GRAND PRIX : Silverstone : Dull Race, OK Result
15.7.01

The facts of the race were plain and everyone knows them: Hakkinen drove splendidly fast to win in his McLaren, Championship contender David Coulthard retired with damage sustained in a first lap incident with Trulli's Jordan, Michael Schumacher cruised round to finish second and Barrichello had to do some severe racing to finish third.

About the only things that cheered up an otherwise dull Sunday were the spins put on the results by the two leading teams.

Ron Dennis, boss of McLaren, was very terse after the race when he said that Ferrari would no doubt play down Hakkinen's victory in an attempt at justifying their one-stop strategy versus the McLaren two-stop race. And, indeed, that is the way it turned out with Ferrari highlighting their "conservative" decision to put both Schumacher and Barrichello into fuel-heavy cars with only one planned stop. This was used to explain why Hakkinen simply disappeared into the distance whilst Schumacher fell back into the clutches of Pablo Montoya and dropped down to third place.

Some observers, however, noted that Schumacher's pace immediately slowed after the start and that his lap times fell into the 1 min. 27 secs. instead of into the 1:24s and 1:25s he should have been running. At that stage Hakkinen immediately went into the 1:24s and eventually into 1:23s.

Although Schumacher eventually speeded up, he was not able to fend off Montoya, who passed him on lap 19.

There was a strong suggestion that something was amiss with the No. 1 Ferrari but that Schumacher had found a way of driving around the problem. Afterwards, however, the team was adamant that there was nothing particularly wrong. "My car was not handling as I would have liked", said Schumacher. "There was nothing wrong with it but it was very difficult to drive. It was just a little bit too slow. It was not balanced enough."

It so happens that Hakkinen's win and ten Championship points does not matter much to Schumacher because his increasingly distant rival for the Championship, David Coulthard, retired on the fourth lap with damaged suspension. Had Pablo Montoya not been the victim of poor team tactics then Schumacher may well have been looking at a third place finish.

Rubens Barrichello, who started from a difficult sixth place on the grid, came through various battles to finish third, some 26 seconds behind Schumacher. He had to fight hard against both the Williams' drivers. Firstly it was Ralf who hounded him and then in the last third of the race Montoya looked to take his place off him until a poorly planned pit stop effectively kept Montoya back in fourth place.

In addition to the two Ferraris finishing second and third, it was particularly commendable to see the two Ferrari-engined Saubers of Raikkonen and Heidfeld gain fifth and sixth place. Four Ferraris, then, in the top six!

The points situation continues strongly in Ferraris' favour. With a maximum of 60 points still available from the remaining races, Michael Schumacher is on 84, with Coulthard now 37 points in arrears. It looks likely that Coulthard can no longer win the Championship and his only hope is that Schumacher looses it. Let all tifosi keep everything crossed!

Jean Todt: “I have to say it’s always nice to have two Ferraris on the podium and four Maranello-built engines in the points. Of course we prefer to win, but this result is like a victory for us, because Michael has increased his lead over his closest rival by six points and Rubens has moved back up to third place. We had opted for a one stop strategy for both cars and in the end, this turned out to be less effective than a two stopper. With six races remaining this season, we have to remember that the road ahead is still a long and difficult one. We have a good advantage and we must conserve it over the next few events.”

Michael Schumacher: “My car wasn’t really quite the way I would have liked it. I had some problems, especially at the entry to Copse corner, where I got sideways a couple of times. The car was not well balanced and I could not get the maximum out of it. My main concern at this point was just keeping the car on the track and when Mika came alongside me there was nothing I could do. The strategy, as always was a joint decision with the team and I don’t think a different strategy would have necessarily changed anything: maybe, if I had been able to keep Mika behind me, we would have had a different result. We simply were not fast enough here, but the next race could be different. Whatever the championship situation, I want to continue winning races.”

Rubens Barrichello: “I am happy with this result, because this is my first Formula 1 podium at Silverstone. I made up a few places at the start and certainly going for a long first stint was the best idea. The car did not really have the balance I like; all weekend it was different to the way it had been at the test. So I was driving carefully, while still trying to be quick. Even with the heavy fuel load, I was coping well. I managed to keep ahead of Montoya after my pit stop and the car was better on the second set of tyres. At the end, I was able to relax a bit. Two podiums in two races, so I have to be reasonably happy.”

RACE RESULTS
British GP
Silverstone, England;
60 laps. Weather:dry, warm.


Classified:
Pos  Driver        Team                       Time  
 1.  Hakkinen      McLaren Mercedes   (B)     1h25:33.770
 2.  M. Schumacher Ferrari            (B)     +  0:33.646
 3.  Barrichello   Ferrari            (B)     +  0:59.281
 4.  Montoya       Williams BMW       (M)     +  1:09.772
 5.  Raikkonen     Sauber Petronas    (B)     +  1 Lap
 6.  Heidfeld      Sauber Petronas    (B)     +  1 Lap
 7.  Frentzen      Jordan Honda       (B)     +  1 Lap
 8.  Villeneuve    BAR Honda          (B)     +  1 Lap
 9.  Irvine        Jaguar Cosworth    (M)     +  1 Lap
10.  Verstappen    Arrows             (B)     +  2 Laps
11.  Alesi         Prost Acer         (M)     +  2 Laps
12.  de la Rosa    Jaguar Cosworth    (M)     +  2 Laps
13.  Fisichella    Benetton Renault   (M)     +  2 Laps
14.  Bernoldi      Arrows             (B)     +  2 Laps
15.  Button        Benetton Renault   (M)     +  2 Laps
16.  Alonso        Minardi European   (M)     +  3 Laps


World Championship Standing, Round 11:
Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  M.Schumacher  84        1.  Ferrari       118
 2.  Coulthard     47        2.  McLaren        66
 3   Barrichelo    34        3.  Williams       46
 4.  R. Schumacher 31        4.  Sauber         19
 5.  Hakkinen      19        5.  Jordan         15
 6.  Montoya       15        6.  BAR            12
 7.  Heidfeld      10        7.  Jaguar          5
 8.  Trulli         9        8.  Prost           3
 =.  Raikkonen      9        9.  Benetton        1
10.  Villeneuve     7        =.  Arrows          1
11.  Frentzen       6        =.  Minardi         1
12.  Panis          5
13.  Irvine         4
14.  Alesi          3
15.  Fisichella     1
 =.  de la Rosa     1
 =.  Verstappen     1

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