ATLAS F1 - THE JOURNAL OF FORMULA ONE MOTORSPORT
The 2002 US GP Review

By Pablo Elizalde, Spain
Atlas F1 News Editor



As much as Ferrari and Michael Schumacher have proved nearly invincible with their performances this season, the Italian squad and their German star have also demonstrated, unfortunately for the sport more than once, that they still have a lot to learn about how to cope with their unprecedented success and the consequences of all their decisions.

Barrichello beats Schumacher on the lineWith perhaps their best ever car since they started racing more than 50 years ago, and with the best driver of the field, Ferrari have re-written the record books this year in a season that has rewarded their hard work and ability to stay clearly ahead of their rivals for two consecutive years.

2002 should have gone down into the record books as perhaps the most one-sided year in recent Formula One history, closely matched to 1988, when only a mistake by then Williams driver Jean Louis Schlesser, when being lapped by Ayrton Senna, stopped the Woking-based squad from winning all the races of the season. At best for Ferrari, 2002 should have been remembered as a boring year, but a single mistake have caused such indignation and fury that the season is likely to be remembered as the year when Ferrari turned Formula One into a farce.

The heads at Ferrari had clearly not anticipated the consequences the Austrian Grand Prix blunder would have hours and days later after the incident, and perhaps they, or at least Schumacher, did not expect that the repercussions of their biggest PR error would still haunt them nearly five months later.

Had the Austrian Grand Prix result not been fixed by the Italian squad in such a visible manner, chances are that what happened at Indianapolis on Sunday would have been remembered as a silly mistake or even as a nice gesture from Schumacher to Rubens Barrichello. After Austria, Ferrari's silly mistakes are meticulously analyzed and any sign of gratitude from Schumacher is seen as a way to try to fix his damaged image following the A1-Ring controversy.

David Coulthard was strong all weekendAt Indianapolis, Schumacher perhaps miscalculated where the finish line was, or perhaps did not think Barrichello would overtake him on the line, or perhaps the German actually thought that he could achieve another milestone and have the first ever shared win.

"How can you have a dead heat? In modern technology when one thousandth of a second is possible, dead heats are gone out with Roy Rogers, The Lone Ranger, the War of the Roses and all that stuff," said Eddie Jordan after hearing Schumacher actually wanted to finish equal with Barrichello. "There is no such thing as dead heats in anything any more, timing is too accurate with beams and lasers and stuff. Michael isn't that good yet."

The paddock agreed that Schumacher made a mistake and, especially this season, perhaps an honest admission of that error would have helped his cause much more than any PR-like reply along the lines of giving something back to Barrichello for his Austrian race. As it was, the fans felt cheated and Formula One scored yet another own goal at the worst possible time, when racing is lacking and audiences are decreasing. It was also not the best way to attract the American public.

Event if it's "only" a sport, a great power means a great responsibility, and as the most powerful team in Formula One, Ferrari should perhaps act consequently and actually consider the bigger picture which is the sport that has made them what they are. Ferrari are not at fault for making Formula One look boring, they are the best and they deserve to win, but sometimes it's not about what you do, but how you do it.

Ralf Schumacher and Montoya collideApart from the final seconds of the race, Ferrari have again given a display of dominance and technical and tactical perfection during the weekend. Schumacher was untouchable both on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, finishing on top of the timesheets in every single session. Barrichello followed closely most of the weekend, but could do nothing to beat his German teammate in the race.

His performance, however, was enough to secure the runner-up spot in the Championship and to help Ferrari become the first team in Formula One history to surpass the 200 points mark in the Constructors' Championship, beating McLaren's tally of 199 points in 1988. The Italian squad have also scored the same number of points as the six teams following them in the standings, and if they clinch another one-two in Japan, they would have scored the same exact points as all the other teams together, something that pretty much says it all about Ferrari's season.

Behind the Italian World Champions, McLaren were again their closest rivals while the Williams drivers embarrassed their team by clashing at the start of the race. David Coulthard was the main man for McLaren during most of the weekend and the Woking-based outfit continued to prove there's some hope that they might be returning to winning ways in a not so distant future.

In a season full of talk about team orders, it was strangely gratifying to see Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher battling out for position without thinking of the consequences for their team. In the end, of course, their crash cost them any chance of a good result and most likely will have earned them a long chat with Frank Williams and Patrick Head.

