World champion Michael Schumacher claimed Ferrari’s first victory of the season after winning the San Marino Grand Prix on Sunday.
World champion Michael Schumacher claimed Ferrari’s first victory of the season after winning the San Marino Grand Prix on Sunday.
But it was a sad day for Schumacher and his brother, Ralf, who competed at Imola after hearing that their mother had died earlier in Cologne. Michael wore a black armband and Ralf had a black stripe on his helmet in memory of their mother.
The elder Schumacher lost pole position at the beginning of the race, but fought hard to win the lead back. Kimi Raikkonen, who still leads the driver standings, was second, followed by Rubens Barrichello and Ralf Schumacher.
Ralf Schumacher seemed to be on track for his first podium finish of the season, but was overtaken by Barrichello late in the race. David Coulthard was fifth.
It was a tactical battle between Schumacher and Raikkonen, with the two men finishing less than two seconds apart. However, Schumacher only closed his deficit in the standings by two points.
The McLaren team took advantage of a two-stop strategy while the other teams pitted three times. Raikkonen used this plan to keep Ferrari under pressure.
The race started dramatically with the Schumacher brothers battling from pole position. Ralf Schumacher managed to edge past his brother in the run down to the first corner. He stayed ahead of the world champion for 15 laps before Michael managed to edge ahead after he, Ralf, Barrichello and Juan-Pablo Montoya all pitted within two laps of each other.
Montoya also pushed hard, but his hopes of top-three finish ended after a fuel rig failure in his second pit stop forced him to pit for a third time a lap later. He then dropped from fourth to seventh.
Results:
1 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1hr 28min 12.058sec, 2 Kimi Raikkonen McLaren at 1.882 secs, 3 Rubens Barrichello Ferrari 2.291, 4 Ralf Schumacher Williams 8.803, 5 David Coulthard McLaren 9.411, 6 Fernando Alonso Renault 43.689, 7 Juan Pablo Montoya Williams 45.271, 8 Jenson Button BAR one lap, 9 Olivier Panis Toyota one lap, 10 Nick Heidfeld Sauber one lap, 11 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Sauber one lap, 12 Cristiano Da Matta Toyota one lap, 13 Jarno Trulli Renault one lap, 14 Antonio Pizzonia Jaguar two laps, 15 Giancarlo Fisichella Jordan five laps.
Overall driver standings:
1 Kimi Raikkonen 32pts, 2 David Coulthard 19, 3 Michael Schumacher 18, 4 Fernando Alonso 17, 5 Rubens Barrichello 14, 6 Ralf Schumacher 13, 7 Giancarlo Fisichella 10, 8 Juan Pablo Montoya 10, 9 Jarno Trulli 9, 10 Heinz-Harald Frentzen 7, 11 Jacques Villeneuve 3, 12 Jenson Button 3, 13 Nick Heidfeld 1.
Constructors’ standings:
1 McLaren 51pts, 2 Ferrari 32, 3 Renault 26, 4 Williams 23, 5 Jordan 10, 6 Sauber 8, 7 BAR 6.