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Schuey
Continues his Domination
Imola saw the first head to head confrontation between Schumacher and Hakkinen, uninterrupted by the mechanical failures which had seen Hakkinen sidelined in the previous two races. Hakkinen, who took pole, was shadowed by Schumacher throughout the race and during a critical phase at two thirds distance, when the Finn dived into the pits for his second fuel stop, Schuey drove a series of startling lap times to put himself just in front of the McLaren - a lead he held to the end.
Schumacher boosted his points total to a perfect 30 after the first three races on this year's 17-race calendar and has a comfortable 21-point lead over his Ferrari team mate Rubens Barrichello. The latter had a difficult weekend, qualifying in fourth, and completely unable to match the pace of Schumacher and Hakkinen. Once Coulthard got past him he dropped over half a minute behind the second McLaren to finish fourth.
Schumacher's win was the 38th of his career and his third at Imola in the last six years and it gave him a 24-point lead over defending champion Hakkinen who is joint fourth in the title race. "That's a hell of a gap, I know," said Hakkinen. "But at least I finished. It is up to me to try and stay with Michael now and try to win some races." Schumacher, who made his usual joyous leap on the winners' podium, said he was delighted by his victory, particularly as he had left Ferrari fans disappointed on Saturday by failing to grab pole position.
Jean Todt: "It was a very tough race. Therefore we are very happy to have got both cars to the finish. For the first time this season we have had a proper race from the first corner to the last. We knew that overtaking would be very difficult here and unfortunately we lost a place with Rubens in the pits. He also had a problem with his belts, which caused him some pain. After the first stop, we knew the second one would be decisive. When we saw Hakkinen come in on lap 44, we thought we could get ahead. We tried and it worked. After three races, we are in an encouraging position in the championship. Today's race has shown it will be a long hard road, but that is an incentive to work even harder. The drivers did a great job, as did the whole team. Now we can look ahead calmly to the next round." Michael Schumacher: "That was an exciting race and I hope the tifosi are happy with the result! I made a very bad start with massive wheelspin. But I managed to keep my second position. Our strategy remained as planned. We did not know what Mika would do and we had to guess. The four laps before the second pit stop was the decisive moment when I pushed very hard. Maybe we did not have the best tyre choice for today's conditions. I had a worrying moment when I tried to lap Diniz. He tried to be nice and let me pass, but it was the wrong place and I very nearly hit him. Apart from that, the race was good fun. It was like qualifying from start to finish. We have a good lead in the championship, but we have seen it will be a tight fight and we must continue pushing." Rubens Barrichello: "I am happy for the team, but I am equally disappointed with my own performance. The set up was not ideal and it was hard work. We tried to change yesterday's settings, but it did not help much. I was a bit unlucky at the second pit stop, when Coulthard passed me. He was quicker than me, but I could have kept him behind me as it is virtually impossible to pass here. I had a problem with the lower part of my belts and I could not maintain a good pace as my legs were moving around too much. All weekend, I was not on the pace as I was in Australia and Brazil and now I have to work out why. Fourth place is not good enough". RACE RESULTS San Marino Grand
Prix
Fastest Lap: M.Hakkinen, 1:26.523, lap 60
Acknowledgement - Race data by Atlas F1, Pix by F1-Online Click
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