"Sometimes when you are young you think you are always right even if you are wrong," said Head. "I am sure Frank will be making it very plain to them what he thinks his opinion is. I hope that if they are bright enough they will take something on board."

Qualifying

Barrichello crashed during practiceAfter comfortably topping the timesheets in every practice session prior to Saturday's qualifying, anything but another pole position for Michael Schumacher would have been a major surprise, but the Ferrari driver did not disappoint their supporters and was easily quicker than teammate Rubens Barrichello to grab his sixth pole of the season and the 49th of his career.

Schumacher also became the first man in Indianapolis history to grab three consecutive pole positions, including the 86 Indy 500s and nine Brickyard 400s, in the meantime lapping a whole second quicker than in last year's qualifying, where the German was also out of reach of his rivals.

Unlike Monza, where the Bridgestone runners struggled to extract the best from their tyres with only one flying lap, the Japanese rubber proved to be perfectly matched for the needs of Schumacher's Ferrari, as it has been the case for most of the season.

"The key to today was Bridgestone - the result is due to the tyres which were very good," said Ferrari's technical director Ross Brawn. "Bridgestone has done a super job and brought a compound which is working extremely well."

Frentzen returned to action with SauberSchumacher only needed one flying lap to secure his pole, having aborted his first run after going wide at the first corner. His third attempt was spoiled by the yellow flags on track following an accident from Minardi's Alex Yoong, so it was in his second run where the Ferrari driver clinched the top spot, setting a quickest lap of 1:10.790, the fastest around The Brickyard since Formula One made its debut there in 2000.

"Maybe I could have been a bit quicker because on my best run I had to back off for yellow flags in the second sector," Schumacher said. "You never know what to expect from qualifying, but today went well for us. I aborted my first run because I went a bit wide at the first turn and went onto the grass."

Ferrari's dominance was highlighted by their fifth front row lock-out of the 2002 season, with Barrichello finishing second despite missing the whole Friday practice sessions due to a heavy accident when he lost control and crashed into the wall at turn 13.

The Brazilian only needed the two Saturday morning sessions to get up to speed, and although he never challenged his teammate's time, he managed to finish less then three tenths off a second behind Schumacher, setting the scene for what was set to be the first Ferrari battle of the year.

Schumacher grabbed his third pole at Indy"We don't want to do anything where the drivers are going to fall out," said Ross Brawn when asked if their drivers would be allowed to race each other. "So it's just important that we don't have any situations develop where something silly happens between the drivers. If we can avoid that, yes, they're free to do what they like."

With the Ferrari on a different league, the real excitement came from seeing who would qualify as best of the rest and, perhaps somewhat surprisingly, it was David Coulthard who emerged ahead of both Williams drivers Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher. Montoya was particularly disappointed with his qualifying showing, especially after being pipped by Coulthard in the dying seconds of the session by a mere one thousand of a second.

The Scot, who had a new engine installed for qualifying following a problem during practice, finished more than six tenths away from pole sitter Schumacher, but was still happy with his best qualifying performance since the Monaco Grand Prix back in May.

"It's nice to qualify third, it's the best I've had in quite a bit," said Coulthard of his best showing since Monaco in May. "The gap to Ferrari is still too big on what is quite a short circuit. Anything can happen in the races."

The day proved to be very disappointing for Montoya who, like teammate Schumacher, could not get rid of the balance problems of their BMW-powered FW24 during the hour-long session. In the end, the Colombian had to settle for fourth place ahead of Ralf.

"It is disappointing and very frustrating especially because I was in third position until the last moment and then I lost it by one thousandth of a second," Montoya said. "Tomorrow I am starting my race from the dirty side of the track and this is not really helpful."

Jarno Trulli shone with the RenaultKimi Raikkonen, who during most of the weekend failed to match the pace of teammate Coulthard, completed the top six ahead of Jacques Villeneuve in the British American Racing car, which benefitted from the superior performance of the Bridgestone tyres in comparison to some of the Michelin runners.

The Renaults, the Toyotas and, more surprisingly, the Jaguars struggled with balance problems, and the performance drop of the Milton Keynes squad was especially shocking following their showing in practice. Eddie Irvine finished second on Friday and third on Saturday, but in qualifying the Irishman was more than half a second slower than his best time from practice.

