Malaysian GP - Sepang 22 October 2000

With the Drivers Championship already decided, Ferrari came to Sepang with a 13 points lead over rival McLaren, whose only hope of winning the Constructors title was to achieve a one-two finish, with both Ferrari cars finishing lower than fourth. Häkkinen rolled forwards before the lights changed, stopped the car, took the lead as the race started and blocked M. Schumacher, allowing Coulthard to go ahead of the German. Barrichello kept his fourth position in front of Wurz and Villeneuve. Back in the field De La Rosa, Heidfeld and Diniz got involved in a shunt at the start that caused the safety car to come out. Meanwhile the race officials announced that car number 1 (Häkkinen) was under investigation for the jump start. On lap three the safety car went back in and the race restarted. Häkkinen immediately allowed Coulthard to overtake him, probably aware that he might get penalised for the jump start. Within half a lap M. Schumacher and Barrichello had both overtaken Häkkinen and Wurz was having a look for a chance to overtake the Finn too. On lap four Häkkinen was handed a 10-seconds stop-go penalty for the jump-start. On the following lap Häkkinen took his stop-go penalty and by the time he rejoined the race he was in last position, with Irvine moving up into the points as a result. On lap seven Villeneuve started challenging Wurz for fourth place, the main battle now being between Jordan, Benetton and BAR for fourth place in the Constructors Championship. On the same lap Frentzen came into the pits (7.2 seconds) for an unscheduled stop. After another lap Frentzen came back into the pits and retired with power steering problems. Coulthard had been pushing hard ever since he found himself in the lead and by lap nine he was gaining almost a second a lap on M. Schumacher in second position. Coulthard's car appeared to be considerably lighter than the Ferrari, suggesting that he had a much smaller fuel load so that he had to be sure to build up a good advantage to avoid being overtaken during a pit stop. On lap 10 Trulli, on the last Jordan left in the race, had a pit stop (6.9 seconds) for a new nosecone. Meanwhile Häkkinen had been working his way up the field and by lap 13 he had overtaken R. Schumacher for 15th place. One lap later he stormed past Gené for 14th place and set off in chase of Alesi. At the front of the field M. Schumacher decided to make life more difficult for Coulthard and pushed a bit harder, reducing the gap in between himself and the Scot. Coulthard responded by being the first driver to go below 1'40". On lap 16 Salo had a first pit stop (8.6 seconds), closely followed by Alesi who was in front of Häkkinen. On the following lap Coulthard came in for his first pit stop (7.0 seconds), allowing M. Schumacher to go into the lead. The Scot rejoined in seventh place. Coulthard had had to go to the pits earlier than scheduled because of debris that had been trapped in his air vents during an earlier excursion on the grass and that were causing his car to overheat. Following Coulthard's pit stop, the two Ferrari had the top two spots with Wurz in third and Villeneuve in fourth. Two laps later Irvine had his first pit stop from fifth, to the advantage of Coulthard who was coming up to him. On the same lap Button parked his smoking car by the side and retired with a blown engine. Wurz had his pit stop (6.4 seconds) and rejoined behind an Arrows. M. Schumacher started pushing more and produced another fastest lap, aware that the pit stops had allowed Coulthard to work his way back into fourth place ahead of Zonta and Herbert. At the same time Häkkinen was battling with Fisichella for 10th place. With 32 laps to go the Finn managed to overtake the Italian and set off in chase of Irvine, who was some four seconds ahead. On the following lap Villeneuve had his first pit stop (7.2 seconds) and rejoined in eighth position, allowing Coulthard to move up to third place. On the following lap the other BAR pitted (7.7 seconds). The Ferrari mechanics got ready to receive a car and on lap 25 race leader M. Schumacher came in (7.1 seconds), rejoining just in front of the lapped Jordan of Trulli and Coulthard. Barrichello was now in the lead, with M. Schumacher and Coulthard in seconds and third place. On the following lap Barrichello gave up his lead and had his first pit stop (7.0 seconds), coming back onto the track behind Coulthard, who moved up into second place some five seconds behind the leader. Halfway through the race Herbert had a 19.7 seconds pit stop due to a stuck fuel pump. On the same lap R. Schumacher too had his pit stop (11.7 seconds). Meanwhile Häkkinen had caught up with Villeneuve, who had every intention not to let the McLaren through. The two cars were side to side all along the straight, then the Canadian closed the door on the Finn