Pre-Qualifying
The event starts as always with the all-important Pre-Qualifying session, where some competent teams will be trying to drive around the traffic well enough to set one of the top 10 laptimes. One driver who shocked everyone was Heinz-Harald Frentzen: the Lotus man hasn't missed a single race start this season, but after running into traffic several times, he pushed too hard on his final flying lap and went off the track. He was fine, but he missed out on the rest of the weekend by one 20th of a second.
His teammate McNish was much more successful, and his P2 showed what Frentzen could have done if not for the vagaries of traffic. The Arrows Lola cars were P1 and P3, and stood as one of only two teams to get both cars through the Friday session - the other being Minardi, whose drivers Caffi and Capelli booked themselves into P7 and P9 respectively.
Much
much further back, Paolo Barilla put in a superb drive, outpacing Toshio Suzuki by almost three seconds. And that was really all the drama before...
Main Qualifying
In a very normal session indeed,
90MANSELL claimed the very last pole position of the season, with a slender lead of 0.135 seconds from the sport's Frenchest driver, Philippe Alliot. Behind them, Boutsen, Alesi, Prost and Senna rounded out a top six that contained five different teams
The Tyrrells, who might have expected to do very well at such a twisty circuit, found themselves all the way down in 11th and 15th - by no means out of Sunday points contention, but far lower than they would have liked.
The drivers on "row fourteen" who would be watching the race from the paddock despite their best efforts were Footwork's Aguri Suzuki, Leyton House's Eric Bernard, Arrows' Hitoshi Ogawa and Monteverdi's Stefan Johansson.
Australian Grand Prix
This race began, as so many Grands Prix do, with a pile-up at the very first attempt. This one happened right at the back as Mark Blundell tried to defend against the fast-starting Alex Caffi through the opening chicane. In fairness to Blundell, Caffi did not get past. In fairness to Caffi, that was because Blundell drove into him.
At the same time, Gerhard Berger found himself on the outside of Gabriele Tarquini, and all three of the unfortunate cars ended up in a nice little line against the tyre barrier. Tarquini carried on unscathed.
Philippe Alliot made a quite different kind of start: he pulled past Nigel Mansell's Williams and drove away at full throttle. The 36-year-old Frenchman has already won one race in what is proving to be quite the Indian summer of his racing career. Could another one be on the cards?
The Grand Prix settled into a bit of a rhythm at that point. It was what the purists would call a "slow burn", and what everyone else would call "incredibly boring". All of that changed quite suddenly on Lap 31 when Jean Alesi emerged from the pit lane with a loose wheel. Even if he had managed to coax it around a lap, he'd've dropped out of contention. But he didn't: he parked it instead - but not before Thierry Boutsen wasted about three seconds being very confused by the wobbly McLaren.
That was enough for the battling Prost and Senna to emerge from their pit stops ahead of him, now fighting for the third place on the podium
Mansell had overcut Alliot in the pit sequence, but the fast Frenchman was still hot on his tail, and no wonder - on low fuel at the end of his first stint, he set what would remain the race's fastest lap. Unfortunately for Alliot, his Ferrari power unit was made of finest Italian engineering: it exploded, ending his race just before the halfway point.
Prost and Senna were now the fastest cars on track, gaining on Mansell's Williams. The British driver still held all the aces, but was having to drive flat out to stay safely ahead. The two rivals closed on him, a fragile détente held together by a mutual desire to challenge for the win. With 23 to go, they both loomed large in the Williams' mirrors.
But of the three, Mansell had to take his final stop first: without even the opportunity to put up a fight, he lost two positions that he may well have held onto in a straight fight. Prost and Senna pitted line astern, and emerged line astern, but with the red car in front! Ayrton Senna led the Australian Grand Prix from his bitterest rival.
It took him four laps, but Prost bullied his way back past with a staggering move into the Dequetteville Hairpin. Two laps later, Senna barged back through into Wakefield Corner. Five more laps after that, Prost faked left then dived right to make the pass at Brewery Corner. With neither driver able to establish a decisive lead, this would all be about making the right pass at the right time.
Senna stayed in second, not challenging, until Lap 80 of 81. Then, he tucked himself right under the rear wing of the McLaren and got a huge slipstream. He tried to pull out, but Prost blocked him, covering the inside line at Dequetteville. It cost him a difficult run through the three left-hand kinks, but he stayed ahead with one lap to go. 3.8 kilometres left to decide a winner. (Mansell, despite not battling for position, couldn't keep up with the two leaders).
Senna again tucked himself into the slipstream. Again he ducked out, faking to the inside line. Prost covered him. Senna dived left, but there's no way around the outside of the hairpin. Prost's line was awkward, but Senna's was optimal through the left-handers. He stayed close and dived into the Foster's hairpin. Now Prost had the better line. The two cars drove for the line, seemingly neck and neck. Which one is ahead?
The timing screen says that
AYRTON SENNA DO BRASIUUUUUUU WIIIIIIIIIINS the Australian Grand Prix! Prost is in second, just 0.031 seconds back. Mansell is in third. Fourth is Eric van de Poele. Fifth is Boutsen, six tenths ahead of Footwork's Stefano Modena
While the broadcast was focussing on the battles between the frontrunners though, there were big accidents that got very limited airtime. Fortunately, both Hakkinen and Brundle proved to be fine, and the gloss would not be taken off a momentous Ferrari victory.
Mika Hakkinen sustained a sprained ankle, but it's the end of the season and there's plenty of time to heal before the Indoor Trophy.