By Phil Huff
March 7 2003

The opening round of the 2003 FIA Formula One World Championship got underway in Melbourne, Australia, today where Lucky Strike BAR Honda's Jacques Villeneuve and Jenson Button secured fantastic 3rd and 5th places in the inaugural session of the thrilling new qualifying format. Jacques had been forced to switch to the T-car after damaging his chassis and both drivers suffered engine failures in this morning’s practice session. With just 5 laps acclimatisation in practice, Jacques threw everything he had into a single lap to qualify four tenths off Barrichello's lead time. Jenson managed only 5 laps more than Jacques in practice but by that time he had demonstrated the pace which went on to secure him an impressive 5th place in first qualifying.

Jacques Villeneuve commented "I'm really surprised with 3rd because we did hardly any running or set-up work this morning. I only completed two laps so I didn't know where to be on the race track, where to brake. I had to switch to the T-car and I thought that was it for the day; I thought we'd be qualifying 15th or something. Obviously I know the track but when you haven't done any set-up work there are no reference points. At the beginning of the first two corners I wasn't as quick as I could have been. I guess it all depends on how you warm your tyres up and the tyres held up quite well so the last sector was good. It's been a long time since I was this far up the grid and although today wasn't final qualifying, it was easy to see who was quick and who wasn't. It won't be as easy to see that tomorrow with people running different fuel levels. The guys did a fantastic job and it’s a good result for the team."

Jenson Button, 5th, said "After this morning's practice I'm delighted with 5th and it's a great team result. The guys did a fantastic job. Today was the first running I've done in this car on low fuel so it's great to see that we're running up there with the quicker guys. I had a slow middle sector and then suffered with understeer in the final corner but generally the car felt great. I just wish these were our final qualifying positions! That would be nice."

David Richards, Team Principal, said of today's session "This was just the start to the season that the team needed. After a difficult morning, everyone rallied round to get the cars ready for qualifying and both Jacques and Jenson did a superb job considering how little track time they had in which to set the cars up. We've proved how quick the car is now we have to translate this into a race performance."

Geoffrey Willis, Technical Director, added "It was a fantastic qualifying session for both drivers. A very impressive performance from Jenson first of all, who was running a slightly lesser specification engine than Jacques, and obviously a fantastic lap from Jacques who had virtually no running at all this morning. We had a very difficult start to the day's running and 90 minutes before qualifying we had all three cars' engines and gearboxes apart! Jacques damaged his race chassis and we suffered two engine failures, so we had to switch to the T-car and change the engine on Jenson's car. The team did a great job to get both cars out on time and there were no hiccups at all in the qualifying session. We have a lot of work to do tomorrow morning to work out a race set-up but today is a great start."

Shuhei Nakamoto, Engineering Director of Honda Racing Development, also commented, saying "All in all we've had a hell of a day! I am delighted that we've managed to get both cars into the top five. Both drivers did a great job with the pressure of the new single lap regulations on them, particularly as they hadn't had much time in the car this morning. The first session was massively disappointing but the team rallied round to change the engine on Jenson's car and prepare the spare car for Jacques. We've obviously had a look at the engines from the first session and it looks like the same problem occurred on both engines. We seem to have a bad batch of parts in the camshaft area so we will analyse further tonight to solve the problem."

P	Driver	Team	Engine	Car	Tyre	Best Lap	Gap
1	Barrichello	Ferrari	Ferrari	F2002	B	1:26.372	-.---
2	Raikkonen	McLaren	Mercedes	MP4-17D	M	1:26.551	0.179
3	Villeneuve	BAR	Honda	BAR005	B	1:26.832	0.460
4	M Schumacher	Ferrari	Ferrari	F2002	B	1:27.103	0.731
5	Button	BAR	Honda	BAR005	B	1:27.159	0.787
6	Coulthard	McLaren	Mercedes	MP4-17D	M	1:27.242	0.870
7	Alonso	Renault	Renault	R23	M	1:27.255	0.883
8	Panis	Toyota	Toyota	TF103	M	1:27.352	0.980
9	Trulli	Renault	Renault	R23	M	1:27.411	1.039
10	Montoya	Williams	BMW	FW24	M	1:27.450	1.078
11	da Matta	Toyota	Toyota	T103	M	1:27.450	1.106
12	Heidfeld	Sauber	Petronas	C22	B	1:27.510	1.138
13	Frentzen	Sauber	Petronas	C22	B	1:27.563	1.191
14	Fisichella	Jordan	Ford	EJ13	B	1:27.633	1.261
15	Webber	Jaguar	Jaguar	R4	M	1:27.675	1.303
16	R Schumacher	Williams	BMW	FW24	M	1:28.266	1.894
17	Firman	Jordan	Ford	EJ13	B	1:29.977	3.605
18	Verstappen	Minardi	Cosworth	PS03	B	1:30.053	3.681
19	Pizzonia	Jaguar	Jaguar	R4	M	1:30.092	3.720
20	Wilson	Minardi	Cosworth	PS03	B	1:30.479	4.107