Austrian GP - Zwelteg - 16 July 2000

M. Schumacher decided to start the Austrian GP in the spare car, not having been able to find the right setup for his normal race car. Irvine's replacement Luciano Burti did not enjoy a good start to his very first F1 GP. His car was wheeled out of the grid before the start due to an hydraulic leak and the Brazilian had to start from the pits with the spare car, which had been set up for Herbert. As the lights changed the two McLaren got away while both Ferrari and several other cars got involved in an accident causing the safety car to come out. Häkkinen took the lead in front of Coulthard, Salo, De La Rosa, Verstappen and Herbert. The accident had been caused by Zonta, who hit M. Schumacher from behind and sent him in a spin, causing several following cars to get entangled. M. Schumacher, Trulli and Fisichella retired, but Barrichello managed to keep going and soon was back into the points in sixth position. On lap three De La Rosa attacked and overtook Salo for third position. On lap four Barrichello overtook Herbert and took fifth position. On the following lap a puff of smoke came out of Frentzen's engine, the car span on its own oil and the German went out by the side and retired. On lap six Barrichello continued on his mission to move to the front by overtaking the Ferrari-powered Sauber of Salo. On the following lap R. Schumacher came to the pits with a damaged front for a new nosecone. After the mechanics had tinkered with the Williams for a bit, the car was wheeled into the garage. On the 12th lap Alesi made a good overtaking manoeuvre and passed Wurz, but the Austrian immediately overtook the Frenchman again. On the 13th lap the stewards announced that they were investigating Zonta (who was still in the race) over the accident at the start. On the following lap Verstappen suffered front suspension problems, went wide on a bend, kept the engine going, limped slowly back to the pits and retired. Alesi brought another attack on Wurz and this time managed to stay in front. On lap 17 Zonta and Diniz were both given 10-seconds stop-go penalties for their parts in the accidents at the start. On the same lap R. Schumacher's Williams reappeared out of the garage and rejoined the race, several laps down. Zonta and Diniz came into the pits for their stop-go penalties at the same time on lap 18. On lap 21 Häkkinen lapped Mazzacane, the last positioned driver. On lap 25 Alesi had his first pit stop (8.6 seconds). On lap 33 De La Rosa's engine produced a large amount of white smoke, kept going, returned to the pits and retired leaving Barrichello in third position, over 35 seconds behind Coulthard. On lap 36 Mazzacane, last except from R. Schumacher 7 laps behind, had his pit stop (11.6 seconds). On lap 38 Häkkinen, well in the lead, went for his pit stop (10.4 seconds) and rejoined behind Coulthard but still in front of Barrichello, who started pushing and put in the fastest lap. Heidfeld's pits top, one lap later, was 9.8 seconds. On lap 41 Coulthard came in for his only pit stop of the race (9.0 seconds) and rejoined in second position. On the same lap Alesi crashed into team mate Heidfeld while trying to overtake him and both drivers had to retire, leaving shards of carbon fibre all over the tarmac. On lap 46 Barrichello came into the pits for his one pit stop (8.0 seconds) and rejoined in third place. Button pitted from fourth and came back out in sixth position. On lap 51 Button lost control of his car, went into the gravel but managed to avoid hitting the tyre barrier and rejoined the race. On lap 56 Häkkinen was in the lead, in front of Coulthard, Barrichello, Villeneuve, Button and Salo. On lap 60 Mazzacane was given a 10-seconds stop-go penalty for ignoring blue flags. On the same lap Zonta suffered from a blown engine and retired. The positions did not change until the end of the race, won by Häkkinen in front of Coulthard, Barrichello, Villeneueve, Button and Salo. McLaren got the result they wanted and more. They probably could not believe their luck when Zonta took M. Schuamcher out at the start, but they managed the race well from that point on. Häkkinen was out to prove that he has found his form again and that he intends to challenge for the Championship. Coulthard's second position left him six points behind the leader. Today's result put McLaren ahead of Ferrari in the Constructors championship. Barrichello did all he could and managed to control damage by finishing third after behind severely delayed at the start by the accident that took out his team mate. It was a bad day for Jordan, Prost, Benetton and Arrows. Trulli was taken out in the accident at the start and his team mate Frentzen suffered car problems a few laps later. Alain Prost had to witness one of his drivers taking himself and his team mate out. Fisichella, who has scored all the Benetton's points so far this year, was out at the start too and Wurz never was into the points positions today. Arrows still have big reliability problems, having achieved speed this season. Villeneuve consoled BAR of Zonta's bad show and Button showed that he has the qualities that Frank Williams had seen in him at the start of the season by bringing home two points and allowing Williams to overtake Benetton in the Constructors Championship after R. Schumacher was out of the picture. Salo scored a point for Sauber. Today's result reopened the fight for the Champiobship. The next appointment is in Germany in two weeks time.

Images from La Gazzetta dello Sport Online and Raisport