By Pablo Elizalde, Spain
Atlas F1 News Editor
Michael Schumacher returned to the track where he debuted ten years ago and won for the first time nine seasons ago, to clinch a record 52nd Formula One win. But his victory was not the only highlight of the Belgian Grand Prix. Pablo Elizalde reviews the events of this dramatic weekend
It was certainly appropriate that on the same circuit he had made his Formula One debut exactly ten years ago, on the very same track he won for the first time nine seasons ago, Michael Schumacher now also became the most successful driver in the 51-year history of the sport.
The Spa-Francorchamps circuit saw the German driver impressing the Formula One fraternity in his first outing with a Grand Prix car back in 1991, qualifying seventh on a track which he has recently admitted he had only lapped with his bike before. Ten years later, Schumacher is re-writing the record books in a season where the Ferrari star looks set to demolish almost all previous benchmarks.
The 52nd victory of his career, which allowed him to surpass Alain Prost as the winningest driver, was just another typical Schumacher win. Having followed the German's career in the past decade, and especially since the start of the 2001 season, no-one would have expected him to relax despite having clinched his fourth world crown only two weeks earlier. As for his motivation, it is hard to imagine Schuey will ever lose his desire to win, no matter who his rivals are or may be in the future.
Often as the case has been, the German was his only rival at the Belgian Grand Prix, and his victory was weaved by the same pattern as many others in recent years. Schumacher dominated the race from start to finish, saw his rivals falling out of contention, lost his concentration for half a second almost going off the track, and cruised home proving he was head and shoulders above the other 21 drivers.
It also has to be said that of all of those other 21 drivers, or at least all those who could present a challenge to Schumacher's dominance this season, perhaps only Giancarlo Fisichella and his team gave the impression of really trying to win the race. The rest just fell out of contention one by one despite having the machinery that could have allowed them to stop Schumacher from scoring his eighth win of the season.
Before the weekend, and even more so after Saturday's qualifying, the Williams duo of Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya were the favourites to dominate at the fast Spa, aided by the most powerful engine of the Formula One field, and in the case of Ralf, by a revised FW23 chassis. On Sunday, however, their dominance turned into a farce.
In a dramatic last minute shootout, rookie Montoya emerged on top in qualifying, scoring his second pole position of the season, after the ever-present rain had hit the circuit in the morning. With Ralf second on the grid, a Williams victory was anticipated. But on race day, as BMW boss Mario Theissen said, they "had enough problems for a whole season."
First Montoya, and then Ralf were forced to start from the back of the grid when they were sitting in first place. The sight of Ralf's car, still raised on jacks with its four wheels in the air as the rest of the field started to move, was definitely one of the strangest images seen in recent years, to the embarrassment of Williams.
If anyone benefitted from Williams's misfortunes, it must be McLaren who, far from being a match for Schumacher's Ferrari and perhaps for the BMW-powered cars in normal circumstances, left Belgium in a more solid second place in the Constructors' Championship. And so did David Coulthard in the Drivers' WC standings, aided by Rubens Barrichello's poor showing - the Brazilian finishing in fifth place after losing his front wing at the bus stop chicane.
The pleasant surprise of the weekend was the sudden return to form of Giancarlo Fisichella's Benetton, the Italian driver giving Coulthard a good run for his money as the past and future Jordan driver fought his way to a deserved third place finish, eclipsing once more his teammate Jenson Button, who crashed out of the race. For both Button and Mika Hakkinen, the past year made a huge difference. In stark contrast to last year's race, where the young Briton qualified in a brilliant third, and the Finn scored possibly his best victory in Formula One, the 2001 Belgian Grand Prix highlighted their respective seasons, both being outshone by their teammates and both hoping for better days.
Fortunately for the Formula One circus, what could have easily become a tragic race, turned out to be an example of the improvements of the safety standards in the sport, as Luciano Burti miraculously survived his second dramatic crash in three races, after hitting the tyre barriers at more than 240 km/h at Blanchimont. The FIA have gone to great lengths to ensure drivers can tell the story after accidents like these. Fortunately, Burti will be able to tell his soon.
