NewsOnF1 - 2002 Canadian GP

Michael Schumacher wins his 6th race of the season and the 150th for Ferrari ahead of David Coulthard and Rubens Barrichello. Kimi Raikkonen, Giancarlo Fisichella and Jarno Trulli make the top 6.
Juan Pablo Montoya who started from Pole retired with an engine failure.

At the start of the race Juan Pablo Montoya got away well and kept the lead while Rubens Barrichello managed to get past Michael Schumacher. Kimi Raikkonen benefiting from the superb McLaren launch control managed to get ahead of Ralf Schumacher while David Coulthard starting from 8th managed to get ahead of both Fisichella and Heidfeld and take 6th place.

Barrichello overtook Montoya for the lead on the second lap and it was clear at that stage that he was on a 2 stopper. He started to gradually build a gap to Montoya who in turn was building a gap to Michael. Behind the top 3, Kimi Raikkonen was clearly holding up Ralf Schumacher but Ralf couldn't do much about it while Coulthard remained in 6th.

Jacques Villeneuve was the first retirement of the day and as his car was stopped on the track, the safety car was deployed so the marshals could remove it. Juan Pablo Montoya decided to head into the pits and switch to a 2 stop strategy. He rejoined in 5th.
Rubens Barrichello took the lead as a result with Michael Schumacher in second.

Once the safety car went in, Barrichello started to build the gap again to Michael Schumacher but his 2 stop strategy was already spoiled due to the safety car. Meanwhile Montoya in 5th made a fantastic move on both Ralf Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen and passes both. However as a result of his early stop, he was lapping slower than Michael at this stage due to a heavier fuel load.

On lap 26 Rubens Barrichello pits giving the lead to Michael, he rejoined behind Coulthard. Michael continued to increase the gap over Montoya until his pit stop which came in at lap 38. Michael rejoined in second just ahead of the Raikkonen - Ralf battle.
The race order was - Montoya, M Schumacher, Raikkonen, R Schumacher, Coulthard and Barrichello.

The drama starts for the Williams teams on lap 42 when Ralf Schumacher pits. They have a problem with the refuelling and let him go back out and return the following lap as they fix the problem. As a result of these 2 stops, he drops back to 7th place and outside of points contention.

On lap 51 Montoya pits for his second stop giving the lead to Michael Schumacher. He rejoins in 3rd but a couple of laps later Barrichello pits for his second stop moving Montoya into 2nd place.

Juan Pablo Montoya was 9 seconds behind Michael Schumacher and started to close the gap. It looked set to be an exciting finale to the race, however a few laps later Juan Pablo Montoya lost his engine and retired easing the pressure off Michael Schumacher.

Montoya's retirement moved Coulthard into 2nd (he managed to get ahead of Raikkonen via the pits) and Rubens Barrichello continued trying to pass him without success. Kimi Raikkonen was in 4th with Fisichella in 5th and Trulli in 6th. Ralf Schumacher was 7th and fighting with Trulli for the last point.

With a few laps remaining Michael Schumacher starts to slow down and take it easy on his car and the gap between himself and Coulthard dropped from 20 seconds down to just over a second at the end of the race. Barrichello finished 3rd ahead of Kimi Raikkonen while Giancarlo Fisichella managed to yet again finish 5th ahead of Jarno Trulli. Ralf Schumacher finished 7th and in fact suffered an engine failure just after crossing the line!
Olivier Panis finished in 8th with Felipe Massa in 9th and Takuma Sato rounding up the top 10.

Michael Schumacher continues his impressive record this season of finishing on the podium in every race so far this season. Juan Pablo Montoya has suffered his second retirement in a row and so did Mika Salo, Jacques Villeneuve and Allan McNish.
Kimi Raikkonen has managed to finish a race after 7 attempts and Olivier Panis has finished a race for the first time this season..

So Michael Schumacher wins his 6th race of the season extending his lead in the Drivers' championship to 70 points while both his closest rivals (Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya) didn't score any points and remain at 27 points each.
David Coulthard remains in 4th place with 26 points while Rubens Barrichello is in 5th with 16 points.
In the Constructors' championship, Ferrari now have 86 points while Williams remain in 2nd with 54 and McLaren in 3rd with 33 points.

Click here of the Drivers' Championship table for this season

Next stop: The European GP on the 23rd of June.

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