Michael Schumacher pushed his way through the field by running long but it all came to an end when he smacked the wall on the final turn.
Schumacher was catching up to Jenson Button extremely quickly and he just pushed too hard and went off the track.

This is what Michael had to say about his race in Melbourne:

“I was pushing to the maximum to try and close on Jenson and pass him. Probably he had some problems as he was not very quick. I tucked in behind him and unexpectedly I got some heavy understeer and finished on the grass. I had to push, because that’s the part of the track where it’s possible to pass. Today, our main problem was keeping the tyres up to temperature, especially in the first part of the race and also because there were a few safety car periods. We had chosen this compound specifically for the race, and once they reached the right operating temperature, they were going well, as was obvious after the pit stop. At first, it was difficult to drive, as after locking the wheels a few times the tyres were completely finished. It’s clear we have a lot of work to do.”

More on tyres after the jump..

Ferrari was, in fact, forced to run their hardest compound tyres here in Melbourne today. The Scuderia had planned to run a new super soft compound tyre but becuase of rain at their Fiorano test, they did not get any data on the tyre and they had to go with the hard compound. This tyre choice meant that both Schumacher and Massa could not get heat into their tyres, causing massive unresponsiveness as Ross Brawn explains:

“It was a bad day. In the first stint of the race, Michael could not push the way he wanted as he struggled to get the tyres up to temperature, which was also partly down to the many safety car periods. Then, in the second part, it was clear that he could maintain a good pace. A shame about the accident which meant a good result was not possible. Now we have work to do, with significant developments to be tried on the car in the coming weeks.”