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It's been over 130 days so like a junkie waiting for their next fix the Formula 1 fans converged upon Albert Park to see the circus roll back into town. Uncle Max and his honchos at the FIA have instituted a host of new rules to make the 2005 season exciting, exhilarating and competitive - were they successful? Read on.

The last time the Italian national anthem was played for a driver as opposed to the Ferrari team was in Monaco when Jarno Trulli took the coveted top step of the podium. Australia once again resounded with the familiar clanging of the Italian anthem but this time as a tribute to the magnificent driving of Giancarlo Fisichella. The 32 year old was lucky in getting a dry run in mixed conditions in qualifying 1 and started the race from pole - only his second. Fisi drove a perfectly executed race and Renault no doubt had a riotous party Sunday night with Fernando Alonso claiming third position.

There are essentially two types of F1 fans - those who love Michael Schumacher and those who hate him. This is a man towards whom no neutral feelings are possible. So there was a large group of fans sitting with tumultuous grins on their faces when the 7 times world champion failed to complete the race. It wasn't a spectacular shunt - petty hogging of the track resulting in Nick Heidfeld being forced out of the race. Guaranteed that had it been the other way round the FIA would already be investigating the cause of the accident with Ferrari screaming collusion and Williams would have been dragged to court and blah blah blah. Just in case you're interested, Rubens finished in second place and stressed in post-race interviews that "Ferrari were not in a crisis" - so why mention it then, Ruby?

The surprise package of the race was Red Bull Racing. Perhaps instead of fuel the cars were topped up with the energy drink ringing true the slogan "Red Bull gives you wings" because DC drove as if there was a large stick of dynamite attached to the rear-end of his car! Even Christian Klien managed to score points for the fledgling team. Maybe he has bought himself a pad in Monaco and is worried that he won't be able to afford the instalments if his contract is terminated at the end of 3 races. Whatever the reasons, Red Bull walked away with 7 points and are now only 1 championship point behind Ferrari.

Williams had an odd race. Mark Webber started from third but lost out in the first corner to DC. Mark, you need to be less polite in the future - this is not a Jaguar you are racing but a grown-up car capable of extreme braking. Anyhow, the Aussie was in third place at one point but in the second round of tyre-free pit stops Rubens, Alonso and DC managed to get ahead of him with the result being a fifth place - matching his best performance.

James Allen mentioned that he would rather undergo a root canal than drive the Minardi. Seems that Patrick Friesacher didn't agree with him because the Austrian managed to bring the car home in 17th place. Yes it was last but at least he finished unlike a nameless scarlet-coloured, cigarette-endorsed former championship-winning car. The Minardi used the 2005 aerodynamics package which is amusing considering the fuss team principal Paul Stoddard made about not being able to afford to redesign the car and begging to race using 2004 specs. So somewhere between midnight Saturday and quali-2 a sugar plum fairy arrived and strapped on a brand new set of aero appendages - pity she didn't have enough magic to stop the Minardi being lapped over and over and over again!

The Mclaren sprouted horns which according to Adrian Newey were meant to be some kind of aerodynamic revelation - perhaps that is true for every alternative race. Montoya drew first blood in the tussle with his new teammate both in qualifying and in the race. Kimi clearly hadn't asked the team (as is so regular with him) about that chicane which saw him running wide onto the grass and losing a grid slot to Montoya in quali 2. And then there was the incident of stalling the car on the line - how very rookie-like of the oh-so-charismatic Finn. Is the iceman finally melting?

The Sauber team were disappointing. Jacques Villeneuve clearly gets more pleasure from playing computer games than reading the FIA manual regarding overtaking. On more than one occasion the French-Canadian clung ferociously to the racing line refusing to budge an inch to let anyone pass, not even his good friend (and the only person in the F1 fraternity who has a nice thing to say about him) DC. Massa sat back nonchalantly whilst the other teams were qualifying and the respite didn't help his chances because he only managed to finish 10th. But at least he can say that he finished ahead of 2 former world champions. Bravo!

Jordan were yellow. Not much in the way of sponsor logos plastered onto the car but at least they were easy to pick out amongst the other cars - just look toward the back of the grid. The Indian Karthikeyan in his first outing in a Formula 1 car did admirably - no big spins, no dramatic crashes, a solid performance overall. His team mate Tiego Monteiro - well he finished the race.

Why were both BARs so slow? 2004 was a revolutionary year for the team and now instead of rising to the challenge and taking on the big boys they seem to have taken a few kilometres backwards. Hopefully they can recover and prove to be formidable opponents.

2005 is the year that Toyota was set to perform. Trulli started off beautifully claiming the front row of the grid alongside Fisichella but after the first round of pit stops he was nowhere to be seen. As for Ralf Schumacher - perhaps some grovelling is in order. The German launched a scathing attack on his former team saying they lacked professionalism. The bosses of Williams should get into the kitchen and bake Ralf a luscious humble pie - he can share it with his brother.

So the big winners of the day were the Renault team with their master tactician Pat Symonds and the flamboyant Flavio Briatore. Mclaren still have everything to prove and Ferrari have everything to lose. All the tyres seemed to hold for the duration of the race and the one engine rule did not prove too expensive so round one goes to Uncle Max.

The circus now pitches tent in Malaysia. It will probably be hot. It will probably be humid. It will probably rain. Which tyre is going to perform better? Who is going to be bribing the weather gods for rain and who will be auctioning off their weathermen for failure to predict the monsoon? March 20th will be an indicator of what's to come for the rest of the season and if Australia is anything to go by it's going to be a good one!