"The car was sliding around all over the place and was quite a handful to drive," said the Northern Irishman after qualifying in 13th position. "It was twitchy, unforgiving and simply put, a very different car to the one I drove this morning."

Renault's Jenson Button and Toyota drivers Allan McNish and Mika Salo also suffered similar problems, all of them struggling for grip with their cars. The session was particularly disappointing for Salo, who wound up 19th fastest just ahead of Minardi's Alex Yoong.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen, standing in for penalised Felipe Massa, made a promising return to the Sauber team, and despite admitting he was driving as close to the steering as his "grandmother used to", the veteran German managed to post the 11th quickest time right behind teammate Nick Heidfeld.

Qualifying Results

Pos  Driver        Team                   Time                 
 1.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari           (B)  1:10.790  213.183 km/h
 2.  Barrichello   Ferrari           (B)  1:11.058    +    0.268
 3.  Coulthard     McLaren Mercedes  (M)  1:11.413    +    0.623
 4.  Montoya       Williams BMW      (M)  1:11.414    +    0.624
 5.  R.Schumacher  Williams BMW      (M)  1:11.587    +    0.797
 6.  Raikkonen     McLaren Mercedes  (M)  1:11.633    +    0.843
 7.  Villeneuve    BAR Honda         (B)  1:11.738    +    0.948
 8.  Trulli        Renault           (M)  1:11.888    +    1.098
 9.  Fisichella    Jordan Honda      (B)  1:11.902    +    1.112
10.  Heidfeld      Sauber Petronas   (B)  1:11.953    +    1.163
11.  Frentzen      Sauber Petronas   (B)  1:12.083    +    1.293
12.  Panis         BAR Honda         (B)  1:12.161    +    1.371
13.  Irvine        Jaguar Cosworth   (M)  1:12.282    +    1.492
14.  Button        Renault           (M)  1:12.401    +    1.611
15.  Sato          Jordan Honda      (B)  1:12.647    +    1.857
16.  McNish        Toyota            (M)  1:12.723    +    1.933
17.  de la Rosa    Jaguar Cosworth   (M)  1:12.739    +    1.949
18.  Webber        Minardi Asiatech  (M)  1:13.128    +    2.338
19.  Salo          Toyota            (M)  1:13.213    +    2.423
20.  Yoong         Minardi Asiatech  (M)  1:13.809    +    3.019

The Race

The start of the raceFollowing a trouble-free warm-up, where Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello again finished on top of the timesheets, the race start took place under nearly perfect weather conditions, and as the red lights went off Schumacher got away cleanly and had little problems to stay in the lead when arriving at the first corner.

The start was drama free, and all the drivers made it safely around the first lap, with Barrichello following his teammate ahead of David Coulthard, Ralf Schumacher - who had pipped Juan Pablo Montoya at the start, the Colombian himself, Jarno Trulli and Kimi Raikkonen completing the top seven when they crossed the start/finish line.

Montoya, however, was determined to get fourth place back and, coming out of turn 13 he was right behind Ralf's rear wing. The cars got side by side at the end of the straight, Montoya on the outside, trying to outbrake his teammate, who was determined not to let the Colombian get away with it. Ralf turned for the corner but his rear end snapped and spun, crashing into Montoya's right rear wheel to the frustration of a visibly upset Patrick Head.

Montoya went off track but was able to continue after dropping down to seventh. Ralf, however, lost his rear wing in the incident and had to crawl back to the pits. Not surprisingly, the Williams drivers had a different version of the incident.

The Jaguars had to fifht with the Minardi at Indy"It is always difficult to pass anyone on the outside," said Schumacher, who spent more than a minute in the pits before he rejoined the race in last place one lap down. "There wasn't a lot of room there at all. Anyway, before giving an accurate opinion I should have a proper look at the TV images first."

"In the second lap I was passing Ralf and I braked late. I was going round the outside and suddenly he hit me. I think he braked a lot later," said the Colombian, whose car survived the accident without any damage.

With two of their direct rivals already out of contention, Schumacher and Barrichello began to pull away quickly, and by lap five they were running closely together some five seconds ahead of Coulthard, who was followed by Trulli, Raikkonen and Jacques Villeneuve, who had benefitted from the incident between the Williams drivers to move into a point-scoring position.

