2000 Australian Grand Prix

 2000 Australian Grand Prix

Racing data
1st of 17 races of the Formula 1 World Championship 2000
Surname:	LXV Qantas Australian Grand Prix
Date:	March 12, 2000
Place:	Melbourne
Course:	Albert Park Circuit
Length:	307.574 km in 58 laps of 5.303 km
Weather:	dry
Spectator:	~ 124,300
Pole position
Driver:	Mika Hakkinen	McLaren-Mercedes
Time:	1: 30.556 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari
Time:	1: 31.481 min (lap 41)
Podium
First:	Michael sSchumacher	Ferrari
Second:	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari
Third:	Ralf Schumacher	Williams-BMW

The 2000 Australian Grand Prix took place on March 12th at the Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne and was the first race of the 2000 Formula 1 World Championship . The winner was Michael Schumacher ( Ferrari ) ahead of Rubens Barrichello (Ferrari) and Ralf Schumacher ( Williams - BMW ).

Reports

background

With David Coulthard , Mika Häkkinen and Eddie Irvine (once each), three former winners competed for this Grand Prix.

Jenson Button ( Williams-BMW ), Nick Heidfeld ( Prost-Peugeot ) and Gastón Mazzacane ( Minardi -Fontmetal) made their debuts at the Australian Grand Prix . Mika Salo ( Sauber-Petronas ) and Jos Verstappen ( Arrows -Supertec) returned to Formula 1. Rubens Barrichello ( Ferrari ), Jarno Trulli ( Jordan-Mugen ), Irvine ( Jaguar-Cosworth ), Johnny Herbert (Jaguar-Cosworth) and Jean Alesi (Prost-Peugeot) competed for their new team for the first time after a team change.

Ralf Schumacher contested his 50th Grand Prix at the Australian Grand Prix.

Jaguar Racing made its debut in Formula 1 among the constructors. The British racing team had taken over Stewart Grand Prix . BMW returned to Formula 1 as engine partner to Williams and Honda as engine partner to British American Racing . At Arrows, their own engine design was replaced by Supertec .

training

On Friday, Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher set the fastest lap time ahead of Coulthard and his team-mate Barrichello. In the Saturday training sessions, Michael Schumacher was again the fastest driver in the field. Coulthard followed in second place and Heinz-Harald Frentzen came in third .

Qualifying

In qualifying, Häkkinen set the fastest lap and took pole position in front of his teammates Coulthard and Schumacher.

Warm up

Barrichello achieved the fastest lap in the warm up. Button came in second ahead of Häkkinen.

run

21 of 22 vehicles started from the grid. Prost driver Alesi started the race from the pit lane. Häkkinen converted his pole position into the lead of the race. Coulthard and Michael Schumacher kept second and third place. Barrichello lost a position and was overtaken by Frentzen. The sixth place went to Trulli. In the back of the field, Button made up six positions from 21st to 15th. He benefited from a collision between Marc Gené and Heidfeld, in which Gené fell back to the end of the field after a repair stop.

For Herbert, the race was over after just one lap, as he had to retire with a damaged clutch. In the fourth lap there was already a gap of five seconds between the first three pilots, Häkkinen, Coulthard and Michael Schumacher, and Frentzen. After seven laps, Pedro de la Rosa had a steering problem on his Arrows and he hit the tire wall. Irvine turned as he tried to avoid the Arrows. Although he was able to avoid a collision, his engine died in the spin. Both were eliminated. The safety car was sent out onto the track to recover the cars.

When the race was reopened on lap tenth, Coulthard slowed down and pitted with engine problems. Although he went back to the racetrack, he had to retire one lap later with engine problems. Behind the first five drivers, Jacques Villeneuve was now in sixth place and a line of vehicles formed up to twelfth place behind the BAR pilot. After Verstappen also retired with a steering defect, McLaren driver Häkkinen suffered the same fate as his team-mate and he retired with engine failure. Michael Schumacher was now leading Frentzen by about 15 seconds.

After Alesi retired with a gearbox failure, Michael Schumacher completed his only pit stop on lap 29. Frentzen took over the lead and Michael Schumacher came back on track in third place ahead of Trulli. Barrichello was the next driver to pit from the lead drivers. Ferrari decided to change its strategy and tried to drive past Frentzen with a two-stop strategy.

