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2004 Australian Grand Prix

The 2004 Australian Grand Prix (officially the 2004 Foster's Australian Grand Prix)[2] was a Formula One motor race held on 7 March 2004 at the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit. It was Race 1 of 18 in the 2004 FIA Formula One World Championship. Michael Schumacher won the race for Ferrari from pole position in dominant fashion,[a] with his teammate Rubens Barrichello finishing behind him in second. This 1–2 finish gave Ferrari a strong 9-point lead in the constructors' standings after just one race. Williams and Renault each had both cars finish in the points while McLaren, a team that had enjoyed success in years preceding this, only managed one point, with David Coulthard finishing a lapped 8th.[5] The 1-2 finish for Schumacher and Barrichello was the first one-two finish for their Ferrari team since the 2002 Japanese Grand Prix.[6]

2004 Australian Grand Prix
Race 1 of 18 in the 2004 Formula One World Championship
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Race details
Date 7 March 2004
Official name 2004 Foster's Australian Grand Prix
Location Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit, Melbourne, Australia
Course Temporary street circuit
Course length 5.303 km (3.295 miles)
Distance 58 laps, 307.574 km (191.118 miles)
Weather Dry and cloudy
Air temperature 20 °C (68 °F)
Attendance 121,500[1]
Pole position
Driver
Ferrari
Time 1:24.408
Fastest lap
Driver Germany Michael Schumacher Ferrari
Time 1:24.125 on lap 29 (lap record)
Podium
First
Ferrari
Second
Ferrari
Third
Renault
Lap leaders

This race marked the first time since the 2001 San Marino Grand Prix that cars competed without using fully-automatic gearboxes and launch control,[7][8][9] which were both banned by the FIA after the 2003 season.[10][11][12] The use of traction control was still permitted by the FIA, and would continue to be used over the next three seasons, until being banned for the 2008 season.[13]

This race also marked the 150th Grand Prix race for the McLaren and Mercedes engine partnership since 1995.

Report

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Friday drivers

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The bottom six teams in the 2003 Constructors' Championship were entitled to run a third car in free practice on Friday. These drivers drove on Friday but did not compete in qualifying or the race.

Leinders was entered as Third Driver but was refused a superlicence until he completed the required mileage in an F1 car. He satisfied this requirement before the next race.

Constructor Nat Driver
BAR-Honda   Anthony Davidson
Sauber-Petronas -
Jaguar-Cosworth   Björn Wirdheim
Toyota   Ricardo Zonta
Jordan-Ford   Timo Glock
Minardi-Cosworth   Bas Leinders

Qualifying

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Qualifying resulted in a Ferrari one-two, with Juan Pablo Montoya third on the grid for Williams. Gianmaria Bruni, Christian Klien and Olivier Panis all failed to set a qualifying time.[14]

Race

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At the start, Alonso was up and away and ahead of Button and looking for a way to deal with Montoya while Jarno Trulli went from ninth on the grid to be fifth out of the first corner. He was aided in his task by Montoya, who went howling down to Turn 1, braked just a hint too late and Montoya was jumped by the Renault of Fernando Alonso as he tried to stay ahead of the surging Alonso. He went off and Alonso had to put some wheels on the grass to avoid a disaster. Montoya went back to seventh. That condemned the Colombian to an afternoon stuck in traffic and put paid to any challenge there might have been for Alonso. Behind all this there were a few wheels off the grass as others sorted themselves out (notably both Saubers) while Takuma Sato bumped the rear end of Trulli's Renault, slightly (but significantly) damaging both cars.

The Ferraris were gone already and as the afternoon developed all that Fernando Alonso could do was to watch the rears of the two red cars as they disappeared from his view. It did not take long. By the fourth lap they were two seconds ahead. By the eighth lap they were five seconds clear and after that Alonso had nothing to do. No one else could keep up with him. Sauber's Giancarlo Fisichella had a long battle for position in the midfield with Jordan's Nick Heidfeld. Fisichella passed Heidfeld, who later dropped out of the race with a transmission failure. Heidfeld was involved in an incident in the pit lane where the mechanic Matt Deane and refueller Mick Gomme were hit by the car and suffered some bruising.[15] Montoya attempted to regain the place by going around the outside of the Spaniard into the first turn, but outbraked himself and ran wide. This dropped him behind his teammate Ralf Schumacher, who'd qualified 8th. Despite repassing Ralf Schumacher on-track, the Colombian ended up behind him again by the race's end in fifth place. The race proved that Ferrari once again had a dominant car, with Michael Schumacher winning from teammate Rubens Barrichello in Ferrari's first one-two since Japan 2002, while the rest of the field was over 20 seconds behind. Schumacher led every one of the 58 race laps.[16] At the start, Montoya was jumped by the Renault of Fernando Alonso.

Fernando Alonso gave Renault a podium with third place, while Jenson Button got BAR off the mark with sixth. Jarno Trulli finished 7th in the Renault and was the first lapped runner. McLaren seemed to be less competitive than in recent years, with Kimi Räikkönen becoming the first retirement of the year, dropping out with an engine problem, and with David Coulthard picking up just 1 point in eighth place.[5]

