Length: 5.303 km
Number of Laps: 58 (307.574 Km)
Best Lap: M. Schumacher - 1'28''214 (2001, Ferrari)
Record Pole: R. Barrichello - 1'25''843 (2002, Ferrari)
2002 Pole: R. Barrichello - 1'25''843 (Ferrari)
2002 Podium: M. Schumacher - J. Montoya - K. Raikkonen

The new season kicked off with the much-hyped new format in Melbourne earlier today.

Michael was the first on the track and put in a lap time 1.5 seconds slower than his earlier practice session, it was still enough to give him the fourth fastest time of the afternoon though.

It was Rubens who really seemed to shine under the pressure of the new qualifying procedure. A pretty seamless lap gained him the honour of being last on track tomorrow and marked him out as the man to beat.

BAR had a difficult day with both their engines blowing in earlier practice leaving Villeneuve with the spare and Button with a whole new engine fitted in his car. However, it didn't seem to affect either driver.

Button will be out on the track immediately before Schumacher senior in qualifying and Villeneuve was the third fastest after a tip off from Button about understeer in the final sector.

Raikkonen out-qualified his older and more experienced team-mate, Coulthard, emphatically. The young Finn flew around the track in the McLaren to clinch the second fastest lap time while DC could only manage to post the sixth fastest behind Button.

The real shock was the pace of the Williams' boys. Montoya managed to qualify midfield and will be eleventh on the track in qualifying, thereby managing to benefit from some rubber being laid down and better grip. Ralf, however, got badly out of shape early in the first sector and was almost 2 seconds off the pace of Barrichello, leaving him well down the field with only the new boys behind him.

Da Matta had a tremendous start to the lap and looked set to be in the top three or four at the end of the second sector but a dismal final sector saw him just slower than Montoya. His ambitious claims of being World Champion in just a couple of seasons may not be so laughable after all. He also underlined the rumours about Toyota being, possibly, the most improved team - although BAR may challenge for that provided the Honda engine has some reliability.

Newcomers Firman, Pizzonia and Wilson suffered the most with their inexperience and only having one lap to register a time. All finished in the last four along with Verstappen in the Minardi.

So the new season has begun and the first qualifying session leaves us much to chew over. Ferrari is obviously up there and being first out didn't appear to help Michael but hinder him. Raikkonen picked up where he left off last season as the best McLaren driver of the moment. Toyota and BAR showed potential and Williams may no longer be among the top three teams.

What will be most interesting is when the rain will fall tomorrow... It's forecast but when and if it falls during qualifying will be absolutely critical and could make for a very interesting session.

Fastest 6: Barrichello, Raikkonen, Villeneuve, Schumacher, Button, Coulthard

Article by: Dawn Barnes