Atlas F1 News Editor
Despite another victory for Michael Schumacher - his seventh of the year - the British Grand Prix provided the most exciting race of the 2002 season, with plenty of overtaking, drama and on-track battles. Atlas F1's Pablo Elizalde reviews the entire weekend's events and results
Yet it's hard to imagine that the 60,000 spectators that filled the Silverstone grandstands had any reason to complain after witnessing what was by far the most entertaining and dramatic race of the 2002 season, despite the top spot belonging once more to the dominant German Ferrari driver.
As usual, it was down to the rain to turn the much predictable current Formula One into a chaotic yet thrilling show that provided more excitement than any of the nine previous races. If Schumacher is to continue with his dominance this year, something that is highly possible, Formula One fans must be hoping that at least the remaining races are as exciting as Sunday's.
Ferrari and Schumacher demonstrated once more that no matter what the circumstances, there's just no stopping them in 2002, and in a display of driving ability combined with the mastermind and coolness of Ross Brawn, the Italian squad left most of their rivals in an embarrassing position.
Of those fighting for the top spots, only the Maranello team got everything right every time their ability to react to difficult situations was put to the test. Meanwhile, Williams, Renault and especially McLaren failed in their attempts to get closer to the dominant red cars.
As usual too, Schumacher benefitted from the misfortunes of his closest rivals, most notably Rubens Barrichello having to take the start from the back of the field after stalling on the grid. The unlucky Brazilian, who had held the upper hand over his teammate in qualifying, made it clear that he could have been the man to beat had he not endured problems.
As thrilling as the race was, it was only a shame that Juan Pablo Montoya's Michelin tyres were not up to Bridgestone standard despite claims from the French manufacturer that it's Ferrari who are making the difference in the tyre war.
"We are very satisfied because if you forget Ferrari, which is in a class of its own, we have been very competitive on both wets and intermediates," said Michelin boss Pierre Dupasquier. That being correct, it is also true that their tyres were not as consistent and versatile as their rivals', as it was clear when both Montoya and the Ferrari drivers were running intermediates.
"If you look at the top six the only guy on Michelins is myself," said Montoya. "The team has done a big step forward this weekend with the new aero package and to finish 15 seconds behind it is not that bad now. I think we have got a really good engine, the chassis works well but we need a little bit more downforce. I think the biggest issue at the moment is the tyres."
Apart from Schumacher, Barrichello and Montoya, the rest of the men who were supposed to be fighting for the points in England managed to do their best to fail in their attempt, some of them "receiving" the assistance from their teams. Ralf Schumacher had all sorts of problems with the refuelling rig that saw him fall out of contention. The wrong tyre choice, a pitstop blunder, and an engine blow-up put an end to Kimi Raikkonen's strong drive.
No one, however, had a more eventful and chaotic race than David Coulthard, whose race was hampered by very wrong calls, radio problems, and driving errors that led to a supposed radio outburst of anger while the British team decided whether to call the Scot in to change his tyres.
Their loss, however, was BAR drivers' gain, who took advantage of the right call on the right time and, aided by perhaps the most competitive 004 of the season, managed to finally score their first points of the 2002 season, a relieve for the Brackley-based squad, who are now only one point behind the also Honda-powered Jordan team and one ahead of Jaguar.
The Ford-owned outfit left the Silverstone circuit with nothing to show for, and perhaps with more questions than answers after debutting the heavily revised R3B. The new Cosworth-powered machine struggled in qualifying both for speed and reliability, with Pedro de la Rosa almost failing to qualify. In the race, their pace did not improve and the Spanish driver went on to finish 11th more than two laps down.
In the end, Arrows managed to find the money and were able to race, and for the poor reliability of the engines that stopped them from competing on Friday, Heinz-Harald Frentzen would have probably finished in the points. Hopefully for Formula One, the German and his team will have another chance in France in two weeks time.
