Fisico wins season opener
Italian Giancarlo Fisichella has snatched his second career Grand Prix win leading at Melbourne from start to finish. Oddly enough it is only his first win of a GP on the actual race day, as the previous was a result of a misunderstanding between officials in the 2003 Brazilian GP.At Melbourne, the podium is completed by Rubens Barrichello and a superb Fernando Alonso.
At the start, some of the top runners were facing a tough race after the showers in first qualifying put several people towards the back of the grid. Others, like Villeneuve and Fisichella were more lucky and looked ahead of a points finish.
Unlike Fisico though, Villeneuve started 4th on the grid but lost 5 places already in the first lap. The Canadian would finish 13th, three places behind his teammate Massa who started from the back of the grid. The 1997 world champion later said he obviously made the wrong choice to go for soft tyres.
Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello held up hopes for the Scuderia as he drove a solid strong race while teammate Michael Schumacher did not finish. In a fight with Heidfeld, the champion shut the door rather early, pushing Heidfeld on the grass. The second then lost control over his car and the two collided. Both men will be allowed to use new engines for the next race without penalty.
Completing the podium was the second Renault thanks to an excellent drive of Alonso. With an unusual amount of 4 passing manoeuvres and no (big) mistakes he proved that his R25 is in good shape and ready to win some more.
Also remarkable in the Grand Prix was a very good performance of both Red Bull drivers. The team finished 4th and 7th with an evolution of a Jaguar car that was far from brilliant at the end of last year.
Mark Webber took 5th place and thereby the only points for Williams just behind Coulthard. JP Montoya grabbed 6th in his first GP for McLaren. He remained in front of his teammate Raikkonen during the whole race. The Finn finished 8th with behind him move than 20 seconds to the next runner Panis.
Melbourne hereby lead to the following results:
1 G. Fisichella Renault 1:24:17.336
2 R. Barrichello Ferrari + 5.553
3 F. Alonso Renault + 6.712
4 D. Coulthard Red Bull + 16.131
5 M. Webber Williams + 16.908
6 JP. Montoya McLaren + 35.033
7 C. Klien Red Bull + 38.997
8 K. Räikkönen McLaren + 39.633
9 J. Trulli Toyota + 1:03.108
10 F. Massa Sauber + 1:04.393
11 J. Button BAR + 1 laps
12 R. Schumacher Toyota + 1 laps
13 J. Villeneuve Sauber + 1 laps
14 T. Sato BAR + 1 laps
15 N. Karthikeyan Jordan + 2 laps
16 T. Monteiro Jordan + 2 laps
17 P. Friesacher Minardi + 4 laps
18 M. Schumacher Ferrari + 12 laps dnf
19 N. Heidfeld Williams + 14 laps dnf
20 C. Albers Minardi + 41 laps dnf