Qualifying
There is one thing that is almost certain at every Belgian Grand Prix - almost every year, at least one session will take place on a wet track. In 2001, that rule was no different, and with rain hitting Spa both on Friday and Saturday morning, a wet qualifying was hardly a surprise.
The running before the hour-long session was limited due to the cancellation of the first practice session on Saturday due to a thick fog covering the circuit. The second 45-minute session started two hours late, as the inclement weather of the Ardennes played games with the Formula One teams.
When qualifying began as scheduled at one o'clock local time, there was only a thin spray of rain, but the track was still wet from the morning showers, and so the fight to establish the order of the grid became a contest of who would be able to complete his final run as late as possible. At the end, the winner was Juan Pablo Montoya, who clinched his second pole in fourteen races.
Having topped the only practice session on Saturday, the battle for pole looked set to be a close affair between Montoya and Williams teammate Ralf Schumacher, both taking full advantage of the power of the BMW engine to dominate as anticipated before the weekend. However, it was not only the powerful German unit that gave the Williams drivers the edge over their rivals, but also perfect timing and the right tyre choice - especially the right tyre choice - which allowed them to complete their final attempt with only seconds remaining.
As the track dried towards the end of the session, many drivers opted to go out with intermediate tyres, something that proved to be the wrong decision, as the "slick" runners demonstrated.
The track stayed silent and empty for a long time, with Brazilian Tarso Marques - in his final race for Minardi before Alex Yoong's debut - only coming out of the pits with a massive 27 minutes of the session gone. However, it was not until after half the session had gone by when the top contenders hit the track, with Mika Hakkinen coming out with wet weather tyres on his McLaren. The Finn immediately placed himself at the top of the timesheets with a lap of 2:00.724 on his first attempt, but there was more to come, his following lap almost two seconds quicker.
David Coulthard, who had been unable to drive on Friday after damaging his car in the first session, was next up on track, setting the fastest time in his first run - before Hakkinen, who was still on track, posted a 1:58.370 to surpass his teammate's best.
Michael Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya followed suit, the German moving straight to the top of the timesheets with a 1:57.271 lap, while the Colombian was only fourth in front of Rubens Barrichello and teammate Ralf Schumacher. All drivers went for another lap as the track conditions improved by the minute. Schumacher, on intermediate tyres, improved to 1:56.921 on his second lap, with Barrichello following suit to set the third quickest time behind Hakkinen and in front of Coulthard, Montoya and an impressive Giancarlo Fisichella, who had already showed signs of an improved Benetton during practice.
After a quiet moment on the track and with little more than ten minutes remaining in the session, Hakkinen returned to the track, using intermediate Bridgestones. The Finn, however, was unable to improve on his previous best. Coulthard followed his teammate a few minutes later, but using the same type of tyres, he was also incapable of improving his time. While most of the track had a clear dry line, light rain began to fall at the areas surrounding La Source and the pits.
Ralf Schumacher and Montoya were amongst the first drivers to put on dry weather tyres, along with Jacques Villeneuve, who was enjoying a good session with the Honda-powered BAR. Michael Schumacher, meanwhile, stayed inside his car watching the monitors, and instead of changing to grooved tyres, the German switched to the spare car - set up for the dry - and came out for the final shootout.
The final minutes of the session were action-packed, with Ralf changing to grooved tyres with some three minutes remaining. At the same time, Nick Heidfeld, completing his final attempt, had a problem with his Sauber and parked it at Burneville, forcing the marshals to wave the yellow flags and forcing - at least in theory - the rest of the drivers to lift off the throttle. The flags were waved until the end of the session.