Qualifying
Not even Juan Pablo Montoya himself managed to explain where he found the time to grab a dramatic last-gasp pole position, his fourth consecutive start from the top spot, his fifth in ten races in 2002, and his seventh in only 27 Formula One Grands Prix.
After having struggled to match the pace of the Ferraris during most of the hour-long session, Montoya was not the only one surprised by the pace of a final flying lap which relegated Rubens Barrichello to second place when it looked like the Brazilian was set to take his second pole at Silverstone.
Montoya crossed the finish line when the 60 minutes of the session had already ended, stopping the clock on 1:18.998, becoming the only man to complete a lap in the 1:18 bracket to the surprise of most of the people in the pitlane.
"You never think you have it in the bag until the last lap," said Ferrari's technical chief Ross Brawn. "Montoya's time was surprising, although we can take comfort from the fact we were doing similar times throughout the session, while he really had to put in an incredible lap."
The lap was incredible indeed, as Montoya was nearly half a second quicker than he had been all session long using the revised BMW-powered car. The FW24 presented a new aerodynamic package for the Silverstone race, that Montoya claimed it helped stabilise the rear end of the car and which allowed him to be very fast in the last two sectors of the circuit.
Barrichello, aided by a new qualifying-spec Ferrari engine that made its debut on Saturday, overcame the problems with the traffic and a loose seat belt to better Schumacher's best time of 1:19.042, set on his second flying lap after changing the front wing of his car. Barrichello replaced the rear wing of his F2002 and jumped onto the track with some 15 minutes left of the session, beating the German's time by a mere hundredth of a second.
Both Barrichello and Schumacher managed to improve on the dying seconds of the session, but not enough to surpass Montoya's time, having to settle for second best for the fourth time in a row. After two victories and two second places, Schumacher remained calm despite missing out on the front row for the third time in the last four races.
"I am reasonably confident for the race, but it is hard to say what everyone's race pace will be as we have not done that much running in dry conditions," said Schumacher, who was only .044 seconds off pole. "Starting on the second row, we will need a good strategy and we must wait and see if we can be quicker than the others."
The fight for fifth spot took place between the McLaren drivers, who were unable to get nowhere near the pace of the Williams or the Ferraris. After trailing teammate David Coulthard for most of the session, Kimi Raikkonen put on another brilliant display of speed to outqualify his more experienced partner for the sixth time this season.
Raikkonen's time was especially good considering he endured a troubled session, where he suffered his umpteenth mechanical failure with the Woking-based team and was forced to switch to the spare car. Coulthard, meanwhile, had to settle for sixth as he struggled with the balance of his Mercedes-powered car. The Scot, knowing that his car has been constantly better in race trim, was nonetheless optimistic.
"It's going to take a lot of luck and a lot of bad luck for Williams and Ferrari," he said. "But I think we'll be stronger in the race than we have been in qualifying. We'll do the best we can and hopefully it will be a good race for us. If we can go away from here knowing that we got the most from the car and possibly with a podium I'll be happy."
Further down the grid, for the Jaguar team all the changes to their recalcitrant R3 meant that everything stayed the same. Despite claiming they were happier with the R3B, which provided "a lot of downforce", Eddie Irvine and Pedro de la Rosa were unable to edge away from the bottom of the grid, with the Ulsterman finishing in 19th position.
Spaniard de la Rosa, who lost nearly the whole session while his mechanics tried to fix the misfiring engine, managed to leave the pits with two minutes remaining, earning a place on the final row of the grid by the skin of the teeth. Malaysian Alex Yoong did fail to qualify, leaving the Minardi team with only one car for the second time this season.
The Race
"I selected first gear on the formation lap and the engine turned itself off," explained Barrichello. "It was a shame because I thought of Barcelona again, not having the ability to start."
With no further dramas, the start took place and Juan Pablo Montoya was able to keep his rivals at bay, with Michael and Ralf following closely. Kimi Raikkonen was fourth, David Coulthard fifth, Jarno Trulli sixth, and Renault teammate Jenson Button right behind after a brilliant start from 12th. There was a bit of drama at the back, with Scot Allan McNish stalling on the grid, and Felipe Massa spinning off the track after running over the grass. The Sauber driver, unlike McNish, was able to continue at the back of the field.
