NewsOnF1 - 2002 Italian GP

Rubens Barrichello wins his 3rd race of the season ahead of Michael Schumacher and Eddie Irvine. Jarno Trulli, Jenson Button and Olivier Panis make the top 6.

In what was hoped to be a thrilling race turned out to be thrilling for the first few laps. At the start Ralf Schumacher managed to make a brilliant start and got ahead of Michael Schumacher and then Juan Pablo Montoya at the first chicane, Rubens Barrichello also managed to get ahead of Michael Schumacher for 3rd.
Those 4 immediately started to build a gap to Raikkonen who managed to get ahead of Irvine at the start.
At the start of formation lap, Jarno Trulli had a problem getting away and had to start from the back but given the superior launch control on the Renault he made up a number of places at the start.
During the first few laps, Barrichello was pushing Montoya hard but without success in passing him but on lap 4, Ralf Schumacher who was leading suddenly slowed down and both Montoya and Rubens passed him. Ralf retired shortly afterwards with an engine failure.

Rubens Barrichello managed to get ahead of Juan Pablo and a lap later Michael Schumacher gets ahead of him. The 2 Ferraris then started building a gap and it was clear at that stage that the Williams in race trim wasn't close enough to Ferrari even on this type of track.

Barrichello starting pulling a gap to Michael and it became clear that he was on a two stop strategy. Just before his first pit stop, he was over 16 seconds ahead of Michael.
A number of other drivers also opted for a 2 stop strategy and that included Panis, Heidfeld and Sato.

Around lap 30, the single stoppers went in and following that Rubens Barrichello regained the lead ahead of Michael Schumacher with Juan Pablo Montoya in 3rd and a long way behind.
Kimi Raikkonen running in 4th suffered an engine failure on lap 30 and retired.

On lap 34 Juan Pablo pits for an unscheduled stop and retires with a suspension problem possibly as a result of riding the kerbs.
With Juan Pablo Montoya retiring, any threat to the 2 Ferraris in front disappeared. Rubens Barrichello before his second stop had lapped all the runners except for his team-mate.

On lap 37, Barrichello pits for his second and final stop and rejoins just ahead of Michael. Once that was settled the Ferrari drivers were just having fun. Rubens and Michael would take turns in slowing down and even letting other drivers un-lap them!.

In the end Rubens slowed down to let Michael close and they crossed the finish line in formation. Even then they finished over 50 seconds ahead of 3rd placed Eddie Irvine.

Irvine finishing in 3rd gave a huge boost to his team. They have now achieved 2 strong results and will likely do well in the final 2 races of the season. Similarly, both Renaults managed to finish in the points as they seem to have managed to get their cars a bit more reliable so as to cross the finish line. Jarno Trulli who finished in 4th was particularly impressive after having to start the race from the back of the gird.
Olivier Panis managed to score a point for BAR.

So with Barrichello winning the race he now extends his lead over Montoya to 17 points and with just 2 races to go, his second place in the Championship is all but sealed. He just needs 3 points from the next 2 races even if Montoya manages to win both which is pretty unlikely.

By failing to score any points, Williams failed to clinch second in the Constructors championship but again with just 2 races to go, they just need to score 3 points even if McLaren manage to finish 1st and 2nd in both races which is pretty unlikely too.

Renault are now 9 points ahead of Sauber and that almost secures 4th place for them while Jaguar have come from almost nowhere to take 6th and threat even Sauber for 5th.

Click here of the Drivers' Championship table for this season

Next stop: The US GP on the 29th of September.

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