Marshal's death overshadows Schumacher win

The death of a race marshal at the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday cast a tragic shadow over world champion Michael Schumacher's perfect start to the Formula One season.

The Ferrari driver completed the 58-lap journey around Albert Park in one hour 38 minutes 26.533 seconds to take the chequered flag 1.7 seconds ahead of Scotland's David Coulthard in a McLaren.

Ferrari's Brazilian Rubens Barrichello was third with Olivier Panis of France fourth in a BAR and Germans Nick Heidfeld and Heinz-Harald Frentzen fifth and sixth respectively for Sauber and Jordan.

But there was no champagne sprayed on the podium and no celebrations among the drivers.

By then word had filtered through that a marshal had died after a crash early in the race involving Schumacher's younger brother Ralf and Canadian Jacques Villeneuve.

Both cars were destroyed in the crash and parts of Villeneuve's vehicle appeared to fly over the fence and into the crowd. All four wheels were ripped off.

"Unfortunately we have just been told that the marshal did die," Michael Schumacher told a sombre post-race news conference.

"Obviously we are all shocked about this."

MONZA DEATH

It was the second time in less than a year that a marshal had died at a Formula One race.

Italian Paolo Ghislimberti died at Monza last season after being hit by flying debris in the first fatality suffered by Formula One at a circuit since the death of Brazilian world champion Ayrton Senna at Imola in 1994.

Coulthard said his race was insignificant in the context of a life lost.

"We need obviously to study how we can improve track safety for these people who give their time for us to enable us to go racing," said the Scot.

"It's very hard when a colleague who is there for you happens to die in an incident like that," said Barrichello.

"There's no way we can make up for an incident like this."

The race was a battle between Ferrari and McLaren drivers with an interlude behind the safety car which was brought out after Villeneuve's crash.

The safety car stayed out for 10 laps as the circuit was cleared of debris and an ambulance took the marshal away.

Former champion Mika Hakkinen made a strong start, overtaking Barrichello, and challenged Schumacher in second place until he went out.

Hakkinen skidded off the track at speed on lap 26 with what looked like a right front suspension failure. The Finn was mildly concussed in the crash.

Schumacher, who also crashed heavily in practice earlier in the week, had started from pole position and led from start to finish, except for a five-lap period midway through the race when he made a pitstop.

That allowed Coulthard, who had started from sixth on the grid but slowly worked his way through the field, to take over briefly.

The McLaren driver had moved up to third position when Hakkinen retired then went second when he passed Barrichello on lap 34 when the Brazilian was briefly held up in traffic.