Atlas F1 News Editor
The 14th round of the 2002 season followed the same script from most of the races this year, with World Champion Michael Schumacher and his Ferrari team dominating the weekend with unbelievable ease. Not even the most popular circuit of the calendar could provide the spectators with the excitement lacking in this year's Championship, with Ferrari again in a different league. Atlas F1's Pablo Elizalde reviews the entire events and results of the weekend
That the Hungaroring provided two weeks earlier one of the most boring races of the year was hardly a surprise, the slow and twisty circuit providing little excitement year in year out. However, for most Formula One fans, the end of the Hungarian race usually means that the Grand Prix circus moves to the most demanding and spectacular circuit of the calendar, regularly the home of outstanding races and wheel-to-wheel battles: the Spa-Francorchamps track.
This year, however, that was hardly the case, and the Belgian Grand Prix was just another example of what the 2002 season has turned out to be: a cakewalk for Michael Schumacher and Ferrari that is unlikely to end before October 13, when the season comes to a close in Japan.
At his favourite track, Schumacher was miles ahead of everybody else, teammate Rubens Barrichello included, and with yet another display of mastery, the German five-time champion cruised home to a record-breaking tenth win out of 14 races, the first time in history that a driver has reached double figures in one single year. Not that it was a surprise to many though.
On a track where he had won five times - six if you count 1994, when he was disqualified - in 10 years, and after having scored his first pole there, hardly anyone could have expected a different result on Sunday, especially considering the amazing reliability record of his Ferrari, which has allowed him to finish in the podium in the last 16 races and to be only three races away from completing a "perfect" season with not a single retirement.
After breaking his leg in England some three months earlier, the German returned for the Malaysian Grand Prix, and since then he has won 28 races, three titles, and has retired only six times. That's why, and more so this season, it's funny to hear Schumacher warning that every next race could see Ferrari's dominance threatened.
"The next race is at Monza but I don't expect we will be so dominant, as we have seen Williams go well there in the past, but we should be very competitive," the German said after Sunday's race. "It was a nice race for me here as you don't always need to be fighting to enjoy the drive."
Despite Schumacher's comments, it will be hard to find anyone betting against a Ferrari win in the remaining three races of the season. Even if the World Champion were to retire for the first time this year, Barrichello is likely to be there to secure the runner-up spot. Even if very far from his teammate, the Brazilian did not have much trouble beating the rest of his rivals to increase his gap over the Williams drivers, even without the help of team orders.
Nor could Williams' Juan Pablo Montoya or Ralf Schumacher, widely expected to be Ferrari's main threat during the weekend. However, neither driver were capable of repeating last year's feat, when they secured an all-Williams front row, and only some last-minutes tweaks to Montoya's car allowed the Colombian to enjoy a stronger race that saw him clinching third place.
The Belgian Grand Prix demonstrated that the battle for second place in the Constructors' Championship would be hard-fought if only Ferrari allowed Williams and McLaren to fight for the top positions. As it is, both British teams are battling for third place in each race, and with Williams' current advantage it is hardly likely that their rivals will be able to catch them despite being very evenly matched.
Contrary to what has been the norm this year, McLaren - read Kimi Raikkonen - were Ferrari's - read Michael Schumacher - main threat in qualifying, only to drop the ball during the race and see their Williams rivals performing slightly better during the race. However, judging by their gap to Ferrari, it seems that Williams have been going backwards more than McLaren catching up.
In a season where scoring points has become harder than ever - proved by the fact that, apart from Ferrari, Williams and McLaren, no other team have managed to finish in the podium all year long - Renault and, surprisingly, Jaguar were the best behind the big three at Spa.
In the end, and after six consecutive retirements, it was Eddie Irvine who clinched a rare but welcomed point, which is nearly the best any driver can hope for in a year in which the difference between the top and middle teams is bigger than it has been for a very long time.
Qualifying
The German, however, did not seem to care much about it either. "I didn't realise until I got here that I had never been on pole in Belgium," said the Ferrari driver after qualifying. "It was something that I wanted and am delighted to have done it today."
