FEBRUARY 28, 2002

Melbourne gets underway with big crowd

THE Australian Grand Prix kicked off on Thursday with local races being watched by a first day crowd of 51,300 people - the second biggest first day crowd in the history of the event, beaten only by the first year in 1996 when F1 was new to Melbourne. The arrival in F1 of Mark Webber (and the massive publicity being generated by Webber) will obviously have helped but interest in the race in Melbourne seems to be at all all-time high.

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