Bernie Ecclestone has no choice but for the Australian Grand Prix to return to the start of the season, it was claimed.

The Melbourne race was switched from its traditional season-opening slot to April this year after Bahrain and Malaysia in order to accommodate the Commonwealth Games.

A return to the top of the schedule was expected, but in the run-up to the Albert Park race last weekend, Ecclestone questioned the logic in such a move.

Formula One's commercial rights holder was impressed with the television viewing figures for this season's first race in Bahrain, helped by a Europe-friendly start time.

However, Victoria state premier Steve Bracks dismissed any notion of Melbourne not hosting the first race of 2007.

"I was there when we renegotiated the contact and one of the conditions was that it is the first race of the Formula One calendar every year," he said.

"That is a firm contract and we will revert to being the first race in the future."

Ron Walker, who helped organise the Commonwealth Games and is the driving force behind the Australian Grand Prix, backed up Bracks.

He said: "Our contract obliges the organisers to have us as the first race. Mr Ecclestone knows that TV ratings are lower here than Bahrain because that's closer to the European time zone."

Bracks signalled his intention to hold on to the race beyond the end of Melbourne's current contract, which expires in 2010.

The city has the option of a five-year extension and he suggested that would be taken up.

"Of course we want this race for as long as we can get it," he added. "The reason we put in an option beyond 2010 is that we want a good deal. We believe we've got great value for money."

Bracks hailed the Grand Prix as the perfect end to a three-week festival of sport in Melbourne which began with the Commonwealth Games.

Ticket sales were down slightly for this year's race but Bracks, whose state government fund the race, was impressed by the turn-out.

A crowd of 102,000 were there to see Fernando Alonso win an incident-packed race and Bracks said the weekend was a success.

"More than 100,000 were here again, more than 300,000 here over the whole weekend," he said. "It's a spectacular event and of course what we look forward to is this major event occurring year after year here.

"It was down slightly on last year, but we had record ticket sales for the Commonwealth Games and we went from the first event of the year to the third.

"Of course that's going to have some impact, but to have attained more than 100,000 it's a job well done."