As usual this year, Schumacher needed less laps that anybody else to clinch the 48th pole of his career, the Ferrari star completing only three of the usual four runs - only two considering he aborted his second flying lap due to oil on track - to beat the opposition from an unexpected rival, Kimi Raikkonen. The Finn McLaren driver, who had already showed his intentions by topping the times in both Friday's and Saturday's practice sessions, continued to boost his already high reputation with a superb display of driving.
Raikkonen was the only problem that Schumacher had to overcome during the hour-long session, the young "Ice Man" taking full advantage of a revived McLaren that was more competitive that most had expected before the start of the weekend. Following the qualifying fiasco at the Hungaroring two weeks earlier, the Woking-based squad were capable of reverting their fortunes and provided Raikkonen with a car he claimed was capable of clinching pole.
"The alertness just to be able to say 'I can see the oil trail, I'll steer away from it'. Those things, they are the very special drivers that have that," said Whitmarsh. "I think there is real magic there and I think people are now seeing it and he's getting stronger and stronger."
The impressive Finn outqualified teammate David Coulthard by more than half a second, the Scot struggling with the harder Michelin tyre compound, setting the sixth quickest time behind Rubens Barrichello and the two Williams drivers, whose performance was not as strong as expected considering the power of the BMW engine and the qualities of the FW24.
Just in Hungary, Ralf was the quickest of the Williams duo as Montoya struggled again with an understeering car. The Colombian's efforts, however, were hampered by Raikkonen, who blocked the Colombian at the entry of the Bus Stop chicane in what he claimed, and looked set to be, his quickest lap of the session.
"I was really pissed off," said Montoya, whose outburst of anger could be clearly heard on the radio just as he crossed the start/finish line. "I went through Blanchimont and I saw him and I thought ah, he'll move over. He didn't. I was pissed off, but shit happens."
Despite a small chance of rain at the end of the session, most of the drivers took their time before coming out of their garages, but once Raikkonen hit the circuit after some 20 minutes had gone by, everybody else - except Schumacher and Giancarlo Fisichella - followed.
Raikkonen quickly showed his pace, moving to the top of the times with a lap of 1:44.741 that could not be matched by any of the drivers on track, Barrichello being second quickest nearly eight tenths behind. With 25 minutes left, however, Schumacher senior jumped onto the track and crushed the opposition with a 1:43.994 lap that no one would manage to better.
Raikkonen, however, tried hard. The Finn returned to the track for his second run not much later, and despite Panis's Honda engine blowing up dramatically after the Raidillon, Raikkonen kept his head down and stopped the chronometer only .249 seconds behind Schumacher's pole time.
All the top runners managed to improve with their second runs, with Barrichello moving up to third ahead of Ralf, Coulthard and Montoya, battling with the unpredictable handling of his Williams to keep a quick Trulli behind him. Schumacher returned to the track moments later, but the German saw the oil of Panis's engine on track and decided to abort his run, coming back out with some 15 minutes left.
Raikkonen, Barrichello and Montoya also left their garages, the Finn McLaren driver not managing to improve on his previous best. Barrichello did improve but stayed in third, while Montoya, arguably in his quickest lap of the session, found a slow Raikkonen when arriving at the Bus Stop chicane, the Colombian cursing the Finn on his team's pits-to-car radio after failing to improve.
Not that it made a difference, as his rivals failed to match his pace. Raikkonen, Ralf, Montoya and Coulthard improved their times, but only the Colombian Williams driver gained a position, relegating Coulthard to sixth place ahead of Trulli, Irvine and Mika Salo in the Toyota. Briton Jenson Button completed the top ten in the second of the Renaults, with BAR's Jacques Villeneuve being the first non-Ferrari Bridgestone-shod car in 12th place.
The Race
A cloudy but not threatening sky on race day guaranteed that, surprisingly, the weekend would go by without rain, something rather uncommon at Spa, where drivers and teams can always expect to drive in the rain during some, if not most, of the sessions.
