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Schumacher wins 4th Australia Grand Prix
Six-time series champion Michael Schumacher won his fourth Australian Grand Prix title, leading teammate Rubens Barrichello in a 1-2 finish Sunday for Ferraris in the season-opening Formula One race.
Schumacher led from start to finish and completed 58 laps on the Albert Park circuit in 1 hour, 24 minutes and 15.757 seconds, 13.6 seconds clear of Barrichello.
"The car goes well. We have seen this all weekend. From a personal point of view, I go home with two more points than I had after the first three races last season."
In what seemed to be a separate race for third place among the other nine teams, Fernando Alonso earned his fifth podium finish for Renault.
He was 34.6 seconds behind in third.
"To be there on the podium, in front of Williams and McLaren, is a little prize for us," Alonso said.
Williams drivers Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya were fourth and fifth, more than one minute off the pace. BAR-Honda's Jenson Button was sixth.
Defending champion David Coulthard was eighth, one place behind Renault's Jarno Trulli.
Schumacher missed out on a fourth consecutive win in Australia last year when he was black-flagged for gear damage under the car while leading. He was forced into the pits and finished fourth, with McLaren's finishing first and third and Montoya finishing second.
But Schumacher had no trouble with the F2004 on Sunday, leading from pole position and maintaining a healthy buffer for the entire race.
Asked if he thought the Ferrari dominance would be so great, given the new engine and transmission rules introduced this season to make F1 more competitive, Schumacher hadn't anticipated the buffer.
"Yes, I was confident," he said. "But I didn't think it would be that great."
Ferrari got off the grid in perfect order and Alonso overtook Montoya, who failed to negotiate the first turn and across the grass to drop from third place to seventh.
McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen, second in the 2003 drivers' standings and a podium finisher in the first race at Melbourne last year, was first out with a damaged water pump. It caused to spin off the track on the ninth lap.
"It was an engine failure, there was nothing I could do," Raikkonen said. "I'm very disappointed - I didn't expect it.
Schumacher led Barrichello for one to two seconds for most of the race, extending the edge to nine seconds after his producing his fastest lap on the 29th before a 7.8 second pitstop.
At halfway, the Ferraris had established a half-minute lead on Alonso, who had more than a 10-second advantage over the first of the Williams cars.
Australian hope Mark Webber went out on the 31st lap when his Jaguar had a gearbox failure. |
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