You are here: Home / @The Apex / Racing / FIA Formula One World Championship / 2006 Season / Fisico’s Win Gets Season Underway in Australia

Fisico’s Win Gets Season Underway in Australia

Giancarlo Fisichella won only his second ever race this afternoon in Melbourne, Australia. His maiden victory was in Brazil two years ago in a Jordan when the race was stopped before full distance following an accident. As the Renault driver said, this was 'his first proper win'. Having secured pole with one of the only dry laps of Saturday's first qualifying session, the Italian lead from lights to flag to take a popular victory.

'What a drive from Rubens!' said Mike Copson of Shell Global Solutions. 'The revised car, the Bridgestone tyres, the flexibility of Shell's V-Power Formula One fuel coupled with a fantastic strategy showed that we were really on the pace today. The weekend has been a real challenge with new regulations and tricky conditions - the good news is that we still have the 2005 car to come!'

Qualifying yesterday was very nearly a washout - literally. Both Shell-powered Ferrari cars suffered terrible luck as they were caught in torrential rain storms for their flying laps. For Ferrari a top-end grid spot was therefore out of the question. Barrichello, although 14 seconds off yesterday's pole time, did well, putting his F2004M in 11th spot but having been caught in the worst of yesterday's rain and finding himself 25 seconds behind the leader, Schumacher pitted without setting a time. The team opted instead to change to a fresh engine and start from near the back.

Come the start and the expectant crowd rose to its feet to greet the start of the new season only to see Raikkonen's stalled McLaren prompt another formation lap, postponing their excitement. The marshals retrieved the stricken car and the McLaren engineers started him again, ready for his re-start at the end of the pit lane.

When the start came again, the front half of the grid more or less slotted into line and promptly charged down to the first corner. Barrichello made three places to sit eighth whilst Schumacher was also on his way to 15th position within a few laps, accompanied by Sato and Raikkonen.

Fisichella led Trulli, Coulthard, Webber, Heidfeld, Klien, Montoya and Barrichello into the first few laps and the order would remain almost static until the first round of pit stops.

Having watched Fisichella post a string of fastest laps, the leaders began to pit around lap 20. The main surprise to that point had been the speed of the two Red Bull Racing cars. Coulthard and Klien were racing with the leaders and keeping pace.

By mid distance, Fisichella still led, but this time ahead of Coulthard, Webber, Barrichello, Montoya and Alonso. Meanwhile, Schumacher was up to 11th.

With 14 laps to go and the final stops were being made. Fisichella still led, but slick pit work and quick in-laps saw Barrichello move up to second ahead of Alonso and Coulthard. Notably, Barrichello was one of the last men to finish, continuing the tradition of using the efficiency of the Shell fuel to the max to get more laps than anyone else on a similar fuel load. Schumacher meanwhile was fighting hard with compatriot Nick Heidfeld, but a coming together at Turn Three saw the cars beached on the gravel. Although Schumacher was pushed back onto the track, his F2004M was too damaged to continue and the German parked in the Ferrari garage.

Fisichella converted the pole into a win and was not really troubled after the fist corner. Barrichello drove a near perfect race to bring the F2004M from 11th to second and Alonso was a happy third. Coulthard's fourth and Klien's seventh gave Red Bull Racing an excellent point-scoring debut. Local-boy Webber finished his first race in a Williams in fifth and the McLaren pair of Montoya and Raikkonen finished sixth and eighth.

Renault will celebrate, but a night of packing awaits the teams now as Formula One racing heads to the heat of Malaysia this week, ready to do it all again.

Â