European GP - Nürburgring 24 June 2001

This season there always seem to be a car that develops problems during the formation lap and at the European GP it was Marques' turn to run out of luck as his Minardi took its time to get off the grid for the formation lap. That made very little difference to Marques, who had qualified in last place anyway. He managed to start the race but then retired on lap nine with car problems. When the lights changed to start the European GP M. Schumacher shot off and squeezed younger brother Ralf out of the lead with second Williams driver Montoya positioning himself in third place. The two McLaren went either side of Barrichello in the second Ferrari, who was supposed to slow them down, and left him behind Trulli. At the end of the first lap M. Schumacher led head of R. Schumacher, Montoya, Coulthard, Häkkinen, Trulli, Barrichello and Heidfeld. M. Schumacher, who clearly was on a very low fuel load, kept on building up his lead by putting in one fastest lap after the other. After his Michelin tyres had warmed up, R. Schumacher started pushing and rapidly began catching up his brother, becoming the one who kept on producing new fastest lap times. Meanwhile Barrichello, on a heavy fuel load, was still stuck in seventh place and not close enough to attack Trulli. On lap 17 Montoya let the leading two know that he too was in the picture by putting in a new fastest lap time. On the following lap R. Schumacher had caught up with his older brother and made a first attempt at overtaking for the lead at the Coca-Cola bend, but M. Schumacher didn't have any intention of letting him through and fought back. On lap 19 the Williams crew started playing mind games with Ferrari. The Williams mechanics came out and got ready to receive one of their drivers, then they got back into the garage. They probably hoped that Ferrari would assume that they were getting ready to get R. Schumacher in and would call M. Schumacher in, giving Ralf a free run. That didn't work. Fisichella's race had started badly and did not get any better when the Italian cut a chicane and picked up lots of dirt, causing him to go back to the pits for new tyres and a general clean-up. Panis was the next casualty and retired after spinning into a gravel trap on lap 27. On lap 29 the Ferrari mechanics got ready and so did the Williams ones, this time for real, and both leading cars came into the pits at the same time. The Ferrari mechanics won the pits race and M. Schumacher went out first less that 10 seconds later, after his brother overshot his own pits and lost precious fractions of a second. As they came out Coulthard ended up sandwiched in between the two Schumacher brothers, an ideal situation for Michael who found his direct Championship competitor holding back his GP competitor. The current World Champion took full advantage of the situation and pushed to increase his gap. Two laps later R. Schumacher made a move on the Scot on turn three and overtook him for second position, setting off again in chase of his brother. On the following lap Montoya, who had moved into the lead when the Schumacher brothers had pitted, also went for his pit stop and rejoined 9.3 seconds later behind R. Schumacher, allowing M. Schumacher back into the lead. Barrichello, who had moved into sixth place following Trulli's pit stop, managed to go past Häkkinen and took fifth position. Shortly afterwards Häkkinen went in for a pit stop and put in enough fuel to finish the race, rejoining down in 11th place in front of Alesi and letting Irvine into the points. On lap 38 Coulthard had his pit stop from fourth and rejoined behind Barrichello, who was the last of the leading group not to have pitted. On lap 39 R. Schumacher's race was ruined as the German was given a 10 seconds stop-go penalty for crossing the delimiting white line at the exit of the pits. The Williams driver took the penalty immediately as soon as he got notified and ended up in fourth place behind team mate Montoya and Ferrari driver Barrichello. On lap 44 Barrichello was the last of the front runners to have his pit stop. The Brazilian rejoined after 10.3 seconds in fifth place in front of Trulli. Shortly afterwards on the same lap Trulli started going slow and retired with smoke coming out of his engine. The Jordan driver's retirement allowed Häkkinen into sixth place, only for M. Schumacher to catch up with the Finn four laps later and lap him. Jordan's bad luck continued when Frentzen went out by the side on lap 49 and retired after locking a wheel and losing the back of the car on the exit of the bend. On the same lap M. Schumacher came in for his second pit stop, again at the same time as a Williams driver, this time Montoya. M. Schumacher went back out in the lead and Montoya rejoined just ahead of team mate R. Schumacher. On the following lap R. Schumacher had his second pit stop (third counting the stop-go penalty) and lost his position to Coulthard, who was on a one-stop strategy, but managed to stay ahead of Barrichello. With only 12 laps to go Heidfeld had problems and found it difficult to keep the car straight, so he slowly drove back to the pits where he became another casualty of the race. On lap 60 Barrichello lost control of the car at turn three and went on the grass picking up dirt. The Brazilian rejoined the race in the same position, though losing the chance to catch up with R. Schumacher and challenge for fourth place. On the following lap Verstappen went out to the side and retired. On lap 65, with only two laps to go veteran driver Alesi lost control of the car while trying to overtake Räikkönen for 10th place, went out into the gravel trap and he too retired. M. Schumacher, who was racing in the spare car, drove on unchallenged to win his 5th GP of the season and his 49th career victory. Montoya followed in second position and Coulthard finished on the lowest step of the podium. R. Schumacher, Barrichello and Häkkinen completed the points position finishes. Next GP is in France on 1 July.

Images from Raisport and Il Corriere della Sera