2002 Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix
Race Report

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Race Report - Results

Michael Schumacher wins the Australian Grand Prix with a comfortable margin (18.6 seconds) from Juan Pablo Montoya, in second place. Kimi Raikkonen finished in third place.

The race was marred by a huge accident at the start. Rubens Barrichello, who started from pole, started fast, but not fast enough to fend off Ralf Schumacher who simply rocketed off the grid. Ralf, who had a lot more speed up, moved out to overtake Rubens, who had moved over to the inside of the track, presumably to protect his line. It is hard to know if Rubens moved out again to block Ralf's overtaking manoeuvre, or if he was only moving over to line up for the first corner. Whatever his reason Ralf was going too fast to avoid driving right over Ruben's car losing his front wing in the process. Ralf's car flew over the Ferrari but landed safely in the kitty litter.

Behind them the problems continued. Giancarlo Fisichella, Felipe Massa, Nick Heidfeld, Jason Button, Olivier Panis, and Allan McNish were all involved in the carnage on the first turn leaving only 14 cars in the race, behind the pace car. Coulthard, who gained first position in the fracas, was followed by Trulli, M Schumacher and Montoya.

On lap 8 Trulli spins and crashes letting Michael Schumacher into second place. The pace car comes out again and Coulthard loses the gap he managed to build, Michael is now right behind him followed closely by Montoya.

On lap 12 the race restarts, Coulthard has a slight off on the first corner which allows Michael and Juan Pablo through, but this is where Montoya's CART experience comes in. He manages to get past Schumacher and we have a new leader.

On lap 16 Schumacher manages to scramble past Montoya and disappears into the distance. Montoya is definitely not as fast and rapidly falls behind. 

Both Arrows, having stalled on the grid at the start of the warm-up lap are black flagged. Frentzen for jumping the red light in pit lane at the start and Bernoldi for starting in the spare car after the race had officially started.

On lap 21 Coulthard, who was in fourth place behind Raikkonen, started losing pace and he eventually retires on lap 35 with a clutch or gearbox problem.

By then the race had developed into a procession with the exception of a struggle for 5th place. Initially it is Villeneuve that is closing on the Minardi of Mark Webber until Villeneuve's rear wing comes off and he crashes out of the race and then in the closing laps it is Salo in the Toyota that is stalking him, taking as much as two seconds a lap off the gap. Salo manages to catch Webber with one lap to go but spins as he attempts to overtake him. The race order remains unchanged to the end of the race with Michael Schumacher winning his third Australian Grand Prix in succession, Juan Pablo Montoya in second, Kimi Raikkonen in third, Eddie Irvine in a surprising fourth, Mark Webber, in his first formula one race finishes fifth and Salo after recovering from his spin in sixth. The only other drivers to finish being Alex Yoong in seventh and Pedro de la Rosa in eighth.

Eight cars finish and Michael Schumacher lapped all but the podium positions in last year's car! 

Michael Schumacher has now won the Australian Grand Prix for the third time in a row which is a record at Albert Park. Mark Webber has scored 2 points in his first ever Grand Prix while Mika Salo scores a point for Toyota in their debut race.

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