German GP - Hockenheim - 30 July 2000

On the formation lap Button stalled on the grid, his mechanics managed to get the engine restarted, the Briton joined the back of the field and had to start the race from the back of the grid. As the lights changed Coulthard went ahead, Häkkinen came storming from the back through Coulthard and M. Schumacher and took the lead. M. Schumacher went alongside Coulthard, who moved towards the side forcing the German to do the same. M. Schumacher cut across the track to avoid the Scot, didn't see Fisichella and the two touched, both going into the tyre barrier and retired. After the commotion at the start, things settled down with Trulli in third position, then De La Rosa, Herbert and Irvine. On the first lap Verstappen showed the power of the Arrows by flying past Irvine for sixth position. Barrichello, who had started from 18th position, sliced through the field and on lap three he overtook Irvine, who had fended off an attack from the Ferrari driver already, for seventh position. On lap five Barrichello overtook Verstappen on a bend and put himself into the points. Less then half a lap later Barrichello went for Herbert on the first chicane and just flew past the Jaguar, taking fifth position. Verstappen took advantage of Barrichello overtaking Herbert and put himself on the tail of the Englishman, immediately starting to attack. On lap seven Barrichello, who had been pulling away from Herbert as soon as he had overtaken him, clocked the fastest lap. On the following lap Barrichello again clocked the fastest lap in his chase of De La Rosa, whom he caught up with on lap ten. On the same lap Frentzen, who had worked his way up from the back of the field, overtook Herbert to put himself in the points. On lap 11 Barrichello cleanly went on the inside of the Arrows and overtook De La Rosa for fourth position. Just outside the points Herbert and Irvine were involved in an all-Jaguar struggle for position. On lap 12 Frentzen, who had clear track in front, showed he meant business by putting in the fastest lap. One lap later Herbert, who is to leave F1 for CART at the end of the season, went out to the side and retired leaving Irvine in seventh position. On lap 14 Barrichello was on Trulli's tail waiting for the right moment to attack. His moment came soon enough: the Brazilian went alongside Trulli on the straight and outbraked the Italian going first and cleanly into the bend, taking third place. On lap 16 Barrichello put in another fastest lap, chasing the leading two McLaren. On lap 17 Barrichello had to give up his third place by going into the pits (7.2 seconds). The Brazilian rejoined in sixth position, having to do all the overtaking work again. On lap 19 Frentzen too had his pit stop from fifth place (8.6 seconds), giving Barrichello back one position. Frentzen rejoined just in front of Verstappen, who tried to overtake the Jordan taking advantage of his warm tyres but could not get an opening. On lap 20 Barrichello, on a full fuel load, put in another fastest lap. On lap 22 R. Schumacher (9.0 seconds) and Diniz (10.3 seconds) had their pit stops. At the front, the two McLaren of Häkkinen and Coulthard were going along together, with only just over a second and a half difference between the two. On lap 26 one mad fan wrapped in a piece of plastic with a Mercedes logo on it walked along the side of track and crossed the circuit with cars approaching. The safety car came out and most drivers, including Barrichello (7.3 seconds) and Häkkinen (9.7 seconds) took advantage to take their pit stops. On the following lap the track officials reached the mad fan, who waved to the camera as he was being taken away. The safety car stayed on the track until the car taking away the fan was safely out of the way. With the safety car still out, Coulthard pitted one lap after Häkkinen and rejoined virtually at the back of the snake of cars. Häkkinen was first behind the safety car, with Trulli and Barrichello immediately behind him. Coulthard had suffered from a bad decision taken by his team. If McLaren had allowed him to queue in the pits while Häkkinen was being serviced, the Scot would have lost less time. With the safety car still out and half of the race still to go, spots of rain started falling on the track. On lap 28 the safety car left and the race restarted. Barrichello immediately attacked Trulli, who fought back and didn't let the Ferrari through. Häkkinen took advantage of the struggle behind him to get away from the rest of the pack. With the safety car gone, the first six positions were