The reigning champion, Michael Schumacher along with teammate, Rubens Barrichello would race the 2001 Ferrari car due to the team struggling in some areas of development for the new car.
The starting grid had a Ferrari front row lockout with Barrichello in P1 and Schumacher in P2. The Williams of Ralf Schumacher followed on from his brother in P3 and McLaren driver David Coulthard was in P4.
During the warm up lap, both Arrows drivers, Heinz-Harold Frentzen and Enrique Bernoldi stalled their stationary cars, resulting in a pit lane start.
As the lights went out, going into the first corner Barrichello braked too early, causing R. Schumacher to collide with the rear of his Ferrari. The incident caused a further six drivers to crash. As Felipe Massa attempted to avoid the collision, he crashed into Giancarlo Fisichella causing a domino effect involving Felipe Massa’s Sauber teammate, Nick Heidfield, Alpine’s Jenson Button, BAR’s Oliver Panis, and Toyota’s Allan McNish. Kimi Räikkönen was able to escape with no damage. The rest of the grid were able to weave through the mess left behind.
A safety car was deployed and due to M. Schumacher and Räikkönen having to dodge the collision, it allowed Coluthard to take the lead. During this time, Räikkönen pitted to remove debris and to replace the front wing. As Frentzen was leaving the pits, he drove through the red light in the pit lane, indicating to him that he was to remain in the pits.
After 5 laps, the safety car went in. Coulthard was leading, followed by Jarno Trulli, Juan Pablo Montoya, and the remaining Schumacher.
The McLaren of Coulthard started to pull away from the pack with a 4.5 second lead. Takuma Sato was able to overtake Pedro de la Rosa for sixth. The home hero, Mark Webber – after dealing with differential and traction control problems – fell back behind Räikkönen into eighth. He continued to lose positions as the race went on. Jacques Villenueve overtook him, putting Webber into P9. Räikkönen was storming ahead, having overtaken Sato and de la Rosa.
Going into lap nine, Trulli – who was second – lost control and span, hitting the wall and ending up in the middle of the track. This promoted Schumacher to P2 after a long battle with Trulli. A safety car was deployed, allowing Schumacher to catch up with the race leader. As the safety car went back into the pits, Coulthard made a grave mistake of leaving the track. He was able to re-join in fifth. The slip up allowed Schumacher to take the lead, but with Montoya right behind him, the Colombian snatched the lead from him just as fast as he got it. Montoya led the Grand Prix for another four laps.
On lap 14, Sato had to retire due to an electronics issue affecting his gear changes that was unable to be solved. Lap 17 saw Schumacher take back the lead and pull away from the rest.
Frentzen was disqualified for his earlier mistake of ignoring the red light in the pits.
In just five laps, Schumacher had gained an 11 second lead. The same lap saw Enrique Bernoldi being disqualified from the race due to switching to a spare car after the race had started.
Jacques Villeneuve’s 100th race saw a less than desirable end as he had rear wing failure, which resulted in him being sent into the wall at high speed on lap 28. Coulthard, who had been dealing with mechanics problems all race, took the title of final retiree seven laps later due to his McLaren being stuck in sixth gear.
Webber was the first driver of the top six to pit. However, with a 34.9 second pit stop, he rejoined in sixth. Montoya and Schumacher pitted on laps 37 and 38, while Räikkönen was out on track setting the fastest lap time of 1:25.841.
The first four positions were set. However, for fifth and sixth there was a battle going on between Webber and Mika Salo. By the penultimate lap, Salo had closed the gap between the two drivers. Salo attempted to overtake but spun on liquids left behind from Button’s car. He managed to restart the car and finish the race in sixth, scoring points for the first time for his team in their debut season.
The reigning champion, Michael Schumacher took his first win of the season, with Montoya 18.6 seconds behind achieving P2, and Räikkönen a further six seconds behind for P3. Eddie Irvine finished in P4. Alex Yoong and de la Rosa finished in seventh and eighth.
Written by Chloe.
Featured Image Credit: Getty Images
The Fastest Sector 