow Brit, who many thought had wasted his career - going for gold.

Button, driving for the only just launched Brawn GP team, finished fifth and then sixth in practice, while the terminally unfashionable Williams driver Nico Rosberg took top spot.
 
It has prompted Hamilton to all but concede his crown before a pedal has been stepped on in anger. "The car is the problem," he said. "It's not that bad, it's just we can't carry our speed through corners. We love winning and haven't forgotten how to, but it's going to take some time before we get back there."
 
This year's big winner could be Ross Brawn, who led a management buyout to rescue the credit-crunched Honda team less than a month ago and renamed it Brawn GP. By taking advantage of the Formula 1 rule changes to equip his cars with controversial new 'diffusers', Brawn has turned Button and his veritably geriatric team-mate, 37-year-old Rubens Barichello, into potential champions.

Flying out to Melbourne to watch is Sir Richard Branson, who yesterday announced that the Virgin group was to put cash into Formnul 1 racing for the first time – by sponsoring Brawn. Whether the team's cars can be prepared with Virgin logos to celebrate the multi-million pound deal in time for this first race is not certain.   ·