occupied by Häkkinen, Trulli, Barrichello, De La Rosa, Frentzen and Coulthard. R. Schumacher was hit from behind by Zonta, span and managed to get back in the race in last position. Less than a lap after the race had restarted, Diniz drove into the side of Alesi and the Sauber lost two wheels that went bouncing on the track. Alesi went crashing into the side barrier and had to retire. The safety car had to come out again, causing the cars to compact again. On lap 30 the safety car went back in and the race again restarted. Immediately Wurz was involved in a shunt with Salo and stalled across the track. Wurz got out of his Benetton, ran across the track and retired. The Benetton was cleared off the track and the safety car thankfully did not have to come out again. At the same time it started to rain. The Ferrari mechanics got ready in case Barrichello needed wet tyres. Half a lap later it was raining heavily and thundering. Heidfeld was the first to go back to the pits for wet tyres. Coulthard managed to overtake Frentzen in the first chicane for fifth position. On lap 34 Gené suffered from a blown engine, went out to the side and retired. Irvine drove over the oil from Gené's car and went into a spin. Zonta touched his team mate Villeneuve, the Canadian span on the track, kept the engine going and rejoined the race. On lap 35 Häkkinen went in for wet tyres (6.8 seconds), while Barrichello decided to stay out and took the lead. Häkkinen's stop for tyres put Barrichello in the lead, Coulthard in second, then Frentzen. Some teams decided to go for wet tyres, others decided not to bother because the rain was falling heavily on only half of the circuit, with dry track on the other half. On lap 38 Trulli was given a 10 seconds stop-go penalty, for an alleged overtake under yellow flag condition. With eight laps to go Trulli went in for his penalty stop. Häkkinen, on wet tyres, was clocking two seconds a lap faster than Barrichello. Zonta too was given a 10 seconds stop-go penalty for his accident with Villeneuve. On the same lap Zonta span out and retired. The Ferrari mechanics too went out, then went back in. Häkkinen overtook Frentzen, then, half a lap later Frentzen got out, cut a bend and went back ahead of the Finn. The German then let Häkkinen through to avoid being given a stop-go penalty for obtaining an advantage by cutting a corner. With six laps to go Frentzen had problems, went to the pits and retired. One lap later Verstappen span out and stopped in the gravel, retiring. With four laps to go Heidfeld span out, hit the tyre barrier and retired. Throughout the last five laps of the race Häkkinen kept on slowly gaining on Barrichello, who kept on losing time to the Finn on the wet parts of the track and gaining time on the dry parts of the track. Ferrari's gamble of leaving Barrichello out on dry tyre paid off when the Brazilian passed the finishing line first in his maiden victory, ahead of the two McLaren of Häkkinen and Coulthard, Button, who ran his best race yet, Salo and De La Rosa. Barrichello did a lot more than damage control for Ferrari. He, together with Ferrari' strategy gamble and the unusual events of the race, turned an apparently desperate situation (M. Schumacher out at the start again and Barrichello only 18th on the grid) into a clear victory. It was the Brazilian's decision not to go on wet tyres while out on the track in the lead and the team allowed him to do so. Barrichello's performance and control on wet ground with dry tyres kept Ferrari at the top of the Constructors Championship table and his team mate in the lead of the Drivers Championship. McLaren lost what should have been an easy one-two for them by making two wrong decisions: the first was not to make Coulthard queue in the pits behind Häkkinen with the safety car out, the second was to bring their leading driver in for wet tyres when it started raining on only half of the circuit. Jordan did not have a good day, first when Trulli, who had ran a good race, was handed the stop-go penalty, then when Frentzen had to retire with car trouble while fighting Coulthard. Trulli complained about the penalty, arguing that he has not overtaken anybody during the German GP, so it is impossible for him to have overtaken under yellow flags. Arrows showed their form again with Verstappen, who challenged whomever he came close to in the first part of the race, and De La Rosa who again brought home a point. Salo won two precious points for Sauber. Next appointment is in Hungary on 13 August.

Images from La Gazzetta dello Sport Online and Raisport