Coulthard wins Australian GP; McLaren drought ends

Location: MELBOURNE, Australia

9 March 1997

David Coulthard, taking advantage of the misfortune of the favored Williams cars, ended McLaren's 49-race Formula One losing streak with a victory Sunday in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

1)Coulthard 2)Schumacher 3)Hakkinen

Coulthard took the lead with three laps remaining when Heinz-Harald Frentzen spun off the course.

Frentzen's Williams-Renualt teammate, polesitter Jacques Villeneuve, was involved in a crash at the first turn on the first of 58 laps at the 3.294-mile Albert Park road course.

The late Ayrton Senna had given McLaren -- once the top team in Formula One -- its last victory, in 1993.

Frentzen, making his debut with the Williams team, led for most of the race until an apparent brake failure caused his spinout.

That left Coulthard in a commanding position, and he easily held off the Ferrari of two-time series champion Michael Schumacher of Germany for the second victory of his career. The Scotsman's only previous win came in the 1995 Portuguese Grand Prix, when he was driving for Williams.

Coulthard finished 20 seconds ahead of Schumacher, with Mika Hakkinen of Finland a close third in the other Mercedes-powered McLaren.

Gerhard Berger of Austria was fourth in a Benetton-Renault, followed by Olivier Panis of France for the new Prost Mugen-Honda team and Nicola Larini of Italy in a Sauber.

Villeneuve and Frentzen were not the only drivers with bad luck. It was worse for defending series champion Damon Hill, who was fired by Williams after winning the title last year.

The Englishman, now driving for Arrows-Yamaha, was not able to start to the race. He had an engine failure during the warm-up lap, and pulled to the side of the circuit.

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