Spanish GP - Barcelona 29 April 2001

The Spanish GP was the one everybody was waiting for just to see how much difference electronic aids, which become legal from this race, make to the outcome of a race. Of the top teams, Ferrari and McLaren came to Barcelona with fully-fledged and tested systems, while Williams had not made the decision up to the very last minute. A blow to Coulthard's hopes for the Championship came before the Spanish GP even started. The McLaren stalled on the grid as the other drivers set off on the formation lap and the unlucky Scot had to start the race from the back of the grid. M. Schumacher took the lead from pole position as the lights changed and Häkkinen set himself into second position ahead of Barrichello, R. Schumacher, Trulli and Montoya, who had started from 12th place. Frentzen's car stayed stationary on the grid but the German managed to join the race all the same in last position. Coulthard, who had started from the back of the grid, ran into the back of Bernoldi's car straight away and had to go back to the pits for a new nosecone (15.4 seconds) at the end of the first lap. Barrichello and R. Schumacher had little scrap at the start, with the German going ahead of the Brazilian only to be overtaken again on the first corner. On lap six Frentzen went to the inside of De La Rosa's Jaguar on turn seven, closed the door and the two cars collided. Frentzen's Jordan went over the front of the Jaguar and both cars ended up on the grass and retired, without causing the display of yellow flags. On lap nine Bernoldi, who had just been overtaken by Coulthard for 19th place, stopped by the side with mechanical problems and retired. By lap 18 Coulthard had moved up to 16th place, while things at the front of the pack had stayed unchanged, with M. Schumacher leading Häkkinen by about two seconds and Barrichello further down in third place. Around lap 19 the drivers on three-stop strategies, including Button, came into the pits for the first stop. At this point things were hotting up at the low end of the points positions, as Montoya put pressure on Trulli for fifth place. On lap 22 R. Schumacher lost control of the car after braking late on a corner, went out and retired, letting Villeneuve into the points. On the same lap both Trulli and Montoya came into the pits at the same time but the Williams mechanics won their little pit stop race against the Jordan crew and sent their man out onto the track before the Italian. On lap 25 race leader M. Schumacher came into the pits for his first pit stop (8.7 seconds), perfectly on course for a two-stopper, and rejoined in third position. Häkkinen was left into the lead, putting all he had to try and build a gap while on a low fuel load. On lap 26 Fisichella, who had had a very unremarkable race, had to go into the pits for a new nosecone. On the same lap Barrichello went in for his pit stop, letting team mate M. Schumacher into second position. The German had also shown that he had no intention of letting Häkkinen stay out in the lead for long and, on new tyres and on a heavy fuel load, put in a faster lap than Häkkinen's best effort to close the gap. On lap 28 Häkkinen had his pit stop (9.6 seconds) and M. Schumacher took the lead back, with the Finn settling again into second position ahead of Barrichello like before the round of pit stops. Montoya meanwhile had worked his way to fourth position in front of Villeneuve and Trulli. On lap 29 Coulthard came in for his pit stop from eighth position and came back out on the track down in 11th. Around lap 40 drivers started coming in for their second pit stops, including Montoya in fourth and Villeneuve in fifth. On lap 42 M. Schumacher had his second pit stop (9.3 seconds) and came out onto the track in third place behind Häkkinen and Barrichello. In a repeat of the previous pit stops, on the following lap Barrichello came in, clocking exactly the same pit stopping time as team mate M. Schumacher (9.3 seconds), who moved into second place. Barrichello came back out onto the track in third position. Coulthard managed to move into the points and got stuck behind Montoya, so McLaren decided to anticipate his pit stop in the hope that he would go ahead of the Williams when the Colombian came in for his second pit stop. The race seemed settled and everybody expected M. Schumacher to regain the lead when Häkkinen had his pit stop, but on lap 49 things started to happen. Häkkinen, who had been expected back into the pits for a good few laps, was still out and building up a gap on a suspiciously slow M. Schumacher. Things were not going