The German driver did his best to stay ahead of Coulthard at Eau Rouge, but the Scot got right behind the Williams's rear wing at the exit and easily slipstreamed his rival and came out in front at Les Combes. By the end of the first lap, Schumacher has already began to show his pace, and not even Barrichello seemed capable of following the German driver.
Raikkonen, who had managed to open a small gap to Montoya, was close to becoming the first retirement when he ran wide at Pouhon on lap two, nearly losing control of his car. The Finn, however, saved it brilliantly, but he could not stop Montoya from moving ahead of him while the two Ferraris began to disappear into the distance.
By lap five, Schumacher was already three seconds in front of Barrichello and more than nine ahead of Montoya, who could do nothing to follow the red cars. The pace of the five-time champion was, for most of the first part of the race, nearly a whole two seconds quicker than Montoya and the rest of the pursuers.
While Schumacher continued to cement another dominant victory, the only real action on track was taking place, as usual this season, at the back of the field. Jacques Villeneuve and Giancarlo Fisichella battled it out before the Canadian managed, not before several attempts, to pass the Italian at La Source in their battle for 13th place. Felipe Massa, charging from the back with the Sauber, also moved ahead of the Jordan driver on that same lap.
Schumacher was the first of the leaders to come into the pits, on lap 16, rejoining the race still ahead of Montoya, whose teammate Ralf lost control of his Williams and spun out of the track. The German managed to rejoin the race, but behind Trulli. Barrichello relinquished the lead moments later when he too dived into the pits for his first stop, emerging in fifth place.
Montoya and Raikkonen pitted at the same time, but the Williams crew did a better job and the Colombian was able to stay ahead of the Finn. Teammate Coulthard continued on track for another lap, and he took full advantage of it, pitting and rejoining the race ahead of Raikkonen and right behind Montoya. Apart from that, the order at the top remained unchanged, and Schumacher continued up in front and lapping faster than anyone else.
Fisichella, starting from 14th place after a disappointing qualifying, was the only man to opt for a one-stop strategy that allowed him to move up to sixth place before pitting on lap 21 and dropping down the order, allowing compatriot Trulli to move up into the points, with Ralf following and Eddie Irvine, enduring a very lonely race, in eighth.
The laps went by with little action on track, and up in front Schumacher continued to be in a league of his own, increasing his lead to Barrichello to nearly 25 seconds by lap 30, with Montoya already close to a whole minute behind the leader.
Montoya and Raikkonen were next to pit, but the Finn's race would not last much longer, white smoke coming out of the back of his McLaren once he rejoined the race. Only moments later, the Finn triggered an amazing series of major engine blow-ups.
"Not the ideal way to end the weekend, but it's one of those things," said Raikkonen. "It's been an exciting weekend and I enjoyed starting from the front row, but ideally I would have liked to stay there."
Raikkonen's engine failure was followed by Trulli's, allowing Ralf to move up to fifth and Irvine into the points. Fisichella and later on Olivier Panis were also going to retire soon afterwards when their Honda engines blew-up in dramatic fashion, especially in the Jordan driver's case.
"I was having a good race and unfortunately we lost it when the engine blew up, which was very scary," said the Italian, who nonetheless was not as unlucky as Panis, who lost three of the five Honda engines that let go during the weekend.
A stranger to these sort of problems, Schumacher continued running in the lead, but the German began to lap some three seconds slower as the end of the race got nearer, rising fears that he might allow Barrichello to win in order to increase his chances of finishing runner-up in the Championship, in the mean time returning the Austria "favour".
"Michael was so good this weekend that I never considered asking the team if he would let me pass to help me get more points for second place in the Championship," said Barrichello after the race. "It was clearly his weekend, I could not follow him."
Not even Schumacher himself, now only one point away from breaking his own record for the highest score in a season, had expected to put on such a dominant performance. "I think we haven't really expected anything like that. We were optimistic. We had a very good weekend altogether but you never know what is going to happen in the race with the temperature and so on with different tyres," said Schumacher, who as usual preferred to remain cautious.
