NewsOnF1 - 2002 British GP

Michael Schumacher wins the British Grand Prix ahead of his team-mate Rubens Barrichello and Juan Pablo Montoya. Jacques Villeneuve, Olivier Panis and Nick Heidfeld make the top 6.

It was a dramatic race with the weather playing a major role in determining the outcome of the race.
Even though the start of the race was dry, there was drama for Rubens Barrichello who stalled at the start of the formation lap and after his mechanics got him going he managed to start the race from the back of the grid.
At the start Montoya managed to keep the lead ahead of Michael Schumacher and Ralf Schumacher. Kimi Raikkonen was 4th ahead of Coulthard and Trulli.

The first 10 laps of the race were mainly dry and Michael Schumacher was pushing Juan Pablo but unable to pass. Barrichello meanwhile was making up ground and reaching 7th by the 11th lap.
Once the rain started falling heavily, the drivers went in for wet tyres and the superiority of the Bridgestone intermediates was obvious. Within a few laps Michael Schumacher managed to pass Montoya and a few laps later Barrichello did the same. The Ferraris were lapping between 3 to 4 seconds quicker than Montoya.
There was drama for McLaren in their pit stops with Raikkonen pitting to find that his tyres weren't ready for him while Coulthard had to go 2 laps on dry tyres.
Raikkonen however was impressive in the wet despite him running on Michelin tyres as he managed to pass a number of car ahead of him after his long stop.

Around lap 24, the rain eased a bit and McLaren and Renault had their drivers pit for dry tyres. That turned out to be a bad decision as the rain came back again and they had to stop again a couple of laps later.

At the front, Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello continued to build a gap over Montoya who managed to hang in their despite the performance of his wet tyres. Ralf Schumacher was 4th while Villeneuve was up in 5th with Heidfeld in 6th.

On lap 31 Ralf Schumacher went in for his second pit stop (his scheduled one) and had problems with the refuelling, his crew sent him back out without re-fuelling. This dropped him out of contention. A lap later Michael Schumacher pits for his scheduled stop and so does Barrichello, both rejoin the race on intermediates. Montoya remained out on the track.

As the rain starts to ease, Montoya starts closing the gap on the Ferraris in front and for a number of laps before his scheduled pit stop, he was lapping at around 3 seconds faster than the Ferraris.
On lap 40 both Montoya and Barrichello pit, both put on dry tyres. Barrichello retains the lead but Montoya managed to get past him a lap later.
Michael Schumacher pits for his second scheduled stop on lap 43 and switches to dry tyres and retains the lead by around 15 seconds.

Rubens Barrichello fights back and takes 2nd from Montoya on lap 46. Montoya tries to keep in touch but his tyres start to go off and is forced to give up and settle for 3rd.

The top 3 drivers appeared content with their places for the last few laps although Rubens Barrichello set the fastest lap of the race on lap 58 perhaps to prove a point after starting from the back of the grid.
Michael Schumacher went on to win the race ahead of his team-mate Rubens Barrichello while Juan Pablo Montoya was 3rd.

Behind the leading 3, Jacques Villeneuve in the BAR took advantage of the situation and managed to end up in 4th ahead of his team-mate Olivier Panis. It was the first points finish for BAR this season. Nick Heidfeld managed to score a point for Sauber by finishing 6th. Giancarlo Fisichella managed 7th ahead of Ralf Schumacher who lost any chance of a points finish due to the refuelling problems. Felipe Massa was finished 9th after having so many spins during the race which lost him a potential point scoring position. David Coulthard made up the top 10 and he had a nightmare race thanks to a bad strategy by McLaren in which he had to pit 4 times.
Pedro de la Rosa was 11th and Jenson Button was classified 12th but actually retired in the pits 6 laps down.
Takuma Sato, Kimi Raikkonen, Jarno Trulli, Enrique Bernoldi, Eddie Irvine, Heinz Harald Frentzen, Mika Salo, Mark Webber and Allan McNish failed to finish the race.

Michael Schumacher maintains his perfect finishing record finishing for the 10th time in a row this season. Even more impressive is that all this finishes were in the top 3.
Mika Salo continues his bad run failing to finish 4 races in a row while it is the 3rd non-finish in a row for Eddie Irvine.

In the Drivers Championship, Michael Schumacher leads Rubens Barrichello by a massive 54 points (86 to 32) while Juan Pablo Montoya is 3rd with 31 points and Ralf Schumacher is 4th with 30.

In the Constructors' Championship, Ferrari are now 57 points ahead of Williams (118 to 61) while McLaren remain in 3rd with 37 points.

Click here of the Drivers' Championship table for this season

Next stop: The French GP on the 21st of July.

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