any better for second Ferrari driver Barrichello, who was slowly crawling back to the pits with a collapsed rear suspension after a tour on the dirt. Barrichello's mechanics changed his tyres and sent him back out onto the track with their blessing, only to see the Brazilian come back on the following lap to retire, letting Montoya into third place. With Barrichello's retirement Villeneuve moved up into fourth position, Trulli into fifth and Heidfeld into sixth. On lap 50 Irvine stopped by the wall and retired. On the same lap Häkkinen finally came into the pits for his pit stop, with a 16 seconds lead. After 8.6 seconds the Finn came out against all expectations still in the lead while M. Schumacher was attempting to lap Verstappen. Coulthard, in seventh place, was catching up with Heidfeld, hoping to challenge him for the points position. Häkkinen kept on building up his lead on second-placed M. Schumacher, who was suffering from very bad wheel vibration, bringing the gap up to almost 10 seconds by lap 54. On lap 58 Coulthard, still in seventh place, unlapped himself from M. Schumacher who was by now the slowest driver in the race. The Scot was on Heidfeld's tail, but could not find the change to go past the Ferrari-powered Sauber. On lap 60 Heidfeld and Coulthard came up to lap Button and the Scot exploited the situation and Heidfeld's slipstream to go into the points, setting off in hot pursuit of Trulli. On lap 62 Häkkinen came on to lap third-position driver Montoya. For the second time the race appeared decided and for the second time, Formula 1 being what it is, things changed unexpectedly. To add to the drama disaster decided to strike Häkkinen on his final lap. The Finn slowed down and then smoke started coming out of his engine, in a repeat of the hydraulic problems that had plagued Coulthard's car earlier in the morning practice. At almost precisely the same time as Häkkinen's car gave up the ghost M. Schumacher started on his final lap on his crippled Ferrari. Praying for his own car to go the full distance the German drove slowly past the parked McLaren to go on to win against all odds and expectations. Montoya finished second for his very first Formula 1 podium ahead of Villeneuve on the very first Formula 1 podium for a BAR driver, Trulli, Coulthard and Heidfeld. After passing the finishing line Coulthard stopped to pick up unlucky team mate Häkkinen to give him a lift back to the pits. The Spanish GP was always meant to be a turning point to the season because of the reintroduction of electronic aids. Whether Ferrari's and McLaren's various problems were electronic-related or not will only be known if the teams decide to reveal it. McLaren seem to have been most unreliable throughout the whole GP weekend, while Ferrari were still trying out starts from the pit lanes with a few minutes to go before the parade lap. While McLaren admitted to hydraulic problems, Ferrari maintained that M. Schumacher's problems were down to some serious wheel vibration that forced the German to slow down dramatically to prevent the tyres from bursting. Whether this is the truth or not, the current World Champion scraped a win only thanks to the car's very good performance during the middle section of the race, that allowed him to build a sizeable gap. His car went from the fastest by far on the track to the slowest in the space of a pit stop and no explanation was offered as to what might have caused the wheel vibration. Hakkkinen's car failure deprived the Finn of the 10 points that could have opened the title race up for him, after McLaren's very good pit stop strategy had put him into the lead. His team mate Coulthard went from car failure to car failure throughout the weekend but still managed to finish in the points. The Scot might have lost the joint lead of the Drivers Championship, but he is still keeping his eyes fixed on M. Schumacher's tail. Montoya got his very first podium in only his fifth Formula 1 race on a car (apparently) devoid of electronic aids. The Colombian has certainly impressed and Williams, who also sports one R. Schumacher as driver, is going to be a force to reckon with in the rest of the season. BAR could finally celebrate their first podium in their third season and it must have felt good for ex-World Champion Villeneuve to be back there. Trulli, reliable as ever, diligently brought back home points for Jordan to make up for Frentzen's antics. Heidfeld gained another point for Sauber, slowly but surely building up the team's total. Next race is in Austria on 13 May.

Images from Raisport and Il Corriere della Sera