2002 Australian Grand Prix

The 2002 Australian Grand Prix (formally the 2002 Foster's Australian Grand Prix ) [ 4 ] was a Formula One motor race contested on 3 March 2002 at the Albert Park Circuit , Albert Park , Melbourne , Victoria , Australia. The race, which drew 127,000 spectators, was the first of the 2002 Formula One World Championship and the 18th Formula One Australian Grand Prix . Ferrari 's Michael Schumacher won the 58-lap race after starting second. Williams ' Juan Pablo Montoya finished second, and McLaren ...

Following this, the season's opening round, Michael Schumacher left Australia leading the World Drivers' Championship with ten championship points . Montoya was four championship points behind in second with Räikkönen third. With sixteen races left in the season, Ferrari led the World Constructors' Championship from Williams and McLaren.

The event's planning began in January 2002. Due to the death of marshal Graham Beveridge in an accident in the 2001 race , it was only on the 2002 Formula One World Championship 's provisional calendar. [ 5 ] Formula One's governing body, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), later confirmed it would be held following the publication of a coroner's report ruling Beveridge's death "avoidable". [ 6 ] It was the first of 17 races of 2002 and the 18th Formula One World Championship Au...

Several teams retained their 2001 lineups for the 2002 season, while others changed drivers. The Benetton team was renamed Renault , ending its 16-year involvement in Formula One , [ 8 ] and Toyota debuted with drivers Allan McNish and Mika Salo after the Japanese car maker spent 2001 developing the TF102 . [ 9 ] The Prost team was liquidated in January 2002 after failing to find funding from sponsors or a buyer. [ 10 ] The double world champion Mika Häkkinen took a sabbatical and fellow Finn Ki...

At the front of the field, the press and bookmakers tipped Ferrari 's Michael Schumacher to win his fifth World Drivers' Championship , with Williams 's Juan Pablo Montoya as his main rival. [ 17 ] [ 18 ] [ 19 ] Schumacher stated that his goal for the season was to win the championship and tie Juan Manuel Fangio 's all-time record of five titles, "Our motivation is still unchanged, our target and goals are still the same. We want to once again win both world championships and there is nothing ni...

Due to performance and reliability issues, Ferrari brought the F2001B to Australia instead of the F2002 . [ 23 ] [ 24 ] According to Ferrari team principal Jean Todt , the F2002 was fast in pre-season testing, but the team did not have enough time to ensure that it would be reliable in Australia, "We think it will be able to bring home valuable points for the championship. Next week, we will continue our on-track development of the F2002, as well as fine-tuning the F2001 for the first race." [ 2...

Michael Schumacher set the day's fastest lap of 1:27.276 in the second session. His teammate Barrichello was 0.523 seconds slower in second. The two Williams cars of Ralf Schumacher and Montoya, Sauber's Nick Heidfeld , Salo, Räikkönen, Massa, Fisichella and Trulli were in positions three to ten. [ 28 ] During the session, Enrique Bernoldi stopped his Arrows A23 car with a broken gearbox . [ 29 ] Barrichello spun through 360 degrees across the grass and reemerged onto the circuit soon after. [ 3...

The weather for the third session was cool, damp and overcast. [ 31 ] [ 32 ] Michael Schumacher's updated unofficial lap record of 1:26.177 maintained Ferrari's lead. Barrichello was 0.321 seconds slower in second. [ 31 ] McLaren's Coulthard and Räikkönen, Williams' Ralf Schumacher and Montoya, British American Racing (BAR) driver Olivier Panis , Sauber teammates Heidfeld and Massa along with Trulli followed in the top ten. [ 32 ] Sato lost control of his Jordan EJ12 car's rear on the entry to S...

Button was the fastest driver who did not qualify in the top ten after being fourth early on. Panis completed one timed lap as he could not extract more performance from his BAR 004 and took 12th. [ 38 ] Excess oversteer slowed his teammate Villeneuve in 13th. [ 39 ] Salo, 14th, drove cautiously on his first timed lap. A minor fuel pressure fault limited Frentzen in 15th to one untroubled lap. [ 38 ] McNish, 16th, had a set of tyres deducted from his qualifying allocation because Toyota erroneou...

The weather at the start was dry and overcast with the air temperature between 15 and 18 °C (59 and 64 °F) and the track temperature from 20 to 23 °C (68 to 73 °F). [ 49 ] [ 50 ] [ 51 ] Sato drove the spare Jordan EJ12 car set up for his teammate Fisichella; after warm-up Jordan fixed an electrical problem that rendered its clutch inoperable. [ 52 ] Before the race commenced at 14:00 local time before a crowd of 127,000 for 58 laps over a distance of 307.594 km (191.130 mi), [ 1 ] [ 53 ] Frentze...

