The Line-League ©
Season 2001
Australia - Melbourne
Date: 06-01-2001
(Please check Houserules for explanation)
What a premiere! The new team of Jaguar had a perfect qualifying, best times, few stops and only two faults by Zanardi lead to a triple-pole for the green cats. Only Jos Verstappen could join them, but he needed much more time for his turns therefore he got on 4th position. The rest of the field, shocked by the performance of Jaguar, had big troubles with the track, the rain and their cars. The nerves of Jenson Button, who got the cockpit of the vice-champion Rubens Barrichello, who had to leave the team of Tyrrell because of NOT BECOMING champion last season, couldn’t handle the thrill of his first grand-prix and so he disappointed the great expectations of the hard team-leader of Tyrrell and he got only 11th place in the starting grid.
Heinz-Harald Frentzen made a big start, lead in the first corner until the beginning of the 3rd lap. During the entire time close followed by Jaques Villeneuve in the Jaguar and the Tyrell of Jos Verstappen. After an unlucky pit-stop and a hard wheel-to-wheel fight with Villeneuve in the first corner, Frentzen overshot the curve by two spaces and had to ruin his fresh tires almost completely. So Villeneuve and Verstappen could pass by very easily. The former Ferrari-pilot Villeneuve made a perfect last lap and won his first race - first victory for Jaguar too. In the last corner, Verstappen, by trying to beat Villeneuve, risked too much and spinned out on the rest of his tires. The cars of Frentzen and Nick Heidfeld, which had a wheel-to-wheel fight (both pure wreckages too) used this misfortune to overtake Verstappen on the final straight and the Tyrell went on second place by nosing out the Ferrari. Verstappen secured a fifth place few seconds before Zanardi. The current champion Damon Hill came in on 7th place and the best driver of Williams reached the 8th rank.
| Qualifying | |||||||
| Weather: Rain | |||||||
| Position: | Driver: | Team: | Setup: | Time/Points: | Stops: | Penalties: | Total: |
| 1 | Hakkinen (#7) | Jaguar | R / H | 1:04,59 / 3 | 17 | 20 | |
| 2 | Villeneuve (#8) | Jaguar | R / H | 1:10,40 / 3 | 18 | 21 | |
| 3 | Zanardi (#9) | Jaguar | R / H | 1:13,37 / 3 | 17 | 2 | 22 |
| 4 | Verstappen (#5) | Tyrrell | R / H | 1:44,03 / 4 | 18 | 22 | |
| 5 | Frentzen (#2) | Ferrari | R / H | 1:17,49 / 3 | 16 | 5 | 24 |
| 6 | Heidfeld (#4) | Tyrrell | R / H | 1:39,12 / 4 | 18 | 2 | 24 |
| 7 | Salo (#3) | Ferrari | R / H | 1:39,59 / 4 | 18 | 2 | 24 |
| 8 | Schumacher R. (#12) | Williams | R / H | 2:17,77 / 5 | 15 | 4 | 24 |
| 9 | Berger (#11) | Williams | R / H | 2:28,07 / 5 | 17 | 2 | 24 |
| 10 | Hill (#1) | Ferrari | R / H | 1:30,63 / 4 | 19 | 2 | 25 |
| 11 | Button (#6) | Tyrrell | R / H | 1:39,59 / 4 | 19 | 8 | 31 |
| 12 | Irvine (#10) | Williams | R / H | 2:55,69 / 6 | 17 | 11 | 34 |
| The Race | |||||||
| Length: 5:35 | |||||||
| Weather: Sun | |||||||
| Hazards: 4 | |||||||
| Best laps: Lap1: 15 Stops - Driver #2; Lap2: 11 - #2; Lap3: 11 - #8 | |||||||
| Position: | Driver: | Team: | Setup: | T,Br,F,Bo,E,R | Stops: | Crash: | Points: |
| 1 | Villeneuve (#8) | Jaguar | H / H | 7, 2, 5, 3, 3, 2 | 10 | ||
| 2 | Heidfeld (#4) | Tyrrell | H / H | 6, 2, 5, 3, 4, 2 | + 1 | 6 | |
| 3 | Frentzen (#2) | Ferrari | S / H | 7, 2, 5, 3, 3, 2 | + 1 | 4 | |
| 4 | Salo (#3) | Ferrari | H / H | 8, 2, 4, 3, 3, 2 | + 2 | 3 | |
| 5 | Verstappen (#5) | Tyrrell | H / H | 6, 2, 5, 3, 4, 2 | + 3 | 2 | |
| 6 | Zanardi (#9) | Jaguar | H / H | 7, 2, 5, 3, 3, 2 | + 3 | 1 | |
| 7 | Hill (#1) | Ferrari | H / H | 8, 2, 4, 3, 3, 2 | + 3 | --- | |
| 8 | Irvine (#10) | Williams | H / H | 9, 1, 3, 3, 3, 3 | + 3 | --- | |
| 9 | Hakkinen (#7) | Jaguar | H / H | 7, 2, 5, 3, 3, 2 | + 3 | --- | |
| 10 | Button (#6) | Tyrrell | H / H | 5, 3, 4, 3, 4, 3 | + 4 | --- | |
| 11 | Schumacher R. (#12) | Williams | H / H | 9, 1, 3, 3, 3, 3 | +/- 0 | T (37) | --- |
| 12 | Berger (#11) | Williams | H / H | 9, 1, 3, 3, 3, 3 | - 7 | T (30) | n.c. |