“I was quite conservative, I never pushed the limit.”
Michael Schumacher??(tm)s hopes of a fifth Melbourne win disappeared on lap 43 when his Ferrari and the Williams-BMW of Nick Heidfeld tangled on the way out of Turn 6.
The race was shortened by one lap to 57 when Kimi Raikkonen??(tm)s McLaren-Mercedes was unable to get off the start line, the Finn being pushed away to start from pit lane. Mark Webber put aside the pressures of the build-up to his home-race debut with Williams-BMW to score three fine points for fifth place in an entertaining start to the new-look F1 season.
But the team that really made the headlines was Renault, underlining the promise of pre-season testing with first and third places for Giancarlo Fisichella and Fernando Alonso respectively.
Popular Italian Fisichella, 32, confirmed his provisional pole in the morning??(tm)s second qualifying session and went on to a dominant win - only the second of his 142-race career - from the Ferrari of Rubens Barrichello.
“It??(tm)s a great day for me,” said the 32-year-old Fisichella, “a fantastic race”.

While Fisichella raced into the lead from Jarno Trulli’s Toyota, Scottish veteran David Coulthard blasted off the grid in his Red Bull Racing RB1 to go third with Webber on his coat-tails.
While Webber was able to hang on for the first half of the race, the Williams lacked the front-runners??(tm) outright pace and the Australian did well to claim his eventual fifth.
Juan Pablo Montoya was sixth in his McLaren debut, Raikkonen recovering superbly to come home eighth behind the other RBR of Christian Klien.
Christijan Albers in the Minardi was the only driver to retire, with the 17 cars classified the highest number since the Grand Prix came to Melbourne.

Courtesy : GrandPrix.com.au

Kimi Raikkonen.Australian Qualifying Session 1 . Although most of the drivers were struggling on wet track , Raikkonen managed 10th place on the grid. Our Indian hero , Narain managed 9th place ahead of Raikkonen . Michael Schumacher was on the 2nd last row of the grid.

01Giancarlo Fisichella Renault 1′33.171
02Jarno Trulli Toyota +2.099
03Mark Webber Williams +3.546
04Jacques Villeneuve Sauber +3.813
05Christian Klien Red Bull Racing +4.315
06David Coulthard Red Bull Racing +5.149
07Nick Heidfeld Williams +6.546
08Jenson Button BAR +8.341
09Narain Karthikeyan Jordan +11.186
10Kimi Raikkonen McLaren +11.826
11Juan Pablo Montoya McLaren +12.154
12Rubens Barrichello Ferrari+12.310
13Tiago Monteiro Jordan+13.675
14Fernando Alonso Renault +14.537
15Christijan Albers Minardi+16.059
16Patrick Friesacher Minardi+17.693
17Ralf Schumacher Toyota +18.324
18Michael Schumacher Ferrari+24.760
19Takuma Sato BAR-
20Felipe Massa Sauber-

The circuit was wet

McLaren’s Pedro de la Rosa proved to be the fastest man in Friday practices for the Australian Grand Prix, as the team’s third driver set a best time of 1:25.376 in the second session. The Spaniard was half a second faster than Red Bull’s Vitanonio Liuzzi was in the morning. De la Rosa was followed in the afternoon by teammate Kimi Raikkonen and the Williams of Nick Heidfeld in second and third respectively.
Raikkonen, who did not set a time in the first session, was quickly out for the installation laps and it was Jordan third driver Robert Doornbos first on the time sheet. De la Rosa quickly took over, 1:29.589, and Toyota No.3 Ricardo Zonta slotted into third. Ralf Schumacher put his Toyota second but was immediately eclipsed by Zonta again.
David Coulthard was next to the top, 1:28.867 for the Red Bull and the team’s third driver Liuzzi followed into second, with teammate Christian Klien in fifth. The pair of Jordan race drivers, Tiago Monteiro and Narain Karthikeyan were eighth and ninth, while Ralf posted quickest with a 1:28.850. Raikkonen rounded off the top ten in the first ten minutes.
McLaren’s Pedro de la Rosa proved to be the fastest man in Friday practices for the Australian Grand Prix, as the team’s third driver set a best time of 1:25.376 in the second session. The Spaniard was half a second faster than Red Bull’s Vitanonio Liuzzi was in the morning. De la Rosa was followed in the afternoon by teammate Kimi Raikkonen and the Williams of Nick Heidfeld in second and third respectively.
Raikkonen, who did not set a time in the first session, was quickly out for the installation laps and it was Jordan third driver Robert Doornbos first on the time sheet. De la Rosa quickly took over, 1:29.589, and Toyota No.3 Ricardo Zonta slotted into third. Ralf Schumacher put his Toyota second but was immediately eclipsed by Zonta again.
David Coulthard was next to the top, 1:28.867 for the Red Bull and the team’s third driver Liuzzi followed into second, with teammate Christian Klien in fifth. The pair of Jordan race drivers, Tiago Monteiro and Narain Karthikeyan were eighth and ninth, while Ralf posted quickest with a 1:28.850. Raikkonen rounded off the top ten in the first ten minutes.
Sauber had mixed fortunes; Massa was notably on the pace of the top six but Villeneuve was up and down the times rather raggedly. Toyota was also a bit sporadic and the Jordans, unsurprisingly, were the backmarkers. So far it looks to be developing into an interesting weekend in Melbourne. Final top eight classification: De la Rosa, Raikkonen, Heidfeld, M. Schumacher, Montoya, Massa, Alonso, Button.

Courtsey : Motorsport.com