 Webber made his Formula One debut at his home race , the Australian Grand Prix . This was the first race of an initial three race contract and was extended until the end of the season after his first race . He qualified 18th of the 22 cars , over 4 seconds away from the pole position time , but 1 @.@ 4 seconds ahead of teammate Yoong . The start of the race featured a spectacular accident between Ralf Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello , the aftermath of which forced eight cars to retire from the race . Webber , who had a problem with his launch control at the start , battled with a broken differential to fend off the experienced Mika Salo in a much faster Toyota and finish fifth . The result made Webber just the fourth Australian F1 driver to score World Championship points , and the first Minardi driver to score points since Marc Gené in 1999 . 
