By Phil Huff
March 7 2003

Nick Heidfeld and Heinz-Harald Frentzen ended up in 12th and 13th places respectively after today's first qualifying session for the Australian Grand Prix, which means they will start tomorrow's grid-deciding qualifying session in ninth and eighth positions. Nick Heidfeld commented "I lost some time this morning with a few electronic problems, including a false alarm with the dashboard, and with things the way they are now any loss of time is going to hurt you. Taking that into account, I was pretty happy with the way things went this afternoon. I made a couple of little mistakes, but the balance of the car was better and overall I really enjoyed the single-lap qualifying."

Heinz Harald Frentzen said "When we warmed the cars up this morning the team discovered an electronic problem on my initial chassis, C22-02, so I switched to the spare car, 03. This afternoon that car was a little bit oversteery and that was why I had that wobble at the end of the first sector. For sure it cost me a little bit of time. But qualifying was okay for me. It's important to put on a good show for the people, and I think we did that."

Peter Sauber (Team Principal) added "The new qualifying mode gave us all a very positive experience today. It ran smoothly, gave the crowd a good show, and was good for Formula One. We all now appreciate just how little time it leaves for preparation however, and we have learned now how best to organise ourselves for the future."

P	Driver	Team	Engine	Car	Tyre	Best Lap	Gap
1	Barrichello	Ferrari	Ferrari	F2002	B	1:26.372	-.---
2	Raikkonen	McLaren	Mercedes	MP4-17D	M	1:26.551	0.179
3	Villeneuve	BAR	Honda	BAR005	B	1:26.832	0.460
4	M Schumacher	Ferrari	Ferrari	F2002	B	1:27.103	0.731
5	Button	BAR	Honda	BAR005	B	1:27.159	0.787
6	Coulthard	McLaren	Mercedes	MP4-17D	M	1:27.242	0.870
7	Alonso	Renault	Renault	R23	M	1:27.255	0.883
8	Panis	Toyota	Toyota	TF103	M	1:27.352	0.980
9	Trulli	Renault	Renault	R23	M	1:27.411	1.039
10	Montoya	Williams	BMW	FW24	M	1:27.450	1.078
11	da Matta	Toyota	Toyota	T103	M	1:27.450	1.106
12	Heidfeld	Sauber	Petronas	C22	B	1:27.510	1.138
13	Frentzen	Sauber	Petronas	C22	B	1:27.563	1.191
14	Fisichella	Jordan	Ford	EJ13	B	1:27.633	1.261
15	Webber	Jaguar	Jaguar	R4	M	1:27.675	1.303
16	R Schumacher	Williams	BMW	FW24	M	1:28.266	1.894
17	Firman	Jordan	Ford	EJ13	B	1:29.977	3.605
18	Verstappen	Minardi	Cosworth	PS03	B	1:30.053	3.681
19	Pizzonia	Jaguar	Jaguar	R4	M	1:30.092	3.720
20	Wilson	Minardi	Cosworth	PS03	B	1:30.479	4.107