Australia GP - Melbourne 4 March 2001

The 2001 Formula 1 Championship got under way for real when the lights changed to signal the start of the Australian GP at Melbourne, the first GP of the season. M. Schumacher shot off to take the lead. His team mate Barrichello failed to match the current World Champion's start and fell back several positions. Häkkinen took second position, in front of Frentzen, R. Schumacher, Barrichello, Trulli, Coulthard and Villeneuve. Irvine lost control of his Jaguar and span on the grass, but managed to keep the car going and rejoined the race. R. Schumacher made a mistake and the two drivers behind went past him, with Coulthard managing to go ahead of Trulli. Barrichello caught up with Frentzen, tried to undertake him far too late on a bend, the German, who had the racing line, could do nothing to avoid the collision and the two cars touched causing the Jordan to go spinning into the grass. Frentzen managed to rejoin the race, having lost a position to the Ferrari. On lap five Villeneuve hit R. Schumacher's car from behind and the BAR went spinning into the air at bend three, landing against the wall. The safety car came out as the two cars were being taken away and the debris removed from the track. Despite the accident both R. Schumacher and Villeneuve were unhurt, but a track marshal had been hit by debris and was treated by paramedics at the scene, before being taken away by ambulance. On lap 15, with the safety car still out, Verstappen went for his very first pit stop, losing very little time because he could catch up with the rest of the pack easily. On lap 16 the safety car finally went back in and the race restarted, with M. Schumacher, Häkkinen, Barrichello and Coulthard all packed up in the first four positions. Jenson Button was handed a 10-seconds stop-go penalty for arriving late on the grid after the parade lap. On lap 18 Button went in for his penalty, giving one position to Frentzen, who was working his way up through the pack after having been penalised by the collision with Barrichello. M. Schumacher steadily kept on increasing the gap between himself and Häkkinen in second place and by lap 24 the German was over four seconds ahead of the Finn. On lap 25 Häkkinen lost control of his car because of a right front suspension failure and went flying backwards into the tyre wall, smashing his car. The Finn was unhurt and could walk away from the scene of the accident. The safety car was not required, as the McLaren was parked well out of the way. Häkkinen's accident left Barrichello in second place on a nine seconds gap, with Coulthard in third breathing down his neck and Trulli, Panis and Heidfeld following almost ten seconds down. On lap 29 M. Schumacher caught up with last-position Fisichella, who was having engine problems and flew past the Benetton. One lap later Barrichello and Coulthard too went past Fisichella, the Scot being slightly delayed. On lap 31 Panis flew past Trulli, who was having problems and slowed down considerably, letting several other cars through. On lap 33 Coulthard attacked Barrichello on turn three, passed him, Barrichello fought back on the inside, but had to give up and let the Scot into second position, who then started pulling away from the Ferrari. M. Schumacher acknowledged the change of positions behind him by putting in another fastest lap. On lap 38 M. Schumacher came in for his pit stop (10.7 seconds), leaving Coulthard, who was some 15 seconds behind, in the lead with Barrichello in second place. On the same lap Heidfeld had his pit stop too (10.0 seconds). Coulthard pushed as much as he could, trying to build a good time before going in for his own pit stop. On lap 39 Barrichello had his pit stop (10.2 seconds), rejoining in fifth position behind Panis and newcomer Montoya and in front of Heidfeld in sixth. On lap 40 Panis had his pit stop and managed to rejoin still in fifth position ahead of Heidfeld. On the same lap Coulthard came in for his pit stop with a 18.9 seconds advantage on M. Schumacher. Coulthard rejoined after 10.3 seconds, but the German had already gone past into first place. The Scot managed to stay ahead of Barrichello. Montoya suffered from an engine problem and had to retire from his very first Formula 1 GP. Coulthard started pushing, doing his best to catch up with M. Schumacher. With only two laps to go Button topped up a bad weekend by stopping and retiring from the race. Despite Coulthard's effort, reigning World Champion M. Schumacher went on to win the first race of the 2001 Formula 1 season, followed by the Scot, by team mate Barrichello, Panis, Heidfeld and Frentzen. Newcomer Räikkönen proved his worth by finishing just outside the points in seventh place and, after Panis was fined 25 seconds for yellow flag infringement, moved up to sixth place to bring home one points. The podium ceremony was a sombre affair with no cheering and no champagne because it was announced that the track marshal who had been involved in the aftermath of the accident between R. Schumacher and Villeneuve had died. The death was caused by a flying wheel and came only a few races after Paolo Gislimberti was killed at Monza in a similar way. The new safety measures put into place since last season, such as the double tyre tether, failed to make a difference to the ground personnel when it came to protecting them from a fatal accident. Seven spectators were also involved in the accident but were released with minor injuries.

Images from La Gazzetta dello Sport Online and Raisport