Which teams had their most successful race of the season last week in Spa? How successful are the Italians at Monza? And what happened ten years ago at an eventful Italian Grand Prix? Marcel Schot brings the answers and more anecdotes on the fifteenth round of 2004

The Belgian Grand Prix saw Michael Schumacher claim his seventh championship in only the second race of the season that the German didn't win. For McLaren and Kimi Raikkonen it was the first win since Malaysia last year, 28 races ago.

The race was different than the rest of the season in other ways as well. After 14 consecutive races in the points, both BAR cars failed to finish. However the opposition didn't take any advantage, as both Renault and Williams failed to score any points as well.

Meanwhile the battle for fourth between Williams and McLaren is getting closer. Raikkonen's win put the Woking team to just five behind their Grove rivals.

Sauber had by far the best weekend of their year. The Swiss team scored nine points, which was just as much as their two previous best races of this year (Canada and Monaco) combined. Felipe Massa scored the best result of his career with a fourth place, while fifth place was Fisichella's second best result since his win in Brazil last year.

As usual, the European season will end in Monza. While it is Ferrari's home Grand Prix, there is at least one angle suggesting that winning might not be in the stars for Michael Schumacher. Only three drivers in the last 40 years have managed to win the Italian Grand Prix two years in a row. In 1973 and 1974 it was Ronnie Peterson, in 1986 and 1987 Nelson Piquet and exactly ten years ago Damon Hill. With the World Champion having won the race last year, the numbers are against him.

Two of a Kind

The pressure to perform is not only on the beloved home team, Ferrari, this weekend. It's also on Italians Jarno Trulli and Giancarlo Fisichella.

For Fisichella, the Italian Grand Prix has always been a bit of a dramatic affair. Only his first home Grand Prix, back in 1997 with Jordan, was a success. With third position on the grid and a fourth place in the race, Fisichella was a happy man, but after that first race at Monza it never was the same again. During the following four years with Benetton, the Italian never qualified higher than ninth.

The worst year by far was 1999, when Fisichella had to settle for a disappointing 17th position on the grid, and to top things off spun off after a single lap in the race. His return to Jordan yielded no more good results; both times a midfield qualification resulted in a finish outside the points. This year Fisichella will give it his best shot in the Sauber - maybe his luck will change in the Swiss baby Ferrari.

For Jarno Trulli the story is quite similar. His three years with Prost resulted in mediocre qualifying performances and no better than a tenth place finish in 1997. The two years at Jordan that followed saw Trulli put in good qualifying performances of respectively sixth and fifth, but both ended in retirement after collisions. In 2000, teammate Heinz-Harald Frentzen completely missed his braking point in the second chicane, taking out not only Trulli, but also David Coulthard and Rubens Barrichello. The next year saw an even shorter race for Trulli, when Jenson Button in the Benetton pushed the Italian out of the race in the first corner.

In 2002 things finally worked for Trulli in his home Grand Prix. After an eleventh grid position, the Renault driver drove a solid race to finish fourth, helped by his now teammate Jenson Button, who let him past in the last part of the race. Last year was another good qualifying turned bad. Once again Trulli qualified sixth and once again he did not survive the first lap. This time, however, nobody hit him; the car failed.

Both Fisichella and Trulli have experienced that the pressure on them is a little higher in their home Grand Prix; Giorgio Pantano and Gianmaria Bruni will experience it for the first time this year. As for real successes for Italians in their home Grand Prix, we'll have to head a while back. The last Italian to set pole at Monza was Teo Fabi back in 1986, and for the last Italian win at Monza we have to go back as far as 1966, when Ludovico Scarfiotti won for Ferrari.

This Week in History

Ten years ago this week, the Italian Grand Prix started with a Ferrari on pole position. For the first time in his career Jean Alesi had qualified fastest of all.

On Friday morning the track was wet after overnight rain, and thus times weren't all that telling. For the first time in a while no Benettons were spotted near the front, as Michael Schumacher was serving a two race ban after having overtaken Damon Hill during the British Grand Prix warm-up lap and subsequently ignoring the black flag showed to him during that race. Gerhard Berger was a surprising number two after Friday's free practice. Only days before the race, the Austrian sustained a slight whiplash when his taxi was hit from behind by another car.

In the afternoon it was time for the first qualifying session, and this time it was Berger's Ferrari teammate Jean Alesi who was in the spotlight. The Frenchman claimed provisional pole in a close battle between the Maranello cars and those from Williams. The top four was covered by three tenths of a second, with Hill taking second, ahead of David Coulthard and Berger.

On Saturday morning the battle between Williams and Ferrari continued as it was again Jean Alesi on top, ahead of Hill and Berger with Coulthard now losing touch and ending up fourth.

In the afternoon the tifosi had reason to be even more ecstatic. Not only did Jean Alesi achieve the first pole position of his career, but the front row was completed by Gerhard Berger, giving the fans the second all Ferrari front row of the season. The last time Ferrari had been one and two in qualifying at Monza had been in 1975. An even bigger surprise came in the form of Johnny Herbert putting the normally slow Lotus in fourth place.

During Sunday's warm-up, Gerhard Berger got another scare when he crashed heavily. The Austrian lost the rear under braking and hit the tyre walls hard. For the second time in a matter of days the Ferrari driver was taken to hospital. However, the damage was limited and Berger was able to take the start.

The start turned to chaos when Eddie Irvine in the Jordan and Johnny Herbert in the Lotus collided at the first chicane, effectively blocking it and causing the race to be red flagged. The real victims of the crash were Benetton's Jos Verstappen, Herbert's teammate Alessandro Zanardi and Footwork driver Gianni Morbidelli, all of whom were unable to make the restart.

When the race was finally restarted the Ferrari's lead the way, with Alesi soon opening up a gap while Berger took care of the rest of the field. After 14 laps the Frenchman was 11 seconds ahead when he went in for his pitstop. All seemed to be fine until he tried to drive away; the Ferrari's gearbox had failed and Alesi was unable to get the car in gear, seeing a dream victory in front of the home crowd go to waste.

Meanwhile Berger managed to stay ahead of both Williams until his own pitstop after 23 laps. Again things went well with the pitstop, but now the problem was that Berger was blocked by the Ligier of Olivier Panis while exiting the pits. When the Williams pitted in the following two laps, the damage became clear. Both had a clean pitstop and ended up seven seconds ahead of Berger. A few laps later David Coulthard, who had come out in the lead after the pitstops, let his teammate through into the lead; Hill was desperate for a win to keep his championship hopes alive.

While the Williams opened up a gap towards Berger of 16 seconds by lap 34, the Austrian didn't give up. In the next few laps he regained a few seconds before the Williams sped up again. However, when the Grove based team eased off with eight laps to go, Berger was able to take get closer again. A miscalculation on the part of Williams saw the Austrian's fighting spirit awarded with second place, as David Coulthard ran out of fuel on the final lap. Damon Hill took the win, which was the 75th for Williams.

Contact the Author Contact the Editor