1998 Australian Grand Prix
Albert Park Melbourne 3.27 miles March 8th 1998

Qualifying - Race - Analysis

Qualifying : Sunny and warm

1997 Pole: Jacques Villeneuve (Williams) 1m 29.369s

The Starting Grid

107 % rule time: 1m 36.310s

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Race : 58 laps, sunny & warm

1997 Winner: David Coulthard (McLaren) 1h 30m 28.718s

The Result

Fastest Lap :
Mika Hakkinen (McLaren) 1m 31.649s
1997: Heinz-Harald Frentzen (Williams) 1m 30.585s

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Analysis :
If there were any doubts about the preseason form of McLaren-Merecedes, they were quickly put to rest in Melbourne. The cars were totally dominant in qualifying and when the lights went out, they left the rest of the field in the dust.
Two-thirds into the race and Mika Hakinnen and David Coulthard had lapped the entire field. After an aborted pitstop dropped the Finn to second, Coulthard kept to a prerace agreement and let Hakkinen past with two laps remaining. Running strongly behind was Giancarlo Fisichella in the Benetton, though his day was to end sadly when the heat of the exhaust melted the support for the rear wing. Teammate Alexander Wurz was never in contention, while Johnny Herbert in the lead Sauber followed a great qualifying effort with a solid race performance.
The Williams' held on grimly but were never a threat to the McLarens, with Heinz-Harald Frentzen only making the podium because of Fisichella's retirement. Jacques Villeneuve had an exceedingly quiet race and will need muchmore from his car if he is to challenge for the championship.
As for Michael Schumacher, the laps he ran were fast - there just wasn't many of them. On the plus side for the Scuderia, Eddie Irvine showed that the car was at least equal to the Williams and Benetton.

In the end, the margin of victory was stunning and left the rest of the field with three weeks to regroup before Brazil. The bar has been raised.

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Photo credits : AP/McLaren Intl