"We must not be arrogant at all about this. There are other teams who will be very strong and we can only hope that we can be competitive."
Ralf was fifth, with Irvine claiming the final point, Jaguar's first since the Australian Grand Prix, to boost the Ford-owned squad's spirits ahead of more races that could see them perform well thanks to the low-downforce nature. Monza is next, and so Ferrari's home race.
In front of their home crowd, and knowing they are miles ahead of their rivals, nothing but a victory will do for the Scuderia. And it will certainly be hard to find anyone betting against it.
Lap 1: At the start Michael Schumacher takes off into the lead while Kimi Raikkonen is slower away and has to move across to the right to block Rubens Barrichello. Ralf Schumacher decides to go around the outside of both men at the hairpin but finds himself blocked behind Raikkonen with Juan Pablo Montoya on the inside and a fast-starting Jarno Trulli on the outside. The order as they exit La Source is therefore Michael Schumacher ahead of Barrichello, Raikkonen, Montoya, David Coulthard and Ralf Schumacher. Further back Mika Salo is passed by Jenson Button for ninth. Further back Allan McNish and Giancarlo Fisichella both overtake Jacques Villeneuve. There is plenty of action at the tail of the field where the two Saubers dice with Takuma Sato and Olivier Panis. At the end of the lap Michael Schumacher is 2.2 seconds ahead of Barrichello.
Lap 5: Michael Schumacher has increased his lead to three seconds while Barrichello is 6.4 seconds clear of Montoya. Towards the back of the field Felipe Massa overtakes Nick Heidfeld to grab 15th place. Mark Webber pulls off with a gearbox failure at Eau Rouge.
Lap 8: The Ferraris continue to pull away at the front with Michael Schumacher now 5.3 seconds ahead of Barrichello and the Brazilian almost 10 seconds clear of Montoya. In the midfield Fisichella goes off and drops behind Villeneuve and Massa.
Lap 11: After a string of seven consecutive fastest laps, Michael's lead increases to 8.8 seconds. Barrichello's lead over Montoya is up to 13 seconds. Jenson Button pulls off and retires from ninth place.
Lap 14: Villeneuve passes Allan McNish to move up to 11th place. At the tail of the field the pit stops begin with Massa and Sato pitting. The Jordan stop is a slow one and Sato drops to last place.
Lap 15: Eddie Irvine stops and the Jaguar driver drops from eighth place to 11th. Villeneuve, McNish and Antony Davidson also stop.
Lap 17: Barrichello stops after just one lap in the lead. Michael Schumacher goes back into the lead while Barrichello emerges behind Montoya, Raikkonen and Coulthard. The midfield stops continue with Trulli, Ralf Schumacher and Heidfeld all stopping. On his first lap out of the pits Ralf spins and falls behind Trulli.
Lap 18: Montoya and Raikkonen both pit and so Barrichello goes back up to third. Panis stops and drops from ninth to 16th. At the tail of the field Davidson spins out and retires.
Lap 19: Coulthard pits and gets out ahead of Raikkonen. Barrichello is back in second place, 15 seconds behind Michael Schumacher. Montoya is third with Coulthard fourth, Raikkonen fifth and Fisichella (who has not pitted) in sixth place.
Lap 21: Fisichella pits and drops from sixth to 15th. This promoted Trulli to sixth.
Lap 27: After several laps without any change the second round of stops begin with last-placed Sato pitting. At the front Michael Schumacher's lead is up to 23 seconds with Barrichello a long way ahead of the rest.
Lap 29: Trulli stops and so Ralf Schumacher goes up to sixth place. McNish and Heidfeld also stop.
Lap 31: Barrichello pits but stays second. Ralf Schumacher pits and falls back from sixth to ninth.
Lap 32: De la Rosa stops for a second time leaving seventh position to Ralf Schumacher. At the tail of the field Panis has his second stop.
Lap 33: Third-placed Montoya pits and fall;s behind the two McLarens but they have still to pit. Villeneuve, now running eighth, also pits.
