Round 3: Foster's Australian Grand Prix

After two rounds of the FIA Formula One World Championship, the pecking order has started to become established. Renault are again the dominant force, however McLaren and Honda have shown the pace needed to challenge. They simply need too bring it all together.



The Australian Grand Prix has been held at Albert Park in Melbourne since 1996. At the innaugural event Jacques Villenueve announced himself to F1 by qualifying on pole and leading his debut grand prix at Melbourne in 1996. He eventually finished second to team-mate Damon Hill after being told to back off because of an engine problem. Since then David Coulthard has took a win in '97, followed by Eddie Irvine who kicked off a series of wins for Ferrari. This was only recently broken at last years stunning display by Giancarlo Fisichella.

This may be the race for Honda however. Jenson Button took his third career pole position for the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne with an extraordinary lap in the top-ten shoot-out. The Englishman took the wind out of his rivals sails by setting a 1m25.229s lap on his penultimate run, 0.4s faster than second place man Giancarlo Fisichella. The McLarens' had a chance however both drivers were caught out in the final sector of the track. Ralph Schumacher showed that Toyota has finally found some form this season, with a great drive to sixth on the grid. Jacque qualified 9th, however has made an engine change this weekend and therefore will suffer a 10 place grid penalty. Both Ferraris failed to make it through to the top-ten shoot-out in qualifying as rain ruined Michael Schumacher's flying lap in the final minutes of the second knock-out session. His team-mate Felipe Massa caused the second red flag of the day when he crashed out at Turn 9. The Ferrari driver lost out on the entry to the chicane and skated across the gravel before smaking the wall and ripping off the right rear corner. Nico Rosberg also got caught out by the rain and for the first time this year the Williams driver has not made the top ten shoot-out. Rubens Barrichello was knocked out of Australian Grand Prix qualifying after the first 15-minute segment. The Brazilian Honda driver, who has once again been struggling with the handling of his car, left his fast lap very late in the session and was then held up half way through it by Yuji Ide. The Japanese rookie appeared to be struggle on the cold surface having spun three times on his flying lap!