With the only real action taking place at the back of the grid in a fight between the Jaguars and the Minardis, the laps went by quietly as the Ferraris continued to increase their advantage over the rest of the field. By lap 15 the two red cars were already 15 seconds ahead of Coulthard, while his McLaren teammate Raikkonen, running in sixth began to suffer problems, his Mercedes engine misfiring badly.

Schumacher leads BarrichelloIt wasn't long before, first Villeneuve, and moments later Montoya, overtook Raikkonen without too much trouble. The BAR driver was the first man in the top six to make his first of two scheduled stops on lap 25, with leader Schumacher coming into the pits only two laps later, showing that he too was going for a two-stopper.

The German's pitstop went smoothly and he returned to the track ahead of Coulthard. Barrichello led briefly before he too pitted seconds later, the Brazilian rejoining the race again in second place behind Schumacher and ahead of the McLaren driver. Fourth-placed Trulli also had opted to pit twice, and had dropped behind his teammate Jenson Button out of the points.

The Ferraris quickly regained their pace at the top of the field, beginning to open a small gap to Coulthard as all three of them battled with a heavy traffic that seemed to benefit the Scot who, with a lighter McLaren, was able to stay around three seconds behind the leading duo after 30 laps of the race gone.

Montoya had already moved up to a distant fourth when he made a mistake and dived into the pits ten laps before he was supposed to do it. The Colombian, who had misread the pit board, lost more time as a consequence of his error, and returned to the race in sixth position.

Raikkonen's engine lets go"Juan imagined something that was never on the pit-board, didn't follow his procedures, didn't communicate to the pits in the way that he is supposed to and decided to come into the pits," explained Patrick Head. "It's something that if he is going to make use of the talent that he has as a driver then it is a side of his performance that he has got to put more attention to."

Coulthard was close behind Barrichello's rear wing when the McLaren driver finally made his only scheduled stop on lap 42, rejoining the race behind Raikkonen, who pitted on the following lap, allowing the Scot to return to third position more than half a minute behind the two Ferraris.

With 25 laps left in the race, Schumacher was around 2.5 seconds ahead of his teammate, with Coulthard 40 seconds adrift but comfortably ahead of Montoya, who was followed by Villeneuve, still to make his second pit stop, and Raikkonen in sixth.

Schumacher Senior dived into the pits for his second stop on lap 49, refuelling for 7.8 seconds before returning to the race clearly ahead of Coulthard. Barrichello followed suit a lap later, and after a trouble-free service, the order remained the same in the top six until a lap later, when fifth-placed Villeneuve made his second stop and dropped to seventh behind Trulli.

Both the Canadian and the Italian, however, would gain a position moments later, with Raikkonen's Mercedes engine giving up for the third race in succession and for the sixth time in 16 races. It was also the Finn's 11th retirement of his first year with McLaren.

Jacques Villeneuve finished sixthThe order continued unchanged for the remaining laps, with Schumacher opening a 3.5-second lead over Barrichello with five laps remaining, with Coulthard more than 15 seconds behind and Montoya, who had closed the gap to the Scot, around four seconds adrift.

Schumacher slowed down for the final lap and allowed Barrichello to get close to him for the photo of the two Ferraris crossing the line in formation. Or at least that's what everybody was expecting. Whether it was an error or not, Schumacher slowed down too much and Barrichello crossed the finish line by a whisker - 0.011 seconds - ahead of the German.

Schumacher, whose face reflected more disappointment than joy, pleaded, to the surprise of most of the paddock, that he was going for a dead heat. "We tried to be side by side," he said. "We have always supported each other. I thought today was a great opportunity to finish equal, to go together over the line, but we failed."

A confused Barrichello welcomed the present, which allowed Ferrari to complete the set with his runner-up spot. "I got to the last corner and I didn't know what to do," he admitted. "Nothing was said. Michael was very kind to let us finish equally. I guess I just pointed a little bit in front."

Unfortunately the race will go down into the records books as the closest ever finish in the history of Formula One, except perhaps the 1971 Italian GP and ahead of the 1982 Austrian and the 1986 Spanish Grands Prix. Anyone who remembered those three frantic and epic races must have felt embarrassed about the new record set last Sunday.