Barrichello was already flying around the track, completing the first lap in 14th position, the second in 11th, and by lap five the Brazilian was already up to eighth, demonstrating the superiority of his package. The other Ferrari was right behind Montoya, as the Colombian and Schumacher began to open a small gap to Raikkonen, who had easily overtaken Ralf as a thin rain began to fall on the circuit.
By around lap 11, the rain turned torrential and the first pitstops took place, with both Arrows drivers Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Enrique Bernoldi being the first ones to switch to intermediates. Only one lap later, most of the drivers had pitted, except Coulthard, whose McLaren team were confident that the track would dry up quick enough.
The Scot, however, struggled to even push the throttle, completing three consecutive laps of more than two minutes - more than 20 seconds off the pace - before he finally pitted. "I went on the radio to say that I was coming in and whilst the mechanics could hear me, the pit wall was had some interference on their radios from the digital TV commentators and was unable to hear me," explained the Scot. "When the team then told me to come in, I was already past the pitlane entry."
Despite coming into the pits earlier than his teammate, Raikkonen was not lucky either, his mechanics losing a lot of valuable time as they ran to find the right tyres. The same thing happened to Ralf Schumacher, who dropped down the order as a consequence.
In the end, Montoya ran wide at Abbey and Schumacher moved ahead easily, quickly disappearing into the distance. On lap 20, the German was more than 12 seconds ahead of the Colombian, who was then forced to do his best to keep a charging Barrichello at bay, the Brazilian having recovered brilliantly from his blunder at the start.
The rain had stopped and the track began to dry up, and some of the most adventurous teams decided to call their drivers in to switch back to dry weather tyres. In an attempt to recover from all the lost time earlier, Coulthard was the first man to pit, dropping back to 15th position. Raikkonen and both the Renault drivers also came into the pits.
The track, however, was far from dry, and Coulthard's nightmare continued, not only because he spun, but because the rain began to fall once more, forcing him to return to the pits, but not before suffering yet another spin he was lucky to survive.
As the race reached its halfway point, Schumacher continued unaltered in the lead, with Barrichello around 13 seconds behind and Montoya already 40 seconds off the leader. Jacques Villeneuve had moved up to fourth thanks to the right calls from his BAR team.
The scheduled round of pitstops was triggered by Ralf Schumacher on lap 31, his mechanics unable to get the refuelling rig working, which forced the German to return to the pits two laps later. Both Schumacher and Barrichello pitted on lap 33 before returning to the track again in the lead and with intermediate tyres on their cars.
A dry racing line finally began to show by lap 35, and the drivers began to switch to dry tyres. Nick Heidfeld, running in seventh place, was among the first ones to pit, with fourth-placed Villeneuve following suit soon afterwards.
Montoya and Barrichello, then running closely, pitted on lap 40, the Ferrari driver emerging on top of the Colombian. Montoya, however, as usual one of the fastest men on cold tyres, pulled a fantastic move coming out of Bridge, diving down the inside of the Ferrari to move up to second. Barrichello was determined to fight back though, and once his Bridgestone tyres got up to temperature, the Ferrari driver was all over the back of the Williams, eventually passing Montoya at the end of the straight.
Barrichello then began to pull away easily, but his gap to Schumacher was by then too big and the German cruised during the final laps to score his second win at Silverstone, moving him to just a whisker of clinching his fifth title in a record time.
So ideal that the Ferrari driver will have his first match point at Magny-Cours in two weeks time, needing to increase his lead by six points over Barrichello. Failing to do that, he will only need to score 15 points in the seven remaining races.
Barrichello, the quickest man of the day, had to settle for second place after his fantastic charge to the front, with Montoya finishing in a distant third place, again failing to translate his amazing qualifying into his first race win of the season.
