German GP - Hockenheinm 29 July 2001

The action for the German GP started even before the parade lap got under way. Alonso's Minardi caught fire on the starting grid a few minutes before the formation lap and was pushed back into the pit lanes. The second Minardi, that of Marques, was also taken back to the pits and both cars had to start from the pit lanes, Alonso in Marques' car and Marques in the spare car. When the lights changed Montoya immediately took the lead from pole postion. M. Schumacher made his start too from fourth place on the grid but his car suddenly developed gear problems and slowed right down, all other cars swerving to avoid it. Burti, who had cars on both sides, could do nothing to avoid the Ferrari and hit it at 250 km/h from behind, somersaulting into the air above Bernoldi's car. The two crashed cars went out to the side, but their collision had left a large amount of carbon fibre debris all over the track. The safety car was brought out as the other drivers, who had gone one full lap, danced around the shards desperately trying to avoid them. The marshals decided that it was too dangerous to continue and red flagged the race, so that M. Schumacher and Burti got the chance to restart in their spare cars. Coulthard was unhappy about the decision since it put his rival back into the race and complained about it afterwards, alleging that the race was stopped only because local hero M. Schumacher had been taken out. The restart also meant that the two Minardi got to take their places on the grid again, instead of having to start from the pits. After 20 minutes another formation lap took place and the cars lined up again for a new start of the German GP, now reduced by one lap. As the lights changed for the second time, Montoya again took the lead followed by team mate R. Schumacher, Häkkinen, M. Schumacher, Coulthard and Barrichello. Still on the first lap De La Rosa braked late, hit Heidfeld's back and both cars went out. M. Schumacher went for it straight away and overtook Häkkinen on pure straight line speed for third place. Shortly afterwards Barrichello, who had easily gone past both McLaren on the one lap of the first aborted start, did the same to Coulthard. The Brazilian went alongside the Scot and slowly edged his way past the McLaren to take fifth place. One lap later Barrichello performed the same manoeuvre on Häkkinen and went into fourth. While Ferrari were edging their way up the field, Montoya had flown ahead and put in a new fastest lap with every new lap, so much that by lap four he was already three seconds ahead of the second Williams. On lap five Barrichello had caught up with M. Schumacher and shortly afterwards, thanks to different pit strategies for the two Ferrari cars, went past the current World Champion, immediately pulling away. On lap six Zonta failed to impress in Frentzen's seat as he lost his front wing after clipping the back of Verstappen's Arrows. The Brazilian coasted back to the pits and retired. In the middle of the field Panis went past team mate Villeneuve and went on to harass Trulli for ninth place, finally managing to go past the Italian on lap 12. Trulli tried to retake his place from Panis on the second chicane but made an uncharacteristic mistake, lost control of the car and went into a slow spin that cost him several positions. Two laps later the first of the big player was taken out of the picture, as fluids poured out of the side pods Häkkinen's car. The Finn drove his car off the track into the paddocks area and retired. On lap 17 Barrichello went in for a trouble-free first pit stop, perfectly on time for a two-stop strategy. The Brazilian rejoined the race in fifth place just behind Coulthard. On the following lap Irvine came unexpected in at the same time as Räikkönen and both drivers retired simultaneously in the pits. On lap 19 Barrichello made a move on Coulthard but the Scot refused to give way. Shortly afterwards the Brazilian managed to put his car alongside Coulthard's on the straight and kept position on the outside of the bend, managing to go ahead despite carrying more fuel than the McLaren. As soon as he had gone past Coulthard for the third time in the same afternoon, the Brazilian immediately pulled away from the Scot showing off Ferrari's better set up and power. At the same time the Williams mechanics got ready and race leader Montoya came in for his pit stop. There the Colombian had the first taste of bad luck for the afternoon. Problems developed with his fuel hose and the team had to go and get R. Schumacher's hose, wasting precious seconds. Montoya rejoined just behind Barrichello, having dropped several positions. R. Schumacher found himself in the lead ahead of older brother Michael, who took advantage of Montoya's misadventure and went in for his own pit stop. The Ferrari stop was as good as usual and after 10.7 seconds M. Schumacher rejoined the race, only to develop problems as soon as he was back on the track. His Ferrari slowed right down and simply stopped by the side, taking him out of the race. While the older Schumacher was being unceremoniously dropped out of the race by the reliability problem, the younger brother had gone in for his pit stop putting Montoya back into the lead. Burti's bad luck for the day was not exhausted yet as the unlucky driver lost control of the car and crashed to the side, retiring. The surprises of the German GP were not over yet, as on lap 25 race leader Montoya's car suffered an engine failure and he too retired, sending R. Schumacher back in the lead in front of Barrichello. With all the retirements Coulthard had moved up in third place ahead of Fisichella, Alesi and Villeneuve. On lap 27 Coulthard finally went in for his own one untroubled pit stop, but the fate that had taken M. Schumacher out acted as equaliser by removing the second title contender too from the race. Smoke came out of the McLaren as soon as Coulthard was back in the race and the Scot stopped by the side, losing the chance to eat up M. Schumacher's advantage in the Drivers Championship. The various retirements left had Villeneuve in third place ahead of Fisichella, Panis and Button. On lap 31 Panis had his second pit stop, dropping out of the points just behind sixth place driver Alesi. At the same time the Ferrari team got ready to receive Barrichello, who came in and suffered a fuel hose problem like Montoya. Because of Barrichello's large advantage over Villeneuve, his misadventure with the fuel hose did not cost him the second place. The series of car failure was not yet complete for the day, as Trulli parked his car to the side and retired from eighth place with only 10 laps to go to the end of the race. At this point the games were fully played and the positions did not changed to the end. R. Schumacher won his third GP of the season, proceeding Barrichello, Villeneuve, Fisichella, Button and Alesi. Next race is in Hungary on 19 August.

Images from Raisport and Il Corriere della Sera