but then overbraked himself and Häkkinen went ahead. On lap 32 Häkkinen showed he meant business by clocking the new fastest lap time of 1'38.55. By lap 33 Coulthard and M. Schumacher had cleared the traffic and the Scot was hot in pursuit of the Ferrari. On lap 34 Häkkinen, who had not stopped yet, clocked yet another fastest lap. On lap 36 Häkkinen finally had his one pit stop of the race (9.3 seconds) and rejoined in eighth place in front of Zonta. Gené parked his car by the pit wall and retired. On lap 39 Coulthard had his second pit stop (7.4 seconds) and lost his second place to Barrichello. On the following lap M. Schumacher pitted too (6.6 seconds) and rejoined in front of Coulthard, leaving Barrichello out in the lead again. On lap 42 Barrichello came in from the lead for his second pit stop, had problems putting the car into first gear and lost time (9.9 seconds), but still managed to rejoin in third position behind Coulthard and ahead of Häkkinen. The gap between M. Schumacher in the lead and Coulthard in second position at this stage was only 1.7 seconds. Villeneuve and Irvine completed the top six drivers group. On lap 43 R. Schumacher, like Button before him, retired with problems to his usually reliable BMW engine. By lap 46 the gap between the leading two had gone down to less than one second. With 10 laps to go Zonta's car went up in white smoke. The Brazilian parked the car in the gravel trap and retired from the race with an engine failure. On lap 49 out of 56 M. Schumacher and Coulthard came up to Fisichella who was battling with Herbert. Just as the leading two prepared themselves to overtake the traffic, Herbert's rear suspension failed and the Jaguar was flung into the tyre barrier. The Englishman finished his last Formula 1 race being carried out of the track with a bruised knee. Coulthard took advantage of the commotion and tried to attack M. Schumacher, but the German fought back and stayed ahead. Shortly afterwards they came up to Fisichella, who moved over to let the two through. On lap 53 Mazzacane parked his car by the side and retired with smoke pouring out of his Minardi. On lap 54 M. Schumacher and Coulthard came up to Salo who let them through. M. Schumacher managed to keep the Scot at bay throughout the last lap to cross the finishing line in front of everybody else for the ninth time this season. Coulthard had to settle for second place ahead of Barrichello, Häkkinen, Villeneuve and Irvine. And so ends the 2000 season, Ferrari's year in every sense. Not only they brought home to Maranello the Drivers title that they had missed for the last 21 years, but they scored the double bill by taking the Constructors title equally convincingly. With the 18 points gap Ferrari would still have won the Constructors Championship, even if McLaren had not been stripped of their 10 points from the Austrian GP. M. Schumacher sees this year's result as the beginning of a new winning era for Ferrari. McLaren had to settle for second place in the Constructors Championship, but it was clear from the point when Häkkinen was handed the 10-seconds stop-go penalty that the Constructors Championship was lost and that the two drivers would be racing for themselves and not for the title. Häkkinen put all his effort into moving back into the points from last place and Coulthard sought the glory of victory throughout the race. With the Constructors Championship battle left to Ferrari and McLaren, and with Williams safely and untouchably positioned in third place, today's struggle was between BAR, Benetton and Jordan for fourth place in the Constructors table. Jordan was soon out of the equation with Frentzen's early retirement and Trulli's nosecone problems, leaving the fight to BAR and Benetton. Despite Villeneuve's fourth place that puts both teams level with 20 points, the fourth place crown goes to Benetton because of a better high scoring position record. Nonetheless, Villeneuve can be proud of the improvement of the BAR team, that he co-owns, compared to last year when they failed to score a single point largely due to regular car failures. A special mention goes to Johnny Herbert, who competed in his 161st and last Formula 1 GP. The unlucky Englishman suffered first problems at the pit stop that caused him to lose almost 20 seconds, then a several structural problem to his car that left him with an injured knee. Certainly not the way to end a career for someone who has been a regular part of the Formula 1 circus for such a long time. Good luck to him for the future in ChampCars. With the 2000 season completed, there will be no Formula 1 action until December, when testing for next year will start. Next appointment is for the first GP of the 2001 season, that will start in Australia on 4 March 2001. Have a good winter until then.

Images from La Gazzetta dello Sport Online and Raisport