2004 Australian Grand Prix

  2004 Australian Grand Prix

Race details
Race 1 of 18 in the 2004 Formula One season
Date	7 March 2004
Official name	LXIX Foster's Australian Grand Prix
Location	Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit, Melbourne, Australia
Course	Temporary street circuit
Course length	5.303 km (3.295 mi)
Distance	58 laps, 307.574 km (191.118 mi)
Weather	Dry & cloudy Air Temp 20 °C (68 °F)
Attendance	121,500[1]
Pole position
Driver	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Time	1:24.408
Fastest lap
Driver	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Time	1:24.125 on lap 29 (lap record)
Podium
First	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Second	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari
Third	Fernando Alonso	Renault
Lap leaders

The 2004 Australian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 7 March 2004 at the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit. Michael Schumacher won the race for Ferrari from pole position in very dominant fashion, with his team-mate Rubens Barrichello finishing behind him in second. This one-two finish gave Ferrari a strong 9 point lead in the constructors' standings after just one race. Williams, Renault and BAR each had both cars finish in the points, while McLaren, a team that had enjoyed success in years preceding this, only managed one point, with David Coulthard finishing a lapped 8th.^[2]

Report

Qualifying

Qualifying resulted in a Ferrari one-two, with Juan Pablo Montoya third on the grid for Williams. Gianmaria Bruni, Christian Klien and Olivier Panis all failed to set a qualifying time.^[3]

Race

At the start, Alonso was up and away and ahead of Button and looking for a way to deal with Montoya while Jarno Trulli went from ninth on the grid to be fifth out of the first corner. He was aided in his task by Montoya, who went howling down to Turn 1, braked just a hint too late and Montoya was jumped by the Renault of Fernando Alonso as he tried to stay ahead of the surging Alonso. He went off and Alonso had to put some wheels on the grass to avoid a disaster. Montoya went back to seventh. That condemned the Colombian to an afternoon stuck in traffic and put paid to any challenge there might have been for Alonso. Behind all this there were a few wheels off the grass as others sorted themselves out (notably both Saubers) while Takuma Sato bumped the rear end of Trulli's Renault, slightly (but significantly) damaging both cars.

The Ferraris were gone already and as the afternoon developed all that Fernando Alonso could do was to watch the rears of the two red cars as they disappeared from his view. It did not take long. By the fourth lap they were two seconds ahead. By the eighth lap they were five seconds clear and after that Alonso had nothing to do. No-one else could keep up with him. Sauber's Giancarlo Fisichella had a long battle for position in the midfield with Jordan's Nick Heidfeld. Fisichella passed Heidfeld, who later dropped out of the race with a transmission failure. Montoya attempted to regain the place by going around the outside of the Spaniard into the first turn, but outbraked himself and ran wide. This dropped him behind his team-mate Ralf Schumacher, who'd qualified 8th. Despite repassing Ralf Schumacher on-track, the Colombian ended up behind him again by the race's end in fifth place. The race proved that Ferrari once again had a dominant car, with Michael Schumacher winning from team-mate Rubens Barrichello in Ferrari's first one-two since Japan 2002, while the rest of the field was over 20 seconds behind. Schumacher led every one of the 58 race laps.^[4] At the start, Montoya was jumped by the Renault of Fernando Alonso.

Fernando Alonso gave Renault a podium with third place, while Jenson Button got BAR off the mark with sixth. Jarno Trulli finished 7th in the Renault and was the first lapped runner. McLaren seemed to be less competitive than in recent years, with Kimi Räikkönen becoming the first retirement of the year, dropping out with an engine problem, and with David Coulthard picking up just 1 point in eighth place.^[2]

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1 Time	Q2 Time	Q2 Gap
1	1	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	1:25.301	1:24.408	—
2	2	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	1:25.992	1:24.482	+0.074
3	3	Juan Pablo Montoya	Williams-BMW	1:25.226	1:24.998	+0.590
4	9	Jenson Button	BAR-Honda	1:25.898	1:24.998	+0.590
5	8	Fernando Alonso	Renault	1:25.928	1:25.669	+1.261
6	14	Mark Webber	Jaguar-Cosworth	1:26.232	1:25.805	+1.397
7	10	Takuma Sato	BAR-Honda	1:26.737	1:25.851	+1.443
8	4	Ralf Schumacher	Williams-BMW	1:25.445	1:25.925	+1.517
9	7	Jarno Trulli	Renault	1:27.357	1:26.290	+1.882
10	6	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:25.592	1:26.297	+1.889
11	12	Felipe Massa	Sauber-Petronas	1:26.833	1:27.065	+2.657
12	5	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	1:25.652	1:27.294	+2.886
13	16	Cristiano da Matta	Toyota	1:28.274	1:27.823	+3.415
14	11	Giancarlo Fisichella	Sauber-Petronas	1:26.286	1:27.845	+3.437
15	18	Nick Heidfeld	Jordan-Ford	1:27.469	1:28.178	+3.770
16	19	Giorgio Pantano	Jordan-Ford	1:29.156	1:30.140	+5.732
17	21	Zsolt Baumgartner	Minardi-Cosworth	1:32.606	1:30.681	+6.273
18	17	Olivier Panis	Toyota	1:27.253	no time	no time
19	15	Christian Klien	Jaguar-Cosworth	1:27.258	no time	no time
20	20	Gianmaria Bruni	Minardi-Cosworth	1:30.912	no time	no time
Sources:[5][6]

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	1	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	58	1:24:15.757	1	10
2	2	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	58	+13.605	2	8
3	8	Fernando Alonso	Renault	58	+34.673	5	6
4	4	Ralf Schumacher	Williams-BMW	58	+1:00.423	8	5
5	3	Juan Pablo Montoya	Williams-BMW	58	+1:08.536	3	4
6	9	Jenson Button	BAR-Honda	58	+1:10.598	4	3
7	7	Jarno Trulli	Renault	57	+1 Lap	9	2
8	5	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	57	+1 Lap	12	1
9	10	Takuma Sato	BAR-Honda	57	+1 Lap	7
10	11	Giancarlo Fisichella	Sauber-Petronas	57	+1 Lap	14
11	15	Christian Klien	Jaguar-Cosworth	56	+2 Laps	19
12	16	Cristiano da Matta	Toyota	56	+2 Laps	13
13	17	Olivier Panis	Toyota	56	+2 Laps	18
14	19	Giorgio Pantano	Jordan-Ford	55	+3 Laps	16
Ret	12	Felipe Massa	Sauber-Petronas	44	Engine	11
Ret	18	Nick Heidfeld	Jordan-Ford	43	Transmission	15
NC	20	Gianmaria Bruni	Minardi-Cosworth	43	Not Classified	20
Ret	14	Mark Webber	Jaguar-Cosworth	29	Transmission	6
Ret	21	Zsolt Baumgartner	Minardi-Cosworth	13	Electrical	17
Ret	6	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	9	Engine/Spin	10
Source:[7]

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Michael Schumacher 10 2 Rubens Barrichello 8 3 Fernando Alonso 6 4 Ralf Schumacher 5 5 Juan Pablo Montoya 4

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Ferrari 18 2 Williams-BMW 9 3 Renault 8 4 BAR-Honda 3 5 McLaren-Mercedes 1

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

Coordinates: 37°50′59″S 144°58′06″E / 37.84972°S 144.96833°E / -37.84972; 144.96833