Opening rounds was Formula One's inaugural visit to the Middle East.|left
Ferrari dominated the opening weekend at
Albert Park in Australia, comfortably locking out the front row in qualifying and earning a 1–2 in the race.
Michael Schumacher set the fastest lap of the race on his way to a lights-to-flag victory, with teammate
Rubens Barrichello and
Renault's
Fernando Alonso joining him on the podium. Schumacher followed that up with another pole and victory at
Sepang, finishing ahead of
Juan Pablo Montoya and
Jenson Button, the British driver scoring his first career podium and the
BAR Honda team's best result since the
2001 German Grand Prix.
Mark Webber, who split the Ferraris in qualifying in his unfancied
Jaguar, suffered a poor start before colliding with
Ralf Schumacher and spinning out. Formula One's first visit to the Arab world since the
1958 Moroccan Grand Prix took place at the
Bahrain International Circuit. The Ferrari duo of Schumacher and Barrichello once again finished 1–2 in both qualifying and the race, with Button's second consecutive podium elevating him to third in the Drivers' Championship as the series headed for Europe.
European rounds Jenson Button scored his and BAR's maiden pole at the
San Marino Grand Prix, but Michael Schumacher overtook him on the eighth lap and finished nearly ten seconds ahead. Button and Juan Pablo Montoya completed the rostrum—the latter beating Fernando Alonso to the line by just two seconds—while
Kimi Räikkönen recorded his first finish of the season in eighth, using a two-stop strategy to claim the final point from last on the grid. Despite suffering from a defective exhaust, Schumacher dominated the
Spanish Grand Prix as well, as front-row starter Montoya retired with brake problems and early leader
Jarno Trulli took third behind Rubens Barrichello. At the
Monaco Grand Prix, Trulli scored his first career victory from pole after surviving intense pressure from Jenson Button. Rubens Barrichello in third was the only other driver on the lead lap, albeit more than a minute behind the leaders. Teammate Schumacher was one of several front-runners who retired, the championship leader's five-win streak ending after a collision with Juan Pablo Montoya under the safety car. That safety car period was necessitated by Fernando Alonso, who slammed the barrier on lap 42 while attempting to lap the
Williams of Ralf Schumacher in the tunnel. Earlier in the race, a fast-starting
Takuma Sato suffered a spectacular engine failure on the third lap at the Tabac corner; the smoke from the rear of his BAR machine blinded the queue behind him, causing
Giancarlo Fisichella to mount the back of
David Coulthard's
McLaren and flip over.
Olivier Panis stalled as the race was due to begin, shortening the race to 77 laps as the remaining drivers completed a second formation lap. Panis later recovered to eighth place as he and sixth-placed
Cristiano da Matta scored
Toyota's first points of the season. Ralf Schumacher, meanwhile, collided with da Matta at the start, causing both cars to retire from the race. Front-row starter and one-time leader Sato joined the list of retirements with a late engine failure, as did the McLaren duo of Räikkönen and Coulthard, both of whose Mercedes engines expired at the manufacturer's home race.
