While things looked promising for Kimi Raikkonen and his McLaren to once again dominate at the front of a race, Michael Schumacher smashed all hope as he went on to claim his 80th grand prix win on Sunday.
While things looked promising for Kimi Raikkonen and his McLaren to once again dominate at the front of a race, Michael Schumacher smashed all hope as he went on to claim his 80th grand prix win on Sunday.
Raikkonen qualified in pole position before Sunday’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone and was hoping to score a long-awaited victory for the McLaren team.
After the race’s start, Schumacher was stuck in fourth place behind Raikkonen, team mate Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button.
When the first round of pitstops was taken, Schumacher stayed out longer than most other drivers and after his first stop on the fifteenth lap, rejoined the race ahead of Raikkonen.
The two continued to battle before Raikkonen’s second stop of the afternoon when Schumacher again stayed on the track for longer than expected on his two-stop strategy.
With the race virtually sealed for Ferrari, the safety car was employed after Jarno Trulli’s Renault smashed into a tyre wall, spun several times and then somersaulted, littering the track with debris. Though the Renault driver escaped the incident unhurt, the safety car period allowed Raikkonen, Barrichello and Button to take their final pitstops.
When the race was restarted, Raikkonen made swift work of the two backmarkers separating him from Schumacher and was soon hounding the Ferrari again. The unyielding Schumacher managed to hold onto the lead and take his tenth win this season with over two seconds to spare.
Raikkonen finished strongly in the heavily revised McLaren MP4-19B which raced for the first time last weekend at the Magny-Cours circuit in France.
BAR’s Button, who had hoped for a podium finish from his home race, finished fourth. Though the Briton managed to sneak ahead of Barrichello in their first round of pitstops, the Brazilian and his Ferrari edged ahead of the BAR at their second stops.
Last year’s winner, Rubens Barrichello, finished third ahead of Button to claim the final podium position.
Juan Pablo Montoya finished close behind the two after beating off an attack from a charging Fisichella in the last laps of the race. Fisichella elected to start from the back of the grid after being penalised for an engine change during the practise session. The Italian drove a spectacular race to be in a points-scoring position by his first pitstop.
Coulthard was left in his team mate’s shadow and finished seventh in the second McLaren while Mark Webber drove aggressively to earn the Jaguar team a single point.