The podiumBehind the Ferraris, Coulthard completed an encouraging weekend for McLaren with a strong third place ahead of Montoya, Trulli and Villeneuve, whose point set up a thrilling battle for sixth place in the Championship between Jaguar, BAR and Jordan, separated by one point with only the Japanese Grand Prix left to run.

The final race of the season at Suzuka is very likely to be another Ferrari show, having won there the last two years, and many are already looking forward to a fresh start in 2003, hopefully with more racing and less controversy and politics.

"I think it will be a perfect race for Ferrari," said Patrick Head after the race. "It (Suzuka) has got some similarities with Barcelona and I think our car is not good enough to compete with Ferrari there. I think it will be very much a Ferrari benefit at Suzuka, we want to try and compete and beat McLaren.

"Then I shall be glad to have the season over racing-wise and not to have our noses rubbed into it every two weeks."


Race Results

CLASSIFIED

Pos  Driver        Team                    Time    
 1.  Barrichello   Ferrari            (B)  1h 31:07.934
 2.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari            (B)     +   0.011
 3.  Coulthard     McLaren Mercedes   (M)     +   7.799
 4.  Montoya       Williams BMW       (M)     +   9.911
 5.  Trulli        Renault            (M)     +  56.847
 6.  Villeneuve    BAR Honda          (B)     +  58.211
 7.  Fisichella    Jordan Honda       (B)     +  1 lap 
 8.  Button        Renault            (M)     +  1 lap 
 9.  Heidfeld      Sauber Petronas    (B)     +  1 lap 
10.  Irvine        Jaguar Cosworth    (M)     +  1 lap 
11.  Sato          Jordan Honda       (B)     +  1 lap 
12.  Panis         BAR Honda          (B)     +  1 lap 
13.  Frentzen      Sauber Petronas    (B)     +  2 laps
14.  Salo          Toyota             (M)     +  2 laps
15.  McNish        Toyota             (M)     +  2 laps
16.  R.Schumacher  Williams BMW       (M)     +  2 laps

Fastest Lap: Barrichello, 1:12.738, lap 27

NOT CLASSIFIED / RETIREMENTS                 
                                                    
Raikkonen     McLaren Mercedes   (M)  50  Engine
Yoong         Minardi Asiatech   (M)  46  Engine
Webber        Minardi Asiatech   (M)  38  Steering Wheel
De la Rosa    Jaguar Cosworth    (M)  27  Engine

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP STANDING, ROUND 16:

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  M.Schumacher  134 WC   1.  Ferrari            205 CC
 2.  Barrichello    71      2.  Williams-BMW        89   
 3.  Montoya        47      3.  McLaren-Mercedes    61   
 4.  R.Schumacher   42      4.  Renault             22   
 5.  Coulthard      41      5.  Sauber-Petronas     11   
 6.  Raikkonen      20      6.  Jaguar-Cosworth      8   
 7.  Button         13      7.  Jordan-Honda         7   
 8.  Trulli          9      =.  BAR                  7   
 9.  Irvine          8      9.  Toyota               2   
10.  Fisichella      7      =   Arrows               2   
 =   Heidfeld        7      =   Minardi-Asiatech     2   
12.  Massa           4                                   
 =.  Villeneuve      4                                   
14.  Panis           3                                   
15.  Webber          2                                   
 =   Salo            2                                   
 =   Frentzen        2                                   

Fastest Race Laps

Pos  Driver        Team                  Lap  Time              
 1.  Barrichello   Ferrari           (B)  27  1:12.738         
 2.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari           (B)  26  1:12.754  + 0.016
 3.  Montoya       Williams-BMW      (M)  72  1:12.798  + 0.060
 4.  R.Schumacher  Williams-BMW      (M)  71  1:13.260  + 0.522
 5.  Coulthard     McLaren-Mercedes  (B)  41  1:13.481  + 0.743
 6.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes  (B)  42  1:13.819  + 1.081
 7.  Villeneuve    BAR-Honda         (B)  48  1:13.848  + 1.110
 8.  Fisichella    Jordan-Honda      (B)  34  1:14.025  + 1.287
 9.  Trulli        Renault           (M)  27  1:14.026  + 1.288
10.  Irvine        Jaguar-Cosworth   (M)  41  1:14.190  + 1.452
11.  Panis         BAR-Honda         (B)  47  1:14.263  + 1.525
12.  Button        Renault           (M)  71  1:14.265  + 1.527
13.  Sato          Jordan-Honda      (B)  47  1:14.556  + 1.818
14.  Heidfeld      Sauber-Petronas   (B)  27  1:14.557  + 1.819
15.  Salo          Toyota            (M)  54  1:14.672  + 1.934
16.  Frentzen      Sauber-Petronas   (B)  64  1:14.796  + 2.058
17.  McNish        Toyota            (M)  40  1:14.882  + 2.144
18.  Yoong         Minardi-Asiatech  (M)  38  1:15.347  + 2.609
19.  Webber        Minardi-Asiatech  (M)  29  1:15.367  + 2.629
20.  de la Rosa    Jaguar-Cosworth   (M)  25  1:15.498  + 2.760

