Toyota's Jarno Trulli inherited third then lost it to Lewis Hamilton following a stewards' penalty when disaster struck young German Sebastian Vettel.

Vettel was headed for second spot in his Red Bull when he collided with the BMW of Poland's Robert Kubica with three laps remaining.

Compounding his problems, stewards fined Vettel $US50,000 ($A70,000) for driving around after he had seriously damaged his car and dropped him 10 grid places for next weekend's Malaysian GP for forcing Kubica off the Melbourne track.

Trulli was penalised 25 seconds for overtaking during the safety car period, forcing him to give up his podium spot to Hamilton and dropping him out of the points altogether, down to 12th.

Mark Webber's hopes ended at the first corner when he was slammed by Barrichello, who was catapulted into the Red Bull after the Brazilian took a heavy hit from Heikki Kovalainen's McLaren. Webber struggled on to finish 13th and last.

The Brawns had dominated pre-season testing after emerging from the old Honda operation.

Button described his trek to the top of the podium as ''a fairy tale ending''.

''The whole team has done a great job and this has got to continue because this is where we deserve to be and we've worked very, very hard for this.''

Button paid special tribute to Ross Brawn, the English technical genius who was the driving force behind Ferrari's success with Michael Schumacher before he moved to Honda last year.

''You don't find Ross speechless very often but the last 15 minutes I would be surprised if he's said a word.''

Barrichello said the Brawn was not only quick but solid and he said the controversial rear diffuser, said to help with the pace, was broken in the hit so played no part in the car's speed.

''It's strong, very strong because I was hit from behind, I hit someone in front and it was a tough race,'' Barrichello said.