"It was a crazy race because of the changing weather conditions," Montoya said after the race. "The rain came and decided the race as we could not keep pace on our tyres.I was lucky not to crash with people because the difference in terms of speed with some of our competitors is great."
Everything worked in the Italian team's favour at Silverstone, and if their advantage in the dry is already enormous, the rain proved that until Michelin improve their wet weather tyres, none of their teams are likely to be able to challenge Ferrari.
The rain, however, made for the most exciting race of the year, if at least for the positions from second to 22nd, which considering Schumacher's domination is the best any racing fan can hope for.
Lap 1: Juan Pablo Montoya is unchallenged at the start as Barrichello is no longer there and so the order as the field goes into the first corner is Montoya, Michael Schumacher, Ralf Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen. Then comes Jarno Trulli and a fast-starting Jenson Button. In the run down to the first corner Felipe Massa gets onto the grass and spins at the first corner and has to rejoin at the back of the field. Allan McNish's race ends at the start as his Toyota fails to get off the line. In the course of the first lap Barrichello moves up to 14th place. At the end of the lap rain begins to fall at the southern end of the circuit. At the end of the lap Massa has a second off-track moment.
Lap 2: The order at the front is unchanged but Barrichello continues to make progress passing Eddie Irvine for 13th position.
Lap 3: Michael Schumacher closes up on the leader Montoya while behind them Raikkonen overtakes Ralf Schumacher for third position. Barrichello passes Enrique Bernoldi to move to 12th.
Lap 5: Barrichello overtakes Nick Heidfeld to move to 10th place. Further back Giancarlo Fisichella drops to 18th behind Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Mark Webber.
Lap 6: The battle at the front continues but it is Barrichello who is making progress moving up to eighth by overtaking Jacques Villeneuve and Mika Salo.
Lap 7: Bernoldi overtakes Heidfeld to take 11th place. Frentzen is also on the move, overtaking Takuma Sato for 15th.
Lap 8: Mika Salo has a big spin at the first corner and drops from eighth place to 11th. Frentzen passes Irvine for 14th.
Lap 9: Massa overtakes Pedro de la Rosa to move back to 18th.
Lap 11: Sato passes Irvine to take 15th position. At the back Massa has a spin and drops behind de la Rosa again.
Lap 12: After the leaders have gone through the rain intensifies and the Arrows and Sauber teams are able to pull in Frentzen and Massa for intermediate tyres. This gives them a big advantage.
Lap 13: The majority of the cars head for the pits. Coulthard, de la Rosa and Sato stay out. There are problems in the pits for both Raikkonen and Ralf Schumacher. Coulthard has an off and Massa has another spin. David loses the lead to Montoya before the end of the lap.
Lap 14: Montoya's lead over Michael Schumacher is 5.5 seconds with Coulthard third, Trulli fourth, Barrichello fifth and Button sixth. Ralf Schumacher is seventh with Raikkonen behind him and then comes Frentzen, who has made up a lot of places thanks to his early stop. De la Rosa pits and drops to the back of the field again. Sato also stops after a spin.
Lap 15: It is clear that the Michelin tyres are no match for the Bridgestones and Michael Schumacher takes three seconds off Montoya in the course of the lap. Coulthard pits and falls from third to 11th. Panis overtakes Irvine to move to 13th.
Lap 17: Schumacher's lead is out to an amazing 6.2 seconds as Barrichello closes up on Montoya. Raikkonen returns to the top six by passing Button for sixth place.
Lap 18: Raikkonen passes Ralf Schumacher for fifth place and Frentzen passes Button for seventh. Irvine falls behind both Fisichella and Heidfeld, the two men also switching places in the course of the lap. Fisichella emerges 14th.
Lap 19: Barrichello passes Montoya for second place, while Heidfeld re-passes Fisichella for 14th. Irvine has an off and drops away from this fight.
Lap 20: Schumacher's lead over Barrichello is 12.6 seconds while Barrichello moves four seconds ahead of Montoya in one lap.