Montoya was the first driver of the top runners to cross the line with dry weather tyres, the Colombian leaping to the top of the table with a 1:55.875, but Ralf went immediately quicker than him. However, the rookie had not said his final word. While Coulthard and Hakkinen were unable to improve their own times, Montoya stopped the clock on a staggering 1:52.072, almost three and a half seconds quicker than Ralf's previous best. Michael Schumacher was next up, but the German was unable to match the Williams driver's pace and completed his final run with a time more than two seconds slower than Montoya, who admitted he had taken a gamble with his tyre choice.
"Yesterday we had a big struggle on the setup, but I had a good think overnight and it really paid off," said Montoya. "I went through two different sets of tyres - we did the first lap to get us on the grid - but we knew it was going to get drier and drier."
Ralf was unable to improve enough either, and though he got within one second of his teammate's time, the young German had to be content with second place, while the elder Schumacher finished in third place, the German not totally unhappy with his position. "I am not upset at only being third. We timed the runs right and I have the 'Bridgestone pole'. To be honest it was very tight for us to run the dry tyres at the end."
Heinz-Harald Frentzen with the Prost was fourth quickest, the German benefitting from a last minute effort to put in a surprising performance for the French team in only his second race for them. Barrichello was fifth, in front of Villeneuve's BAR, who achieved the best qualifying result for the Brackley-based team since they entered Grand Prix racing back in 1999.
The end of the action, though, was not the end of the day, as McLaren boss Ron Dennis presented a protest to the FIA, claiming that no less than 17 drivers had not backed off when seeing the yellow flags waved where Heidfeld's car was parked. The protest was rejected, and the order stayed the same, with the McLaren drivers seventh and ninth. Also after the session, both the Arrows and Minardi drivers were allowed to take the start after being unable to set a time within the 107 per cent.
The Race
To set the trend of what would become a race full of strange events, predictions of rain on Sunday did not turn out to be true and the start took place on a dry track; or rather tried to take place. The Prost team's promising weekend - which eventually would become a nightmare - started to fade quickly, as when two of the five lights were left to be extinguished, Heinz-Harald Frentzen's car stalled, forcing race director Charlie Whiting to abort the start.
"I could not shift into first gear quick enough, so I tried to push the neutral, and to switch into first gear again, but the last light of the start procedure was almost off and I probably clutched too early... It was a very confusing situation," admitted Frentzen, who was sent to the back of the grid.
After a few minutes, the formation lap for the second start got under way, unlike pole-sitter Juan Pablo Montoya, whose Williams refused to move off the line, already hinting at what would turn into a total fiasco for the team from Grove. The Colombian explained what happened by simply saying that "the car fired up but as soon as I pressed the clutch it stalled."
The formation lap ended, with Ralf Schumacher in front of Michael, who had now a clear road ahead of him. When the lights went out, Ralf was able to keep his advantage at La Source, with his brother following closely in front of Giancarlo Fisichella, who had flown off the line to place himself ahead of both Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard. Ralf's lead, however, was not to last, as Michael came out of his slipstream and passed him at Les Combes, immediately taking off, lapping up to two seconds quicker than the rest of the field. After two laps, the German was 3.5 seconds in front.
A little further back, Hakkinen and Coulthard were able to overtake Fisichella, as usual at Spa around the outside at Les Combes. However, the race would soon turn into a dramatic event, as on lap 4, Luciano Burti tried to dive down the inside of Eddie Irvine at Blanchimont. At more than 240 km/h, the Jaguar driver closed the door. Burti had nowhere to go, and clipped the back of Irvine's car, losing his front wing, going off the track, and smashing into the tyre barriers.
The Brazilian was buried under the tyres for a couple of minutes before Irvine himself and the marshals were able to reach him. Firstly the safety car came out, but after realising the consequences of the accident, the race was rightly red-flagged. Luckily, Burti survived his second heavy accident in three races and the FIA decided it had been a racing accident, so Irvine - who proved pivotal in Burti's rescue - was not punished.
