Just two days ago before the qualifying Schumacher expressed confidence that Mercedes would be in a group behind Red Bull, fighting for podiums and potentially wins.

But he suffered a miserable start to the new Formula One season when the Mercedes driver was not able to finish the race. He suffered a tyre burst at the start of the race dropping him to the last. After 19 laps, the car was not in a position to move further and he had to retire from the race. Earlier in qualifying also he was only 11th.

Nico Rosberg was running in 7th before his car hit by Rubens Barrichello. The damage had enough impact which caused him to retire too. Both the Mercedes drivers retired from the race within two laps.

"Clearly that was not an ideal start to the season," Schumacher said. "I cannot deny that I am disappointed. "From our testing experience, we were around the pace of Ferrari. However, this did not translate today. We faced more problems here than at the test with several issues throughout the whole weekend.

"We now have to look deeply into it to understand why it turned out to be like this, because for the moment we are not where we want to be."

"We're not exactly where we want to be, but we don't know the reasons as to why. We have various theories, but we have to analyse and understand, and then take the necessary actions."

With team-mate Nico Rosberg seventh, the team principal Ross Brawn was also a far from happy man, and at a loss to explain why both cars have been beset with irritable issues.

Both Sauber C30 cars were disqualified from the Australian grand prix by the stewards after reviewing their car in the post-race checks.

With an unique and surprising one-stop strategy, Mexican rookie Sergio Perez stunned the F1 Paddock by finishing an impressive seventh on debut, one place ahead of his teammate Kamui Kobayashi.

The 21-year-old would have become the first Mexican to score championship points in 30 years.

Japan's Kobayashi had also impressed, finishing eighth for the Swiss-based team on a day principal Peter Sauber had described as a "dream start to the season".

After the race it was found that both the cars infringes the technical rules related to Rear Wing of the car.

The scrutineers discovered that the wings breached two articles of the technical regulations, where essentially the angle created too great a gap when the adjustable element was deployed.

Breached Technical Rules: (Followed from Formula One)

Article 3.10.1
"Any bodywork more than 150mm behind the rear wheel centre line which is between 150mm and 730mm above the reference plane, and between 75mm and 355mm from the car centre line, must lie in an area when viewed from the side of the car that is situated between 150mm and 350mm behind the rear wheel centre line and between 300mm and 400mm above the reference plane. When viewed from the side of the car no longitudinal cross section may have more than one section in this area.

"Furthermore, no part of this section in contact with the external air stream may have a local concave radius of curvature smaller than 100mm.

"Once this section is defined, 'gurney' type trim tabs may be fitted to the trailing edge. When measured in any longitudinal cross section no dimension of any such trim tab may exceed 20mm."

Article 3.10.2
"Other than the bodywork defined in Article 3.10.9, any bodywork behind a point lying 50mm forward of the rear wheel centre line which is more than 730mm above the reference plane, and less than 355mm from the car centre line, must lie in an area when viewed from the side of the car that is situated between the rear wheel centre line and a point 350mm behind it."

"This is a very surprising and disappointing result. Certainly this (breach) has not lead to any performance advantage," insisted technical director James Key.

Swiss based Sauber said it will appeal the decision.

As per their appeal, a provision result for the race has been given and final decision will only be made after their hearing.

Australian GP - Result

Their disqualification means that Felipe Massa has moved upto 7th place, Sebastien Buemi in 8th and Both Force India cars of Adrian Sutil and Paul Di Resta in 9th and 10th position.

Sebastian Vettel the undisputed champion shows the real pace of Red Bull with clearly finishing the race 22.2sec ahead of second driver Lewis Hamilton.

The race had seen 6 drivers retiring and 7 are overlapped by the world champion while 2 are disqualified.

Lewis Hamilton shows the performance of the upgraded Mclaren finishing 2nd ahead of Vitaly Petrov.

Petrov is well adjusted with the team and stronghold his position as the Main Driver of the team. This is the first podium finish for Petrov.