Lap 21: Raikkonen passes Trulli for fourth place. Frentzen retires with an engine problem.
Lap 22: Villeneuve passes Button to move up to seventh place. and further back Massa passes Panis for 11th.
Lap 24: Raikkonen pits for dry tyres and falls from fourth to eighth. Villeneuve passes Trulli and so is in fifth place. Heidfeld passes Panis for 10th while Irvine spins out of the race. Sato overtakes de la Rosa at the tail of the field.
Lap 25: The Renault team decides to bring in both men for dry tyres. Trulli's stop delays Button. Coulthard shows that the track is still wet by having a spin.
Lap 26: Arrows decides to change Bernoldi on to dry tyres and so he falls from sixth place to 11th. As this happens the rain returns and those on wets are in big trouble.
Lap 27: Bernoldi and Trulli go back to the pits for intermediate tyres.
Lap 28: Coulthard has another spin and pits as do Button and Raikkonen.
Lap 29: Michael Schumacher remains comfortably ahead of Barrichello with Montoya third, Ralf Schumacher fourth and Villeneuve fifth. The rest of the field is now lapped. Massa has a spin and loses sixth place to his team mate Nick Heidfeld. Panis is now eighth with Fisichella ninth and Raikkonen 10th. Sato has another off track moment but stays ahead of Button, de la Rosa, Trulli and Coulthard who are all two laps behind. Bernoldi pulls off an retires.
Lap 30: Massa pits for repairs and falls from seventh place to ninth. De la Rosa also pits and drops behind Coulthard at the back of the field. Trulli pulls off and retires.
Lap 32: Barrichello spins but does not lose a place.
Lap 33: Schumacher and Barrichello come and go from the pits without problems rejoining on intermediates still in first and second positions. Montoya is third with Villeneuve fourth, Heidfeld fifth and Panis sixth. A lap behind are Fisichella, Ralf Schumacher, Massa, Raikkonen, Sato and Button. Coulthard and de la Rosa are two laps behind.
Lap 35: Ralf Schumacher returns to the pits to refuel again, obviously not having taken on enough fuel in his earlier stop. He falls from ninth to 10th.
Lap 36: Coulthard comes in again and has a long pit stop as the team tries to sort out tyres.
Lap 38: The track is drying again and so cars and coming in for dry tyres. The first of the major runners to do so is seventh placed Heidfeld.
Lap 39: Villeneuve and Fisichella pit.
Lap 40: Barrichello, Montoya, Panis and Massa all pit for new tyres when they rejoin Montoya is ahead of Barrichello again. The order is Michael Schumacher, Montoya, Barrichello, Villeneuve, Panis, Heidfeld, Fisichella, Ralf Schumacher, Massa, Raikkonen and Sato.
Lap 43: Michael Schumacher pits and rejoins with a lead of nearly 15 seconds.
Lap 47: Barrichello finally passes Montoya for second place.
Lap 51: Sato disappears with a smoky engine failure.
Lap 54: Button pits and retires with a wheel problem.
Lap 60: Michael Schumacher wins his 60th Grand Prix victory. Barrichello is second with Montoya third. A lap down are the two BAR-Hondas scoring their first points of the year, Villeneuve leading home Panis and the final point goes to Heidfeld, who finishes just ahead of Fisichella. The rest straggle home.
There was nothing new about Michael Schumacher scoring his seventh win in ten races this season at last Sunday's British Grand Prix. No British driver managed to score a point, and the two top British teams could do nothing to stop Ferrari from a one-two finish - their fourth of the season.
Barrichello's charge from 21st to second place in only 20 laps was a magnificent display of driving in very changeable conditions, and for a moment it even looked as if he was going to repeat his feat of the 2000 German Grand Prix, where he took victory after starting from 18th position. In the end he was rewarded with six points that allowed him to move to second place in the Championship which, considering Schumacher's form, can be considered a very valuable achievement.
