Fuel strategies played heavily into today’s race with 3 stops being the order for Ferrari and 2 stops for McLaren. Many more stops were preformed by the various teams for one reason or another. What seemed to be a certain 2nd place finish for Rubens Barrichello was ruined when the left front wheel would not tighten correctly on the first attempt. The resulting extra 5 seconds gave the position to Kimi Raikkonen, which was not desirable for Michael’s point tally. What the team needed was for the Finn to not score any points and that was not to be.

7 cars finished on the lead lap and the top 8 points paying positions are as follows: M Schumacher, Raikkonen, Barrichello, R Schumacher, Coulthard, Alonso, Montoya and Button.

The event was run under perfect conditions and no incidents occurred other than mechanical failures. Jacques Villeneuve was the 1st car to drop out and in total 6 cars failed to finish.

The next race will be the Spanish grand prix in 2 week’s time where the Ferrari F2003-GA is fully expected to be raced.

In light of the loss to the Schumacher family this report will not further elaborate on the race.

Article by: Tony Moffett