2000 F1 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne Formula 1 Race Report

2000 Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix

1/ Michael Schumacher (Ferrari);
2/ Barrichello (Ferrari); 3/ R.Schumacher (Williams);
4/ Villeneuve (BAR); 5/ Fisichella (Benetton); 6/ Salo (Sauber)

A perfect result for Michael Schumacher in his first win at the Melbourne circuit - his team-mate, Rubens Barrichello finishing second and his younger brother Ralf also on the podium in third position. A well deserved 1-2 finish for Ferrari.
As is usually the case in the first race of the season, reliability played a large part in the race's outcome, with 10 cars finishing. Reigning World Champion, McLaren's Mika Hakkinen and his team mate David Coulthard retired early due to misfiring engines.
Both Jaguar's also failed to finish the race in the team's return to Formula 1.
Two newcomers, Jensen Button (Williams) and Heidfeld (Prost) performed well in their first F1 race - Button retiring from 6th position with a blown engine, and Heidfeld finishing in 10th position, albeit two laps down.
307.574 kms, Cloudy 24 degrees Celsius.

2000 Australian Formula One Grand Prix
Lap	Race Report
Start	Frentzen overtakes Barrichello. Everyone through the 1st corner safely.
1st Lap	Newcomer Jensen Button is impressive, surging through the traffic up from 21st position on the grid, into 15th place.
Lap 1	1/ Hakkinen; 2/ Coulthard; 3/ M.Schumacher; 4/ Frentzen; 5/ Barrichello; 6/ Trulli.
Lap 1	Gene Pits - retires.
Lap 2	Herbert out of the race - a Sauber and BAR touched on the inside of the exit to a corner, moving across into Herbert forcing him off the track.
Lap 3	1/ Hakkinen; 1.4 seconds 2/ Coulthard; 2.4 secs 3/ M.Schumacher; 4/ Frentzen; 5/ Barrichello; 6/ Trulli: 7/ Villeneuve; 8/ Salo: 9/ Verstappen; 10/ De La Rosa; 11/ Irvine; 12/ Alesi; 13/R.Schumacher; 14/ Zonta; 15/ Wurz; 16/ Button.
Lap 3	Alesi spins, rejoining at the end of the field.
Lap 9	De La Rosa hits the wall losing a wheel, colliding with Irvine, taking them both out of the race. SAFETY CAR OUT
Lap 12	Just after the rolling restart, Coulthard pits for 43.9 seconds, with mechanics concerned with smoke coming from the engine. He rejoins the race, but retires soon after with oil pouring from his Mercedes McLaren.
Lap 13	1/ Hakkinen; 2/ M.Schumacher; 3/ Frentzen; 4/ Barrichello; 5/ Trulli; 6/ Villeneuve.
Lap 18	Hakkinen retires from the race in first position with a blown engine, the same problem as Coulthard.
Lap 22	1/ M.Schumacher; 17.005 seconds 2/ Frentzen; 3/ Barrichello; 4/ Trulli; 5/ Villeneuve; 6/ Salo; 7/ Fisicella; 8/ R.Schumacher; 9/ Zonta; 10/ Wurz; 11/ Button; 12/ Heildfeld; 13/ Alesi.
Lap 22	Heidfeld pits.
Lap 29	Alesi retires.
Lap 30	M.Schumacher is 24 seconds ahead of Frentzen, when Schumacher goes into the pits (12.2 seconds), rejoining the field just ahead of Trulli.
Lap 31	Trulli overtakes the fuel laden Ferrari of Schumacher, although Schumacher retakes his position shortly after.
Lap 32	1/ Frentzen; 2/ Barrichello; 3/ Schumacher; 4/ Trulli; 5/ R.Schumacher; 6/ Zonta; 7/ Wurz; 8/ Button.
Lap 33	Barrichello pits (9.0 secs), rejoins behind Button.
Lap 33	Trulli retires with a blown engine.
Lap 36	Frentzen pits 23.4 seconds - a disasterous stop as the pit crew could not put the fuel hose into the Jordan.
Lap 36	Villeneuve pits.
Lap 38	Button pits 11 seconds. R.Schumacher pits 14.0 seconds.
Lap 41	Frentzen pits and retires his Jordan.
Lap 43	1/ M.Schumacher; 6.9 seconds 2/ Barrichello; 40 seconds 3/ R.Schumacher; 4/ Villeneuve; 5/ Fisichella; 6/ Button.
Lap 44	1/ M.Schumacher; 4.066 seconds 2/ Barrichello
Lap 45	1/ M.Schumacher; 1.8 seconds 2/ Barrichello
Lap 46	1/ M.Schumacher; 0.7 seconds 2/ Barrichello
Lap 47	Barrichello overtakes his teammate, Michael Schumacher, as Barrichello has to come in for fuel and was doing some fast laps.
Lap 48	Barrichello pits 7.9 seconds.
Lap 48	Button retires from his first F1 race with smoke pouring from his blown engine. He was in sixth position.
Lap 48	1/ M.Schumacher; 2/ Barrichello; 3/ R.Schumacher; 4/ Villeneuve; 5/ Fisicella; 6/ Zonta.
Lap 54	1/ M.Schumacher; 2/ Barrichello; 3/ R.Schumacher; 4/ Villeneuve; 5/ Fisicella; 6/ Salo.
Lap 58 RACE END	1/ Michael Schumacher (Ferrari); 2/ Rubens Barrichello (Ferrari); 3/ Ralf Schumacher (Williams); 4/ Villeneuve (BAR); 5/ Fisicella (Benetton); 6/ Salo (Sauber); 7/ Zonta ; 8/ Wurz; 9/ Gene; 10/ Heidfeld. The top eight cars were all on the same lap. Michael's time was 1:34:01.987, av. speed 196.254 km/h

2000 AUSTRALIAN QUALIFYING SESSION
Position	Driver	Team	Time	Comment
1/ - POLE 1st row	Hakkinen	McLaren	1:30.556	Av.Speed 210.817 (22nd Pole)
2/ 1st row	Coulthard	McLaren	0.354	same position last year
3/ 2nd row	M.Schumacher	Ferrari	0.519	same position last year
4/ 2nd row	Barrichello	Ferrari	0.546	same position last year
5/ 3rd row	Frentzen	Jordan	0.803	same position last year
6/ 3rd row	Trulli	Jordan	0.948	-
7/ 4th row	Irvine	Jaguar	1.412	-
8/ 4th row	Villeneuve	BAR	1.436	-
9/ 5th row	Fisichello	Benetton	1.456	-
10/ 5th row	Salo	Sauber	1.462	-
11/ 6th row	R.Schumacher	Williams	1.664	-
12/ 6th row	De La Rosa	Arrows	1.767	-
13/ 7th row	Verstappen	Arrows	1.921	-
14/ 7th row	Wurz	Benetton	2.219	-
15/ 8th row	Heidfeld	Prost	2.468	-
16/ 8th row	Zonta	BAR	2.561	-
17/ 9th row	Alesi	Prost	2.641	-
18/ 9th row	Gene	Minardi	2.705	-
19/ 10th row	Diniz	Sauber	3.950	-
20/ 10th row	Herbert	Jaguar	3.082	-
21/ 11th row	Button	Williams	3.272	-
22/ 11th row	Mazzacane	Minardi	4.149	-