Irvine Drives Ferrari to Australian Grand Prix Victory

Eddie Irvine of Ireland, Ferrari’s No. 2 driver, won his first Grand Prix race today as the new McLarens failed to go the distance in the Australian Grand Prix at Melbourne.

Defending F-1 champion Mika Hakkinen and McLaren teammate David Coulthard were forced out inside 21 of the 57 laps around the 3.295-mile Albert Park circuit in the first race of the season.

Only eight cars finished of the 21 starters, with Ireland’s Irvine, in his 82nd race, beating Jordan’s Heinz-Harald Frenzten, with Williams’ Ralf Schumacher third.

McLaren dominated qualifying and Ferrari had virtually given up hope of winning the race.

“We’re disappointed. We had a very good car here this weekend and I’m just sorry we weren’t able to repeat the result of last year,” said the dejected Coulthard, second behind Hakkinen here last year.

Golf

For the fifth time in his career, Greg Kraft has the lead heading into the final round after firing a two-under-par 70 in the Doral-Ryder Open at Miami. The last time he did it was the 1996 Deposit Guaranty Classic, when he lost a four-stroke lead by closing with a 71. In all, only one of those final-round leads produced a victory, the 1993 Deposit Guaranty, which wasn’t an official PGA event at the time.

“A lot of guys made a push, but they were from back in the pack,” said Kraft, at 11-under 205. “That took the pressure off me because I was still leading.”

Ernie Els shot a 70 for a 207 total and is trying to win his second consecutive 72-hole event on tour. Glen Day, who won nearly $1.3 million last year but still hasn’t cashed a first-place check, is also at 207 after a bogey-free 67. Veteran Andy Bean and Scott Dunlap, a 35-year-old Nike Tour grad, are at 208.

Boxing

David Reid, the 1996 Olympic champion in only his 11th professional fight, scored a one-side decision over Laurent Boudouani of France to win the World Boxing Assn. super-welterweight title at Atlantic City, N.J.

In a bruising, brawling 10-round heavyweight bout, Lou Savarese got up from a sixth-round knockdown to score a split decision over previously unbeaten Lance Whitaker.

Heavyweight Henry Akinwande, in his first fight since having to pull out of a title bout against Evander Holyfield, stopped Reynaldo Minus in the second round at Minneapolis. Will Grigsby retained his International Boxing Federation junior-flyweight title with a unanimous 12-round decision over Carmelo Caceres.

Winter Sports

Alexandra Meissnitzer of Austria captured the overall World Cup title with a fourth-place finish in the super-G at St. Moritz, Switzerland, that was won by teammate Michaela Dorfmeister. American Kathleen Monahan finished third. . . . Andreas Schifferer of Austria won his second World Cup downhill in two days at Kvitfjell, Norway, and Lasse Kjus of Norway finished second, maintaining his lead in the race for the overall title.

Led by rising star Tatiana Malinina and world champion Alexei Yagudin, Russian skaters dominated in the finals of the ISU Grand Prix at St. Petersburg, Russia, a tuneup before the world ice skating championships in Finland later this month. Malinina upset two-time European figure skating champion Maria Butyrskaya and Yagudin outskated fellow Russians Alexei Urmanov and Evgeny Plushenko and American Michael Weiss.

Names in the News

Houston businessman Bob McNair, leading Houston’s bid for an NFL expansion team, wrote to eight franchises he believes could possibly be up for sale to let their owners know he’s interested in buying a team and moving it to Houston.

Blaine Wilson and Jennie Thompson of the United States won the men’s and women’s all-around titles at the American Cup gymnastics meet at St. Petersburg, Fla. Wilson, the U.S. national champion, won his third consecutive American Cup title.

USC freshman Sultan McCullough ran the fifth-fastest 100-meter time in school history (10.17 seconds) in his collegiate track debut at the Trojan Invitational. His previous best was a wind-aided 10.24.

A controversial rule in the pole vault came into play at the World Indoor Championships at Maebashi, Japan, and France’s Jean Galfione defeated American Jeff Hartwig because of it. While clearing 19 feet 8 1/4 inches, Galfione touched the bar. The rule specifies that it’s a foul if a vaulter deliberately tries to replace the bar that is about to fall from the supports. A U.S. appeal was rejected.

Freshman Suzannah Johnson scored with one second left in double overtime to give the top-ranked USC women’s water polo team a 7-6 victory over No. 4 UCLA at Westwood.