Even from the word go, this 57-lap scorcher at Albert Park turned into a car wreckers’ delight … with Toro Rosso’s Vitantonio Liuzzi and Midland’s Christijan Albers setting the scene by spectacularly smashing their cars into the wall, scattering thousands of dollars worth of precious metal across the track.

And that was only during Friday’s opening practice session! There was much, much more to come before Theodora Richards (left), daughter of Rolling Stones rocker Keith Richards, waved the chequered flag at the end of Sunday's sensational race.

From our seats in the Fangio grandstand opposite the podium we had ringside seats of the action as the wreck-a-thon continued during Saturday's practice and qualifying sessions.

The action began with Ferrari’s Felipe Massa spinning wildly out of control and spearing dramatically into the wall, wrecking his chassis and requiring a complete car rebuild. Then we watched team-mate Michael Schumacher drop a metal fan onto the track as he sped out of pit lane in front of us. It ended under the wheels of Mark Webber’s Williams.

Raikkonen, Alonso and Ralf Schumacher on the podium with their trophies

Sadly for the hapless Massa, his hastily rebuilt speed machine didn’t get him far on race-day … again ending up in bits and pieces on the first corner! Then it was Christian Klien’s turn to bite the dust when his Red Bull car was sliced in half in yet another dramatic smash.

An onboard fire had Nico Rosberg leaping from his Williams and then Michael Schumacher scrambled from his mangled Ferrari after ramming the wall on Pit Straight. Dazed, he amused fans by walking into the wrong garage, obviously mistaking the red of Toyota for the more familiar Ferrari red!

Then it was the turn of McLaren’s Juan Pablo Montoya.

But there’s no doubt the cruellest moment of all came when Jenson Button’s Honda suddenly took on the appearance of a dump-and-burn fighter jet just metres from the chequered flag and when he was running fifth. His car roared round the final bend and into Pit Straight, unbelievably erupting in fire and sending a ribbon of flames trailing behind it.

It was ironic ...  the previous day he had blazed his way into pole position with a blistering performance during qualifying.

We can’t begin to imagine just how many millions of dollars worth of bits and pieces from F1's technological wizardry had littered the circuit during those three days of practice, qualifying and actual racing.