A U T O     B U Z Z

The opening race of the 2002 Formula One season was anything but predictable. It was the longest 58 laps as out of 22 starters, only 8 remained to cross the finish line. Michael Schumacher, who started from second on the grid claimed his third consecutive win at the Albert Park circuit. Sophomore drivers Juan-Pablo Montoya took second in his BMW.Williams while it was a surprising debut for 21-year old Kimi Raikkonen in the McLaren Mercedes-Benz when he grabbed the last podium position.

The race started off with both Arrows Cosworth teams stalling on the grid. After the grid was cleared of the two black-and-orange cars, Ferrari driver Rubens Barrichello was at the head of the pack, when an impatient Ralf Schumacher slammed into the Brazilian's Ferrari triggering a multi-car crash that forced eight cars to a halt after just the first corner. The pile-up ended the Aussie GP early for teams such as British American Racing-Honda, Sauber Petronas amongst others.

McLaren's David Coulthard briefly led the race after the first corner incident.  A brief shining moment shined on Renault as Jarno Trulli fended off the reigning world champion in a car that was as agile, but not as quick as the Ferrari. Sadly, a miscalculation by the Italian ended his race on a barrier. As debris had to be cleared off the track, a second safety car period led to Coulthard's loss of control in his McLaren sending him to the grass with a gearbox problem. Although the Scotsman continued on, he found himself gradually losing drive in his McLaren until he ground to a halt later in the race.

With the loss of Coulthard, Schumacher ran away with the race after a brief head-to-head battle with the Columbian Juan-Pablo Montoya. For Montoya's part, it seemed that his Michelins cannot take the punishment as well as the Bridgestone shod Ferrari could.

A bit of excitement was added to the mixture when Kimi Rakkinonen and Juan-Pablo Montoya battled for 2nd and 3rd places for more than two-thirds the race distance.

Things couldn't have been better for Jaguar who started at a dismall 20th and 21th on the grid. The subsequent accidents left Eddie Irvine with an unchallenged fourth position, while Australian Mark Webber, driving a Minardi-Asiatech scored 2 championship points in front of his home crowd sending the grandstands erupting in jubilation.

Mika Salo in the sole surviving Toyota unlapped himself later in the race to be classified as 6th. Salo struggled early in the race after having to undergo extensive checks and tweaks after the massive accident. However, later on, he found the pace necessary to keep up. Salo managed to challenge the Minardi only to lose control of his car forcing him to settle for 6th place.

Malaysian Alex Yoong in the Minardi-Asitech and Pedro de la Rosa in the Jaguar completed the roster of finishers in this race of attrition.

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