Top 5 Australian Grand Prix moments in Melbourne
The Australian GP in Albert Park is back in its rightful place as the F1 season opener. Let’s recall the venue’s best bits
A fifth at the 2002 Australian GP was a dream start for Mark Webber in F1 – in a Minardi
Webber’s ‘podium’ (2002)
A Minardi on the podium? Well, not exactly. But fifth place was a near-miracle for home hero Mark Webber on his Formula 1 debut. Protocol be damned: with the Italian team now under the control of salty Aussie Paul Stoddart, an impromptu and crowd-pleasing extra podium was allowed, just this once. Quite right too. “When we got to Melbourne we’d done precisely 17 laps of testing, because the thing was so unreliable,” Webber recalled. The performance did Webber wonders. He’d land a Jaguar drive for 2003.
Villeneuve’s amazing debut (1996)
New race, new F1 hero. At the first Albert Park GP, Williams debutant Jacques Villeneuve proved a chip off the old block and nearly embarrassed Damon Hill. From a sensational pole, Gilles’s boy led, lost the lead in the stops, only to pull an audacious pass to gain it back. Hill’s blushes were spared by the rookie damaging an oil line on a kerb, forcing him to back off. And thank goodness that Martin Brundle walked away from that Jordan barrel-roll. What a day at F1’s new favourite race.
Schumacher takes flight (2002)
The flying Williams? It’s a key Albert Park image. At the other end of the race from Webber’s podium, Ralf Schumacher was launched after tracking Rubens Barrichello’s pole-winning Ferrari off the line. Cue carnage. As Schumacher skated into a thankfully harmless impact (for him, not his car), a pile-up wiped out eight others. Albert Park crashes tend to be big. Along with Brundle’s flying Jordan, Fernando Alonso’s McLaren tub-thumper in 2016 deserves a nod too.
Montoya’s gift to DC (2003)
One of the best Albert Park GPs had a sting in its tail for Juan Pablo Montoya. The leader dropped his Williams on worn tyres in the closing stages, gifting David Coulthard – up from 11th on the grid in his McLaren – a 13th and as it turned out last F1 win. Montoya, as was his way, shrugged it off. “I don’t blame anyone but myself. Patrick [Head] said put on some really hard shoes, put a pillow against the wall and kick it as hard as you can, then move on.”
Brawn’s Double (diffuser) shocker (2009)
Here’s another debut we’ll never forget. Jenson Button, like everyone who worked at the Honda F1 team, had been staring at unemployment until Ross Brawn and Nick Fry stepped up with significant help from Mercedes. Now a matter of weeks later, here was Jenson winning convincingly to lead team-mate Barrichello to a hard-to-believe 1-2. Pulling a fast one with the infamous double diffuser helped – but what a story.