Sunday March 31st, 2002

By Will Gray

World Champion Michael Schumacher fended off a challenge from the Williams of his younger brother Ralf to take his second victory of the season in the Brazilian Grand Prix on Sunday.

German Schumacher benefited from cooler conditions at the Interlagos circuit to put in a calculated performance as he proved the new Ferrari is a match for the Williams cars and extended his Championship lead in the process.

Briton David Coulthard secured his first finish of the year with third place, while Jenson Button had a good run to take his second successive fourth-place finish after seeing off another Williams challenge from Montoya, who finished fifth, one place ahead of the Toyota of Mika Salo.

For the second race in a row Schumacher senior had collided with the Williams of Juan Pablo Montoya on the first lap as the pair jostled for position from the front row of the grid. In Malaysia, it was Schumacher who lost his front wing and ended up behind Montoya, but this time Montoya was out of luck and despite a spirited fightback he could only secure fifth place.

Montoya had protected his line at the start, but that allowed the Ferrari of Schumacher to go for the inside line at the tight, downhill first corner but was forced to back off as Montoya had the lead. However, Montoya, carrying too much speed into the corner, ran wide and Schumacher was able to take a much tighter line, but Montoya came back and claimed the inside line for turn two, pushing Schumacher out.

Schumacher held his line, however, and he took the inside line for the third corner as his Colombian rival ensured some exciting and very close racing. But as the pair came down the long straight heading into the turn four Montoya, in the slipstream of Schumacher's new Ferrari, braked too late and lost his front wing.

He was forced to limp back to the pits as Montoya's German rival kept hold of the lead from the other Williams driver, Ralf Schumacher and the Renault pair of Jarno Trulli and Jenson Button, with McLaren's Coulthard fifth and home hero Rubens Barrichello sixth.

Montoya returned to the racetrack in 20th place after his team took 19 seconds to change the damaged front wing and remove rubbish from an off-track excursion he had experienced on his way in. But the man making the moves was Barrichello, who passed four cars in five laps to move into second behind his teammate, who then let him through into the lead on lap 14 to the rapturous cheers of the local crowd.

It was clear the fast Brazilian was on a two-stop strategy, but cruelly he was not to get the chance to test it because, three laps after taking the lead, he cruised to a halt to post his eighth successive retirement from his home race.

Barrichello was the second race retirement after Jordan's Giancarlo Fisichella posted the first with a blown engine on lap eight, and Enrique Bernoldi joined them on the failure list as he pulled his Arrows into the team's garage.

By now, Schumacher was clear in front of his brother Ralf, with the Renault pair clearly holding the McLarens up as Coulthard sat behind Trulli and Raikkonen was left to hound Button. Raikkonen passed Button on lap 37 to take fifth place as leader Schumacher reeled off another fastest lap, one of four in five laps, as he prepared to go into the pits for his only stop of the day.

At the end of lap 39, he was in and out in 12.6 seconds, but had lost the lead to his brother and returned to the track still well ahead of the third-placed Renault of Trulli. Ferrari driving Schumacher regained the lead at the end of lap 44, when his younger brother peeled off into the pits for a 9.4 second stop, returning to the track right behind the Ferrari of the now leading Schumacher.

Meanwhile, in the McLaren versus Renault scrap, McLaren pair Coulthard and Raikkonen moved to third and fourth when Trulli pitted, and the race action moved to the fight at the front between the two Schumachers. Felipe Massa was punted out of his home Grand Prix when Mark Webber touched wheels with the Sauber driver's car as they battled for position, and the unfortunate Massa was sent spinning.

With the track temperature some 10 degrees cooler than it had been in qualifying, the Bridgestone tyres on Schumacher senior's Ferrari were working better and he was able to fend off the challenge of his younger brother.

Montoya was just outside the points in seventh place, but he could only keep pace with the leaders and despite setting the fastest lap on lap 59, he maintained a constant gap of 70 seconds from the leader as he closed in on Button in sixth. Button's teammate Trulli dropped out of fifth place on his 61st lap and the dejected Italian was left standing at the side of the track after a points position had gone begging.

Montoya was now in the points and setting his own chase on Button, which became a fight for fourth when Raikkonen dropped out of the race after 68 laps.

Schumacher junior continued to push the lead Ferrari with less than a second separating the two as the race headed to the closing stages, but the Ferrari of Schumacher went on to take the chequered flag after a controlled drive to the finish.

PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTS

The Brazilian Grand Prix
Interlagos, Sao Paulo;
71 laps; 305.909km;
Weather: Hot and dry.

Classified:

Pos  Driver         Team-Engine       Tyres   Time        
 1.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari            (B)     1h 31:43.663
 2.  R.Schumacher  Williams BMW       (M)     +      0.588
 3.  Coulthard     McLaren Mercedes   (M)     +     59.109
 4.  Button        Renault            (M)     +   1:06.883
 5.  Montoya       Williams BMW       (M)     +   1:07.500
 6.  Salo          Toyota             (M)     1   Lap     
 7.  Irvine        Jaguar Cosworth    (M)     1   Lap     
 8.  de la Rosa    Jaguar Cosworth    (M)     1   Lap     
 9.  Sato          Jordan Honda       (B)     2   Laps    
10.  Villeneuve    BAR Honda          (B)     3   Laps    
11.  Webber        Minardi Asiatech   (M)     3   Laps    
12.  Raikkonen     McLaren Mercedes   (M)     4   Laps    
13.  Yoong         Minardi Asiatech   (M)     4   Laps    
 
Fastest Lap: J.Montoya, 1:16.079, lap 60

Not Classified/Retirements:

Driver        Team                     On Lap
Heidfeld      Sauber Petronas    (B)    62   
Trulli        Renault            (M)    61   
Massa         Sauber Petronas    (B)    42   
McNish        Toyota             (M)    41   
Panis         BAR Honda          (B)    26   
Frentzen      Arrows Cosworth    (B)    26   
Bernoldi      Arrows Cosworth    (B)    20   
Barrichello   Ferrari            (B)    17   
Fisichella    Jordan Honda       (B)     7   


World Championship Standing, Round 3:                

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  M.Schumacher  24        1.  Williams-BMW        30
 2.  R.Schumacher  16        2.  Ferrari             24
 3.  Montoya       14        3.  McLaren-Mercedes     8
 4.  Button         6        4.  Renault              6
 5.  Raikkonen      4        =   Jaguar-Cosworth      3
 =   Coulthard      4        =   Sauber-Petronas      3
 7.  Irvine         3        7.  Minardi-Asiatech     2
 8.  Webber         2        =   Toyota               2
 =   Heidfeld       2                                  
 =   Salo           2                                  
11.  Massa          1                                  


All timing unofficial

Published at 18:43:02 GMT