Good start to 2005 season opener Australian Grand Prix yields surprisingly more competitive field and entertaining race.
Italian Giancarlo Fischichella sweeps Australian GP weekend, winning from pole and leading 50 of 57 laps.
With new rules both in the chassis, motor, suspension, aerodynamic, and finally qualifying format allows the weather to play havoc in qualifying, yielding a fresh new face to win the Australian GP.
Giancarlo had an unbelievable run of brief (but all important) good luck, taking advantage of a brief break in the clouds allowing for a fast drying track precisely at the time of his first qualifying run on Saturday. This allowed Giancarlo to put a significant gap in qualifying that no one was able to close neither on the Sunday qualifying session, nor in the race.
Fisichella drove a perfect race, with the Renault finally showing speed, balance, and reliability...
Alonso not sharing in the luck of the Italian, qualified 13th, nevertheless, he charged like a man on fire, coming through the field starting on 13th spot, and just missed in the last re-fuel stop, to capture second place from Brazilian (and Ferrari) driver, as he came out of the pits, just behind the Brazilian.
The surprise of the race was the Red Bull team, [formerly Jaguar] with drivers David Coulthard and Christian Klien scoring points, finishing 4th and 7th....
Disappointing was Michel Schumacher who did not qualify well due to weather.... then getting stuck with the backmarkers... and finally, making a mistake on fellow German and Williams driver Nick Heidfield closing the door on Nick (senselessly], but leaving Nick no place to go but on the side of the Ferrari....
Engine/car reliability was superb with only ONE mechanical failure (Albers) and two others (Heifeld) and Schumacher colliding and taking themselves out of the race.... |