Lap 34: Raikkonen pits and rejoins fifth.
Lap 35: Coulthard stops and so Montoya moves back to third place.
Lap 36: Raikkonen goes out with an engine failure. Sixth-placed Trulli also pulls off to retire and so Ralf Schumacher moves to fifth and Irvine to sixth.
Lap 39: Eighth-placed Fisichella goes out with a major engine failure, spraying the closely-following Villeneuve with oil.
Lap 40: Eleventh-placed Panis goes out with an engine failure.
Lap 44: The Ferraris have eased off in the final laps so Michael Schumacher finishes just two seconds ahead of Barrichello. It is his seventh victory on the road at Spa (although his 1994 win was cancelled because of a technical problem). It is nonetheless a record-breaking sixth win at Spa and his 10th of the year - another record. Montoya is third with the other points going to Coulthard, Ralf Schumacher and Irvine. Salo and Villeneuve are seventh and eighth with the field being completed by the lapped McNish, Heidfeld and Sato.
As the 2002 season progresses and the races roll on it's getting harder and harder to look forward to the remaining Grands Prix of the year, and certainly many Formula One fans would not complain if the teams decided to call it a day already and start thinking about 2003 with revived hopes of, at least, seeing a little excitement at the top of the current field.
Ferrari's sixth one-two finish of the year also meant that the Italian squad have finished on the podium in the last 50 races, an unprecedented achievement that serves as proof of Ferrari's form since the 1999 European Grand Prix, ironically the last race they had to compete without Schumacher.
Montoya, now seven points behind Barrichello in the Championship standings, again showed that he has lost his brilliant qualifying form and was outperformed by teammate Ralf for the third time in succession and for the seventh time this season, equalling the Colombian in that respect. Montoya, however, put on a solid performance in the race while the German made some costly mistakes that relegated him down to fifth behind the only surviving McLaren, driven by David Coulthard.
It was appropriate that in a season where he has surpassed all, or most of, the previous records set during a single season, Michael Schumacher clinched his first ever pole position at his favourite circuit after ten failed attempts. It was something of a mystery why the German, a five-time winner at Spa, had never managed to start from the top spot before this year.
"If my best sector times were all strung together I would have been fastest, but I still have some work to do on the race set-up," said the Finn, whose coolness was demonstrated when he drove nearly blind across the cloud of smoke left by Olivier Panis's blow-up during his quickest lap, impressing McLaren's managing director Martin Whitmarsh.
It was a strong session for the Michelin runners, with Renault's Jarno Trulli edging Eddie Irvine in the first of the Jaguars, which thanks to a revised front suspension and the low downforce nature of the circuit, enjoyed a boost of confidence after struggling in Hungary.
Schumacher did improve his time on his second flying lap, the German setting a 1:43.726 that all but secured his fifth pole of the season. Due to what he claimed was a miscalculation from the team, the Ferrari driver would return to the track for his final run without enough time to start his flying lap.
Pos Driver Team Time
1. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1:43.726 241.837 km/h
2. Raikkonen McLaren Mercedes (M) 1:44.150 + 0.424
3. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 1:44.335 + 0.609
4. R.Schumacher Williams BMW (M) 1:44.348 + 0.622
5. Montoya Williams BMW (M) 1:44.634 + 0.908
6. Coulthard McLaren Mercedes (M) 1:44.759 + 1.033
7. Trulli Renault (M) 1:45.386 + 1.660
8. Irvine Jaguar Cosworth (M) 1:45.865 + 2.139
9. Salo Toyota (M) 1:45.880 + 2.154
10. Button Renault (M) 1:45.972 + 2.246
11. de la Rosa Jaguar Cosworth (M) 1:46.056 + 2.330
12. Villeneuve BAR Honda (B) 1:46.403 + 2.677
13. McNish Toyota (M) 1:46.485 + 2.759
14. Fisichella Jordan Honda (B) 1:46.508 + 2.782
15. Panis BAR Honda (B) 1:46.553 + 2.827
16. Sato Jordan Honda (B) 1:46.875 + 3.149
17. Massa Sauber Petronas (B) 1:46.896 + 3.170
18. Heidfeld Sauber Petronas (B) 1:47.272 + 3.546
19. Webber Minardi Asiatech (M) 1:47.562 + 3.836
20. Davidson Minardi Asiatech (M) 1:48.170 + 4.444
Michael Schumacher flew off the line when the red lights went off, not giving any chance to his rivals, while Raikkonen failed to take advantage of his first ever front row start and was overtaken by Barrichello in the second Ferrari. The McLaren driver, however, managed to stay in third position ahead of Montoya, who gained one place by moving ahead of teammate Ralf, who opted for the outside line at La Source and paid the penalty for it.