Ralf Schumacher used the outside grip to pass Michael Schumacher for second place and challenge Barrichello's heavily fuelled Ferrari for the lead. [ 56 ] [ 57 ] As Michael Schumacher turned left to get the greatest possible approach into Brabham Corner, his teammate Barrichello switched lanes twice to try to prevent Ralf Schumacher, who responded by going to the centre in anticipation that momentum would give him the lead. [ 58 ] Barrichello braked early for Brabham turn, catching out Ralf Schu...

Coulthard began to pull away from the rest of the field, increasing his lead to 4.5 seconds by lap seven. [ 49 ] That same lap, Sato overtook de la Rosa for sixth, as Webber lost seventh to Räikkönen. [ 55 ] At the back, Bernoldi rejoined the race after switching from his race car to the spare Arrows entry. [ 2 ] Trulli blocked Michael Schumacher from passing him for second into Brabham corner on the eighth lap, allowing Montoya to gain on Schumacher; he was not close enough to affect a pass. [ ...

Michael Schumacher took the lead with Montoya second and Irvine third. [ 64 ] Approaching Brabham corner Montoya's higher straightline speed moved him past Michael Schumacher on the outside at the end of the main straight for the lead. [ 2 ] Montoya then steered onto the inside to maintain the lead from Schumacher at Jones corner. [ 57 ] Michael Schumacher had closed to within 0.8 seconds of passing Montoya by lap 13, [ 51 ] but was unable to do so owing to slower traffic. [ 50 ] Sato retired on...

By lap 22 Michael Schumacher's advantage over Montoya had grown to 11.3 seconds, with consecutive lap times in the 1:29 range. [ 2 ] [ 63 ] Räikkönen was 0.8 seconds behind Montoya. [ 51 ] On the same lap, Coulthard went off the track at Prost corner. His slower speed promoted Irvine to fourth soon after. [ 50 ] Bernoldi was disqualified from the race on lap 23 because the stewards determined he switched to the spare car after the race began. [ 57 ] Webber and Villeneuve passed Coulthard for fif...

Webber was the first of the top six drivers to make a pit stop on lap 37. [ 50 ] He had a problematic 34.9-second pit stop; the Minardi's fuel cover did not open automatically and a mechanic used a screwdriver to unsecure it. Webber rejoined the track in sixth. [ 66 ] Montoya and Michael Schumacher made their pit stops on laps 37 and 38. [ 64 ] In the meantime, Räikkönen set the race's fastest lap of 1:25.841 seconds on lap 37, [ 2 ] as he sought to pass Montoya for second after his pit stop. [ ...

With the first four positions settled, attention switched to the battle for fifth between Webber and Salo. [ 55 ] Webber short-shifted to avoid unnecessary car component stress when he noticed Salo closing up. He went faster and Minardi team owner Paul Stoddart radioed that he had to defend fifth from Salo, with Webber aware of a potential revenue bonus of $25 million for Minardi finishing ahead of Toyota in the World Constructors' Championship . [ 62 ] Salo had seen the gap between himself and ...

The top three drivers appeared on the podium to collect their trophies and spoke to the media in a later press conference. [ 3 ] Michael Schumacher called his battle with Montoya "an interesting one" and "a bit back and forward", adding "I think as well that the tyres played a little bit of a role in that; initially I struggled to get the temperature in where these guys seemed to get faster on top of temperatures but then it went the other way around, their tyres went off and my one came in so I...

The Australian Grand Prix Corporation's chairman, Ron Walker , convinced Webber and Stoddart to celebrate their fifth-place finish with an impromptu ceremony on the podium, which resulted in a £50,000 fine from FIA president Max Mosley . [ 70 ] In a retrospective interview for The Weekend Australian in 2012, Stoddart called Webber's fifth-place finish "the most exciting two points in the history of Formula One". [ 70 ] Webber commented on the result, "Finishing the race fifth was unbelievable. W...

Following their third collision in the previous two seasons, Barrichello and Ralf Schumacher were summoned to the stewards, who studied post-race television footage. Neither driver received a penalty and were given a warning. [ 72 ] The stewards classed the crash as "a racing incident", with neither competitor to blame. [ 53 ] Michael Schumacher argued Barrichello braked earlier than normal, saying "I was afraid to turn into the first corner because I suddenly saw cars flying next to me. I decid...

Drivers who scored championship points are denoted in bold.

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