What a difference a year makes! This time last year we had witnessed the Ferrari team lapping the Albert Park circuit nearly two seconds a lap quicker than anyone else, but not today.

Renault were the class act of the field. Fisichella was dominant up front, and led pretty much all of the race apart from the pit-stops, while Fernando Alonso made his way up from thirteenth on the grid to third at the end of the race, making it a Renault 1-3.

Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello finished second, and finds himself in the unaccustomed position of being ahead of team mate Michael Schumacher in the drivers championship, even if it is just after the first race of the season.

Schumacher failed to finish the race, after he and fellow German Nick Heidfeld collided at turn 3, where Schumacher edged Heidfeld onto the grass. Both went off into the gravel, and while 'Quick Nick' hot footed it out of his Williams, Schumacher remained in the cockpit of his Ferrari, and was pushed out of the gravel by the marshals. However the Ferrari was damaged, and he subsequently pulled into the pits and retired, not the best start to his championship defence.

The surprise of the weekend was undoubtedly the Red Bull team, who took over the Jaguar team. David Coulthard was a great fourth place, and team-mate Christian Klien was a strong seventh. Coulthard had a storming start, and gained two places. He looked on course for a podium, having held second position for several laps, however he dropped to fourth after the pit stops, where Fernando Alonso and Rubens Barrichello edged their way past. Coulthard was very nearly taken out of the race when lapping Patrick Freisacher in the Minardi, but slammed on his brakes in time.

After so much pre-season promise, the McLaren team had a race to forget. Juan Pablo Montoya could only manage a sixth place, while Kimi Raikkonen stalled on the grid and had to start from the pit lane. Raikkonen eventually battled his way through the field and spent much of his race behind Schumacher's Ferrari. Despite having a clearly faster car than Schumacher's Ferrari, the Finn was unable to pass him, demonstrating that the aerodynamic cuts over the winter, still aren't enough to improve passing opportunities, although Fernando Alonso was able to overtake Jacques Villeneuve on his way to third.

Crowd hero Mark Webber could have scored a podium place, but was held up for much of the race by David Coulthard, and at one point was forced onto the grass, after Coulthard had encountered difficulties attempting to lap Freisacher's Minardi. In the end Webber had to settle for fifth place, equaling his best ever result in F1.

Jarno Trulli who started second on the grid initially seemed to be heading for a good result. Up until his first pit stop on lap 18, he was keeping pace with Fisichella's Renault, but after his stop, he plummeted down the order, reminiscent of his latter Renault days.

Fisichella stopped on lap 22, and resumed the race in the lead. Team mate Fernando Alonso, who had been held up by Villeneuve made his move up the inside of turn 13, and then put together a series of blisteringly quick laps leading up to his stop on lap 26. He resumed in seventh, and then made it sixth when he overtook Trulli, again in turn 13.

Fisichella stopped again on lap 42, but Barrichello and Alonso were able to go longer on their fuel, and subsequently found themselves in second and third places respectively after their final stops.

The Sauber pair had a strange race. Jacques Villeneuve started fourth, but dropped to ninth on the first lap. He then held up a queue of cars, and ended up 13th at the end of the race, while Massa, who started last ended up in 10th place. Villeneuve will need to race harder to finish ahead of Massa this season, who is both quick and tenacious.

The BAR duo of Jenson Button and Takuma Sato will be perhaps the most disappointed of all the drivers in the paddock. The car is not as quick as it should be, and Jenson must be wishing he was in the cockpit of the Williams he tried to gain during the summer of 2004. Both men were anonymous throughout the race, and pulled into the pits on the last lap so that they would be able to get fresh engines for the next Grand Prix in Malaysia.

Of the Rookie drivers, perhaps the most impressive was Narain Karthikeyan, who was both solid in qualifying and the race, and although he finished the race two laps down from Fisichella and 15th overall, was comfortably ahead of team-mate Monteiro.

However it was Fisichella's day, and an indication that Renault have produced a car capable of challenging Ferrari for the championship. This was certainly the result F1 needed after a winter period dogged by political wrangling and controversy.