Apart from those moments of action, the race continued to be a high speed procession, with Schumacher continuing to open his gap as the first round of pitstop began to loom. By lap 15, the Ferrari driver was already 14 seconds ahead of Barrichello, with Montoya, followed very closely by Raikkonen, more than half a minute off the leader, and the race had not reached its mid-point yet.
The second round of pitstops was triggered by ninth-placed Mika Salo in the Toyota on lap 27, with Trulli following suit two laps later. The leader pitted on lap 30, stood sill for 8.8 seconds, and returned to the track still ahead of Barrichello, who came into the pits on the following lap and was also able to keep his position. Ralf, still stuck behind Trulli, pitted next, but the German's hopes of a good result suffered another blow, when he "pushed the wrong button on the steering wheel by mistake," losing more time.
Despite starting the final lap only some three seconds ahead of Barrichello, Schumacher would not relinquish the lead, and the Brazilian had to settle for second, which was the best he could have hoped for on a day when his German teammate was clearly above the rest.
Montoya had to settle for a distant third, but the Colombian was happy considering his qualifying struggle and Ferrari's pace. "We did some changes on the grid and they were possibly the best changes we did all weekend," he explained after the end of the race, where he was able to keep Coulthard at bay. "It's the first time this year that they (McLaren) are quicker than us in qualifying and we are stronger in the race."
CLASSIFIED
Pos Driver Team Time
1. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1h 21:20.634
2. Barrichello Ferrari (B) + 1.977
3. Montoya Williams BMW (M) + 18.445
4. Coulthard McLaren Mercedes (M) + 19.357
5. R.Schumacher Williams BMW (M) + 56.440
6. Irvine Jaguar Cosworth (M) + 1:17.370
7. Salo Toyota (M) + 1:17.809
8. Villeneuve BAR Honda (B) + 1:19.855
9. McNish Toyota (M) + 1 lap
10. Heidfeld Sauber Petronas (B) + 1 lap
11. Sato Jordan Honda (B) + 1 lap
Fastest Lap: M.Schumacher, 1:47.176, lap 15
NOT CLASSIFIED / RETIREMENTS
Panis BAR Honda (B) 40 Engine
Fisichella Jordan Honda (B) 39 Engine
de la Rosa Jaguar Cosworth (M) 38 Suspension
Massa Sauber Petronas (B) 38 Mechanical
Raikkonen McLaren Mercedes (M) 36 Mechanical
Trulli Renault (M) 36 Engine
Davidson Minardi Asiatech (M) 18 Spun Off
Button Renault (M) 11 Mechanical
Webber Minardi Asiatech (M) 5 Mechanical
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP STANDING, ROUND 14:
Drivers: Constructors:
1. M.Schumacher 122 WC 1. Ferrari 173 CC
2. Barrichello 51 2. Williams-BMW 86
3. Montoya 44 3. McLaren-Mercedes 57
4. R.Schumacher 42 4. Renault 15
5. Coulthard 37 5. Sauber-Petronas 11
6. Raikkonen 20 6. Jordan-Honda 7
7. Button 11 7. BAR 5
8. Heidfeld 7 8. Jaguar-Cosworth 4
= Fisichella 7 9. Toyota 2
10. Trulli 4 = Arrows 2
= Massa 4 = Minardi-Asiatech 2
= Irvine 4
13. Villeneuve 3
14. Webber 2
= Salo 2
= Frentzen 2
= Panis 2
Pos Driver Team Lap Time
1. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 15 1:47.176
2. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 16 1:48.196 + 1.020
3. Montoya Williams-BMW (M) 44 1:49.293 + 2.117
4. Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes (M) 43 1:49.398 + 2.222
5. R.Schumacher Williams-BMW (M) 15 1:49.681 + 2.505
6. Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes (M) 31 1:49.764 + 2.588