Pitstop Times

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time    Lap
 1.  Barrichello   Ferrari           (B)    27.784  50
 2.  Frentzen      Sauber-Petronas   (B)    27.887  49
 3.  Heidfeld      Sauber-Petronas   (B)    27.979  48
 4.  Barrichello   Ferrari           (B)    28.205  28
 5.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari           (B)    28.275  49
 6.  Frentzen      Sauber-Petronas   (B)    28.361  30
 7.  Sato          Jordan-Honda      (B)    28.423  26
 8.  Heidfeld      Sauber-Petronas   (B)    28.543  28
 9.  Villeneuve    BAR-Honda         (B)    28.590  51
10.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari           (B)    28.653  27
11.  Panis         BAR-Honda         (B)    28.955  21
12.  Panis         BAR-Honda         (B)    28.956  49
13.  Sato          Jordan-Honda      (B)    29.264  50
14.  Salo          Toyota            (M)    29.830  26
15.  Villeneuve    BAR-Honda         (B)    29.847  25
16.  Irvine        Jaguar-Cosworth   (M)    30.247  43
17.  R.Schumacher  Williams-BMW      (M)    30.832  43
18.  Coulthard     McLaren-Mercedes  (B)    30.912  42
19.  Yoong         Minardi-Asiatech  (M)    31.446  40
20.  Montoya       Williams-BMW      (M)    31.743  32
21.  Fisichella    Jordan-Honda      (B)    31.985  37
22.  Trulli        Renault           (M)    32.174  29
23.  Button        Renault           (M)    32.311  30
24.  Salo          Toyota            (M)    32.642  51
25.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes  (B)    32.883  43
26.  McNish        Toyota            (M)    45.106  41
27.  R.Schumacher  Williams-BMW      (M)  1:31.121   2


The US Grand Prix, Lap by Lap

Rubens BarrichelloLap 1: At the start of the race the front rows of the grid take off without problems and the order in the first corner is Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello and David Coulthard. Ralf Schumacher makes a better start than Juan Pablo Montoya and is fourth with Montoya behind him while Jarno Trulli jumps up from eighth on the grid to be sixth. Kimi Raikkonen is seventh with Jacques Villeneuve eighth, Nick Heidfeld ninth and Giancarlo Fisichella 10th. Further back Olivier Panis makes a particularly bad start and falls from 12th on the grid to 17th at the end of the lap. At the end of the first lap Schumacher is just under a second ahead of Barrichello who is 1.3 seconds ahead of Coulthard.

Lap 2: Going into the first corner Montoya tries to pass Ralf Schumacher on the outside. He is ahead as they turn in. Ralf spins and knocks Montoya off onto the grass, much to the annoyance of the Williams team. Montoya rejoins without trouble but drops to seventh. Ralf has to pit with a broken rear wing. He rejoins a lap behind. Further back Takuma Sato passes Jenson Button to grab 11th. Mika Salo overtakes Eddie Irvine to take 14th.

Lap 4: The Ferraris are pulling away from the field with Coulthard three seconds behind. In the midfield Salo passes his Toyota team mate Allan McNish for 13th position.

Lap 7: The Ferraris continue on their way, the lead over Coulthard having grown to nearly seven seconds. In the midfield Sato lunges past Heinz-Harald Frentzen for 10th place. He then goes off and the two men almost collide as he comes on again. While this is going on Button is able to pass both men.

Montoya on his way to fourth placeLap 12: Irvine drops behind Panis and Mark Webber.

