US GP - Indianapolis 30 September 2001

The grid for the US GP changed shortly before the race got under way when Häkkinen was handed a driving penalty and demoted from second on the grid to fourth. The Finn was quite displeased when he was penalised for exiting the pit lane during qualifying when the exit lights were red. Häkkinen's demotion meant that R. Schumacher moved up to second and Montoya to third places on the grid. The lights changed and M. Schumacher took the lead from pole, while his younger brother Ralf was caught off guard by team mate Montoya, who went into second and immediately tried to have a go at the race leader. The German closed the door on the Columbian and shot off in a gap building exercise. The other good starter was Barrichello, who placed himself between Häkkinen and R. Schumacher, went for it all out and took third place. On lap two the Brazilian unceremoniously passed his fellow South-American Montoya for second place behind M. Schumacher. Montoya appeared to be having problems and was holding up the rest of the pack. Barrichello, the fastest man on the track, caught up with team mate M. Schumacher who made way for him to go into the lead. Coulthard, at this stage, was lagging back in sixth place. Meanwhile the unfortunate Räikkönen had found himself sandwiched between two cars, had came together with one of them and broken his front wing. The Finn went back to the pits for a new nosecone and rejoined the race, only to retire on the following lap with car problems. Towards lap 20 the track temperature increased, giving an advantage to the cars with Michelin tyres. Montoya took advantage of the situation and started pushing to close the gap with M. Schumacher, who was some 13 seconds behind race leader Barrichello. The other Williams driver, R. Schumacher, copied his team mate's strategy and started pushing his car. By lap 23 the two Williams had caught up with M. Schumacher, just as the Williams mechanics got ready to receive a car. Sure enough, on lap 24 R. Schumacher came in for his pit stop and got out on the track again after 12.5 seconds, having suffered a problem with changing the left rear wheel. The German rejoined the race in tenth place. On lap 27 the Ferrari mechanics got ready to receive a car and at the end of the lap it was race leader Barrichello who went into the pits. The Brazilian's stop was a lot better than rival R. Schumacher and the Ferrari driver was back on his way after 8.6 seconds. Barrichello's pit stop put M. Schumacher and Montoya in the first two places ahead of Häkkinen. Coulthard, who had edged up to fifth place thanks to R. Schumacher's pit stop, managed to go ahead of Barrichello soon after the Brazilian had got out of the pit lane and took fourth place. At this stage of the race Trulli completed the group of the points drivers. On lap 35 Montoya took advantage of the delay caused by backmarker Yoong and went for a change of lead at the expenses of Barrichello, pulling away as soon as he was ahead. On lap 36 the Williams team got ready to receive the Colombian. The Montoya got back out after 13.2 seconds, with M. Schumacher back in the lead. On the following lap R. Schumacher span out to the grass on the approach to turn six and could not get wheel grip to rejoin the race, so all he could do was to get out of the car and retire. On the following lap the Ferrari mechanics got ready to receive a car, but none of the two called in. On the same lap more disappointment was in store for Williams, as Montoya slowed right down and tried to go for the pits, but failed to keep the car going and stopped right halfway down the finishing straight. The Ferrari mechanics were out for race leader M. Schumacher, who went for his only pit stop of the GP and after some 13 second rejoined the race, having let Häkkinen and Coulthard into the first two positions. Meanwhile the track personnel had managed to move Montoya's car out of the day, so that mercifully the safety car did not have to come out. On lap 43 Coulthard had his one pit stop of the race and got out after less than 10 seconds, but failed to go ahead of M. Schumacher, who was on a one-stop strategy. Elsewhere on the track, outside the points positions De La Rosa clipped Villeneuve and got both cars out on the grass. Villeneuve retired, but De La Rosa managed to stay out on the track, though he later had to go for a long pit stop to fix a few things with the car. On lap 45 race leader Häkkinen went in for his one pit stop of the race with a 30 seconds advantage on M. Schumacher. The Finn managed to get out in second place in front of the German and started off in his chase of race leader Barrichello, who was on a two-stop strategy. On lap 50 Barrichello finally got his second pit stop, but failed to get out in front of Häkkinen, who retained the lead. Irvine, who was the last one-stop driver to pit, dived past Heidfeld and managed to take sixth place behind Trulli. With only five laps to go Barrichello's car started slowing down and puff of smoke from the engine showed he was having engine problems. The Brazilian drove past the entry to the pit lanes, refusing to admit that his race was over so close to finish in second place, but the smoke kept on coming out. Team mate M. Schumacher, who had Coulthard on his tail, caught up with Barrichello and went past him. The Brazilian held up Coulthard to let M. Schumacher gain some ground, but the Scot managed to go past for third place. Barrichello chose to stay out and try to finish the race, but on the lap before the last his car finally died on the finishing straight. The Brazilian, having seen his hopes for a second-place finish in the Drivers Championship, managed to get the car out of the racing line to avoid causing trouble for other drivers. Häkkinen went on to win the race ahead of M. Schumacher and team mate Coulthard. Trulli, Irvine and Heidfeld completed the points finishers. The next and last GP of the 2001 season will be held at Suzuka in Japan on 14 October.

Images from Raisport and Il Corriere della Sera