Revisted: Schumacher sent airborne in terrifying Australian GP start crash

When Ralf Schumacher was hoping to take his Williams team to new heights in the 2002 F1 season, being launched into the air at Turn 1 was probably not what he in mind. 

From third on the grid, Schumacher's progress to the right-hand side was initially blocked by the pole-sitting Ferrari of Rubens Barrichello and brother Michael, as Schumacher the younger moved back to the right-hand side. 

However, Barrichello threw out the anchors a tad earlier than expected, taking Ralf completely by surprise as the Williams launched over the back of the Ferrari, forcing Barrichello's head down into the cockpit in the days pre-HANS as the Williams carried on to nerf the barrier at the end of the Turn 1 run-off. 

But behind, even more chaos had been caused, with six further cars caught up in the melee.

Giancarlo Fisichella, Jenson Button, Felipe Massa, Nick Heidfeld, Olivier Panis, and Allan McNish all engaged in a spot of carbon confetti, with the Renault of Button even briefly catching fire. 

It led to the hilarious scene of a posse of drivers all legging back to the pits to take the restart after the red flag period for the clean-up - but there was only one problem: There was no red flag.

Race director Charlie Whiting opted to cover the incident under the safety car, meaning the spare cars were out and the field was reduced to 13 runners, which soon became just eight by Lap 33 after the Arrows pair of Enrique Bernoldi and Heinz-Harald Frentzen were disqualified for start infringements, Jarno Trulli crashed, Takuma Sato's electrics headed for the departure lounge of Tullamarine International whilst Jacques Villeneuve's wing broke as David Coulthard's gearbox joined Sato's electrics in departures.

Remarkably, that left home favourite Mark Webber running a stunning fifth for the underdog Minardi team. 

Minardi had scored just one point since 1995 (coming in 1999) as Webber famously held off Mika Salo on Toyota's debut to bank an emotional fifth-place in front of his home crowd.

Webber then had his own impromptu podium ceremony - which would be the only time he would stand on the podium at his home GP, with fourth his best official finish. 

For the record, as he would do 11 times from 17 races, Michael Schumacher won on his way to a fifth world title...