Lap 13: Villeneuve passes Raikkonen for fifth place.

Lap 14: The two Ferraris suddenly speed up and begin setting fastest laps, increasing the gap at the front as they do so.

Lap 15: Raikkonen's McLaren begins to misfire, the engine having lapsed onto to nine cylinders. Panis overtakes McNish for 14th place.

Lap 17: Montoya passes Raikkonen for sixth place.

Lap 19: The Ferraris are trading fastest laps at the front. In the midfield Irvine passes Webber for 16th place.

Lap 21: As the Ferraris begin to lap the back-markers, Panis is the first man to stop. He falls from 14th to 19th. Further back Pedro de la Rosa passes Alex Yoong for 18th place.

Lap 25: The first of the frontrunners stop. Villeneuve pits and falls from fifth place to 11th.

Raikkonen leads MontoyaLap 26: Sato and Salo both stop and drop down the order.

Lap 27: Michael Schumacher heads for the pits and hands the lead to Barrichello.

Lap 28: Barrichello pits and the order is re-established with Michael ahead of Rubens. Heidfeld also stops and falls from seventh place to 11th. Further back Sato passes Webber for 14th. Pedro de la Rosa goes out with a transmission failure. The rear of the car catches fire and the marshals rush Pedro from the scene. He jumps over the barrier and falls into a small stream which flows beneath the track at that point.

Lap 29: Jarno Trulli in fourth place pits and falls back to eighth place.

Lap 30: Button stops and drops from seventh to 13th. Frentzen also pits and falls from 10th to 15th.

Lap 31: The order at the front remains the same but at the back Salo overtakes Yoong for 16th.

Lap 32: Montoya pits and falls from fourth place to sixth, behind Raikkonen and Fisichella.

Lap 33: Irvine overtakes McNish for 10th.

Barrichello pitsLap 34: Villeneuve passes Trulli for seventh.

Lap 37: Fisichella, who is on a one-stop strategy, stops and falls back from fifth to ninth. This promotes Montoya to fifth and Villeneuve to sixth.

Lap 39: Mark Webber, who has been running 14th retires with a powersteering failure.

Lap 40: Yoong pits for his one scheduled pit stop.

Lap 41: McNish stops and drops from 12th to 16th.

Lap 42: Third placed Coulthard stops and drops behind Raikkonen.

Lap 43: Raikkonen pits and so Coulthard goes back into the third. The gap to the Ferraris goes out to over half a minute although the red cars have to stop again. Irvine stops and falls from 10th to 14th.

Lap 45: Salo has a moment and drops behind Irvine and Panis.

Lap 47: The 17th-placed Yoong goes out with an engine failure. Barrichello, who is lapping the Minardi, runs into the oil smoke but it has no major effect.

Lap 48: The second stops begin as eighth-placed Heidfeld pits. The German drops to 11th.

Barrichello and Schumacher after the raceLap 49: Schumacher pits again and so Barrichello goes into the lead. Further back Frentzen and Panis also stop.

Lap 50: Barrichello pits and so Michael goes ahead again. In the midfield Sato drops from ninth to 12th.

Lap 51: Villeneuve comes in for his second stop and drops from fifth to sixth. At the same time Raikkonen retires with an engine failure. Salo also stops in the midfield.

Lap 73: After a very stable period the two Ferraris head for the finish line trying to stage a formation finish. The two cars go side by side across the line. Victory goes to Barrichello by 0.011 seconds. The closest finish recorded was at Monza in 1971 and the 0.010s gap remains the closest ever, although it was recorded with stopwatches which were not capable of measuring such small gaps.


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    Volume 8, Issue 40
    October 2nd 2002

    Articles

    Enough is Enough
    by Richard Barnes

    Raising the BAR
    by Karl Ludvigsen

    Ann Bradshaw: View from the Paddock
    by Ann Bradshaw

    US GP Review

    The 2002 US GP Review
    by Pablo Elizalde

    US GP Technical Review
    by Craig Scarborough

    Stats Center

    Qualifying Differentials
    by Marcel Borsboom

    SuperStats
    by David Wright

    Charts Center
    by Michele Lostia

    Columns

    Season Strokes
    by Bruce Thomson

    Elsewhere in Racing
    by David Wright & Mark Alan Jones

    The Grapevine
    by Tom Keeble



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