Forty five minutes after the first start, the race got under way for the second time, this time with Ralf's car being left stranded on the grid, raised in the air on jacks, certainly one of the strangest views on a Formula One grid in the last few years. With the Ferrari mechanics waving and screaming to the Williams crew, as if they had forgotten to remove the jacks from under the car, the situation certainly looked like a comic sketch.
So the start took place again with a Williams at the back. Michael Schumacher, with no cars alongside him, took off at the start and no-one could get close to him. While Barrichello did his best to keep the McLarens at bay, Fisichella flew off the line to take second place right behind Schumacher, who quickly disappeared into the distance while the Italian driver kept Barrichello behind him. Further back, Montoya, who was trying to recover from a touch with Pedro de la Rosa at the start, retired when his BMW engine expired. The Colombian was philosophical after his umpteenth retirement, claiming that "weekends like this are just part of racing."
Up in the lead, Schumacher was pulling away at a storming rate, with a gap of more than 14 seconds to Fisichella by lap 6. Having reduced the distance of the race from 43 to 36 laps, the first round of pitstops began quickly, with Jarno Trulli coming in on lap six. Hakkinen, who was behind Coulthard, pitted a lap later, along with Jean Alesi, who was up to seventh place.
Barrichello and Ralf dived into the pits on lap 9, with Michael and Fisichella following suit on lap 10 and 11 respectively. The Benetton team did a perfect job in the pits and the Italian returned to the track in second place, having only changed his rear tyres. The only change in the order at the top saw Coulthard taking third away from Barrichello, who was now under pressure from Hakkinen, and was soon passed by the Finn.
The laps went by quietly until lap 17, when Schumacher made a mistake at Turn 15: "I lost concentration. I was playing with too many buttons on the steering wheel. I ran wide and almost hit the barrier." But he was able to control his car and continued leading comfortably, with more than 25 seconds to Fisichella. Only moments later, the other Ferrari driver made a mistake too, this time more costly: Barrichello ran into one of the cones at the Bus Stop chicane, losing his front wing. The Brazilian had to complete a whole lap without his wing before coming into the pits, his chances of a podium finish vanishing.
Jenson Button was also the victim of the cones at the Bus Stop, the Briton running over them and crashing against the barriers after losing his front wing too. In stark contrast, the other Benetton was still holding a frustrated Coulthard behind him. Despite Fisichella's theoretical lack of power, the Scot struggled to run closely to a Benetton which was spitting oil. "I was having to wipe my visor every single straight, and I was out of rip-offs very quickly," said Coulthard. "I understand it just made it across the line, so I think it was spitting all its oil out as the race went on."
The second round of stops gave Coulthard the perfect opportunity to come out ahead of his rival, who pitted for the second time on lap 23. Fisichella's car stood stationary for 7.6 seconds, again leaving his Michelin front tyres unchanged. "I decided to change just my rear tyres during my stops because the car was better balanced that way, as newer front tyres had a tendency to grain, so this was the right choice," he explained. When the Scot came in a lap later, he was unable to make any ground and rejoined the race in third.
A lonely Schumacher pitted on lap 25, rejoining in the lead with a 30-second advantage over Fisichella, who was now under intense pressure from a determined Coulthard. With nine laps remaining, the Scot finally made his move at Les Combes, going around the outside of the Benetton.
The interest of the race in the final laps was down to the battle for sixth place between Alesi, Barrichello and Ralf, with the Brazilian eventually passing the Jordan driver. However, when Trulli's Jordan gave up with five laps to go, the battle for sixth between Alesi and Ralf intensified, the Frenchman doing a great job to keep Ralf at bay.
Schumacher, who as usual took things easy at the end, crossed the line with more than ten seconds over Coulthard, and more than 25 in front of Fisichella, who gave the Benetton team their first podium finish since the Canadian Grand Prix last year.