After 35 laps, Trulli had to give up with an engine failure. Debutant Button benefited from this and was in third place before his pit stop, which took place a little later. At the same time, Frentzen came to the pits and handed over the lead to Michael Schumacher. Since there were problems with the tank system, the stop took longer than planned. Three laps later, the Jordan driver retired with a gearbox failure. In the following laps, Mazzacane and Diniz also retired with a gearbox failure. After an overtaking maneuver, Barrichello was able to take the lead from Michael Schumacher for one lap. After his stop, he finished second again.

Button was eliminated with twelve laps to go. The Brit finished sixth on his debut before an engine failure stopped him. Ricardo Zonta therefore took sixth place. However, the Brazilian was overtaken by Salo shortly before the end of the race.

With Michael Schumacher, another driver won for the fifth time in a row. He won ahead of his teammate Barrichello and his brother Ralf. Villeneuve scored the first points for BAR-Honda in fourth place. Fisichella crossed the finish line in fifth place. Sauber driver Salo crossed the finish line in sixth place, but was disqualified because of an illegal front wing. Thus, Zonta took sixth place and received his first point.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
West McLaren Mercedes	1	Mika Hakkinen	McLaren MP4 / 15	Mercedes-Benz 3.0 V10	B.
	2	David Coulthard
Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro	3	Michael sSchumacher	Ferrari F1-2000	Ferrari 3.0 V10	B.
	4th	Rubens Barrichello
Benson and Hedges Jordan	5	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Jordan EJ10	Mugen-Honda 3.0 V10	B.
	6th	Jarno Trulli
Jaguar Racing	7th	Eddie Irvine	Jaguar R1	Cosworth 3.0 V10	B.
	8th	Johnny Herbert
BMW Williams F1 Team	9	Ralf Schumacher	Williams FW22	BMW 3.0 V10	B.
	10	Jenson Button
Mild Seven Benetton Playlife	11	Giancarlo Fisichella	Benetton B200	Supertec 3.0 V10	B.
	12	Alexander Wurz
Gauloises cheers Peugeot	14th	Jean Alesi	Cheers AP03	Peugeot 3.0 V10	B.
	15th	Nick Heidfeld
Red Bull Sauber Petronas	16	Pedro Diniz	Clean C19	Petronas 3.0 V10	B.
	17th	Mika Salo
Arrows F1 team	18th	Pedro de la Rosa	Arrows A21	Supertec 3.0 V10	B.
	19th	Jos Verstappen
Telefonica Minardi Fondmetal	20th	Marc Gené	Minardi M02	Fondmetal 3.0 V10	B.
	21st	Gastón Mazzacane
Lucky Strike Reynard BAR Honda	22nd	Jacques Villeneuve	BAR 002	Honda 3.0 V10	B.
	23	Ricardo Zonta

Classifications

Qualifying

Item	driver	constructor	time	begin
01	Mika Hakkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	1: 30.556	01
02	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	1: 30.910	02
03	Michael sSchumacher	Ferrari	1: 31.075	03
04th	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	1: 31.102	04th
05	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Jordan-Mugen	1: 31.359	05
06th	Jarno Trulli	Jordan-Mugen	1: 31.504	06th
07th	Eddie Irvine	Jaguar Cosworth	1: 31.514	07th
08th	Jacques Villeneuve	BAR Honda	1: 31.968	08th
09	Giancarlo Fisichella	Benetton Supertec	1: 31.992	09
10	Mika Salo	Clean Petronas	1: 32.018	10
11	Ralf Schumacher	Williams-BMW	1: 32.220	11
12	Pedro de la Rosa	Arrows-Supertec	1: 32.323	12
13	Jos Verstappen	Arrows-Supertec	1: 32.477	13
14th	Alexander Wurz	Benetton Supertec	1: 32.775	14th
15th	Nick Heidfeld	Cheers Peugeot	1: 33.024	15th
16	Ricardo Zonta	BAR Honda	1: 33.117	16
17th	Jean Alesi	Cheers Peugeot	1: 33.197	17th
18th	Marc Gené	Minardi fund metal	1: 33.261	18th
19th	Pedro Diniz	Clean Petronas	1: 33.378	19th
20th	Johnny Herbert	Jaguar Cosworth	1: 33.638	20th
21st	Jenson Button	Williams-BMW	1: 33.828	21st
22nd	Gastón Mazzacane	Minardi fund metal	1: 34.705	22nd

