The 1997 Australian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne on 9 March 1997. It was the first race of the 1997 Formula One World Championship, and the second Australian Grand Prix to be held in Melbourne. The 58-lap race was won by Briton David Coulthard, driving a McLaren-Mercedes, after he started from fourth position. It was Coulthard's second F1 victory, and the first for the McLaren team since the 1993 Australian Grand Prix. German Michael Schumacher finished second in a Ferrari, with Coulthard's Finnish teammate Mika Häkkinen third. Canadian Jacques Villeneuve took pole position in his Williams-Renault but retired after a first-lap collision, while reigning World Champion Damon Hill, in his first race for the Arrows team, suffered a throttle failure on the formation lap and did not start. This race marked the debuts of Ralf Schumacher, Jarno Trulli and Shinji Nakano; the entry of Bridgestone as a tyre supplier to compete with Goodyear; and the only appearance of the MasterCard Lola team, whose cars were over 11 seconds off Villeneuve's pole time and thus did not qualify. Report Background Two new teams came into Formula One in 1997: Stewart and Lola. Footwork reverted to their old name of Arrows and acquired Yamaha engines, while Ligier were bought by Alain Prost and changed their name to Prost Grand Prix. Tyrrell acquired Ford engines. The change that dominated the drivers line up was Damon Hill's surprise sacking from Williams having just won the World Championship. He joined Tom Walkinshaw and the newly purchased Arrows team. In the week up to the race, there were rumours, which proved to be unfounded, of Hill having left Arrows due to the poor performance of the car. Pedro Diniz brought significant sponsorship backing, and was hired as Hill's teammate. Williams retained Jacques Villeneuve and replaced Hill with Heinz-Harald Frentzen. Villeneuve was the bookmaker's favourite heading into the new season. He said that being the favourite put "extra pressure, but it's good pressure [on me]". Ferrari retained Michael Schumacher and Eddie Irvine, Benetton kept Jean Alesi and Gerhard Berger and McLaren retained Mika Häkkinen and David Coulthard. The Jordan team had two new drivers in Giancarlo Fisichella, previously at Minardi, and Ralf Schumacher, brother of Michael. The new Prost Grand Prix team kept Olivier Panis and signed Japanese rookie driver Shinji Nakano. Sauber kept Johnny Herbert