Neha Patil (Editor)

2004 Australian Grand Prix

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Date
  
7 March 2004

Course length
  
5.303 km (3.295 mi)

2004 Australian Grand Prix

Official name
  
LXIX Foster's Australian Grand Prix

Location
  
Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit, Melbourne, Australia

Course
  
Temporary street circuit

Distance
  
58 laps, 307.574 km (191.118 mi)

The 2004 Australian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 7 March 2004 at the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit. Michael Schumacher won the race for Ferrari from pole position in very dominant fashion, with his team-mate Rubens Barrichello finishing behind him in second. This one-two finish gave Ferrari a strong 9 point lead in the constructors' standings after just one race. Williams, Renault and BAR each had both cars finish in the points, while McLaren, a team that had enjoyed success in years preceding this, only managed one point, with David Coulthard finishing a lapped 8th.

Contents

Qualifying

Qualifying resulted in a Ferrari one-two, with Juan Pablo Montoya third on the grid for Williams. Gianmaria Bruni, Christian Klien and Olivier Panis all failed to set a qualifying time.

Race

At the start, Alonso was up and away and ahead of Button and looking for a way to deal with Montoya while Jarno Trulli went from ninth on the grid to be fifth out of the first corner. He was aided in his task by Montoya, who went howling down to Turn 1, braked just a hint too late and Montoya was jumped by the Renault of Fernando Alonso as he tried to stay ahead of the surging Alonso. He went off and Alonso had to put some wheels on the grass to avoid a disaster. Montoya went back to seventh. That condemned the Colombian to an afternoon stuck in traffic and put paid to any challenge there might have been for Alonso. Behind all this there were a few wheels off the grass as others sorted themselves out (notably both Saubers) while Takuma Sato bumped the rear end of Trulli's Renault, slightly (but significantly) damaging both cars.

The Ferraris were gone already and as the afternoon developed all that Fernando Alonso could do was to watch the rears of the two red cars as they disappeared from his view. It did not take long. By the fourth lap they were two seconds ahead. By the eighth lap they were five seconds clear and after that Alonso had nothing to do. No-one else could keep up with him. Sauber's Giancarlo Fisichella had a long battle for position in the midfield with Jordan's Nick Heidfeld. Fisichella passed Heidfeld, who later dropped out of the race with a transmission failure. Montoya attempted to regain the place by going around the outside of the Spaniard into the first turn, but outbraked himself and ran wide. This dropped him behind his team-mate Ralf Schumacher, who'd qualified 8th. Despite repassing Ralf Schumacher on-track, the Colombian ended up behind him again by the race's end in fifth place. The race proved that Ferrari once again had a dominant car, with Michael Schumacher winning from team-mate Rubens Barrichello in Ferrari's first one-two since Japan 2002, while the rest of the field was over 20 seconds behind. Schumacher led every one of the 58 race laps. At the start, Montoya was jumped by the Renault of Fernando Alonso.

Fernando Alonso gave Renault a podium with third place, while Jenson Button got BAR off the mark with sixth. Jarno Trulli finished 7th in the Renault and was the first lapped runner. McLaren seemed to be less competitive than in recent years, with Kimi Räikkönen becoming the first retirement of the year, dropping out with an engine problem, and with David Coulthard picking up just 1 point in eighth place.

Championship standings after the race

  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
  • References

    2004 Australian Grand Prix Wikipedia