Schumacher had looked in typically imperious form, taking two-tenths out of Barrichello's time by the second sector on his all-important second qualifying lap, but he almost threw that away in the final few hundred yards. He was overjoyed, however, that the new Ferrari had locked out the front row.

"We have a very good feeling with this car," said Schumacher. "The tough times will come, I'm sure. If you look statistically, we have always been strong here in Australia. The car felt good for this first race."

Thanks to his Japanese Grand Prix win, Barrichello was first on track in the first qualifying session, and was only eighth fastest as a result. He was far happier with his second run, the one which really mattered, but admitted he was a bit miffed that Michael had beaten him once again.

"It was very dusty in the first session when I was first out," said Barrichello. "I knew the potential was there, and I thought my second session was a great lap. Unfortunately, Michael had that little bit more, which was disappointing. But I'm a happy guy, I pushed as hard as I could."

Juan Pablo Montoya will start third in his Williams, and caused a few flutters at Ferrari when he outpaced everyone in the opening qualifying session. In the end, a mistake on his second run meant he could only match Jenson Button's time of 1m24.998s, which pushed the BAR man back to fourth.

"The car was a lot better today," said Montoya. "It's become a tradition that Williams comes to a circuit and takes a bit of time to get everything working. It got better and better and better. I was a bit surprised at the first qualifying, I was amazed at the lap time. But I tried a bit too hard through the fast chicane in the second session, I went in too fast and it understeered in the right-hander. It was a bit of a shame, but I was just trying."

Button, whose position was all the more remarkable as he was forced to switch to the spare car after damaging his race car's tub in practice, said: "I enjoyed it. It's a great car. You can never have a perfect lap, but that one was pretty good. I think we are pretty happy."

Fernando Alonso (Renault) and local hero Mark Webber (Jaguar) will fill the third row. The Spanish ace lost a lot of time in the closing sector of the lap, but was some seven-tenths away from the joint Montoya/Button time. Takuma Sato made it a doubly good day for BAR with the seventh fastest time, but Ralf Schumacher was far from happy with his eighth quickest lap for Williams.

The McLarens were also disappointing. David Coulthard ran wide at the final turn and nearly hit the wall, ending up 12th, and Kimi Raikkonen gave away a lot of time to set only the 10th best tour.

Jarno Trulli was a lacklustre ninth in the second Renault, while Felipe Massa's Sauber splits the two McLarens in 11th. Cristiano da Matta was 13th after a poor day for Toyota (more of which later), while Giancarlo Fisichella made a right porridge of his lap, running wide at Turn 1 and the penultimate corner, and will start 14th for Sauber.

Nick Heidfeld easily outpaced Jordan team-mate Giorgio Pantano in the battle of the Jordans (15th and 16th). Back in Minardi land, Gianmaria Bruni will start his maiden grand prix from the back of the grid as he was unable to select first gear, due to a hydraulic failure, for his qualifying run and was stranded in the pits. That promoted team-mate Zsolt Baumgartner, who made up for an incredibly ragged first run with a more sensible second outing which just shaded Bruni's earlier time anyway.

Bruni will be joined at the rear of the grid by Jaguar's Christian Klien, who went off through the gravel trap at the tricky Waite bend on his out lap, although the team suggested a steering problem was to blame. More woe afflicted Toyota's Olivier Panis, whose TF104 stuttered to a halt in the pit lane after his throttle's electronics failed.

All in all, qualifying for the season-opener proved that F1 can still be a difficult beast to predict, even if its master craftsman continues to lead the way.