Schumacher steers clear of carnage

Michael Schumacher picked his way through the carnage of a dramatic first-bend, eight-car pile-up to win his third consecutive Australian Grand Prix on the opening day of the new Formula One season.

It was another masterful performance by the German world champion who was driving a modified version of last year's Ferrari. But his 54th F1 triumph was overshadowed by the incident at the start of the race when his brother Ralf, in the BMW-Williams, rammed the back of pole-man Rubens Barrichello's car and soared into the air. In the confusion, cars spun as they put on the brakes and collided with each other but there were no injuries.

The arguments about who was to blame or whether proceedings should have been stopped raged long after a grand prix that saw Juan Pablo Montoya (BMW-Williams), finish runner-up, Kimi Raikkonen, in his maiden race for McLaren, third and Britain's Eddie Irvine (Jaguar), fourth.

Irvine felt Barrichello was to blame for the spectacular shunt as he weaved to block the German's path, saying: 'Rubens was totally out of order.'

Jordan's race director Gary Anderson was furious about a race in which there were 12 non- finishers. He said: ' It was a silly accident. The decision not to stop the race was absurd.'

Barrichello and the younger Schumacher had their own versions. The German said: 'It was frightening. Going airborne in an aircraft is a lot nicer than going airborne in an F1 car, which is not really made for that.