Classification

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Qualifying

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Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Time Q2 Time Q2 Gap
1 1   Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:25.301 1:24.408 —
2 2   Rubens Barrichello Ferrari 1:25.992 1:24.482 +0.074
3 3   Juan Pablo Montoya Williams-BMW 1:25.226 1:24.998 +0.590
4 9   Jenson Button BAR-Honda 1:25.898 1:24.998 +0.590
5 8   Fernando Alonso Renault 1:25.928 1:25.669 +1.261
6 14   Mark Webber Jaguar-Cosworth 1:26.232 1:25.805 +1.397
7 10   Takuma Sato BAR-Honda 1:26.737 1:25.851 +1.443
8 4   Ralf Schumacher Williams-BMW 1:25.445 1:25.925 +1.517
9 7   Jarno Trulli Renault 1:27.357 1:26.290 +1.882
10 6   Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes 1:25.592 1:26.297 +1.889
11 12   Felipe Massa Sauber-Petronas 1:26.833 1:27.065 +2.657
12 5   David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 1:25.652 1:27.294 +2.886
13 16   Cristiano da Matta Toyota 1:28.274 1:27.823 +3.415
14 11   Giancarlo Fisichella Sauber-Petronas 1:26.286 1:27.845 +3.437
15 18   Nick Heidfeld Jordan-Ford 1:27.469 1:28.178 +3.770
16 19   Giorgio Pantano Jordan-Ford 1:29.156 1:30.140 +5.732
17 21   Zsolt Baumgartner Minardi-Cosworth 1:32.606 1:30.681 +6.273
18 17   Olivier Panis Toyota 1:27.253 no time no time
19 15   Christian Klien Jaguar-Cosworth 1:27.258 no time no time
20 20   Gianmaria Bruni Minardi-Cosworth 1:30.912 no time no time
Sources:[17][18]

Race

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Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 1   Michael Schumacher Ferrari 58 1:24:15.757 1 10
2 2   Rubens Barrichello Ferrari 58 +13.605 2 8
3 8   Fernando Alonso Renault 58 +34.673 5 6
4 4   Ralf Schumacher Williams-BMW 58 +1:00.423 8 5
5 3   Juan Pablo Montoya Williams-BMW 58 +1:08.536 3 4
6 9   Jenson Button BAR-Honda 58 +1:10.598 4 3
7 7   Jarno Trulli Renault 57 +1 Lap 9 2
8 5   David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 57 +1 Lap 12 1
9 10   Takuma Sato BAR-Honda 57 +1 Lap 7
10 11   Giancarlo Fisichella Sauber-Petronas 57 +1 Lap 14
11 15   Christian Klien Jaguar-Cosworth 56 +2 Laps 19
12 16   Cristiano da Matta Toyota 56 +2 Laps 13
13 17   Olivier Panis Toyota 56 +2 Laps 18
14 19   Giorgio Pantano Jordan-Ford 55 +3 Laps 16
Ret 12   Felipe Massa Sauber-Petronas 44 Engine 11
Ret 18   Nick Heidfeld Jordan-Ford 43 Transmission 15
NC 20   Gianmaria Bruni Minardi-Cosworth 43 +15 Laps 20
Ret 14   Mark Webber Jaguar-Cosworth 29 Transmission 6
Ret 21   Zsolt Baumgartner Minardi-Cosworth 13 Electrical 17
Ret 6   Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes 9 Engine/Spin 10
Source:[19]

Championship standings after the race

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  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

Footnotes

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  1. ^ Michael Schumacher had his fourth career grand slam and his second for Ferrari,[3] having taken pole position, the fastest lap, and won the race by leading every lap.[4]

References

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  1. ^ "Motorsport Results". Austadiums. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
  2. ^ "2004 Foster's Australian Grand Prix - Race". Retrieved 2 January 2021.
  3. ^ "Michael Schumacher – Grand slam". StatsF1. 15 August 2004. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  4. ^ Wood, Will (11 April 2022). "Leclerc emulates Schumacher with Melbourne grand slam as Verstappen lucks out again". RaceFans. Collantine Media. Retrieved 28 April 2022.
  5. ^ a b "McLaren knows its weaknesses". Motorsport.com. 9 March 2004. Archived from the original on 6 June 2011. Retrieved 28 April 2022.
  6. ^ "Ferrari-one-two-STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Stats F1. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
  7. ^ "Traction Control to Stay in F1 in 2004 - F1 - Autosport". autosport.com. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  8. ^ "FIA makes massive changes to F1; several technological enhancements banned". Autoweek. 14 January 2003. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  9. ^ "Knutson: F1 shifting gears, literally". ESPN.com. 22 February 2004. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  10. ^ "Less electronics will make life interesting". au.motorsport.com. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  11. ^ "F1 2004 - Australian GP Highlights (Greek Subs)". YouTube. Archived from the original on 5 December 2021.
  12. ^ "YouTube, a Google company". YouTube. Archived from the original on 21 November 2020.
  13. ^ "Traction control banned in F1 beginning in 2008". Autoblog. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  14. ^ "2004 Australian Grand Prix starting grid" Archived 6 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine Motorsport.com Retrieved 28 December 2007
  15. ^ "Jordan Mechanics Uninjured after Pitstop Incident". Autosport.com. Retrieved 20 October 2021.
  16. ^ "Dominant Australian GP win for Schumacher" Archived 6 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine Motorsport.com Retrieved 28 December 2007
  17. ^ The Official Formula One Season Review 2004
  18. ^ "2004 Australian Grand Prix - Saturday Qualifying Results". Formula1.com. Formula1.com Limited. Archived from the original on 23 January 2015. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  19. ^ "2004 Australian Grand Prix - Race Results". Formula1.com. Formula1.com Limited. Archived from the original on 16 November 2014. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  20. ^ a b "Australia 2004 - Championship • STATS F1". statsf1.com. Retrieved 7 March 2019.


Previous race:
2003 Japanese Grand Prix 		FIA Formula One World Championship
2004 season 		Next race:
2004 Malaysian Grand Prix
Previous race:
2003 Australian Grand Prix 		Australian Grand Prix Next race:
2005 Australian Grand Prix

37°50′59″S 144°58′06″E / 37.84972°S 144.96833°E / -37.84972; 144.96833

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