NewsOnF1 - 2002 French GP

Michael Schumacher wins the French Grand Prix and also clinches his 5th World Title. Kimi Raikkonen finishes second with David Coulthard in 3rd. Juan Pablo Montoya was 4th ahead of his team-mate Ralf Schumacher with Jenson Button making the top 6.
Nick Heidfeld was 7th ahead of Mark Webber and Pedro de la Rosa. Alex Yoong made the top 10 with Allan McNish rounding up the rest of the classified finishers even though he spun out and ended up 7 laps behind.

It was a thrilling race with the lead changing a number of times. At the start, Rubens Barrichello for the second race in a row has a problem on the grid, this time though his mechanics couldn't get him going and he retires.
The start went well for Montoya who retained the lead with Michael Schumacher behind him. Kimi Raikkonen was 3rd with Ralf Schumacher in 4th ahead of David Coulthard.
Takuma Sato hits Olivier Panis at the start but they both manage to continue.
Felipe Massa jumps the start and receives a penalty and when he exits the pits after serving his penalty he crosses the white line and gets penalised again!.

The first few laps saw Michael Schumacher pushing hard to get ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya but with no avail. Kimi Raikkonen in 3rd kept in touch with the 2 in front. The top 5 cars in fact were all close together.

The order remains the same until the first round of pit stops. Juan Pablo was the first of the leading pack to pit and Michael Schumacher used the clear track in front of him to build a gap before he pitted 2 laps later. Michael succeeded in getting ahead of Juan Pablo via the pits but in the process crossed the white line while exiting and received a drive through penalty.
After the first round of pit stops and Michael's penalty, it was Montoya leading Raikkonen with Michael in 3rd ahead of Ralf Schumacher and David Coulthard. The gap between the top 5 drivers was just 4.4 seconds.

At the second round of pit stops, once again Montoya pits first and takes 11 seconds and Ralf Schumacher pits a lap later and he also crosses the white line and gets a drive through penalty. Michael Schumacher who couldn't get past Kimi Raikkonen makes his second stop a few laps later and manages to get in front of Montoya who appeared to struggle on his second set. Kimi Raikkonen pits a lap after Michael and manages to stay in front of Michael.
David Coulthard was the last of the top 5 to stop and managed to rejoin in 3rd just behind Kimi and Michael and ahead of Montoya. Coulthard make the same mistake as the 2 Schumachers and crossed the white line on his exit from the pits. He gets a drive through penalty as well!

The order after the second round of pit stops and Coulthards drive through penalty was Raikkonen, M Schumacher, Coulthard, Montoya and Ralf Schumacher.

Kimi Raikkonen was around a second ahead of Michael Schumacher with David Coulthard 10 seconds behind. Juan Pablo Montoya was losing around 1.5 seconds a lap and was being caught by Ralf Schumacher.

The order remained that was until 5 laps from the finish, Allan McNish suffers an engine failure and spins, Kimi Raikkonen runs wide as a result of the oil on the track and Michael Schumacher slips by.
With Barrichello out of the race and Juan Pablo Montoya running 4th and struggling, Michael in the lead was set to clinch his 5th World Title and he did.

Behind the top 3 teams, Renault went for a 3 stop strategy and Jenson Button managed to finish 6th and a lap down while his team-mate Trulli retired. Sauber had Heidfeld in 7th while Massa retired. Minardi managed to get both their cars home with Webber an impressive 8th and Yoong finishing 10th while Jaguar had Pedro de la Rosa finish in 9th while Irvine retired with a rear wing failure.
While McNish was classified as a finisher, he actually retired with an engine failure. His team-mate Salo also retired with an engine failure.
BAR failed to finish either of their cars, Villeneuve with an engine failure and Panis retiring possibly due to the accident at the start with Sato.
Jordan failed to finish their only starting car with Sato spinning out of the race.

So Michael Schumacher continues his stunning run winning his 8th race in a row this season and finishing in every race so far this season on the podium. He has clinched the Drivers' Title as none of the other drivers can catch him even if he doesn't race for the remaining 6 races!.
Juan Pablo Montoya has yet to convert a pole into a win this season.
The string of failures continue for both Mika Salo and Eddie Irvine. Salo with 5 in a row while Irvine has 4 in a row.
It is also worth noting the David Coulthard set the fastest lap of the race, his 5th in a row at Magny-Cours!

The battle for second place intensifies with Montoya now in 2nd with 34 points ahead of both Barrichello and Ralf Schumacher with 32 points each while David Coulthard is in 5th with 30 points.
In the Constructors' Championship, Ferrari have 128 points ahead of Williams with 66 and McLaren with 47. The resurgence of McLaren will worry Williams.

Just one week until the next race in Germany.

Click here of the Drivers' Championship table for this season

Next stop: The German GP on the 28th of July.

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