Australian GP: Ferrari One-two
Published on 07 March 2004 by Huub Rothengatter
Michael Schumacher has won the Forsters' Australian Grand Prix. Second was his team mate Rubens Barrichello. This will help them to get another world championship, they already created a gap between them and their competitors. Over ahl a minute later Fernando Alonse finished third, who saw his strong race rewarded with a third place. The BMW Williams drivers Schumacher and Montoya finished respectively fourth and fifth. The other WC points were as follows: Jenson Button (BAR), Jarno Trulli (Renault) and David Coulthard (McLaren).
The new rules and the developments at the Michelin factory have not brought the result they were hoping for. Ferrari ruled the whole weekend on their Bridgestone tyres. Whoever will review this weekend will wonder which team will be able to end Ferrari's supremacy.
We did not see a close finish either. No excitement whatsoever. Michael Schumacher led the race from start to finish with Rubens Barrichello behind him. Alonso was half a minute behind them and the 2 BMW over a minute. The rest of the field, from place 7, was at least lapped once.
Renault did a good job this weekend mainly due to the good start of their drivers. Alonse took advantage of Montoya's bad start and Trulli gained a few places. Most drivers visited the pits 3 times. There were not many exciting moments for the viewers, except for some overtaking manouvres: Montoya and Trulli, Fisichella and Heidfeld; Montoya and Button. Disappointing this weekend were the teams of McLaren and Toyote. Raikkonen had a miserable start and in lap 9 his engine ceased to exist. Coulthard drove an good but anonymous race and managed to get one point for the team. Toyota had a disastrous race. The team was hardly to be seen. Da Matta and Panis managed to finish the race at the back of the pack just in front of the only Jordan of Pantano.
Nick Heidfeld, the other Jordan driver, did not make it to the finish. After his third pitstop he had to abandon his car only a few meters on the track. A lot earlier, around the second series of pitstops, local hero Mark Webber had to retire from the race. He lost gears 6 and 7 and was not able to be competitve without those. Minardi's reliability was not as it should be. Paul Stoddart is doing everything within his power to have his team on the track, with only a fraction of the budget other teams have to their disposal. Baumgartner was exit in lap 16 with engine problems and Bruni encountered a similar problem mid-race. The Minardi mechanics did what they could do and brought him back into the race, 15 laps later. This was to no avail. This probably would have been Jos Verstappen's thoughts. He is not part of F1 but he was spared of this misery.
Thorsten Hendriks