Schumacher admitted after the race that the Williams debacle had made things much easier for him: "Certainly the problems Williams had at the starts helped us, because I am not sure I would have beaten my brother off the grid. But we did not have to find out." That last line sums up Schumacher's 2001 season - where his rivals have fallen out of contention one by one as the German edges closer to completing a year which will be hard to equal. As he has showed so often, his motivation does not depend on anything but on his aim to win each race, no matter what the circumstances are.
"I can't say I'm much motivated by statistics," concluded Schumacher, after clinching a record 52nd win, "but of course it does mean something to have that number [52] on my account. But I will be more delighted in a few years when I am sitting on my sofa, with a beer and cigar, thinking about it." Most of his rivals must be looking forward to that day.
Pos. Driver Team Times
1. Montoya Williams BMW (M) 1:52.072 223.828 km/h
2. R.Schumacher Williams BMW (M) 1:52.959 + 0.887
3. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1:54.685 + 2.613
4. Frentzen Prost Acer (M) 1:55.233 + 3.161
5. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 1:56.116 + 4.044
6. Villeneuve BAR Honda (B) 1:57.038 + 4.966
7. Hakkinen McLaren Mercedes (B) 1:57.043 + 4.971
8. Fisichella Benetton Renault (M) 1:57.668 + 5.596
9. Coulthard McLaren Mercedes (B) 1:58.008 + 5.936
10. de la Rosa Jaguar Cosworth (M) 1:58.519 + 6.447
11. Panis BAR Honda (B) 1:58.838 + 6.766
12. Raikkonen Sauber Petronas (B) 1:59.050 + 6.978
13. Alesi Jordan Honda (B) 1:59.128 + 7.056
14. Heidfeld Sauber Petronas (B) 1:59.302 + 7.230
15. Button Benetton Renault (M) 1:59.587 + 7.515
16. Trulli Jordan Honda (B) 1:59.647 + 7.575
17. Irvine Jaguar Cosworth (M) 1:59.689 + 7.617
18. Burti Prost Acer (M) 1:59.900 + 7.828
19. Verstappen Arrows Asiatech (B) 2:02.039 + 9.967 *
20. Alonso Minardi European (M) 2:02.594 + 10.522 *
21. Bernoldi Arrows Asiatech (B) 2:03.048 + 10.976 *
22. Marques Minardi European (M) 2:04.204 + 12.132 *
* Outside 107%
CLASSIFIED
Pos Driver Team Time
1. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1h 8:05.002
2. Coulthard Mclaren Mercedes (B) + 10.098
3. Fisichella Benetton Renault (M) + 27.700
4. Hakkinen Mclaren Mercedes (B) + 36.087
5. Barrichello Ferrari (B) + 54.521
6. Alesi Jordan Honda (B) + 59.684
7. R.Schumacher Williams BMW (M) + 59.986
8. Villeneuve BAR Honda (B) + 1:04.970
9. Frentzen Prost Acer (M) + 1 Lap
10. Verstappen Arrows Asiatech (B) + 1 Lap
11. Panis BAR Honda (B) + 1 Lap
12. Bernoldi Arrows Asiatech (B) + 1 Lap
13. Marques Minardi European (M) + 4 Laps
Fastest Lap: M.Schumacher, 1:49.758, lap 7
NOT CLASSIFIED / RETIREMENTS
Trulli Jordan-Honda (B) 31
Button Benetton-Renault (M) 17
Montoya Williams-BMW (M) 5
Heidfeld Sauber-Petronas (B) 4
De la Rosa Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 4
Raikkonen Sauber-Petronas (B) 4
Burti Prost-Acer (M) 3
Irvine Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 3
Alonso Minardi-European (M) 2
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP STANDING, ROUND 14:
Drivers: Constructors:
1. M.Schumacher 104 WC 1. Ferrari 152 CC
2. Coulthard 57 2. McLaren 81
