RACE RESULT 1 M Schumacher (Ferrari) 2 R Barrichello (Ferrari) 3 F Alonso (Renault) 4 R Schumacher (Williams) 5 JP Montoya (Williams) 6 J Button (BAR) 7 J Trulli (Renault) 8 D Coulthard (McLaren) Race result in full Ferrari surprised by edge Raikkonen slates McLaren Race as it happened

"I don't think it is hard to be motivated. I'm in the best team, we have a fantastic atmosphere. It's Ferrari," said the German.

"I have nothing to win anymore, but I just love the sport and fighting.

"I knew that we would be very, very competitive [in Melbourne], I knew we would be very strong - but that strong I didn't anticipate."

The six-time world champion is already looking ahead to the next Grand Prix in Malaysia on 21 March.

He believes that race will offer a clue to whether Ferrari can win a fifth straight constructors' title this year.

"I'm always mentioning Malaysia because I think that race shows the true picture," said Schumacher.

"It is ideal for us in Australia and maybe not so ideal for our competitors and their tyres and cars."

Race in pictures

"Conditions are not optimum for us in Malaysia and so that shows us where we're going to be.

"If we can compete there then we are going to be looking very strong, but if we hang in behind then maybe it will be more tough."

Schumacher was pleased to start the season far better than he had last year, when Ferrari made a series of errors in Australia.

We were doing some fantastic times Rubens Barrichello

"It's great to leave Australia with two more points than I had after the first three races last year," the world champion said.

Schumacher and Ferrari utterly dominated the race, opening up a gap of half a minute over their closest rival by halfway before easing off to conserve their cars.

Team-mate Rubens Barrichello was able to protect fading brakes in the closing stages and still finish more than 20 seconds ahead of Renault's Fernando Alonso.

Barrichello said: "We were doing some fantastic times but then I had some problems with my brake pads going down, down, down.

"Michael opened up a bit of a gap and I just couldn't compete with him."