2001 Australian Grand Prix

The 2001 Australian Grand Prix (officially the 2001 Qantas Australian Grand Prix ) [ 4 ] was a Formula One motor race held on 4 March 2001 at the Albert Park Circuit in Albert Park , Melbourne , Victoria, Australia, before a crowd of 128,500 people. It was the first round of the 2001 Formula One World Championship and the 16th Australian Grand Prix that counted towards the Formula One World Championship. Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher won the 58-lap race from pole position . David Coulthard o...

Michael Schumacher won the 33rd pole position of his career by recording the fastest lap in qualifying. He maintained the lead until a major accident on lap five involving Williams ' Ralf Schumacher and British American Racing (BAR) driver Jacques Villeneuve resulted in the death of spectator marshal Graham Beveridge, who was struck in the chest by Villeneuve's right-rear wheel. The incident necessitated deploying the safety car . The race restarted eleven laps later with Michael Schumacher in f...

Following this, Michael Schumacher left Australia as the leader of the World Drivers' Championship with ten championship points . Coulthard was four championship points behind in second and Barrichello a further two adrift in third. Nick Heidfeld of Sauber and Jordan 's Heinz-Harald Frentzen were fourth and fifth. In the World Constructors' Championship , Ferrari led with fourteen championship points and McLaren were second with eight championship points. Sauber and Jordan followed in third and ...

The 2001 Australian Grand Prix was the first of the 17 rounds in the 2001 Formula One World Championship and the 16th Formula One Australian race. It took place on 4 March at the 16-turn 5.303 km (3.295 mi) Albert Park Circuit in the Melbourne suburb of Albert Park , Victoria. [ 1 ] [ 5 ] The track is a semi-permanent road course . Due to the dust laid on it by road traffic all year round, it offers drivers a low amount of grip . Engineers set up the cars to extract the maximum amount of downfor...

Of the 22 drivers on the starting grid , four made their debut. [ 8 ] The 1999 Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) champion and 2000 Indianapolis 500 winner Juan Pablo Montoya joined the Williams team to partner Ralf Schumacher , replacing Jenson Button , who was loaned to the Benetton team on a two-year deal. [ 9 ] At the Arrows team, International Formula 3000 (IF3000) participant Enrique Bernoldi replaced Pedro de la Rosa , [ 10 ] who lost his race seat and joined the Prost team as test and...

At the front of the field, the press considered the 2000 champion Michael Schumacher of Ferrari the favourite to take his fourth World Drivers' Championship . Mika Häkkinen of the McLaren team was predicted to be his nearest challenger. [ 16 ] [ 17 ] [ 18 ] Michael Schumacher arrived with the physiological advantage as Ferrari exceeded its target of completing more than 4,000 km (2,500 mi) in pre-season testing. He said he was confident about his chances in Australia: "The F2001 has behaved very...

Several teams introduced major changes to their cars compared to the models shown at the official presentations and pre-season testing. Ferrari introduced multiple aerodynamic appendages, with the most conspicuous being fins mounted on the external side section. The team also fitted revised air intakes onto the brakes for improved cooling and air flow deviation around the wheels. The Williams squad vertical bulkheads under the front wing by using the 50 mm (2.0 in) within the wing to allow it to...

Barrichello set the day's fastest lap in the afternoon session at 1 minute 28.965 seconds. Jarno Trulli for Jordan, Michael Schumacher, Coulthard, Häkkinen, Ralf Schumacher, Heidfeld, Frentzen, Prost's Jean Alesi and Panis followed in positions two to ten. [ 25 ] Tarso Marques ' engine failed after seven minutes and laid oil on the track. Both Irvine and Button sustained separate punctures . [ 26 ] Red flags were shown after 35 minutes when Jaguar's Luciano Burti locked his tyres into the first ...

Shortly after, Michael Schumacher did not see waved yellow flags in turn five to alert drivers to Heidfeld. He accelerated and saw the yellow flags in the braking area for turn six. [ 26 ] Schumacher lost control of the rear of the car on oil laid on the approach to the right-hand turn six while braking. [ 27 ] He spun backwards after hitting the inside kerb and speared into the gravel trap at 120 mph (190 km/h). [ 28 ] The wheels dug into a ridge in the gravel on the outside of the turn and the...

In the third session, Michael Schumacher was fastest in his rebuilt car with a lap of 1 minute 28.134 seconds. The McLarens of Coulthard and Häkkinen were second and third. Trulli was fourth-fastest with Jacques Villeneuve of BAR fifth and his teammate Panis sixth. Frentzen, Barrichello, Montoya and Irvine followed in the top ten. [ 30 ] Barrichello stopped at the side of the track with an engine failure and Verstappen was affected by a transmission fault caused by an electrical problem. [ 31 ] ...

Montoya was the fastest driver not to qualify in the top ten; [ 36 ] Bernoldi slowed Montoya leaving turn four and put him wide on his final timed lap. [ 38 ] Irvine, in his balanced and slightly heavy Jaguar, set the 12th-fastest lap as debris removed one of his bargeboards. [ 31 ] [ 39 ] Räikkönen was the highest-placed rookie driver in 13th, [ 36 ] as he drove an unbalanced Sauber—a problem his team could not resolve. [ 38 ] Alesi was the faster of the two Prost cars in 14th, as Verstappen's ...

