Sebastian Vettel began the defence of his world title in Australia with a dominant performance in the Red Bull to win from Lewis Hamilton of McLaren at Albert Park.
German Vettel never looked in danger of losing his pole position after a great start saw him build an immediate lead over Briton Hamilton.
Vitaly Petrov claimed a brilliant podium for Renault, fending off Fernando Alonso's Ferrari late on.
Vettel's team-mate Mark Webber again struggled in his home race in Melbourne but took fifth ahead of Briton Jenson Button, whose chances were hurt by a drivethrough penalty.
Mexican Sergio Perez enjoyed a remarkable debut as he nursed his tyres through a one-stop strategy without sacrificing speed to claim seventh for Sauber, while team-mate Kamui Kobayashi finished behind him. However the pair was later excluded from the race for a technical infringement which the team said it would appeal.
That meant Felipe Massa and Toro Rosso's Sebastien Buemi were promoted up the final order with Force India duo Adrian Sutil and Paul Di Resta classified in the final two points positions behind them.
As Vettel took off at the start, Petrov set out his stall by moving up two places for fourth as Button dropped back from that position. Massa also passed him as he made up three places while Ferrari team-mate Alonso found himself ninth after losing four spots.
Button immediately placed Massa under pressure, using the new Drag Reduction System over a period of several laps to try and blaze a trail past. However the Brazilian was having none of it.
Button paid the price for his determination 12 laps in when he undercut a corner having entered something of a cul-de-sac, winning position unfairly: the situation was then complicated by the following Alonso - who had recovered quickly for seventh - passing Massa.
That meant the 2009 could not give the position back without letting both Ferraris through; he opted not to - he told his team he believed he had the track position - and was subsequently hit with the drivethrough which also delayed his opening pitstop.
Vettel's lead of three seconds had been cut drastically by Hamilton and with the top-10 starters' Q3 tyres wearing quickly, he opted to come in after 15 laps for softs. It worked out well as the rubber allowed him to swoop past Button quickly while Hamilton also re-emerged behind his team-mate but could not make a move stick quite so quickly.
Twenty-four laps into the 58-lap race Rubens Barrichello's overzealous attack upon Nico Rosberg saw him clip the Mercedes. Both cars remained on track after a small spin and resumed; however the Silver Arrow soon began emitting blue smoke and the German was forced to retire through no fault of his own.
The sister Mercedes of Michael Schumacher had already been forced out thanks to damage suffered on the opening corners when Jaime Alguersuari caught his right rear. Barrichello, penalised with a drivethrough for the ill-fated move on Rosberg, later retired himself from 15th position.
Button used DRS to overtake Kobayashi for seventh while at the front Hamilton - whose undertray was loose but not impeding him - ran off to increase his gap to Vettel to over 12 seconds.
With 21 laps remaining Vettel and Hamilton both came in for a second and final time. The 2008 world champion's stop was slightly quicker and he was able to reduce the gap to nine seconds, but that was as close as he got in the remainder of the race.
In third place Webber was struggling with his tyres and came in. He emerged in clear air but ran wide at turn three which allowed Alonso to make up a position following his pitstop soon after. Unlike the pair, Petrov was not to come in a third time and held his third spot despite an intense attack from Alonso on the final laps after the Spaniard quickly made up seven seconds on him.
Button passed Massa for sixth with 10 laps remaining and the Brazilian had to come in for one last stop anyway which, despite overtaking Buemi late on, put him down in ninth by the end. It will be some consolation that he was promoted to seventh by Sauber's breach of the regulations despite being outclassed by that team in the race.
The FIA stated that the infringement related to having slots on the beam wing and the rear wing of the car.
Sauber technical director James Key said: "This is a very surprising and disappointing result.
"It appears that there is a question over the top surface of the uppermost rear wing element: this area is not the working surface of the component and therefore relatively unimportant to its function.
"Certainly this has not led to any performance advantage. We are checking the design of the parts now to better understand the situation and we intend to appeal the decision made by the stewards."
Behind Buemi, Sutil and Scot Di Resta - impressive on debut - were Alguersuari (Toro Rosso), Nick Heidfeld (Renault), Jarno Trulli (Lotus) and Jerome d'Ambrosio (Virgin).
Timo Glock was unclassified despite running to the end - he spent several laps in the pits mid-race - while Heikki Kovalainen and Pastor Maldonado failed to finish.
Spanish outfit HRT were not allowed to race after failing to achieve the required qualifying time on Saturday.
