MELBOURNE, Australia -- Michael Schumacher won the Australian Grand Prix for the third straight year Sunday, avoiding a pileup at the start and easily holding off Juan Pablo Montoya.

The Ferrari star, the defending Formula One champion, raced to his 54th career victory, completing 58 laps at Albert Park in 1 hour, 35 minutes, 36.792 seconds to edge Montoya by 18.6 seconds.

	Ferrari's Michael Schumacher, center, shared the podium with Williams' Juan Pablo Montoya, left, and McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen at Australia.

"We're nicely surprised we were able to get through here," said Schumacher, who drove a 2001 car because Ferrari hasn't fully tested its 2002 model.

Kimi Raikkonen was third in his first race for McLaren as the replacement for two-time world champion Mika Hakkinen.

Only eight cars finished the season-opening race, with Schumacher, Montoya and Raikkonen the only ones on the lead lap.

Eddie Irvine, the 1999 winner in Australia, finished fourth, and Australian rookie Mark Webber was fifth in a Minardi. Mika Salo finished sixth in a Toyota in the Japanese company's first Formula One start.

"I feel like I've won the race, it's fantastic for the team," said Webber, who became the 51st driver to score in his Formula One debut and gave Minardi its first point since 1999.

Ralf Schumacher, Michael's younger brother, wiped out pole winner Rubens Barrichello in a multicar wreck at the start that cut the field in half.

"I didn't know what was going on," Michael Schumacher said. "It was just cars flying everywhere. I was afraid to turn into the first corner. I drove wide through the grass, which was probably a good decision."

Ralf Schumacher overtook his brother for second place, then slammed into the back of Barrichello's Ferrari. The Williams BMW climbed over the back of Barrichello's car at the first turn and catapulted into a speed trap before crashing into a wall.

"It was so frightening," Ralf Schumacher said. "Going airborne in an aircraft is a lot nicer than going airborne in an F1 car, which is not really made for that."

The pileup behind the initial wreck claimed Giancarlo Fisichella's Jordan, the Saubers of Felipe Massa and Nick Heidfeld, Jenson Button's Renault, Olivier Panis' BAR and Allan McNish's Toyota.

None of the drivers were injured.

The accident occurred during the restart after both Arrows stalled in the scheduled start, leaving Enrique Bernoldi and Heinz-Harald Frentzen stranded on the track.

Ralf Schumacher said he'd tried to pass inside and outside but Barrichello "closed the door" on him both times.

"He tried to brake into the first corner," Ralf Schumacher said. "I thought it was a bit early, but he definitely changed the road twice too much and we are only allowed to do it one, so that's the main problem. ... It's a shame, it was a good start. It could have been a great race."

Barrichello didn't accept fault.

"Even if he thinks that I moved too many times, I moved back to the left probably a centimeter or so," the Brazilian said. "If he wanted to overtake on the outside he should have moved a lot farther."

Eleven cars completed the first racing lap and the field was down to eight cars in the last 10 laps.

"From my point of view it should have been red-flagged and the race started again," said Michael Schumacher. "There is a certain rule and they (race officials) followed the rule, but maybe you can argue the rule should be changed."

Montoya swooped into the lead in the 11th lap, passing Michael Schumacher on the inside, but the German regained the lead at the start of lap 17.

"I was holding him and holding him until he was going to find a way past," Montoya said. "He drove around the outside. It was like I was parked. He just drove into the distance."

Reuters contributed to this report.