The 2000 Australian Grand Prix (officially known as the 2000 Qantas Australian Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 12 March 2000 at the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit, Melbourne. It was the first race of the 2000 Formula One season. The 58-lap race was won by Michael Schumacher for the Ferrari team after starting from third position. Schumacher's new teammate for the 2000 season, Rubens Barrichello finished second in the other Ferrari, with Ralf Schumacher third for BMW-Williams.
Mika Häkkinen started on pole position in a McLaren, with teammate David Coulthard alongside him, but both retired with pneumatic valve failures. Three drivers made their Grand Prix debut: future world champion Jenson Button in a BMW-Williams, Nick Heidfeld in a Prost and Gastón Mazzacane in a Minardi. Mazzacane and Button retired from their debut race, and Heidfeld finished ninth, two laps behind.
Background
Heading into the first race of the 2000 Formula One season, many were tipping Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher and Drivers' Champion, McLaren's Mika Häkkinen as the main contenders to win the 2000 Drivers' Championship. Schumacher was favourite to win the Championship according to the bookmakers and by some former Formula One drivers, including Schumacher's teammate from the 1999 season, and new Jaguar driver Eddie Irvine. The last Drivers' Champion for Ferrari, Jody Scheckter, who did so in the 1979 season, also tipped Schumacher to win the Championship.
Out of the 11 teams and 22 drivers on the starting grid, three drivers made their debut. Nick Heidfeld joined the Prost team alongside Jean Alesi. The two replaced Prost's 1999 season line-up of Olivier Panis, who moved to McLaren as test driver and Jarno Trulli, who moved to Jordan alongside Heinz-Harald Frentzen following Damon Hill's retirement. At the Minardi team, Gastón Mazzacane replaced Luca Badoer, who opted to continue as Ferrari test driver, a role he began in 1997. The third rookie driver in the 2000 driver line-up was Jenson Button, who replaced Alessandro Zanardi at Williams. Button, at the time, became the youngest British driver ever to start a Formula One race. Many observers and fellow drivers alike had differing opinions of Williams' choice to take Button on. Sauber driver Mika Salo stated that because of Button's inexperience, he could "hurt himself or somebody else".
Practice
Four practice sessions were held before the Sunday race—two on Friday, and two on Saturday. The Friday morning and afternoon sessions each lasted an hour. The third and final practice sessions were held on Saturday morning and lasted 45 minutes. In the first practice session, held on a slippery track surface, Häkkinen set the fastest lap of 1 minute and 32.768 seconds, followed by Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello, David Coulthard, Jacques Villeneuve, Ralf Schumacher, Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Jos Verstappen, Eddie Irvine and Alexander Wurz. During the session, Ricardo Zonta and Heidfeld spun into a gravel trap beside the circuit, Johnny Herbert's car had a possible engine failure that cut out its ignition system, and Michael Schumacher's driving was curtailed due to the on-board television camera mounted atop of his Ferrari melting a wiring loom. Although he removed the left-rear wheel of his car in an sideways accident at the fast sweeping turn 14 midway through the second practice session because he missed the braking point, Michael Schumacher recorded the day's fastest lap of 1 minute and 32.130 seconds. Coulthard was second and Barrichello third. The rest of the top ten were Häkkinen, Villeneuve, Pedro Diniz, Frentzen, Wurz, Zonta and Irvine.