British GP - Silverstone 15 July 2001

Coulthard tried to play all his cards at the start of the British GP by attempting to slice through M. Schumacher and team mate Häkkinen but he ended up colliding with Trulli instead. The McLaren and the Jordan went side to side as they entered the first corner with neither driver giving way to the other. The net result was that the Italian ended up on the dirt and retired, while the Scot shot into the pit lanes and came out at the other end in last but one position. Ahead of them M. Schumacher had taken the lead with Häkkinen hot on his tail. Lower down in the field a race start collision between the two BAR meant the end of the race for Panis, who ended up on he dirt just a few metres behind Trulli. The Scot stayed out on the track to assess whether his car had suffered serious problems following the collision with Trulli, but on lap four his car became uncontrollable. The rear suspension of Coulthard's McLaren collapsed and the car went into a spin out to the side and out of the race. With his title contender out of the picture and on a very heavy fuel load, M. Schumacher relaxed and did not try to stop Häkkinen, on a very light fuel load, from going past at Copse on lap five to take the lead. The Finn immediately showed that the recent rumours of his intention to retire were false by convincingly pulling away from the Ferrari at the rate of about two seconds per lap. On lap six Burti made things more interesting by stopping on the finishing straight after having dropped oil all over the track from the approach to Woodcote onwards. The oil and the parked car brought out the yellow and white flags, but the only casualty of the oil was Fisichella who went out on the dirt and managed to keep the engine running and rejoin the race. Meanwhile Montoya, in third place, had been catching up M. Schumacher, while Barrichello, in fourth, had been holding the other Williams driver R. Schumacher at bay. On lap 17 Montoya was on M. Schumacher's tail, decided to have a go and the German just let him pass, choosing to run a safe race and bring back home points to increase his Championship advantage on Coulthard. By the end of the lap the Colombian had already built up a gap of over two seconds between himself and the Ferrari driver and was pulling away. Montoya had his chance to lead the race on lap 20, when Häkkinen, who had been stuck in some backmarkers traffic, went for a early first pit stop coming back out in second place. The Williams' driver's lead was short-lived, lasting only until lap 26 when the Colombian had his pit stop, rejoining in fifth place and giving the lead back to Häkkinen. The Finn, having a free track in front, kept on bettering the fastest lap time in his best race performance this season. R. Schumacher, in fourth place, suffered from a stuck fuel pipe during his pit stop, lost precious seconds and came out low down in the field, putting Montoya right behind Barrichello. R. Schumacher's bad luck for the race had not been exhausted though, as he developed gearbox problems on lap 37, drove onto the grass and retired. Two laps later Häkkinen had another pit stop and M. Schumacher came in just as the Finn was getting back out on the track. After 8.2 seconds the German rejoined the race behind Montoya, who had caught up with Barrichello and was pressurising the Brazilian. On the following lap the Colombian went for his second pit stop, coming out after 10.9 seconds in front of the two Ferrari-engined Sauber. With Montoya's pit stop, Barrichello had moved into second place and M. Schumacher into third. Barrichello had been showing off the fuel efficiency of the new Ferrari engine, but on lap 43 out of 60 he finally had to go for his only pit stop of the race. After 8.5 seconds the Brazilian exited the pit lane and entered the final part of the race in front of Montoya, his team mate having moved into second place. Räikkönen and Heidfeld completed the points positions. Towards the end of the race the front left wheel came off Alonso's car and rolled away into the side barrier. Alonso managed to keep his car going on three wheels and coasted back to the pits. Häkkinen went on to win his first GP for almost a year, with current championship leader M. Schumacher settling quite happily for the six points of second place and second Ferrari driver Barrichello finishing in third place, ahead of Montoya, Räikkönen and Heidfeld. Next race is in Germany on 29 July.

Images from Raisport and Il Corriere della Sera