North American doubleheader and return to Europe At the
Canadian Grand Prix,
Timo Glock replaced
Giorgio Pantano at
Jordan for financial reasons. Ralf Schumacher qualified on pole position, joined by Jenson Button on the front row, with Michael Schumacher only starting from sixth. After a series of lead changes, the elder Schumacher ultimately crossed the line first, followed by his brother and Rubens Barrichello. But the Williams of Ralf Schumacher—along with his fifth-placed teammate Juan Pablo Montoya and the Toyotas of Cristiano da Matta and Olivier Panis in eighth and tenth—would later be excluded from the results due to an irregularity in the brake ducts, promoting Barrichello to second and Button to third. The McLaren and Jordan teams were also beneficiaries of the four disqualifications, with Glock—in his Formula One début—and
Nick Heidfeld both scoring points. Barrichello qualified on pole for the
United States Grand Prix, with Michael Schumacher alongside him. Schumacher would go on to win once more as Barrichello and Takuma Sato—scoring his first and only Formula One podium—completed the top three. It was a race dominated by accidents, however, beginning with a first-lap incident that eliminated
Gianmaria Bruni, Giorgio Pantano,
Felipe Massa and
Christian Klien. On the ninth lap, Fernando Alonso suffered a puncture and crashed at the end of the start-finish straight, with Ralf Schumacher crashing at the oval section for the same reason on the following lap. Thanks to the high attrition rate, only eight cars crossed the line; the final finisher was
Zsolt Baumgartner, who became Hungary's first points scorer and earned the
Minardi team their first point since
2002. Barrichello overtook the second Renault of Jarno Trulli on the final corner of the race to snatch third place, while
Marc Gené, who replaced the injured Ralf Schumacher at Williams for the French and
British Grands Prix, finished tenth. Michael Schumacher overpowered polesitter Kimi Räikkönen to take his tenth win of the season at Silverstone. Räikkönen, who finished second, bagged McLaren's first podium in 2004, ahead of Barrichello in third. The race was notable for Jarno Trulli's massive accident, the Italian losing control of his car at Bridge and hitting the tyre barrier before rolling in the gravel trap. Schumacher won from pole at the
German Grand Prix, beating Jenson Button—who started thirteenth after a ten-place penalty for an engine change—and Fernando Alonso. Front-row starter Juan Pablo Montoya could only manage a fifth-place finish, while his new teammate
Antônio Pizzonia finished seventh. After setting the fastest lap of the race, Kimi Räikkönen suffered a high-speed rear wing failure at the end of the start-finish straight on lap 14 and crashed into the tyre wall. There, Schumacher led another Ferrari 1–2 in both qualifying and the race to secure Ferrari the Constructors' trophy, with the race's 2003 winner Alonso completing the podium. The
Belgian Grand Prix also included numerous accidents and safety car periods. A first-lap collision between Mark Webber and Takuma Sato eliminated both of them; Zsolt Baumgartner avoided the initial wreckage but knocked teammate Gianmaria Bruni's car into the wall, which then bounced back and collected Giorgio Pantano. On the thirtieth lap, Jenson Button suffered a right-rear puncture and lost control of his car, crashing into the Minardi of Zsolt Baumgartner that he was attempting to lap.
Concluding rounds and Brazilian finale . At the
Italian Grand Prix, Barrichello led a Ferrari 1–2 in front of the loyal Tifosi, although Schumacher, who started third, spun off on the first lap and had to rejoin the race at the back of the field. Following the race, Jarno Trulli parted ways with Renault, with 1997 world champion
Jacques Villeneuve returning to Formula One as his replacement. Immediately before the
Chinese Grand Prix, fellow Italian Giorgio Pantano was dropped by the Jordan team and replaced once more by Timo Glock for the last three races. That race was also won by Barrichello from pole, with Button and Räikkönen less than 2 seconds behind. Michael Schumacher started from the pit lane and could only make it to 12th place following several mistakes and a puncture, while a returning Ralf Schumacher retired with suspension damage. The
Japanese Grand Prix weekend was affected by
Typhoon Ma-on, which caused widespread damage to parts of Japan and saw the postponement of qualifying to the morning of race day. With the rain dying down in time for the race, Michael Schumacher took his 13th win from pole, with his brother Ralf starting and finishing second and Jenson Button completing the podium. A collision between David Coulthard and Rubens Barrichello—who set the fastest lap of the race—eliminated both of them from the Grand Prix. Following his acrimonious split from Renault, Jarno Trulli finished eleventh in his first race for Toyota, while his teammate Olivier Panis retired from the sport after the race. The
Brazilian Grand Prix was won by Juan Pablo Montoya—who also set the fastest lap—from second on the grid, with his soon-to-be McLaren teammate Kimi Räikkönen and polesitter Barrichello finishing behind him. It was Montoya's last outing for Williams and the team's last victory until the
2012 Spanish Grand Prix. It was also the final race for Minardi duo Zsolt Baumgartner and Gianmaria Bruni and the Jaguar team's last entry before they were bought by
Red Bull.
David Coulthard finished his last season with (the team he had been with since ) without a podium finish during the season. ==Results and standings==