Trulli set a new qualifying record for the team when he consolidated an excellent Saturday performance in Sunday morning's final qualifying session, run with race fuel levels. The Italian was second only to countryman Giancarlo Fisichella and so gave the team its first ever front row start. He also contributed to the first all-Italian F1 front row since 1984!

In the race Trulli ran an impressive second all the way to the first pit stops, behind pole position man and eventual winner Fisichella. Unfortunately, a problem with the right rear tyre spoiled his middle stint and Trulli dropped to an eventual ninth place, just out of the points.

"The car felt very strong early on and I was able to run at a good pace," Trulli said, "but after my pit stop the grip deteriorated very suddenly and I had quite a bad vibration. It is disappointing but we showed very strong potential."

Team mate Ralf Schumacher, having qualified 15th due to suffering the worst of the wet conditions in Saturday's first qualifying session, found himself stuck in traffic for much of the first stint. He then had to make an extra unscheduled pit stop when his seat belt came loose and ultimately finished the race in 12th position.

"It's a difficult track on which to pass and there was very little I could do in the opening stint," Schumacher said. "The positive side of that was that my tyres stayed in good shape and at the end, when I was able to run at my own pace, I was setting very competitive lap times." In fact, Schumacher's fastest race lap was just half a second slower than Fisichella's.

Behind Fisichella, Rubens Barrichello finished second for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro and Fernando Alonso made it a 1-3 for the Mild Seven Renault F1 Team. David Coulthard was fourth on Red Bull's debut with team mate Christian Klien making it a double helping of points with seventh place. Home hero Mark Webber was fifth in his first race for the BMW Williams F1 Team and the other points positions were claimed by West McLaren Mercedes, with Juan Pablo Montoya sixth and Kimi Raikkonen eighth.

Panasonic Toyota Racing's Technical Director Chassis, Mike Gascoyne, said: "We think Jarno blistered his right rear tyre just after the first stint. We didn't understand why he lost so much time in the couple of laps after his first stop because he should have been able to hold his position, but when he came in for the second stop we could see his tyre and then it made sense.

"Ralf made a good start but was then stuck in traffic. His last two stints were very strong and he was able to make an extra pit stop and still re-catch and pass Villeneuve and Sato. We're just very disappointed because without Jarno's tyre problem, although he would have struggled to finish on the podium, we could have fought all the way with Webber and Coulthard. Overall, we've obviously made strong progress and in terms of the big picture I think Melbourne was a breath of fresh air for F1. It looks like we are going to have a good year with so many teams competitive and right there, racing competitively."

The teams now face the heat and humidity of Malaysia in round 2 at Sepang on March 20.