Summary

Ron Dennis tried to temper the expectation of the West-McLaren-Mercedes team when they arrived at the Melbourne circuit after the fast winter tests. Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard showed the rest of the field however that 'the rest did not belong in Formula One' by lapping the entire field. They led from start to finish. This weekend brings Bridgestone there first font row on the grid and first one-two finish - the first Bridgestone victory.

A first race like this is always very exciting when there are so many rule changes. The tyres, the width of the car, no one was sure of anything except McLaren it seemed. Heinz-Harald Frentzen scored a nice third place with the Winfield-Williams, but Williams really lack power with the Mecachrome (Renault) engine.

David Coulthard let Mika Hakkinen pass to win, because of a gentleman agreement and because Hakkinen went an extra time through the pits because there was a miscommunication between the McLaren pits and Hakkinen - which caused him the lead.

Notes

• Goodyear may come-back next season as Dunlop because they own Dunlop.
• Prost and Tyrrell use the extra wings used last year - and were introduced by the Tyrrell team.
• Arrows and Stewart use a carbon-fibre gearbox which seem so cause a lot of heat related problems.
• Irvine starts in the Ferrari T-car because of problems during the warm-up.
• Panis lost the two fastest laps of his qualifying because of new rules: He did not leave his car after he'd spun in qualifying.
• The car of Fisichella was completely rebuild after his warm-up spin.
• Alesi and Panis are unable to start for their formation lap on time. Alesi could get away in time, before the last driver past him, so he could keep his position while Panis had to start from the back, where he already was because of the penalty he received.
• Barrichello waists his clutch at the start.
• Magnussen takes out R. Schumacher on the first lap. Takagi makes a beginner mistake when he sees both drivers go off before him and spins off also.
• Diniz, which car could fire before the start, ended with a hydraulic problem with the T-car on lap 2.
• M. Schumacher blows up a new 047 Ferrari engine on lap 5. The engine had proven reliable during the tests.
• Nakano ends his race in the pits on lap 8 with a drive-shaft problem.
• Tuero, the very young députant in Formula One, showed his potential but did make a number of beginner mistakes. He got a stop-and-go for jump starting and a stop-and-go for pitlane speeding. He later blew up his engine.
• Rosset gets a stop-and-go for pitlane speeding but when he goes to his team for the penalty he never leaves the pits. (Lap 25)
• Trulli goes out of the race on lap 26 with a gearbox problem.
• Salo also retires with reliability problems but is not unhappy with the car.
  • Weather during qualifying: Sunny and windy (18 °C ; 64 °F)

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.   10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22.

Hakkinen (McLaren-Mercedes) B Coulthard (McLaren-Mercedes) B Frentzen (Winfield-Williams) G Irvine (Ferrari) G Villeneuve (Winfield-Williams) G Herbert (Sauber-Petronas) G Wurz (Benetton-Playlife) B Hill (Jordan-Mugen) B Panis (Prost-Peugeot) B Not Classified Fisichella (Benetton-Playlife) B Alesi (Sauber-Petronas) G Trulli (Prost-Peugeot) B Rosset (Tyrrell-Ford)B Salo (Arrows) G Tuero (Minardi-Ford) B Nakano (Minardi-Ford) B M. Schumacher (Ferrari) G Diniz (Arrows) B Takagi (Tyrrell-Ford) G R. Schumacher (Jordan-Mugen) G Magnussen (Stewart-Ford) B Barrichello (Stewart-Ford) B B: Bridgestone G: Goodyear

1h 31.45.996s + 0.702s 1 lap 1 lap 1 lap 1 lap 1 lap 1 lap 1 lap   15 laps: rear wing 17 laps: engine 32 laps: gearbox 33 laps: gearbox 35 laps: gearbox 36 laps: engine 50 laps: drive-shaft 53 laps: engine 56 laps: hydraulics 57 laps: spin 57 laps: crash 57 laps: crash 58 laps: gearbox

Fastest Lap: Mika Hakkinen 1m 31.649s

The Quotes

Hakkinen: "It didn't go like we planned. The overall result was where I wanted to be, but during the race there was some confusion., to come in one extra stop. It was purely a misunderstanding in the radio communication. I just want to say for David thank you there very much, it was excellent work. What David did was remarkable."

Hakkinen on why they were so fast: "We have a good package, we have sponsors and we all work together. Only with that you are able to do things like that."

Coulthard: "We have got closer - with Hakkinen- during the winter, and we agreed that who would go through the first corner first in normal race conditions would win the race. Unfortunately he made a good start."

Frentzen: "I wasn't looking around me that much. I did not realise how quick they - the McLarens - were, until they passed me. I was concerned about my brakes. I had to take an easy pass at the beginning and all I wanted to do was to avoid the situation I was in last year. I just concentrated my race until the end."

Salo: "It went really well, the car was great in the race. I was faster than the cars in front of me. It was good. We good drive the same lap times as everybody else."

Villeneuve: "The car slowed down for the second half of the race. We're alright to finish."

Irvine: "I could have beaten Frentzen. We just wanted a finish."

Herbert: "I'm very disappointed. The car was good but not so on heavy fuel."

Fisichella: "Our car today could have finished in third position but I lost a lot of time behind Villeneuve. I was quicker but on this circuit he was impossible to overtake. After my first pit stop, when I did not have him in front any more, I started to drive much quicker. I could have finished in the points but the rear wing support failure stopped me."

Wurz: "I am disappointed because I did not win any points. However the car is reliable and has proven to be quick. We have just to work on the general grip."

M. Schumacher: "My engine broke on lap 5 after the temperatures went up. At the moment I do not know why the engine failed. We must wait until we have examined it. Of course I am very disappointed that this has happened today, so early in the race after all the hard work we have done in winter testing, when the engine ran reliably. Until the engine blew our lap times were quite good. We picked the right strategy for the condition of our car and tyres. Now we must look forward to the race in Brazil and hope we can do better there."

Takagi: "It is a disappointing start to my Formula One career, but there was nothing I could do. When Magnussen and Schumacher hit one another and spun off, they threw gravel onto the track in front of me. I tried to brake before I hit it, but the back of my car snapped out and I also spun into the gravel trap. It's a shame because everything was going very well and I had high hopes of a finish in the points. Anyway, now I must concentrate on getting ready for the next race and hope we can do better there."

Rosset: "My aim had been to avoid accidents at the beginning of the race, settle into a rhythm and then start to push harder as the race progressed. This is always a Grand Prix where there are a lot of retirements, and I felt that if I could keep going at a good pace, there would be the possibility of points finish. I thought the first fuel stop had gone well until I heard I had been assessed a 10-second penalty for entering the pits too fast. After I came in and stopped I could not select gears, the engine stalled, and that was the end of my race. All I can do is put this race behind me. I really hope that I can do well in front of my home crowd in Brazil at the next Grand Prix."

Hill: "There's not much to celebrate. No points to go away with so we've got a lot to think about."

The Standings

Drivers Championship table

Hakkinen (McLaren-Mercedes)	10
Coulthard (McLaren-Mercedes)	6
Frentzen(Winfield-Williams)	4
Irvine (Ferrari)	3
Villeneuve (Winfield-Williams)	2
Herbert (Sauber-Petronas)	1

Constructor Championship table

McLaren-Mercedes	16
Winfield-Williams	6
Ferrari	3
Sauber-Petronas	1