QUALIFYING AND RACE REPORT

Qualifying suprised almost everyone in the paddock, except perhaps McLaren. Michael Shumacher had been quoted as saying that the Ferrari was about 0.5 seconds slower than the McLaren before coming to Australia. However when the dust had settled after qualifying hour was up the third placed car found itself 1.3seconds down on the McLaren boys. Deja vu for many who witnessed the McLaren domination of Melbourne in 1998.

Other suprises were the Stewarts. Barrichello qualified in an excellent fourth 0.13secs behind Shumacher M, and both had gone exceptionally well in the practice sessions. Frentzen also made a great show for the new Jordan.

The race proved McLarens dominance. After a faulty start that saw both Stewarts catch fire (which left Herbert out and Barrichello starting from the pit lane), and Takagi and Shumacher M having to start from the back of the grid the McLarens pulled away by 2 seconds per lap, until Jacque Villeneuve lost his rear wing at high speed and the pace car was called out. By this time Coulthard had already limped out of the race, and as the pace car pulled off it was clear that Hakkinen had a problem too. It was only Irvines quick thinking that avoided him getting a 10 second stop/go penalty by passing Hakkinen before the start/finish line.

The rest of the race saw Irvine apparently controlling things well, with Frentzen running a strong second. It later transpired that Frentzen had an elctrical problem which was losing him a lot of top speed. Other than a few runninf battles down the order it was rather uneventful race from there on. Only 8 cars finished the distance.

BRIT BOYS ROUND UP

David Couthard:
Strong qualifying session. Looked to have secured pole position before Hakkinen pipped him in the closing moments. In the race he looked able to keep up with Hakkinen but went out due to technical problems early on.

Eddie Irvine
Shaky qualifying session (6th) looked like Irvine was once again playing second fiddle to team mate Shumacher M. After the Mclarens fell by the wayside, and as Shumacher M was never really in the running Irvine picked up a deserved first win.

Damon Hill:
Suffered a poor qualifying (9th) after hitting traffic on his fast run. Bumped out by Jarno Trulli's Prost on the first corner.

Johnny Herbert:
After being the highest placed Brit behind Coulthard (3rd in one of the practice sessions) a left front shocker problem which couldn't be dealt with during qualifying left Herbert languishing in 13th. A start line fire meant that he had to miss the race, as the T-car was set up for Barrichello.