F1: Coulthard wins Australian GP

McLaren's David Coulthard took advantage of a spinout by leader Juan Pablo Montoya and an earlier black flag to Michael Schumacher to win Formula One's season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne today.

Coulthard, trailing Montoya by nearly 3 seconds with 11 laps to go, watched as Montoya's Williams spun out on turn 2 of the Albert Park circuit, allowing Coulthard to take the lead for good.

Montoya had taken the lead only two laps earlier when leader Schumacher, trying for his fourth consecutive win in Australia, was black-flagged by race officials when the barge board from the side of his cockpit was dragged under his Ferrari.

Coulthard finished the 58-lap race around the 3.295-mile Albert Park circuit in 1 hour, 34 minutes, 42.144 seconds - 8.6 seconds ahead of Montoya. Kimi Raikkonen's McLaren was third, and Schumacher fourth.

"It's a great result," Coulthard said. "From a team point of view, we should just enjoy the first and third place. We can be satisfied, but there is still work to be done to be competitive against Ferrari."

It was McLaren's first win since Coulthard took the Monaco Grand Prix last year.

Coulthard, a 31-year Scotsman, has won at least one Formula One race in every season since 1997, when he won in Melbourne. Coulthard was second at the Australian GP in 2001 but hadn't finished in three of the last four years.

On lap 38, Schumacher ran into trouble when he tried to pass Raikkonen, who was running second at the time. Raikkonen held his ground and forced Schumacher on to the infield. Moments later, Raikkonen was ordered to do a drive-through time penalty for speeding in pit lane, dropping him to back off the lead.

"It was a bit too tight for him to try to pass," Raikkonen said. "Someone had to give way."

Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello, who qualified second behind Schumacher, saw his race end on the sixth lap when he spun out on turn 5 and hit the wall, leaving his front left tire dangling.

That ended any hopes of Ferrari finishing one-two in six consecutive races. Schumacher and Barrichello finished first or second in the last five races of 2002.

Australia's Mark Webber, last year's rookie of the year with Minardi but driving for Jaguar this season, went out on the 16th lap when his rear suspension failed.

The track was partially wet at the start due to morning and early afternoon rain. That forced race organizers to make a decision 80 minutes before the start to allow the teams to make changes to brake set-ups and tires due to the rainy conditions.

Otherwise, due to new rules this season, teams would not have been allowed to make any changes to the car's set-up or tires following qualifying until the race started Sunday.

The teams were, however, had to keep the same fuel allotment they had in their tanks when qualifying ended Saturday.