At the conclusion of lap one, Michael Schumacher led Häkkinen by 1.2 seconds and was a further second ahead of Frentzen in third. [ 39 ] Barrichello challenged Ralf Schumacher for fourth and took the position when the latter ran deep under braking at turn one and fell to seventh. That enabled Coulthard to return to fifth as he had earlier passed Trulli. [ 2 ] On lap two, Bernoldi became the race's second retiree when he lost control of his car exiting turn two and struck the left-hand barrier. [...

On lap five, a two-car accident led to the safety car 's deployment. [ 57 ] On the approach to turn three at about 290 km/h (180 mph), [ 58 ] Ralf Schumacher, on the left, was about to defend from Villeneuve in the centre. [ 39 ] Villeneuve slipstreamed Ralf Schumacher, [ 2 ] and was caught out by him under braking. Villeneuve's right-front tyre struck the Williams' left-rear wheel, launching his car airborne and rotated through 180 degrees towards a retaining catchfence and concrete barrier to ...

Verstappen made a tactical pit stop on lap 15 to support his two-stop strategy. He caught up to the field before the safety car was withdrawn at the end of the lap. [ 55 ] Michael Schumacher began to pull away from the rest of the field, increasing his lead by two-tenths of a second per lap. [ 52 ] There were overtakes farther down the field. Montoya passed Fisichella for ninth, and Irvine overtook Verstappen and Alonso. Räikkönen passed Button for tenth place on lap 17. Button took his stop-and...

With Häkkinen's retirement, Michael Schumacher led his teammate Barrichello by ten seconds and pulled away. [ 53 ] Coulthard started to draw closer to Barrichello albeit momentarily delayed by Fisichella's slower Benetton. [ 49 ] On lap 31, Panis overtook Trulli for fourth as the latter slowed with a misfiring engine; Trulli soon retired. [ 57 ] Three laps later, Alonso exited the pit lane following a pit stop and temporarily delayed Barrichello, [ 52 ] unbalancing the Ferrari enough to allow Co...

A full tank of fuel and traffic meant Michael Schumacher fell 18.1 seconds behind Coulthard until the latter entered the pit lane at the end of lap 41. Coulthard rejoined the race in second, behind Michael Schumacher. [ 39 ] After the pit stops, Michael Schumacher led Coulthard by 10.5 seconds. [ 48 ] He, in turn, was 10 seconds in front of Barrichello, [ 48 ] who was delayed by Alonso after exiting the pit lane. [ 8 ] Panis in fourth pulled away from Heidfeld in fifth. [ 48 ] Montoya stopped on...

Out of respect for Beveridge's death, the top three drivers on the podium refrained from spraying champagne. [ 57 ] Michael Schumacher expressed the importance of ensuring he did not push too hard, "Any time I needed to be fast, I was able to go fast, and what is good is that finally we seem to be able to do good starts as well. So all in all, it's the way we wanted to be and for that reason we can obviously be confident for the rest of the season, but obviously we know there is no reason to be ...

Frentzen felt he missed the chance of taking a podium finish due to the collision with Barrichello albeit unangry about it, saying, "At the end of the day I took away two points for a fifth place spot which, considering how the race went for me, was still pretty good. However, I could have easily been in second place had things gone my way." [ 73 ] Barrichello argued Frentzen went towards him and affected the toe-in of his left-front wheel. [ 73 ] Frentzen chose not complain about the contact sa...

Drivers who scored championship points are denoted in bold.

Following the Victoria Police Major Collision Investigation Unit examination lasting eight months and also absolved the AGPC, on 3 December 2001 the official inquest into the death of Beveridge opened in Melbourne. [ 88 ] The FIA severed all formal links with the inquest and withdrew instructions to local lawyers to act on its behalf. The governing body's own appointee, the race director and permanent starter Charlie Whiting , did not appear in person or provide evidence by satellite. [ 91 ]

During the inquest, the court was told Beveridge was instructed to stand at the fence opening to prevent spectators from accessing the track and it had prevented any further fatalities. [ 61 ] The issue over the height of the catchfence was then raised by the inquest. Tim Schenken , a member of CAMS, said some of the fences were raised in height by 1 m (39 in) before the 1999 race albeit he had no knowledge if a formal risk analysis report was carried out to assess the potential danger to marsha...

The court was then shown a video of Martin Brundle 's airborne accident on the first lap of the 1996 race which occurred at the same corner where Beveridge died. The manager of safety services for CAMS stated he could not recall any meeting to discuss the crash and no investigation occurred since nobody was injured. Villeneuve's damaged car was brought into the court to explain why its wheel tethers failed in the accident. It was told while the car met FIA international standards dictating the w...

On 19 December, the final submissions were made to the inquest. Jim Kennan , the counsel assisting the coroner, argued the organisation that should be held responsible for Beveridge's death was the AGPC under the Australian Grand Prix Act, "No one organisation accepted ultimate responsibility for the design – AGPC relied on CAMS, CAMS relied on FIA, the FIA said the local promoter had ultimate responsibility." [ 94 ] Johnstone's report was released on 8 February 2002. It agreed with Kennan's sug...

In December 2002, the Medical Practitioners Board of Victoria opened an investigation into the professional conduct of three senior physicians who treated Beveridge at the scene of the accident when Johnstone's report revealed medical records had been altered to disguise the fact the marshal died at the track. [ 96 ] It found a physician was told via telephone resuscitation on Beveridge had stopped at 14:47 local time and he subsequently ordered the nurse who produced the record to delete it. [ ...

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