NewsOnF1 - 2002 San Marino GP

Michael Schumacher wins his 3rd race of the season ahead of his team-mate Rubens Barrichello making it a Ferrari 1-2 at their first of 2 home races in Imola. The Williams were no match to the Ferrari here with Ralf Schumacher finishing third and Juan Pablo Montoya in 4th. Jenson Button finished an impressive 5th ahead of David Coulthard in the McLaren who finished a lap down on Michael.
Jacques Villeneuve gave his team some encouragement finishing 7th and ahead of Massa and Trulli. Nick Heidfeld had to make 4 pits stops as he finished in 10th ahead of Mark Webber making up the rest of the finishers.

It was the first Ferrari 1-2 finish since the team won both titles last year at the Hungarian Grand Prix. It is also the first time since the 2000 Japanese Grand Prix that the top 3 from Qualifying finish the race in the same order.

At the start, Ralf Schumacher managed to get ahead of Rubens Barrichello for second while both Renault drivers got ahead of Heidfeld who started in 7th.
Top 10 after the first lap: M Schumacher, R Schumacher, Barrichello, Montoya, Raikkonen, Coulthard, Trulli, Button, Heidfeld and Massa. Allan McNish was the first retirement of the day after suffering a gearbox failure at the start.
Michael Schumacher quickly began building a gap to Ralf Schumacher while Rubens remained relatively close to Ralf. Juan Pablo Montoya was dropping behind in 4th with Raikkonen able to pull away from Coulthard. It seemed as if Montoya and Coulthard were on a single stop while the rest of the top 6 were o 2 stops.

The 2 Sauber were the first to pit on lap 18 and 19. Heidfeld had a long stop struggling with the re-fuelling hose and had to stop again 2 laps later only to learn that he was speeding in the pit lane and had to pit for a third time.
The top 6 remained until lap 31 before stopping making it seem as if they were on a single stop.
After the first round of stops, Michael Schumacher remained in the lead with Rubens Barrichello taking back his second place from Ralf Schumacher. Juan Pablo Montoya remained in 4th with Kimi Raikkonen in 5th and Jenson Button managing to get ahead of David Coulthard and his team-mate Jarno Trulli via the pits.

Kimi Raikkonen heads back into the pits on lap 45 to retire. while the rest continue in the same order.

The second round of stops came around lap 46 and all the top runners make a pit stop. It is interesting that they all seem to have adopted very similar strategies.
The order after the second round of stops was M. Schumacher leading Barrichello with R Schumacher in third ahead of Montoya, Button and Coulthard.

The order remained the same until the end of the race with Michael Schumacher winning with Rubens Barrichello in second and Ralf Schumacher in third.

The race highlighted the strength of the new Ferrari compared to the Williams. We also witnessed for the first time a Renault beating McLaren on merit, it was indeed an impressive drive by Jenson Button who has made a rebound from a disastrous 2001 season. McLaren were humiliated, as not only they've had only one car finish the race but Coulthard was a lap down.
Jacques Villeneuve was also impressive after he managed to finish 7 ahead of the 2 Sauber and Jarno Trulli. It seems that BAR might be turning around. Mark Webber also kept his cool and managed to finish the race yet again just outside the top 10 in 11th place.

Arrows, Toyota, Jaguar and Jordan failed to finish either car while Oliver Panis and Enrique Bernoldi remain without being classified as finishers for the 4th race in a row!

In the Drivers' Championship, Michael Schumacher leads with 34 points, 14 points ahead of Ralf Schumacher. Juan Pablo Montoya is third with 17 and Jenson Button is 4th with 8 points.

In the Constructors' Championship, Ferrari takes the lead from Williams with 40 points against 37. McLaren now have 9 points followed by Renault with 8.

Click here of the Drivers' Championship table for this season

Next stop: The Spanish GP on the 28th of April.

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