Michael Schumacher was in top form on home turf and dominated the European Grand Prix as Ferrari notched up a one-two finish at the Nurburgring on Sunday.
Michael Schumacher was in top form on home turf and dominated the European Grand Prix as Ferrari notched up a one-two finish at the Nurburgring on Sunday.
The six-time world champion started from his 60th pole position and drove an immaculate race to record his 76th career victory. With six wins from seven races, Schumacher led team-mate Rubens Barrichello at the finish and Jenson Button finished in third position securing his fifth podium position of the season.
At the start of the race Juan-Pablo Montoya locked his brakes at the first turn and slid into his Williams-BMW team-mate Ralf Schumacher. Ralf’s front right wheel and suspension were damaged in the impact and he veered to the left and collided with Cristiano da Matta’s Toyota. Montoya pitted at the end of the first lap for a new front wing, ending his hopes for a podium finish.
Meanwhile, Schumacher outpaced his rivals by three seconds a lap in the opening stages. Button tried his utmost to catch the two-stopping Barrichello in his Ferrari and was just 4,5 seconds behind the Brazilian at the end of the race. For BAR Honda, Button’s third place was bitter-sweet as it was Takuma Sato who should have gained the position.
Sato made history on aturday when he became the first Japanese driver to qualify for a Grand Prix on the front row. An error by Sato on the first lap let Kimi Raikkonen’s McLaren-Mercedes run second behind Schumacher for a while, but late in the race the Japanese driver exited the pits right behind Barrichello – who stopped just twice.
Sato made his only mistake of the day into turn one when his BAR Honda made contact with Barrichello’s Ferrari and he was forced to pit for a new front wing. Sato’s race was over when his Honda V10 expired soon afterwards.
Monaco Grand Prix winner Jarno Trulli had a quiet race in his Renault to finish in fourth position ahead of Fernando Alonso while Giancarlo Fisichella drove a solid race in his Sauber to finish in sixth position after starting the 60-lap race from the back of the grid.
Jaguar racer Mark Webber trebled his championship total to three points with a seventh place finish ahead of Montoya in his Williams-BMW who was lapped by race winner Schumacher.
Felipe Massa finished in ninth position in the second Sauber but could not match the pace of his team-mate Fisichella. Nick Heidfeld brought his Jordan Ford home in tenth position, half a second behind Massa.
Toyota’s Da Matta retired at the first turn and his team-mate Olivier Panis showed little pace in his TF104 – finishing almost half a minute behind Heidfeld.
Christian Klien finished 12th in his Jaguar ahead of Giorgio Pantano in the second Jordan and the two Minardis of Gianmaria Bruni and Zsolt Baumgartner (three laps off the pace).
McLaren had another disappointing race. Raikkonen ran second during the early laps only to have his McLaren’s Mercedes V10 engine expire yet again. David Coulthard started the race from the pitlane following an engine change on Saturday, but it was another pointless day for the McLaren driver as he too suffered what looked to be an engine failure.
But at the front, Schumacher was in a class of his own. His career points total now stands at 1 098 points from 202 starts.
