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GRAND
PRIX : Monza : Home Win For Ferrari The pressure on Michael Schumacher and the Ferrari team going into
the Italian Grand Prix was enormous. Schumacher's misfortunes during
the last five Grand Prix' and in particular the ease with which Hakkinen
chased him down at Spa put enormous weight on to the Ferrari organisation
at their home event. There was reason to fear that the McLarens would
be impossible to beat at Monza.
This theory began to be turned upside down during the free practice
sessions at Monza when both Barrichello and Schumacher put in very competitive
times. It seems that the Ferraris' aerodynamic modifications introduced
in a hurry at Spa had been fine-tuned and the F1-2000 chassis appeared
to be working well.
During the exciting qualifying session on the Saturday Rubens and Michael
traded pole position until the German just hung on to it by 0.027 secs.
On the second row, however, lurked the fast-starting pair of Hakkinen
and Villeneuve, with Coulthard back on the third row.
The first lap accident is well documented and to any observer it must
be inexplicable that such tight chicanes are allowed in the name of
safety. Everyone expected there to be an incident after the start and
it was doubly tragic that a fire marshal standing by the side of the
track was hit by flying debris and succumbed to his injuries.
After the 11-lap Safety Car phase the race at the front was dull. Schumacher
steadily drew away from Hakkinen into a lead he kept to the finish.
Behind, however, there were some rarely-seen overtaking manoeuvres as
Zonta, Verstappen, Fisichella and a few other passed and re-passed each
other as a result of different fuel strategies.
The elimination of Barrichello, Coulthard and the two Jordans in the
first lap accident had eliminated the entire "second division" and therefore
some unusual names diced for positions in the top six.
The remarkable emotional breakdown by Schumacher at the post-race conference
must have been indicative of the pressure that had built up for Ferrari
to win this race and turn around its Championship hopes. Maybe also
it was the mention of Ayrton Senna which triggered Schumacher's inability
to answer the usual questions. Hakkinen, too, looked and sounded drained
after what must have been an extraordinary effort from both of them
and it was left to Ralf Schumacher, who again finished in an excellent
third place, to calmly face the questions.
With this result Michael Schumacher moves to within two points of Hakkinen's
Championship lead and in the Constructors' Championship Ferrari trail
McLaren by just four points. The next Grand Prix at Indianapolis will
be somewhat of a curiosity, using part of the oval track, and it will
be interesting to see how the various teams get on without having had
the opportunity of testing at the circuit beforehand.
Jean Todt: "This result has been saddened by the death of a
track official. He was one of a group of people without whom there would
be no motor racing. I dedicate this victory to them. I am disappointed
for Rubens who was hit, so that once again we lost a car on the first
lap. Michael drove a great race, with a perfect car, run by a perfect
team with a perfect performance. His emotion and sensibility in the
press conference touched me. This was Michael's sixth win of the season
and the seventh for Ferrari this year, a result we have not achieved
since 1953. We are now two points down in the Drivers' Championship
so we have staged a good come-back. It was very important to win here
at Monza in front of our fans even with the pressure we have been under
for the past few weeks. We wanted to win and we did, showing the true
worth of the team."
Michael Schumacher: "I have no vocabulary to express my feelings
except that I am happy and exhausted. 41 wins means a lot to me but
there are times when I cannot answer all your questions. This was a
very emotional win, even more so than in 1998. Here we are in Italy
and after some difficult races we are back on the right road, as we
proved all weekend. I am still not in front in the championship but
this win is a big relief. There are 500 people working with us and all
of them are part of this victory. My start was just alright as my revs
dropped a little. The Safety Car did not have much effect except that
the tyre pressures were low. As the Safety Car was about to pull in,
I started accelerating and braking to warm up my brakes. Some drivers
at the back might have been caught out by this and I apologise if I
caused them a problem. The car was well balanced and worked perfectly
all race. At the end, I backed off to be careful with the engine. I
am very sad to hear about the death of a track official. Under these
circumstances, what happened in the race has only a secondary importance."
Rubens Barrichello: "I am very bitter about the fact my race
lasted only one lap, so that I could not race here in front of our fans.
Frentzen braked too late and hit me, provoking an incident which involved
a large number of cars. The best thing about today was Michael's result,
which proved how competitive Ferrari is. My car was good and I was sure
I could have had a good race. Now I am already thinking about the next
one in two weeks time in the USA."
Italy, 10.9.00
RACE RESULTS The Italian Grand Prix Autodromo Nazionale di Monza; 53 laps; 305.810km Weather: Sunny Classified: Pos Driver Team 1. M.Schumacher Ferrari 1H27:31.638 2. Hakkinen McLaren Mercedes + 3.810 3. R.Schumacher Williams BMW + 52.432 4. Verstappen Arrows Supertec + 59.938 5. Wurz Benetton Playlife + 1:07.426 6. Zonta BAR Honda + 1:09.292 7. Salo Sauber Petronas + 1 Lap 8. Diniz Sauber Petronas + 1 Lap 9. Gene Minardi Fondmetal + 1 Lap 10. Mazzacane Minardi Fondmetal + 1 Lap 11. Fisichella Benetton Playlife + 1 Lap 12. Alesi Prost Peugeot + 2 Laps Fastest Lap: M. Hakkinen, 1:25.595, lap 50 Not Classified/Retirements: Driver Team On Lap Reason Heidfeld Prost Peugeot 15 - spun off Villeneuve BAR Honda 14 - electrical Button Williams BMW 10 - accident Herbert Jaguar Cosworth 1 - accident Coulthard McLaren Mercedes 0 - accident Trulli Jordan Mugen-Honda 0 - accident Barrichello Ferrari 0 - accident Frentzen Jordan Mugen-Honda 0 - accident de la Rosa Arrows Supertec 0 - accident Irvine Jaguar Cosworth 0 - accident World Championship Standings, Round 14: Drivers: Constructors: 1. Hakkinen 80 1. McLaren 131 2. M.Schumacher 78 2. Ferrari 127 3. Coulthard 61 3. Williams-BMW 34 4. Barrichello 49 4. Benetton-Playlife 20 5. R.Schumacher 24 5. Jordan-Mugen Honda 13 6. Fisichella 18 = BAR-Honda 13 7. Villeneuve 11 7. Arrows 7 8. Button 10 8. Sauber 6 9. Frentzen 7 9. Jaguar 3 10. Trulli 6 = Salo 6 12. Verstappen 5 13. Irvine 3 14. de la Rosa 2 = Zonta 2 = Wurz 2
Acknowledgement: Race data by Atlas F1.
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