AUSTRALIAN GP - RACEHello and welcome to the start of the Australian Grand Prix. We're down on the starting grid ready for the race so lets not waste anymore time and get on with the race...
58/58 Coulthard gets a poor start as his team mate takes the lead while DC now finds himself in 4th! Frentzen hits Button who is in 10th while trying to pass. Frentzen will need to pit for a new front wing. The MInardi's get slightly held up by the incident
57/58 Coulthard begins his comeback by passing Ralf Schumacher for 3rd while Pizzonia passes Panis for 15th
56/58 Pizzonia then passes Da Matta for 14th but his joy is short lived as he pulls out when his engine gives up. Disaster for Toyota as Panis hits Da Matta trying to pass him. They both go from 14th and 15th down to 19th and 20th. Bernoldi passes Firman for 14th
55/58 Barrichello passes R Schumacher for 4th
53/58 Montoya passes his team mate R Schumacher but in doing so sends him wide dropping R Schumacher down to 9th
51/58 Ralf Schumacher makes a mistake which sends him down to 20th from 9th!
49/58 Villeneuve retires from 11th with throttle problems
47/58 A look at the top eight after the first ten laps
46/58 Coulthard is the next retirement as he retires from 3rd with an engine problem. Yoong also retires from 15th with an oil leak
44/58 Ralf Schumacher now runs into Da Matta sending Da Matta down to 18th from 16th
34/58 Button is out of the race from 8th as his engine lets go. Ralf Schumacher makes a clean pass for 15th against Panis
31/58 R Schumacher passes Wilson for 14th
30/58 Fisichella is the next victim. He was having a great race in 5th until suspension problems accured
28/58 A mistake from Wilson drops him two places from 13th
25/58 Pit Stops begin. All drivers on a 1 stop strategy
24/58 Panis retires from 14th with engine trouble. It seems to hold up Barrichello slightly
20/58 Wilson retires from 13th with a puncture
19/58 Firman makes it a double retirement for Jordan as he pulls out of 10th with a transmission problem
18/58 Webber jumps Alonso while Alonso pits. Great work by the jaguar team there! Da Matta retires from 13th with a transmission problem
16/58 Disaster for Jaguar and Webber as he retires from 6th with engine failure. With that Bernoldi moves into the top 8 for Arrows!
12/58 Montoya retires from 4th with a puncture. Verstappen is now 8th
10/58 What a shame, Heidfeld pulls out in 6th with an oil leak! R Schumacher moves into the top 8 with only 9 cars remaining!
8/58 R Schumacher makes yet another mistake spinning while trying to pass Verstappen for 7th
1/58 Trulli makes a mistake on the final corner, he's lucky to keep it out of the wall and to keep his position
0/58 Faultless drive from Raikkonen as he takes the first race win of the season ahead of the Ferrari's! A great race full of action!
Full Race ResultsRace Results
Australia - Albert Park
(58 Laps)
Pos Driver Time/Speed
1st Kimi Raikkonen 1h 25m 20.526s
McLaren-Mercedes
2nd Michael Schumacher +12.430s
Ferrari-
3rd Rubens Barrichello +17.433s
Ferrari-
4th Jarno Trulli +55.235s
Renault-
5th Fernando Alonso +1m 03.962s
Renault-
6th Enrique Bernoldi -1 Lap
Arrows-Cosworth
7th Jos Verstappen -1 Lap
Minardi-Cosworth
8th Ralf Schumacher -1 Lap
Williams-BMW
9th Heinz-Harald Frentzen -1 Lap
Sauber-Petronas
10th Nick Heidfeld Oil Leak
Sauber-Petronas
11th Juan Pablo Montoya Puncture
Williams-BMW
12th Mark Webber Engine
Jaguar-Cosworth
13th Christian Da Matta Suspension
Toyota-
14th Ralph Firman Transmission
Jordan-Ford
15th Justin Wilson Puncture
Minardi-Cosworth
16th Olivier Panis Engine
Toyota-
17th Giancarlo Fisichella Suspension
Jordan-Ford
18th Jenson Button Engine
BAR-Honda
19th Alex Yoong Oil Leak
Arrows-Cosworth
20th David Coulthard Engine
McLaren-Mercedes
21st Jacques Villeneuve Throttle
BAR-Honda
22nd Antonio Pizzonia Engine
Jaguar-Cosworth
DOTD - Kimi Raikkonen - Superb drive from the Finn to lead from start to finish
Standings will follow....