Michael Schumacher driving a Ferrari won the season-opening Australian Formula One Grand Prix at Albert Park here on Sunday.

The six-time world champion led an emphatic one-two for Ferrari with teammate Rubens Barrichello taking second ahead of Renault's Fernando Alonso third.

The German ace led from start to finish to beat Barrichello by 13.6 seconds over the 58 laps with Alonso well back in third place to take his place on the podium. It was Schumacher's 71st win in his 196th GP. He has now won four Australian GPs in the last five years with Ferrari winning in five of the last six years.

Ferrari employed a three-stop strategy and had the race well won by mid-distance with their superior cars pulling away from their rivals. Williams-BMW pair Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya were fourth and fifth respectively with BAR-Honda's Jenson Button sixth.

Schumacher, now 35, had been written off by some during the winter as not having the same hunger to remain the undisputed king of F1, but the Ferraris were vastly superior to any other team this weekend.

The McLarens had a disastrous race with last season's championship runnerup Kimi Raikkonen stopping on the 10th lap with apparent mechanical problems while last year's race winner David Coulthard was eighth a lap behind behind Schumacher.

Local hope Mark Webber retired from the race in his Jaguar on the 29th lap. The next GP is in Malaysia on March 21.