A flying start gone wrong for Ralf Schumacher

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It was "lights out and away they go" on this day in 2002 when the F1 season kicked into gear in dramatic fashion at Albert Park in Melbourne.

For Ralf Schumacher, it was quite literally a flying start when the German rocketed off the grid from third and attempted to outrun the Ferrari pair of Michael Schumacher and poleman Rubens Barrichello.

The Williams driver got an edge over his brother but his excess speed led him straight into the back of the Brazilian. Ralf flew over the Ferrari but landed safely in the kitty litter.

However, the incident created chaos in the field and a pile-up at Turn 1. Overall, a total of eight cars were eliminated at the outset.

At the end of the day, Michael Schumacher was joined on the podium by Williams' Juan Pablo Montoya and McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen.

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.