After a superb pole position, and a great and clean battle with Barrichello, Montoya's third place was the best he could have hoped for given the circumstances, and he was happy to finally return to the points after three consecutive retirements.
It was certainly ironic to see the green cars being clearly outperformed all weekend by the Arrows team, whose cars - powered by the same Cosworth engines - stayed grounded on Friday due to the delay in the payment to the company headed by Jaguar boss Niki Lauda.
"It was a big surprise to be honest," said the Williams driver. "I really was expecting to get on the second row... I didn't have a clue about the balance of the car or anything. Then right at the end we seemed to get it. The balance was good but to be honest, I don't know where it came from. I don't mind."
It never looked as though the Colombian would be able to get close, and let alone beat, the pace of the Ferraris, who had topped every practice session of the weekend, with Barrichello holding the upper hand over teammate Schumacher, who again seemed unconcerned about missing out on the front row. Although considering the kind of success he has enjoyed this year, it was hardly a surprise.
Just like teammate Montoya, Ralf Schumacher never looked capable of beating the Ferraris, but the German was unable to extract as much as the Colombian from the Williams and had to settle for fourth place more than three tenths of a second off the pace.
Renault's Jarno Trulli was just two tenths slower than the Scot in seventh, while Finn Mika Salo, who had been forced to sit out Friday practice due to a bout of food poisoning, qualified in a terrific eighth for the Toyota team, proving once more than the Japanese engine is among the most powerful units of the field.
Pos Driver Team Time
1. Montoya Williams BMW (M) 1:18.998 234.279 km/h
2. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 1:19.032 + 0.034
3. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1:19.042 + 0.044
4. R.Schumacher Williams BMW (M) 1:19.329 + 0.331
5. Raikkonen McLaren Mercedes (M) 1:20.133 + 1.135
6. Coulthard McLaren Mercedes (M) 1:20.315 + 1.317
7. Trulli Renault (M) 1:20.516 + 1.518
8. Salo Toyota (M) 1:20.995 + 1.997
9. Villeneuve BAR Honda (B) 1:21.130 + 2.132
10. Heidfeld Sauber Petronas (B) 1:21.187 + 2.189
11. Massa Sauber Petronas (B) 1:21.191 + 2.193
12. Button Renault (M) 1:21.247 + 2.249
13. Panis BAR Honda (B) 1:21.274 + 2.276
14. Sato Jordan Honda (B) 1:21.337 + 2.339
15. McNish Toyota (M) 1:21.382 + 2.384
16. Frentzen Arrows Cosworth (B) 1:21.416 + 2.418
17. Fisichella Jordan Honda (B) 1:21.636 + 2.638
18. Bernoldi Arrows Cosworth (B) 1:21.780 + 2.782
19. Irvine Jaguar Cosworth (M) 1:21.851 + 2.853
20. Webber Minardi Asiatech (M) 1:22.281 + 3.283
21. de la Rosa Jaguar Cosworth (M) 1:23.422 + 4.424
22. Yoong Minardi Asiatech (M) 1:24.785 + 5.787 *
* Outside the 107%
With very threatening clouds but with no signs of rain over Silverstone, all the cars lined up on the grid with dry weather tyres, and as the field got ready for the formation lap, disaster stroke for Rubens Barrichello, his Ferrari engine stopping. The unlucky Brazilian was forced to take the start from the back.
The Finnish McLaren driver began to catch the leading duo, as Montoya did his best to keep Schumacher behind him in a car that was clearly faster. As the rain got heavier and the track got more slippery, the incidents intensified, with both Toyota's Mika Salo and Massa again lucky to be able to continue in the race after spinning.
After a frantic few minutes, all the cars resumed the race with intermediate or full wet weather tyres, with Montoya still in the lead ahead of Schumacher, Trulli, Barrichello and Button. Montoya, however, wouldn't hold onto the lead for much longer, with Schumacher clearly taking advantage of the better performance of his Bridgestone intermediates, lapping up to three seconds quicker.
