The race got off to a dubious start with the McLaren of Kimi Raikkonen running into the stalled Jaguar of Antonio Pizzonia who fortunately was unhurt as was Kimi. Pizzonia was also fortunate to find out his job with Jaguar is secure contrary to rumors prior to the race.

As the field charged toward and into the 1st turn the Renault of Jarno Trulli and the McLaren of David Coulthard made contact damaging the McLaren. Coulthard pitted as did several other drivers while the safety car was out. The field was under the control of the safety car for the 1st 5 laps and then the race resumed.

DC and Jenson Button made contact resulting in the McLaren dropping out after only 17 laps. This resulted in no points for the McLaren team which played right into the current constructors’ champions Ferrari. Villeneuve only lasted 12 laps before retiring and neither BAR scored points today. Jenson Button’s 9th place finish 2 laps down was the best the team could manage. Some fierce fighting between teammates Ralf Schumacher and Juan Montoya in the Williams was exciting to watch and later Ralf held of the Toyota of Da Matta for the final portion of the race, but wan unable to take 5th away from Ralf. The Williams was clearly not handling well as the FW-25 debut showed.

Only the 1st 4 cars finished on the lead lap, with 4 cars 2 laps down and 1 car 3 laps down to the leader. Mark Webber was in the fight for 5th with Ralf and Da Matta followed by Firman, Button, Heidfeld and Wilson in the 2 lap down category. Heidfeld was penalized with a drive through penalty on lap 55 for ignoring the blue/yellow move over flag. This resulted in a 10th place finish out of the points. Firman in the Jordan took the final point which won’t hurt his somewhat precarious seat with the team. Jos Verstappen ran alone 3 laps down, but did manage to finish in the Minardi.

Positions 13-20 were all DNFs and consisted of Fisichella in the 2nd Jordan, Panis in the 2nd Toyota and Frentzen in the 2nd Sauber retiring after 27 laps. The highly abrasive nature of this circuit required a 3 stop strategy for the Bridgestone teams and there was concern that Alonso might catch M Schumacher at the end of the race. This did not occur as lapped traffic helped Schumacher retain a lead impossible for Alonso to overcome.

The top 8 finishing positions are 1 M Schumacher/Ferrari, 2 Alonso/Renault, 3 Barrichello/Ferrari, 4 Montoya/Williams, 5 R Schumacher/Williams, 6 Da Matta/Toyota, 7 Webber/Jaguar and 8 Firman/Jordan. Michael Schumacher becomes the 1st 2 time winner of the season and also breaks a record of front row starts with the late Ayrton Senna.

The next race is Austria where Ferrari scored a 1-2 finish last year with Schumacher winning.

Article by: Tony Moffett