Length:4.309 km
Number of Laps:71 (305.909 Km)
Best Lap: M. Schumacher - 1'14''755 (2000, Ferrari)
Record Pole: J. Montoya - 1'13''114 (2002, Williams)
2002 Pole: J. Montoya - 1'13''114 (Williams)
2002 Podium: M. Schumacher - R. Schumacher - D. Coulthard

Controversy from start to finish was the order of the day, and the weekend. After the surprise pace of Webber in the Jaguar and the furore over the wet in qualifying the rest of the race followed the pattern of the weekend.

It was touch and go whether the race would actually happen due to torrential rain prior to the race. The cars did finally set off, fifteen minutes late, but only behind the safety car. On a track that was more like a river than a race circuit it looked like it wasn’t only Oxford and Cambridge taking part in a boat race today.

After several laps of parading, the safety car left the race to start proper. Barrichello held the cars up for a little too long before hitting the gas to put some pace in the race.

The Senna s-bend was to prove the undoing of many drivers as standing water remained there for much of the race and claimed top contenders including Michael Schumacher and Montoya.

Continual safety car intervention resulted in lots of tactical pit action as the teams tried to make some sense of an increasingly dangerous and farcical situation.

However, the crowd’s favourite managed to take his scarlet car to the front of the field. Having been held up by the slower McLaren of Coulthard for several laps Rubens was all too pleased to overtake and start to lap at speeds that suited him.

His glory, and the pleasure of the crowd, was to be short lived. The second Ferrari failed on lap 47 and Barrichello was forced to retire for the tenth time in front of his adoring compatriots.

Raikkonen was left leading the diminished field for the second consecutive race. When Coulthard pitted for the final time it was Fisichella and Alonso who looked strong behind the young Finn.

The Bridgestones on the Jordan gave Fisi an advantage and he easily caught and overtook the McLaren of Raikkonen on lap 54, putting an ecstatic Jordan team into the lead.

Webber’s excellent weekend took a serious knock when he crashed on the final corner and the unfortunate Alonso ploughed straight into the wreckage of the Jaguar, crashing his Renault at high speed.

The young Spaniard managed to get out of the Renault but could only sit by the side of the track nursing an injured leg.

His accident caused the race to be red flagged and stopped on lap 55.

Fisichella and Jordan were delighted and thought that they had won the race, giving the Italian his first ever grand prix win, but it was not to be. The rules state that when the red flag is shown it is the positions from two laps earlier which stand as the result leaving Fisi in second and Raikkonen with his second win of his career and the season.

Final madness to an eventful race was the Jordan catching fire once parked up in parc fermé at the end of the race.

Raikkonen and Fisichella took the podium but the third step was empty as Alonso had to be taken for medical treatment.

Result: Raikkonen, Fisichella, Alonso, Coulthard, Frentzen, Villeneuve, Webber, Trulli.

Article by: Dawn Barnes