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap
01	Michael sSchumacher	Ferrari	58	1	1: 34: 01.987	03	1: 31.752 (28th)
02	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	58	2	+ 11.415	04th	1: 31,481 (41st)
03	Ralf Schumacher	Williams-BMW	58	1	+ 20.009	11	1: 32.525 (50th)
04th	Jacques Villeneuve	BAR Honda	58	1	+ 44.447	08th	1: 33.185 (50.)
05	Giancarlo Fisichella	Benetton Supertec	58	1	+ 45.165	09	1: 33,449 (34.)
06th	Ricardo Zonta	BAR Honda	58	1	+ 46.468	16	1: 33.435 (34th)
07th	Alexander Wurz	Benetton Supertec	58	1	+ 46.915	14th	1: 33,459 (33.)
08th	Marc Gené	Minardi fund metal	57	2	+ 1 lap	18th	1: 33.231 (54.)
09	Nick Heidfeld	Cheers Peugeot	56	1	+ 2 rounds	15th	1: 34,111 (53.)
-	Jenson Button	Williams-BMW	46	1	DNF	21st	1: 33,351 (36th)
-	Pedro Diniz	Clean Petronas	41	3	DNF	19th	1: 32.977 (38th)
-	Gastón Mazzacane	Minardi fund metal	40	3	DNF	22nd	1: 35.241 (33.)
-	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Jordan-Mugen	39	1	DNF	05	1: 32.110 (34.)
-	Jarno Trulli	Jordan-Mugen	35	0	DNF	06th	1: 33.223 (28.)
-	Jean Alesi	Cheers Peugeot	27	1	DNF	17th	1: 35.088 (18.)
-	Mika Hakkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	18th	0	DNF	01	1: 32.433 (18.)
-	Jos Verstappen	Arrows-Supertec	16	1	DNF	13	1: 34.834 (16.)
-	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	11	1	DNF	02	1: 33.653 ( 07.)
-	Eddie Irvine	Jaguar Cosworth	06th	0	DNF	07th	1: 35.789 ( 06.)
-	Pedro de la Rosa	Arrows-Supertec	06th	0	DNF	12	1: 35.663 ( 06.)
-	Johnny Herbert	Jaguar Cosworth	01	0	DNF	20th	2: 12.970 ( 01st)
-	Mika Salo 1	Clean Petronas	58	1	DSQ	10	1: 33,471 (51st)

¹ Mika Salo finished sixth but was disqualified because of an illegal front wing .

World Cup stands after the race

The first six of the race got 10, 6, 4, 3, 2 and 1 point (s) respectively.

Driver ranking

Item driver constructor Points 01  Michael sSchumacher Ferrari 10 02  Rubens Barrichello Ferrari 6th 03  Ralf Schumacher Williams-BMW 4th 04th  Jacques Villeneuve BAR Honda 3 05  Giancarlo Fisichella Benetton Supertec 2 06th  Ricardo Zonta BAR Honda 1 07th  Alexander Wurz Benetton Supertec 0 08th  Marc Gené Minardi fund metal 0 09  Nick Heidfeld Cheers Peugeot 0 -  Jenson Button Williams-BMW 0 -  Pedro Diniz Clean Petronas 0

Item driver constructor Points -  Gastón Mazzacane Minardi fund metal 0 -  Heinz-Harald Frentzen Jordan-Mugen 0 -  Jarno Trulli Jordan-Mugen 0 -  Jean Alesi Cheers Peugeot 0 -  Mika Hakkinen McLaren-Mercedes 0 -  Jos Verstappen Arrows-Supertec 0 -  David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 0 -  Eddie Irvine Jaguar Cosworth 0 -  Pedro de la Rosa Arrows-Supertec 0 -  Johnny Herbert Jaguar Cosworth 0 -  Mika Salo Clean Petronas 0

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  Ferrari 16 02  Williams-BMW 4th 03  BAR Honda 4th 04th  Benetton Supertec 2 05  Minardi fund metal 0 06th  Cheers Peugeot 0

Item constructor Points -  Clean Petronas 0 -  Jordan-Mugen 0 -  McLaren-Mercedes 0 -  Arrows-Supertec 0 -  Jaguar Cosworth 0

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Warm up ( Memento from September 5, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) (Motorsportarchiv.de; accessed on November 25, 2010)

Web links

• Weekend statistics at Motorsport-Total.com