Ferrari Dominate Australian Grand Prix
Written by Josh Katinger · March 7, 2004
All of the pre-season hopes for the F1 also-rans came screeching to a halt with weekend in Melbourne as Ferrari were up to their old tricks. The Maranello super team of Schumacher and Barrichello dominated qualifying and the race this weekend in Australia. Schumacher won the race and Barrichello brought the other Ferrari home a mere 13.60 seconds behind.
F1-Live.com: Schumi dominates in Australia!
F1Racing.net: Race Results
Motorsport.com: Dominant Australian GP win for Schuamcher
Schumacher achieved the grand slam; winning the pole, the race, leading every lap, and had the fastest lap of the race. This is as close to an absolutely perfect race that any mortal human can come. Maybe this guy is a cyborg.
Beside the complete and total domination of Ferrari, the other great story of this race is Fernando Alonso. He had a fantastic start, slicing and dicing with Montoya and others, and was able to jump up to third place, where is finished the day on the podium.
Williams’ weekend was less than satisfactory with Montoya quickly dropping back in the pack on the start and never mustering back to the front. The Williams duo of Ralf and Juan finished in 4th and 5th respectively.
McLaren’s miserable weekend continued. David Coulthard held on for the final points paying 8th spot while his teammate Kimi Raikkonen spun off course with engine/water pump failure and ended his race prematurely.
BAR Teammates Jenson Button and Takuma Sato were not quite able to replicate their qualifying success with Button coming home in 6th and Sato just out of the points in 9th.
Another team with a disappointing race was Jaguar, where local favorite Mark Webber dropped out on lap 31 with a mechanical failure. His rookie teammate Christian Klien was able to bring his Jag home in 11th place - not the result the Jaguar squad was looking forward to.
Overall it was a decent race. There was a thrilling start and a little action mid-field, but there was absolutely no team that could touch the performance of Ferrari.
2004 Australian Grand Prix Results
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Michael Schumacher Ferrari
2 Rubens Barrichello Ferrari +13.60
3 Fernando Alonso Renault +34.60
4 Ralf Schumacher Williams +60.40
5 Juan Pablo Montoya Williams +68.50
6 Jenson Button British American Racing +70.50
7 Jarno Trulli Renault +1 lap
8 David Coulthard McLaren +1 lap
9 Takuma Sato British American Racing +1 lap
10 Giancarlo Fisichella Sauber +1 lap
11 Christian Klien Jaguar +2 lap
12 Cristiano da Matta Toyota +2 lap
13 Olivier Panis Toyota +2 lap
14 Giorgio Pantano Jordan +3 lap
Retirements
Driver Team Lap Reason
Nick Heidfeld Jordan 46 brake failure
Felipe Massa Sauber 46 mechanical failure
Gianmaria Bruni Minardi 38 mechanical failure
Mark Webber Jaguar 31 mechanical failure
Zsolt Baumgartner Minardi 17 mechanical failure
Kimi Raikkonen McLaren 9 engine failure
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I’ll keep an eye on this site and give a shout if I have an opinion on something!
The fastest race I ever watched. After recording it, I watched the first 5 laps, FFWD to the middle, Ferraris with a wider gap and Kimi not there, FFWD to the end and MS had lapped almost the whole field, this in about 12 minutes. I guess in Malaysia I will just FFWD the the end if I do not see two red cars at the finish line I might go back to the beguining and watch the whole race. I want to see what MM and Co. will do next year after Ferrari breaks all records and wins 90% of all races 1-2, that is, if Rubens has no problems, because we all know nothing ever happens to MS car only when he makes stupid mistakes. Furthermore I think Ron Dennis should leave Adrian Newey design boats and get a new chief designer. Designing a car that their drivers almost do not fit in is something. Oh! Well let’s hope Renault and Williams can catch up and make it a good season.