As if things were not looking good enough for Schumacher, Barrichello made his only mistake of the race on lap 33, losing control of his Ferrari and spinning. The Brazilian was able to continue in second place, but the gap to Schumacher had increased to more than 20 seconds.
"I am delighted because it was a very special race today," Schumacher said. "It was all or nothing at various moments. It is number 60 and Silverstone hasn't given me too many victories. And in terms of the Championship it is obviously ideal to finish again like that."
There were no teams without points after Silverstone, where BAR finally returned to the top six after months of drought thanks to Villeneuve's fourth place and Oliver Panis' fifth. The Brackley-based squad were the only ones with both their cars in the points, apart from the all-conquering Ferraris, of course.
CLASSIFIED
Pos Driver Team Time
1. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1h 31:45.015
2. Barrichello Ferrari (B) + 14.578
3. Montoya Williams BMW (M) + 31.600
4. Villeneuve BAR Honda (B) + 1 Lap
5. Panis BAR Honda (B) + 1 Lap
6. Heidfeld Sauber Petronas (B) + 1 Lap
7. Fisichella Jordan Honda (B) + 1 Lap
8. R.Schumacher Williams BMW (M) + 1 Lap
9. Massa Sauber Petronas (B) + 1 Lap
10. Coulthard McLaren Mercedes (M) + 2 Laps
11. de la Rosa Jaguar Cosworth (M) + 2 Laps
12. Button Renault (M) + 5 Laps
Fastest Lap: Barrichello, 1:23.083, lap 58
NOT CLASSIFIED / RETIREMENTS
Sato Jordan Honda (B) 51 Engine
Raikkonen McLaren Mercedes (M) 45 Engine
Trulli Renault (M) 30 Mechanical
Bernoldi Arrows Cosworth (B) 29 Mechanical
Irvine Jaguar Cosworth (M) 24 Spun out
Frentzen Arrows Cosworth (B) 21 Mechanical
Salo Toyota (M) 16 Mechanical
Webber Minardi Asiatech (M) 10 Clutch
McNish Toyota (M) 1 DNS
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP STANDING, ROUND 10:
Drivers: Constructors:
1. M.Schumacher 86 1. Ferrari 118
2. Barrichello 32 2. Williams-BMW 61
3. Montoya 31 3. McLaren-Mercedes 37
4. R.Schumacher 30 4. Renault 14
5. Coulthard 26 5. Sauber-Petronas 10
6. Raikkonen 11 6. Jordan-Honda 6
7. Button 10 7. BAR 5
8. Fisichella 6 8. Jaguar-Cosworth 3
9. Heidfeld 6 = Toyota 2
10. Trulli 4 = Arrows 2
= Massa 4 = Minardi-Asiatech 2
12. Irvine 3
13. Villeneuve 3
14. Webber 2
= Salo 2
= Frentzen 2
= Panis 2
Pos Driver Team Lap Time
1. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 58 1:23.083
2. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 52 1:23.826 + 0.743
3. R.Schumacher Williams-BMW (M) 58 1:24.586 + 1.503
4. Villeneuve BAR-Honda (B) 56 1:24.949 + 1.866
5. Heidfeld Sauber-Petronas (B) 57 1:24.996 + 1.913
6. Massa Sauber-Petronas (B) 57 1:25.058 + 1.975
7. Panis BAR-Honda (B) 58 1:25.063 + 1.980
8. Fisichella Jordan-Honda (B) 58 1:25.104 + 2.021
9. Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 5 1:25.409 + 2.326
10. Montoya Williams-BMW (M) 50 1:25.469 + 2.386
11. Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes (B) 56 1:25.492 + 2.409
12. de la Rosa Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 57 1:25.540 + 2.457
13. Sato Jordan-Honda (B) 46 1:25.804 + 2.721
14. Button Renault (M) 5 1:26.074 + 2.991
15. Trulli Renault (M) 5 1:26.519 + 3.436
16. Salo Toyota (M) 4 1:26.723 + 3.640
17. Bernoldi Arrows-Cosworth (B) 5 1:27.328 + 4.245
18. Irvine Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 5 1:27.781 + 4.698
19. Frentzen Arrows-Cosworth (B) 6 1:28.111 + 5.028
20. Webber Minardi-Asiatech (M) 7 1:28.321 + 5.238
Pos Driver Team Time Lap
1. Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes (B) 31.151 28
2. Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes (B) 31.236 15
3. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 31.463 40
4. Bernoldi Arrows-Cosworth (B) 31.468 27
5. Massa Sauber-Petronas (B) 31.469 40
6. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 31.909 43
7. Trulli Renault (M) 32.211 28
8. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 32.580 33
9. Trulli Renault (M) 32.642 13
10. Fisichella Jordan-Honda (B) 32.656 39
11. de la Rosa Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 32.730 30
12. Heidfeld Sauber-Petronas (B) 32.815 38
13. Button Renault (M) 32.999 36
14. Bernoldi Arrows-Cosworth (B) 33.100 26
15. Panis BAR-Honda (B) 33.228 40
16. Fisichella Jordan-Honda (B) 33.268 13
17. Massa Sauber-Petronas (B) 33.283 30
18. Sato Jordan-Honda (B) 33.364 14
19. R.Schumacher Williams-BMW (M) 33.398 35
20. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 33.430 33
21. Massa Sauber-Petronas (B) 33.817 12
22. Heidfeld Sauber-Petronas (B) 34.017 13
23. Montoya Williams-BMW (M) 34.021 40
24. Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 34.167 28
25. de la Rosa Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 34.536 37
26. Sato Jordan-Honda (B) 34.574 37
27. Villeneuve BAR-Honda (B) 34.600 13
28. Trulli Renault (M) 34.746 25
29. Montoya Williams-BMW (M) 34.905 13
30. Salo Toyota (M) 34.978 13
31. Button Renault (M) 35.075 27
32. Bernoldi Arrows-Cosworth (B) 35.199 13
33. Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 35.330 37
34. Villeneuve BAR-Honda (B) 35.332 39
35. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 35.378 13
36. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 35.531 13
37. Irvine Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 36.381 13
38. Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 36.441 24
39. Frentzen Arrows-Cosworth (B) 36.915 12
40. de la Rosa Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 37.050 14
41. Panis BAR-Honda (B) 38.591 13
42. Button Renault (M) 48.287 13
43. Button Renault (M) 48.855 25
44. Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes (B) 51.227 36
45. Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes (B) 53.408 23
46. R.Schumacher Williams-BMW (M) 54.279 31
47. R.Schumacher Williams-BMW (M) 54.574 13
48. Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:02.575 13
The British Grand Prix, Lap by Lap
During the recognition laps Olivier Panis's BAR stops out on the circuit and Panis has to rush to the pits in order to take over the spare car. As the field sets off on its warming up lap, Rubens Barrichello is left on the pre-grid. The car is started but Rubens has to start the race from the back of the field.
Lap 4: Schumacher is on Montoya's tail with a gap of three seconds back to Raikkonen. Barrichello moves to 11th place by overtaking Olivier Panis. The BAR driver is also passed by Enrique Bernoldi's Arrows.
Lap 10: Mark Webber goes off and retires from 17th place.
Lap 16: Michael Schumacher takes the lead and by the end of the lap has an advantage of 2.4 seconds. Barrichello passes Trulli for third place. Ralf Schumacher overtakes Button to move up to fifth. Mika Salo retires from 12th place with a transmission problem. Massa passes Irvine for 13th.
Lap 23: Ralf Schumacher overtakes Trulli for fifth place. The track is drying and Coulthard decides to take a risk and pits for dry tyres. He falls from 11th to 15th.
Lap 31: Ralf Schumacher comes in for his refuelling stop but the machine malfunctions and he falls from fourth place to eighth.
Lap 45: Raikkonen goes out with a mechanical problem.
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