The 2004 Australian Grand Prix (officially the 2004 Foster's Australian Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 7 March 2004 at the Albert Park Circuit. It was Race 1 of 18 in the 2004 FIA Formula One World Championship. Michael Schumacher won the race for Ferrari from pole position in dominant fashion, with his teammate Rubens Barrichello finishing behind him in second. This 1–2 finish gave Ferrari a strong 9-point lead in the constructors' standings after just one race. Williams and Renault 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. The 1-2 finish for Schumacher and Barrichello was the first one-two finish for their Ferrari team since the 2002 Japanese Grand Prix.

This race marked the first time since the 2001 San Marino Grand Prix that cars competed without using fully-automatic gearboxes and launch control, which were both banned by the FIA after the season. The use of traction control was still permitted by the FIA, and would continue to be used over the next three seasons, until being banned for the season.

This race also marked the 150th Grand Prix race for the McLaren and Mercedes engine partnership since 1995 and the F1 debut of Jaguar driver Christian Klien.

Report

Background The 2004 Australian Grand Prix took place at the 5.303 km (3.295 mi) Albert Park Circuit in Albert Park, Melbourne, Victoria on 7 March 2004; it was the first round of eighteen in the 2004 Formula One World Championship and the ninth staging of the World Championship Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park. The Porsche Michelin Carrera Cup, the Cleanevent Nations Cup, the Formula Ford Track Attack, the Cleanevent Historic Touring Cars, the REV GT Kart Challenge and V8 Supercars held support races during the weekend.

The event included ten constructors, each with two race drivers. Anthony Davidson (British American Racing; BAR), Björn Wirdheim (Jaguar), Ricardo Zonta (Toyota), Timo Glock (Jordan) were the four drivers who drove a third car in only the Friday practice sessions. Bas Leinders was entered as Minardi's third driver but was denied an FIA Super Licence by the FIA for his lack of running in a Formula One car. Ferrari brought their new F2004 car to the race, unlike what the marque had done in the previous two years. Renault focused on reducing the size of the asymmetrically-mounted radiating masses on its R24 car.

Friday drivers The bottom six teams in the 2003 Constructors' Championship were entitled to run a third car in free practice on Friday. These drivers drove on Friday but did not compete in qualifying or the race.

Constructor Nat Driver BAR-Honda Anthony Davidson Sauber-Petronas - Jaguar-Cosworth Björn Wirdheim Toyota Ricardo Zonta Jordan-Ford Timo Glock Minardi-Cosworth Bas Leinders

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."2004 Australian Grand Prix starting grid" Motorsport.com Retrieved 28 December 2007

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. Heidfeld was involved in an incident in the pit lane where the mechanic Matt Deane and refueller Mick Gomme were hit by the car and suffered some bruising. 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 teammate 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 teammate 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."Dominant Australian GP win for Schumacher" Motorsport.com Retrieved 28 December 2007 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.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Time Q2 Time Gap Grid 1 1 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:25.301 1:24.408 — 1 2 2 Rubens Barrichello Ferrari 1:25.992 1:24.482 +0.074 2 3 3 Juan Pablo Montoya Williams-BMW 1:25.226 1:24.998 +0.590 3 4 9 Jenson Button BAR-Honda 1:25.898 1:24.998 +0.590 4 5 8 Fernando Alonso Renault 1:25.928 1:25.669 +1.261 5 6 14 Mark Webber Jaguar-Cosworth 1:26.232 1:25.805 +1.397 6 7 10 Takuma Sato BAR-Honda 1:26.737 1:25.851 +1.443 7 8 4 Ralf Schumacher Williams-BMW 1:25.445 1:25.925 +1.517 8 9 7 Jarno Trulli Renault 1:27.357 1:26.290 +1.882 9 10 6 Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes 1:25.592 1:26.297 +1.889 10 11 12 Felipe Massa Sauber-Petronas 1:26.833 1:27.065 +2.657 11 12 5 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 1:25.652 1:27.294 +2.886 12 13 16 Cristiano da Matta Toyota 1:28.274 1:27.823 +3.415 13 14 11 Giancarlo Fisichella Sauber-Petronas 1:26.286 1:27.845 +3.437 14 15 18 Nick Heidfeld Jordan-Ford 1:27.469 1:28.178 +3.770 15 16 19 Giorgio Pantano Jordan-Ford 1:29.156 1:30.140 +5.732 16 17 21 Zsolt Baumgartner Minardi-Cosworth 1:32.606 1:30.681 +6.273 17 18 17 Olivier Panis Toyota 1:27.253 No time 18 19 15 Christian Klien Jaguar-Cosworth 1:27.258 No time 19 20 20 Gianmaria Bruni Minardi-Cosworth 1:30.912 No time 20 Notes – Olivier Panis did not get time in Q2 due to electronics problems. – Christian Klien and Gianmaria Bruni did not get time in Q2 due to hydraulics problems.

Race Pos No Driver Constructor Tyre Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 1 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 58 1:24:15.757 1 10 2 2 Rubens Barrichello Ferrari 58 +13.605 2 8 3 8 Fernando Alonso Renault 58 +34.673 5 6 4 4 Ralf Schumacher Williams-BMW 58 +1:00.423 8 5 5 3 Juan Pablo Montoya Williams-BMW 58 +1:08.536 3 4 6 9 Jenson Button BAR-Honda 58 +1:10.598 4 3 7 7 Jarno Trulli Renault 57 +1 Lap 9 2 8 5 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 57 +1 Lap 12 1 9 10 Takuma Sato BAR-Honda 57 +1 Lap 7 10 11 Giancarlo Fisichella Sauber-Petronas 57 +1 Lap 14 11 15 Christian Klien Jaguar-Cosworth 56 +2 Laps 19 12 16 Cristiano da Matta Toyota 56 +2 Laps 13 13 17 Olivier Panis Toyota 56 +2 Laps 18 14 19 Giorgio Pantano Jordan-Ford 55 +3 Laps 16 12 Felipe Massa Sauber-Petronas 44 Engine 11 18 Nick Heidfeld Jordan-Ford 43 Transmission 15 20 Gianmaria Bruni Minardi-Cosworth 43 +15 Laps 20 14 Mark Webber Jaguar-Cosworth 29 Transmission 6 21 Zsolt Baumgartner Minardi-Cosworth 13 Electrical 17 6 Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes 9 Engine/Spin 10

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Michael Schumacher 10 2 Rubens Barrichello 8 3 Fernando Alonso 6 4 Ralf Schumacher 5 5 Juan Pablo Montoya 4Source:

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Ferrari 18 2 Williams-BMW 9 3 Renault 8 4 BAR-Honda 3 5 McLaren-Mercedes 1Source:

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

Footnotes

References