NewsOnF1 - 2001 Australian GP

Michael Schumacher had a brilliant start to take the lead of the Australian Grand Prix and led the race from start to finish with the exception of a few laps that Coulthard led before he also pitted for tyres and fuel.

Unfortunately his pleasure in winning the race was overshadowed by the tragedy of the death of a track marshal.

Barrichello, in the other Ferrari, had a very bad start and dropped several spots to behind Frentzen in fourth place, while Hakkinen moved into second place. Barrichello crowded Frentzen and on the second lap touched him in a turn which sent Frentzen off but rejoined the field in 14th place. Barrichello survived the incident and set off in pursuit of Hakkinen with Coulthard close behind him. He spent the next 40 laps defending first 3rd and then 2nd place (after Hakkinen slid off into a tyre barrier) but on lap 43 Coulthard managed to scramble past and maintained second position to the end.

Hakkinen slid off on lap 26 backwards into a tyre wall. The incident was caused by a rear suspension failure.

Panis brought the first of the Honda powered cars home in 4th place after a seemingly trouble free race and Heidfeld surprised all by finishing 5th after fending off an aggressive Frentzen on a mission to recover the positions he lost after Barrichello forced him into a spin.

Raikkonen brought the second Sauber home in 7th place, which is not a bad effort for an inexperienced rookie. He stayed out of trouble and delivered the goods.

A high speed crash on lap 5 when Villeneuve's BAR ran into the back of Ralf Schumacher's Williams, hitting the barrier at very high speeds, injuring and killing a marshal, ended both drivers races. Villeneuve's car virtually disintegrated and Ralf's ended up parked on the side.

The pace car was out for 10 laps while the ambulance was on the circuit.

Trulli did extremely well for the first 35 laps (5th place) but retired on lap 39. Had his car lasted Jordan may have had two cars in the points which is a vast improvement on their performance last season.

Montoya was also showing very good pace, but he had to admit defeat when his car expired on lap 41.He certainly had no problems driving the car as if he stole it up to that point.

Following an official complaint by the Sauber team on both Olivier Panis and Jos Verstappen for passing Nick Heidfeld under yellow, the race officials penalised both Panis and Verstappen with 25 seconds added to their end result. This drops Panis to 7th and Verstappen to 10th while moving Heidfeld to 4th, Frentzen to 5th and Sauber's second driver Kimi Raikkonen to 6th.

All in all an encouraging start to the season. Many teams are fast and it will not be long before we see the end of the podium domination by Ferrari and McLaren.

The death of the marshal took all the joy out of the day. These are enthusiastic volunteers that offer up their free time to make the races that we all enjoy possible and safe for others.

Newsonf1 wish to extend our deep regret, condolences and sympathy to the family, loved ones and friends of the marshal who was killed.

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