Australian Grand Prix
In qualifying I had soft boots on, so I wasn’t sure whether to go with a 2, or 3 stop strategy. In the end I chose a 3 stop strategy, hoping that I could squeeze every second out of my tyres for the entire stint, and have short stops.
The Race
After an agonisingly long wait on the grid, the red lights went out and we were
go for the 2001 season. With my light car, I was a bullet off the line, and made an aggressive move under braking, between David Coulthard and Rubens Barrichello, to leap to 2nd place by the end of the first corner.
For the next 3 laps I held a steady gap of 0.5 to 1.5 seconds to Michael Schumacher, before I got a good run on Michael down the back straight, and moved into first position.
Jean Alesi had a problem on lap 7, and his Jordan was not to see the checkered flag.
By lap 15, the gap was 5 seconds, as I came in for my first pit-stop. I fell back to tenth.
A suspension failure caused Jarno Trulli to retire from P7 – the second Jordan retirement today. An unlucky day for EJ and his boys.
By lap 24, I had managed to make my was up to 5th position, aided by the stops of Ralf Schumacher, and Mika Häkkinen, who were on two-stop strategies.
On lap 30, still in 5th, I made my second pit-stop—which, again, caused me to fall back to 10th.
The next couple of laps were frantic, as I pushed like hell to take advantage while the majority of the field were in pit-lane.
As the field settled back into order, I ended up in 4th position – about 10 seconds behind Ralf Schumacher. I was faster, but I pushed a little too hard, and ended up going wide a few times, losing precious tenths. Thus, the gap stayed steady at 10 seconds.
On lap 39, Jenson Button ended his dismal start to the season, retiring from 16th position with an engine failure.
I made my final stop on lap 45, and came out 10 seconds behind my team-mate, Nick Heidfeld. I was dissapointed to see P7 on my steering wheel, but I thought I was in with a chance of catching Nick, who was suprisingly lapping quite quickly.
Unfortunatly, a few small errors stopped me from getting the advantage I needed, and as the final lap started I was still 4 seconds behind.
Ralf Schumacher retired on the final lap, a huge dissapontment for the German, as he was on for a 3rd place finish. Luckily for me, it promoted me to 6th place, allowing me to get points on my Formula One debut.
Michael Schumacher crossed the line in first position, after a dominant performance—leading almost every lap. Coulthard came in a close second, with Juan Pablo Montoya rounding out the podium, but a further 40 seconds behind.
Code:
Race Results
Australia - Albert Park
(58 Laps)
Pos Driver Time/Speed
1st michael schumacher 1h 25m 29.086s
ferrari-ferrari
2nd david coulthard +6.179s
mclaren-mercedes
3rd juan pablo montoya +44.838s
williams-bmw
4th rubens barrichello +49.158s
ferrari-ferrari
5th nick heidfeld +1m 07.204s
sauber-petronas
6th blake haswell +1m 10.200s
sauber-petronas
7th olivier panis +1m 26.829s
bar-honda
8th mika häkkinen +1m 27.619s
mclaren-mercedes
9th ralf schumacher -1 Lap
williams-bmw
10th jacques villeneuve -1 Lap
bar-honda
11th pedro de la rosa -1 Lap
jaguar-cosworth
12th eddie irvine -1 Lap
jaguar-cosworth
13th heinz-harald frentzen -1 Lap
prost-acer
14th jos verstappen -1 Lap
arrows-asiatech
15th enrique bernoldi -2 Laps
arrows-asiatech
16th giancarlo fisichella -2 Laps
benetton-renault
17th alex yoong -2 Laps
minardi-european
18th tomas enge -2 Laps
prost-acer
19th fernando alonso -3 Laps
minardi-european
20th jenson button Engine
benetton-renault
21st jarno trulli Suspension
jordan-honda
22nd jean alesi Didn't Finish
jordan-honda
It felt good to score in my debut race, and my pace was very good, as I secured the fastest lap of the race – by a tenth of a second.
But, in the end, a few little mistakes cost me the precious 2.4 seconds that I needed to beat my team-mate. Alas, it was a good day for Peter, as two of his cars finished in the points, and getting a good start to the 2001 season.
Code:
Drivers Championship
Pos Driver Points
1st michael schumacher 10
ferrari-ferrari
2nd david coulthard 6
mclaren-mercedes
3rd juan pablo montoya 4
williams-bmw
4th rubens barrichello 3
ferrari-ferrari
5th nick heidfeld 2
sauber-petronas
6th blake haswell 1
sauber-petronas
Code:
Constructors Championship
Pos Team Points
1st ferrari 13
ferrari
2nd mclaren 6
mercedes
3rd williams 4
bmw
4th sauber 3
petronas
Look forward to Sepang.
