MELBOURNE, 7 March 2005 — Giancarlo Fisichella in a Renault won yesterday’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix, beating Ferrari’s Rubens Barrichello into second place.

The Italian led from start to finish and never looked in danger of taking the second Grand Prix victory of his career.

Barrichello, who started the race in 11th place, consistently moved forward throughout the race to finish second.

Third place went to Fernando Alonso in the second Renault, who moved up from 13th at the start.

The first attempt at a start had to be broken off when the McLaren of Kimi Raikkonen failed to get out of the starting block. The race was then re-started, with the Finn having to start from the back of the pack.

Fisichella managed to hold onto his lead and immediately started putting some distance between himself and his challengers - being over two seconds ahead of compatriot Jarno Trulli after only eight laps. Former McLaren driver David Coulthard, who is now racing for Red Bull, did particularly well at the start, moving past Jacques Villeneuve in a Sauber and local favorite Mark Webber in a Williams into third place, where he stayed until some ten laps from the end, when Barrichello and Alonso overtook him.

Coulthard finished fourth, while Webber equaled his best-ever Grand Prix finish with a fifth place in a Williams-BMW. Juan Pablo Montoya in a McLaren-Mercedes placed sixth.

The last two points positions went to Austrian Christian Klien in the second Red Bull and Raikkonen.

Fisichella’s only other Grand Prix victory came in 2003, when he was declared the winner of the accident-marred shortened Brazilian Grand Prix - several days after the race had ended.

Seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, who started the race in second-last position after being severely hampered by a downpour in the first qualifying session and then opting not to post a time in the second session, was caught behind several of the slower cars at the start and lost valuable time.

He only really managed to make up places once most of the drivers had started coming in to the pits for their first fuel stop, but ended the race prematurely after his mistake forced compatriot Nick Heidfeld in the second Williams to crash into him.

Heidfeld also had to retire as a result.