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Schumacher wins tragic Australian GP

World Champion Michael Schumacher began the defence of his title with a maximum points haul in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. But the victory was completely over-shadowed by the death of a marshal, hit by a wheel from an accident involving Jacques Villeneuve and Ralf Schumacher.

The fatality comes just six months after a marshal was killed by a flying wheel in last year's Italian Grand Prix at Monza. The wheel came from Villeneuve's car, which lost all four wheels when it was launched off the back of Schumacher's Williams on the run to Turn Three on lap five.

McLaren's David Coulthard finished second after his team mate Mika Hakkinen had crashed out of the spot, with Rubens Barrichello completing the podium finishers with a Ferrari one-three.

Schumacher led from the start, ahead of Hakkinen and the Jordan-Honda of Heinz-Harald Frentzen. But on the third lap, a 'robust' move by Rubens Barrichello, pushing Frentzen off the circuit and down to 16th, soon made it a Ferrari one-three.

On lap five, on the 180mph run down to Turn Three, Villeneuve appeared to miss his braking point and was launched over the back of Schumacher's Williams. The Canadian's car was reduced to just a monocoque in the ensuing near barrel-roll and heavy impact with the outer wall, with one of its wheels striking a marshal.

The Safety Car was deployed for 10 laps to clear up the debris and transport the marshal to a local hospital, but after the race it was announced he had died from his injuries.

At the restart, Schumacher immediately re-established his lead. Then on lap 27, the second-placed Hakkinen crashed out at Turn 13 with a suspected front right suspension failure, causing the McLaren team to monitor the situation with its remaining car and the Finn to visit the circuit medical centre with a slight concussion.

"At the moment, we don't know the cause for sure," said McLaren technical director Adrian Newey. "It's a concern and we're reviewing it at the moment."

But after aggressively passing Barrichello for second, Coulthard stayed out and briefly took the lead when Schumacher made his single stop on lap 37.

DC pitted three laps later and chased down the leading Ferrari hard. At the chequered flag, the German had eased off a little for his fifth consecutive GP win and the gap was a rather unrepresentative 1.7s.

Barrichello came in third, ahead of BAR's Olivier Panis, the Sauber of Nick Heidfeld and a recovering Frentzen, who took home the final point.

"We haven't done as much running as we'd have liked," said Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn. "We were anxious to get through to the end, so this is a good result for us."

Impressive rookie Kimi Raikkonen finished seventh for Sauber, with Jaguar's Luciano Burti eighth.

STOP PRESS: Olivier Panis and Jos Verstappen have been given time penalties following overtaking moves while under yellow flags. Panis now drops out of the points to seventh. For more details, click here.

For full race report, click here

Drivers express shock at death of marshal, click here

For full results, click here.


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