7. Villeneuve BAR-Honda (B) 43 1:49.787 + 2.611
8. de la Rosa Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 14 1:50.221 + 3.045
9. Trulli Renault (M) 15 1:50.235 + 3.059
10. Panis BAR-Honda (B) 34 1:50.275 + 3.099
11. Massa Sauber-Petronas (B) 30 1:50.595 + 3.419
12. Irvine Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 13 1:50.829 + 3.653
13. Salo Toyota (M) 18 1:50.832 + 3.656
14. Sato Jordan-Honda (B) 26 1:50.886 + 3.710
15. Fisichella Jordan-Honda (B) 17 1:50.969 + 3.793
16. Heidfeld Sauber-Petronas (B) 19 1:51.013 + 3.837
17. Button Renault (M) 6 1:51.223 + 4.047
18. McNish Toyota (M) 17 1:51.479 + 4.303
19. Davidson Minardi-Asiatech (M) 12 1:51.878 + 4.702
20. Webber Minardi-Asiatech (M) 3 1:52.469 + 5.293
Pos Driver Team Time Lap
1. Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes (M) 27.451 35
2. Panis BAR-Honda (B) 28.723 32
3. Trulli Renault (M) 28.974 17
4. Montoya Williams-BMW (M) 29.026 33
5. Salo Toyota (M) 29.252 30
6. Villeneuve BAR-Honda (B) 29.456 33
7. Salo Toyota (M) 29.711 16
8. Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes (M) 29.918 34
9. de la Rosa Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 30.001 32
10. Irvine Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 30.018 30
11. Montoya Williams-BMW (M) 30.057 18
12. McNish Toyota (M) 30.068 29
13. Heidfeld Sauber-Petronas (B) 30.090 29
14. Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes (M) 30.095 19
15. Massa Sauber-Petronas (B) 30.219 28
16. Trulli Renault (M) 30.283 29
17. McNish Toyota (M) 30.316 15
18. R.Schumacher Williams-BMW (M) 30.326 17
19. Heidfeld Sauber-Petronas (B) 30.352 17
20. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 30.370 31
21. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 30.376 16
22. Panis BAR-Honda (B) 30.611 18
23. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 30.876 30
24. Massa Sauber-Petronas (B) 30.886 14
25. Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes (M) 30.928 18
26. Sato Jordan-Honda (B) 31.692 27
27. Villeneuve BAR-Honda (B) 31.702 15
28. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 31.951 17
29. de la Rosa Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 32.363 16
30. Irvine Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 33.349 15
31. Fisichella Jordan-Honda (B) 34.154 21
32. R.Schumacher Williams-BMW (M) 34.412 31
33. Davidson Minardi-Asiatech (M) 35.399 15
34. Sato Jordan-Honda (B) 39.049 14
The Belgian Grand Prix, Lap by Lap
Lap 2: Michael Schumacher extends his lead slightly while Barrichello pulls away from the battle for third. In the course of the lap Montoya passes Raikkonen for third.
Lap 16: Michael Schumacher pits for the first time. He rejoins in second place. Also pitting are Mika Salo and Pedro de la Rosa.
Lap 30: Michael Schumacher pits but this time he is able to rejoin still in the lead. Seventh-placed Irvine also stops and does eighth-placed Salo.
Lap 38: Eighth-placed de la Rosa goes out with a suspension failure. Eleventh-placed Massa also retires with an engine failure.
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Volume 8, Issue 36
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Schumacher's Living Room
Pummeled by Perfection
Ann Bradshaw: View from the Paddock
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The Best of Williams
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