Spanish GP - Barcelona - 7 May 2000

Rain was expected on the day of the Spanish GP, but the track conditions were dry and temperature up to 21 degrees C when the lights changed and the race started. M. Schumacher fended off Hakkinen's challenge to stay in the lead ahead of the Finn. R. Schumacher made a very good start too and put himself in third position in front of Coulthard, Barrichello and Villeneuve. Frentzen used a good start to overtake his team mate Trulli who had outqualified him. The start also saw the first casualty of the race, Diniz who went out by the side and retired. On the first lap De La Rosa, who had been penalised and started from last position on the grid, and Alesi were involved in a shunt that caused the Minardi to lose its front wing, went out and retired. M. Schumacher set off immediately from the start in an attempt to build distance between himself and Hakkinen, who started coming back on lap eight trying to close the three and a half seconds gap. M. Schumacher and Jos Verstappen were the only two drivers to be on hard tyres, everybody else (with the exception of De La Rosa, who had retired) had chosen to start on soft tyres, expecting wet conditions. By lap 12 Hakkinen had narrowed the gap with the leader to 2.7 seconds, while leaving third-position R. Schumacher behind with a eight seconds gap. R. Schumacher had been locking his front left wheel a few times and was, by lap 15, easing up his pace, allowing Coulthard to catch up with him. On lap 18 Wurz came in from 16th position for a very early stop (6.2 seconds). The only remaining Prost had its first pit stop at the same time. At the end of the same lap Button had his pit stop too (7.7 seconds). At this point the gap between the first two cars was below two seconds and the two drivers appeared to be pacing each other. On lap 14 Herbert pitted (9.5 seconds). The first cars were already getting down to the business of lapping the backmarkers. Villeneuve's first pit stop was 8.7 seconds, Irvine's 10 seconds. Irvine rejoined in front of hid old team mate and held M. Schumacher up, allowing Hakkinen to get on the Ferrari's tail. Trulli went to the pits for his stop and stayed there. After having held them up for more than a lap, Irvine finally made space for the two leaders. On lap 24 R. Schumacher had his first pit stop (7.8 seconds), leaving Coulthard in third position. On lap 25 M. Schumacher had his pit stop (7.3 seconds) and hit one of the mechanics as he left because the refuel pipe was not disconnected yet. The Ferrari lollipop man had lifted the sign too early and had brought it down again but it was too late and M. Schumacher had already restarted. Coulthard came into the pits as M. Schumacher was leaving and had his first stop (11.6 seconds). Hakkinen (who had not stopped yet) was now in the lead with M. Schumacher putting in the fastest laps trying to catch up with the leader. On the following lap Hakkinen had his pit stop (7.8 seconds) and rejoined the race just as M. Schumacher's Ferrari was going past behind a Minardi backmarker. Meanwhile drama unfolded in the Ferrari pits as the chief mechanic Nigel Stepley was carried out on a stretcher, having had suffered a suspected broken leg in the refuelling accident, later shown to be just a bad bruise. On lap 21 Villeneuve retired with mechanical problems and a car fire, while Verstappen ended his race with mechanical problems on lap 25. Villeneuve's retirement put Button in the points, while Barrichello had taken fourth position from Coulthard and was hot in the chase of R. Schumacher. By half distance the gap between M. Schumacher in the lead and Hakkinen in second position was down to half a second, thanks also to backmarkers who had compacted the leading two before allowing themselves to be lapped. R. Schumacher, in the meantime, was holding on to his third position despite continuously locking his front left wheel and Barrichello's pressure. Coulthard was in fifth position ahead of Button. After having been stuck behind a Jordan for a while, both M. Schumacher and Hakkinen went past, but Hakkinen was so close to the Ferrari that he started taking looks more to put pressure on the German than to try to overtake. Wurz had a bad second pit stop and rejoined the race only after 14.9 seconds. Coulthard had his second pit stop (7.5 seconds), calculated to give him the chance to try and pass Barrichello and R. Schumacher when the two drivers later went for their pit stops. Ferrari reacted by calling Barrichello in (9.8 seconds) at the same time as R. Schumacher. Both drivers came out as Coulthard approached and after a short battle between the McLaren and the Williams the Scot found himself in third position, his team strategy having paid off. On the following lap M. Schumacher and Hakkinen both went in for their pit stops at the same time. M. Schumacher had problems with the new refueller, possibly as a consequence of the earlier accident when he had restarted with the pump still engaged, and lost 17.5 seconds. Hakkinen, on the other hand, had a perfect pit stop and gained the lead. The gap in between Hakkinen and M. Schumacher was now more than 10 seconds. A couple of laps later M. Schumacher was 14 seconds behind and losing time to Coulthard who was coming up to pass him, taking look after look. M. Schumacher's car had obviously lost straight line speed and Coulthard finally managed to pass the Ferrari for second position. It become even more obvious that M. Schumacher was having problems with his car when his brother Ralf and his team mate Barrichello caught up with him a couple of laps later. R. Schumacher attacked his older brother who fought back allowing Barrichello to go past both cars to take third position. M. Schumacher then limped back to the pits and had a new set of tyres put on (5.9 seconds), rejoining in front of Button. Having changed his tyres, M. Schumacher was back on his normal pace, showing that the problems he had had might have been caused by a slow puncture. Almost at the end of the race, on lap 63, Button stopped with smoke pouring out of his engine and retired, giving sixth position to an undeserving Frentzen. The positions stayed the same until the end, with Hakkinen going through the finishing line first, followed by team mate Coulthard, Barrichello, R. Schumacher, M. Schumacher and Frentzen. The Spanish GP epresented a good turning point for McLaren, who seem to have solved the problems that plagued them in the very first races and are hot in the chase of Ferrari. Ferrari got both M. Schumacher's scheduled stops wrong, that eventually cost him the race. Despite his problems, M. Schumacher's superb manouvre, blocking his brother to let team mate Barrichello take thid place, was one of the highlights of the day. R. Schumacher put in another performance worth of his name, while Jordan suffered from yet another bad day and Benetton were nowhere to be seen. Next appointment is at Nürburgring on 21 May.