3. Barrichello 48 3. Williams 59
4. R.Schumacher 44 4. Sauber 20
5. Hakkinen 24 5. BAR 16
6. Montoya 15 =. Jordan 16
7. Villeneuve 11 7. Benetton 10
=. Heidfeld 11 8. Jaguar 5
9. Trulli 9 9. Prost 4
=. Raikkonen 9 10. Arrows 1
11. Fisichella 8
12. Frentzen 6
13. Panis 5
=. Alesi 5
15. Irvine 4
16. Button 2
17. Verstappen 1
= de la Rosa 1
Pos Driver Team Lap Time
1. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 7 1:49.758
2. R.Schumacher Williams-BMW (M) 25 1:51.058 + 1.300
3. Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes (B) 35 1:51.608 + 1.850
4. Fisichella Benetton-Renault (M) 14 1:51.725 + 1.967
5. Hakkinen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 13 1:51.741 + 1.983
6. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 24 1:51.776 + 2.018
7. Trulli Jordan-Honda (B) 8 1:51.828 + 2.070
8. Alesi Jordan-Honda (B) 9 1:51.996 + 2.238
9. Villeneuve BAR-Honda (B) 15 1:52.372 + 2.614
10. Panis BAR-Honda (B) 28 1:52.533 + 2.775
11. Button Benetton-Renault (M) 21 1:53.409 + 3.651
12. Raikkonen Sauber-Petronas (B) 2 1:53.595 + 3.837
13. Frentzen Prost-Acer (M) 19 1:54.051 + 4.293
14. Verstappen Arrows-Asiatech (B) 8 1:54.095 + 4.337
15. Bernoldi Arrows-Asiatech (B) 8 1:55.196 + 5.438
16. Heidfeld Sauber-Petronas (B) 4 1:55.805 + 6.047
17. Montoya Williams-BMW (M) 4 1:55.832 + 6.074
18. Burti Prost-Acer (M) 3 1:56.083 + 6.325
19. de la Rosa Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 4 1:56.158 + 6.400
20. Marques Minardi-European (M) 12 1:56.484 + 6.726
21. Irvine Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 2 1:56.746 + 6.988
22. Alonso Minardi-European (M) 2 1:59.814 + 10.056
Pos Driver Team Time Lap
1. Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes (B) 28.4 15
2. Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes (B) 28.5 29
3. Fisichella Benetton-Renault (M) 28.7 16
4. Hakkinen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 28.9 28
5. Fisichella Benetton-Renault (M) 29.0 28
6. Button Benetton-Renault (M) 29.2 15
7. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 29.7 30
8. Hakkinen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 29.8 12
9. Frentzen Prost-Acer (M) 30.0 5
10. Villeneuve BAR-Honda (B) 30.1 26
11. Trulli Jordan-Honda (B) 30.3 11
12. Panis BAR-Honda (B) 30.3 12
13. Villeneuve BAR-Honda (B) 30.4 14
14. Verstappen Arrows-Asiatech (B) 30.6 27
15. Marques Minardi-European (M) 30.7 20
16. R.Schumacher Williams-BMW (M) 30.8 14
17. Verstappen Arrows-Asiatech (B) 30.8 13
18. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 31.0 14
19. R.Schumacher Williams-BMW (M) 31.0 30
20. Alesi Jordan-Honda (B) 31.1 12
21. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 31.4 15
22. Alesi Jordan-Honda (B) 31.4 25
23. Marques Minardi-European (M) 31.7 14
24. Marques Minardi-European (M) 32.5 4
25. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 32.6 23
26. Frentzen Prost-Acer (M) 32.7 21
27. Bernoldi Arrows-Asiatech (B) 32.8 14
28. Trulli Jordan-Honda (B) 32.9 24
29. Panis BAR-Honda (B) 33.7 17
30. Bernoldi Arrows-Asiatech (B) 34.3 29
31. Marques Minardi-European (M) 46.1 21
32. Marques Minardi-European (M) 49.5 5
33. Panis BAR-Honda (B) 49.7 26
34. Marques Minardi-European (M) 263.6 22