The first race of the season shown the plight on drivers due to the rule changes.  The major setback in 2011 is the Pirelli tyres which has seen teams to manage their tyres more rather than focusing on driving. But still the drivers manage to finish the race with only 2 pit stop except for Mark Webber and Ferrari’s in the top runners.

Both the Red Bulls complaint for the tyre degradation during the race.

After fighting for place with Mark Webber, Petrov, Massa, finally Fernando Alonso finished 4th in his Ferrari.

Mark Webber struggled during the race with the strategy for the tyres failing.

Jenson Button finished 6th after being penalize to drive through penalty for cutting the track and overtaking Felipe Massa during the initial stages of the Race.

((

Rookie driver Sergio Perez has shown his excellence by finishing 7th with only 1 pit stop with the ever degrading Pirelli Tyres. Perez has taught all other drivers the method to manage their tyres and really made a mark of what he is capable of. Looking like a future World champion.

Kamui Kobayashi again after a great performance during the practice and qualifying finished the race 8th ahead of Felipe Massa Ferrari.

)) - Due to technical infringement Sauber was disqualified, from the race. Click to follow

Sebastian Buemi filled the last of the top 10 slots. (Now in 8th). Following him were both Force Indians Car VJM04. After a poor performance during the practice and Qualifying, Force India proved reliable and finished the race 11th and 12th. (9th and 10th). There is a lot of improvement required for Force India as they are clearly lagging in pace against midfielders Sauber and Toro Rosso. May be the scenario changes if Sauber car has to be modified for next race.

Jarno Trulli of Lotus was 15th. (Now in 13th) Team Lotus again showed the lack of reliability with their car with Heikki Kovalainen retiring earlier.

It was a day of accidents and problem for Rubens Barrichello who was earlier on lap 1 avoided collision with Sergio Perez and moved wide on gravel trap. With a collision with Nico Rosberg during the race saw a front wing change for the Williams. The problems lead him to retire of the race.

It is not the start that was expected by the Mercedes as both of their drivers were unable to complete the race. Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg both retired at the same time. Michael was involved in a collision on the starting lap. With only 3 tyres on his MGP W02 he went to the pits for a tyre change and was at the back of the grid.

Rookie Pastor Maldonado of Williams was the first to retire.

Original Time Posted after the Race is finished:

Modified and Final Race Times, after the Sauber - Ferrari C30 car were disqualified for the technical infringement. Sauber accepted the decision and has not appealed for the disqualification.

Nico Rosberg Qualified 7th while Michael Schumacher qualified 11th only

Michael Schumacher suffered a miserable start to the new Formula One season when the Mercedes driver finished 11th in qualifying ahead of Sunday's Australian grand prix.

Schumacher had this week expressed confidence that Mercedes would be in a group behind Red Bull, fighting for podiums and potential wins but following a poor qualifying session Schumacher will start behind a Sauber and a Toro Rosso.

After a promising winter testing and competitive times in practice for the Australian Grand Prix, there were expectations that Schumacher might get back to challenging for wins after an anti-climactic comeback in 2010.

"Clearly that was not an ideal start to the season," Schumacher said. "I cannot deny that I am disappointed.

"From our testing experience, we were around the pace of Ferrari. However, this did not translate today. We faced more problems here than at the test with several issues throughout the whole weekend.

"We now have to look deeply into it to understand why it turned out to be like this, because for the moment we are not where we want to be."

"We're not exactly where we want to be, but we don't know the reasons as to why. We have various theories, but we have to analyse and understand, and then take the necessary actions."

"For Red Bull it's the first time they have shown their full potential ... On top of that, we are not exploring our maximum from the car," he said. "So it's both that are making the picture look very different to what it should be."

With team-mate Nico Rosberg seventh, the team principal Ross Brawn was also a far from happy man, and at a loss to explain why both cars have been beset with irritable issues.

"Without doubt, today was quite a disappointing qualifying session for the team," said Brawn. "We expected to be more competitive. However, we haven't got the car working as well as we had hoped.

"The fundamentals are good, but we've had too many challenges this weekend to be able to get the most out of it. We are in good shape for the race in terms of tyre availability and the car looked pretty reasonable on the longer runs, so let's wait and see what happens."