DC wins Australian GP; Jos finishes 11th

Published on 09 March 2003 by Huub Rothengatter

David Coulthard has won the Foster´s Australian Grand Prix. The McLaren driver kept his head cool during this exciting Grand Prix and together with Kimi Raikkonen made this race an almost prefect start for their team. Juan Pablo Montoya managed to squeeze himself between them on 2nd place. This meant the podium for once did not have a Ferrari driver on it.
Jos Verstappen finished on 11th in his debut race for Minardi and assured that this was the first time a PS03 completed a race distance.

Just before the start the was some confusion concerning choice of tyers. Albert Park was mainly dry, but the presence of some dark clouds made everyone doubt it would stay that way. Jos Verstappen started from the pitlane, so did Kimi Raikkonen. Just when Jos was planning to drive out of the pitbox they discovered that the car was leaking oil. This meant that Jos had no choice than to enter the race with the hastily prepared T-car. Not the best start for Jos, but this also applied to some other drivers who chose to start on rain tyres. Due to the differences in speed between cars with dry and wet tyres and also the weight differences causes by the fuel load the spectators had a very exciting first phase of the race. One overtaking manouvre after another, pitstops, driver errors; Max Mosley must have enjoyed this.
Rubens Barrichello crashed in lap 5 and collected the first DNF of the season, soon after Cristiano Da Matta and Ralf Firman followed suit. The safety car was deployed after the crash of the Jordan. Justin Wilson had done a good job, he was driving his laps on 11th place; Jos was 14th at that time.

The race stays interesting due to the number of overtaking manouvres. After Mark Webber is forced to park his car on the side of the track the safety car is deployed a second time. Jos is 9th and does not need to make a pitstop as all the other have to. Due to a 'drive through penalty' for Olivier Panis who broke the speedlimit in the pitlane Jos manages to get to 8th position which would have meant if the race had finished at that point that he would have gathered one World Championship point, but we are only half way the race.

At the front good fights for position take place. Especially the one between Kimi Raikkonen and Michael Schumacher is magnificent. The Fin seems to deliver a message to Michael that he won't give up easy.

Jos's pitstop does not go a planned, he returns to the track in 13th position. At the front it is still the same. In lap 47 it seems Juan Pablo Montoya has a comfortable lead to make it till the finish. Unfortunately he spins in turn 2 due to loss of contentration, David Coulthard takes over the lead. The Scot keeps his cool and manages to create a gap of 14 seconds. The other 2 podium places are still up for grabs, Montoya and Raikkonen are fighting for second position. Michael Schumacher was taking part in this fight but has to give up when both his barge boards come off the car.

Jos Verstappen finished in 11th and brings the car home with a whole load of valuable data. We hope to speak to Jos later today and post his findings.