Under difficult circumstances Michael Schumacher wins his first race
of the season ahead of Kimi Raikkonen and Rubens Barrichello. Ralf Schumacher,
David Coulthard, Fernando Alonso, Juan Pablo Montoya and Jenson Button make
the top 8.
Earlier today, Michael and Ralf Schumacher's mother Elisabeth Schumacher
passed away and the FIA exempted both drivers from participating in any pre or
post race ceremonies. Our condolences go to the Schumacher family. May their
mother rest in peace.
In the race and despite the tragedy facing him, Michael Schumacher proved
his dominance at this track and won the race convincingly. The gap to
Raikkonen was under 2 seconds at the end of the race but that was mainly due
to him slowing down.
Jos Verstappen who went off in qualifying had to start from the pit lane
and so did Ralph Firman who didn't make it to the grid.
At the start of the race, Ralf Schumacher takes the lead from Michael
Schumacher. Barrichello keeps third ahead of Montoya.
Webber had a very slow start while Pizzonia failed to start and was pushed to
the pits and managed to rejoin.
Order after the second lap: Ralf Schumacher, Michael Schumacher, Rubens
Barrichello, Juan Pablo Montoya, Kimi Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso, Olivier
Panis and David Coulthard
By lap 3 Michael started pushing Ralf Schumacher for the lead. Barrichello
and Montoya start catching up to the 2 leaders
By lap 6 the top 3 were within a second and Michael Schumacher had a couple
of tries at passing without success.
On lap 10 the order remained Ralf Schumacher, Michael Schumacher, Rubens
Barrichello, Juan Pablo Montoya, Kimi Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso, Olivier
Panis and David Coulthard
Panis stops at the end of lap 10 from 7th. Heidfeld and da Matta stop on
lap 12. Alonso pits on lap 14. Webber pits on lap 15 as does Trulli.
Ralf Schumacher pits on lap 16 and so does Button. Rubens Barrichello and Juan
Pablo Montoya pit on lap 17. Michael Schumacher pits on lap 18. Villeneuve and
Frentzen pit on lap 18.
All appear on track for a 3 stop strategy.
On lap 19 the order was: Kimi Raikkonen, David Coulthard (both yet to
stop), Michael Schumacher, Ralf Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello and Juan Pablo
Montoya.
Villeneuve retires with a mechanical problem on lap 20 while Mark Webber receives
a drive thru penalty for speeding in the pits.
Coulthard makes his first stop on lap 21 and Raikkonen follows on the next
lap. The 2 are on track for a 2 stop strategy explaining their lack of pace in
Qualifying. Raikkonen rejoins in 4th while Coulthard in 6th.
Justin Wilson retires in the pits on lap 24.
Olivier Panis pits on lap 28 for his second pit stop. da Matta pits on lap
29.
Juan Pablo Montoya makes his second stop on lap 30 while Ralf Schumacher pits
a lap later.
Montoya returns to the pits on lap 32 due to a refuelling problem.
Barrichello pits on lap 33 for his 2nd stop and Michael Schumacher pits a lap
later
On lap 38 the order was: Michael Schumacher, Kimi Raikkonen, Ralf
Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello, David Coulthard, Fernando Alonso, Juan Pablo
Montoya and Heinz Harald Frentzen.
Verstappen retires on lap 39.
Kimi Raikkonen makes his second stop on lap 44 and rejoins in 5th while
David Coulthard pits a lap later.
Ralf Schumacher makes his 3rd stop on lap 48. Michael Schumacher and Juan
Pablo Montoya pits for the 3rd time on lap 49.
Michael rejoins in the lead just ahead of Barrichello but lets him thru as he
tries to put in a fast lap to try and pass Ralf thru the pits. Barrichello
pits on lap 50 for his final stop and gets delayed due to a problem with his
right front tyre. He rejoins behind Ralf Schumacher!.
Firman retires with an engine problem on lap 52.
On lap 53 Ralf makes a small mistake and Barrichello capitalises and
manages to take 3rd.
Webber retires in the pits on lap 55
Fisichella retires with an engine failure on lap 58
Michael Schumacher has over a 10 second lead over Kimi Raikkonen towards
the end of the race and drops his pace and goes on to win his first race
of the season. Kimi Raikkonen and Rubens Barrichello make the top 3. Ralf
Schumacher, David Coulthard, Fernando Alonso, Juan Pablo Montoya and Jenson
Button makes the top 8.
So Michael Schumacher proved his dominance at this track driving almost
flawlessly (he had a moment in the race when he put a wheel on the grass but
recovered). Kimi Raikkonen has now finished on the podium 4 times in a row.
McLaren have yet again got their strategy right opting for a 2 stopper and
improving on their qualifying positions.
Williams couldn't match the Ferrari pace here however Ralf Schumacher drove
his best race so far this season while Montoya had to make an extra pit stop
due to a re-fuelling problem.
Fernando Alonso drove a superb race into 6th despite the fact that the Renault
wasn't suited to this track while Trulli continued to struggle this weekend.
The Renaults were also on a 2 stop strategy but it didn't appear to benefit
them as it did to McLaren.
BAR managed to score a point thanks to Jenson Button while Villeneuve suffered
another mechanical failure.
Olivier Panis finally made it to the end of the race this season but just
outside the points.
While the attrition rate was very low, all the Cosworth runners struggled
with problems. Webber in the Jaguar showed some good pace but his car failed
him. Pizzonia in the other Jaguar had a problem at the start and finished in
14th 2 laps down. The 2 Jordans had engine problems and retired (although
Fisichella was classified in 15th) while the 2 Minardis also failed to finish.
So in the Drivers' Championship, Kimi Raikkonen remains in the lead with 32
points ahead of his team-mate David Coulthard with 19 points. Michael
Schumacher moves into 3rd with 18 points ahead of Fernando Alonso with 17
points. Rubens Barrichello is 4th with 14 points ahead of Ralf Schumacher with
13 points while Juan Pablo Montoya is tied with Giancarlo Fisichella with 10
points each.
In the Constructors' Championship, McLaren lead with 51 points ahead of
Ferrari with 32 points and Renault with 26 points. Williams are in 4th with 23
points.
Looking at the qualifying fuel loads between some team-mates using the
first pit stop for each driver. Michael Schumacher had 2 laps of fuel on board
more than his team-mate Rubens Barrichello yet managed to out qualify him by
over 0.2 seconds.
Ralf Schumacher had 1 lap of fuel less than Juan Pablo Montoya but his gap was
over 0.4 seconds.
Kimi Raikkonen managed a superb 6th despite having a much heavier fuel load
than the rest of the top 10. He even had more fuel than his own team-mate who
only managed 12th on the grid.
Fernando Alonso was impressive managing 8th while his team-mate was down in
16th over a second slower, Alonso had only a lap worth of fuel less than his
team-mate.
Jacques Villeneuve out-qualified Jenson Button by over 0.2 seconds and had 2
laps more in fuel.
