1999 Australian Grand Prix

The 1999 Australian Grand Prix (formally the 1999 Qantas Australian Grand Prix ) [ 2 ] was a Formula One motor race held on 7 March 1999 at the Albert Park Circuit . [ 3 ] The 57-lap race was the first round of the 1999 Formula One World Championship , the 50th World Championship season in the history of Formula One.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen was the first car on track and initially topped the list, but Mika Häkkinen took the lead halfway through the first session. After several improvements he ended the session with a time of 1 minute and 33.213 seconds, with McLaren teammate David Coulthard in second place. The Stewart team performed well; Rubens Barrichello and Johnny Herbert ended the session in sixth and seventh position, behind Heinz-Harald Frentzen , Giancarlo Fisichella and Jarno Trulli . The debutants (...

Coulthard was fastest for a short while in the second session, but Häkkinen quickly reset the order with a time of 1 minute and 31.985 seconds. On his next attempt, Häkkinen spun and crashed into the wall in the last turn before the main straight, causing the first red flag of the season. The session was stopped for 15 minutes; Häkkinen was unhurt, but the McLaren was badly damaged and his practice session was over. In the final minute Coulthard beat his time by one hundredth of a second. Stewar...

After the break Michael Schumacher had been the first to go out, but he could not do better than seventh, with a gap of over 1.5 seconds to the McLarens. Several drivers went off the track again including Coulthard, Frentzen, Hill, Ralf Schumacher and Zanardi. The Sauber team had somewhat more serious problems: Pedro Diniz stopped on track as a precaution when warning lights lit up, while his teammate Jean Alesi hit the wall. Zanardi and Zonta also stopped on track; Zonta's transmission broke an...

After the break Wurz spun into the tyre barriers and caused a red flag. Both the Sauber drivers, as well as de la Rosa and Trulli ended their session prematurely after a spin, while most drivers missed a corner once or twice, getting used to the lower grip level of the new 4-grooved front tires. Despite that, the dominance of McLaren took on breath-taking form. Häkkinen was fastest with a time of 1 minute and 30.324 seconds, six-tenths quicker than teammate Coulthard and a full 2.2 seconds faste...

Barrichello's fourth place behind Michael Schumacher was impressive. Not so impressive were Zanardi's 15th place, Alesi's 16th and most notably Panis' 20th position. As in the earlier practice sessions, many drivers left the track momentarily; Michael Schumacher even three times. Gené ended his session in the gravel, and the yellow flags spoiled a quick run for many drivers. To add to Gené's problems, Häkkinen's very fast lap time at the end of the session had pushed him off the starting grid, b...

Mika Häkkinen and David Coulthard had dominated all sessions throughout the weekend with laptimes over a second quicker than anybody else, and with both cars starting from the front row of the grid, the race was looking to be an easy win for the McLaren team. The first signs of trouble came before the race had even begun; while the other drivers made their way to the dummy grid, pole sitter Häkkinen was still in the pits with a problem. At the last minute the team decided that he would have to u...

On lap 27, Michael Schumacher had a puncture but he made it back to the pits. The front wing of his Ferrari had been damaged by vibrations and it was replaced with a wing originally intended for Irvine's car, bearing the number 4. On lap 28, Diniz had to retire from 4th with a transmission problem. Barrichello was now 4th, followed by Zonta and Takagi. On the next lap Wurz had a spectacular spin when his rear suspension failed. On lap 32, Barrichello came into the pits to take his stop-and-go pe...