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GRAND
PRIX: Monza: Montoya Scores His First Win
Monza, 16.9.01
This Grand Prix on Ferraris' home territory was planned to be a celebration of the World Championships for both Michael Schumacher and the team. Various happenings, however, turned this into an unpleasant event, with arguments, differing views and, ultimately, bullying amongst the various participants, teams and organisers.
Following the tragic events in the USA there was talk of the whole event being cancelled. Contractual arrangements, however, prevailed and it was decided to substitute a one minute silence in the pit lane.
In a surprise to the other teams, the Ferraris appeared with all their advertising material removed and ran with black noses. This made the other teams' sponsors feel ambushed and the paddock anger increased.
Then, suddenly, the issue of safety at the first two chicanes became a problem. Some drivers, with Michael Schumacher at the forefront, pointed out the fatality at last year's race and the fact that the earlier F3000 race had required three starts after early collisions. Some of the drivers wanted an agreement that there would be no overtaking at the first two corners, but then various team owners, especially Flavio Briatore, ordered their drivers not to agree to such a pact. Villeneuve publicly denounced any such arrangement, saying that he was paid to race and that's what he would do.
The news of Zanardi's terrible accident on the Saturday cast a further shadow over the proceedings.
The race itself was exciting and featured a tense struggle between pole-sitter Montoya and Rubens Barrichello. The latter really sparkled and might well have won the race had not a fuel rig problem caused him a 16-second pit stop. In the end Montoya's margin was just five seconds. Ralf Schumacher ran reliably in third place with the second Williams BMW and he was followed by a lacklustre Michael Schumacher, who was clearly not enjoying the weekend and was off the pace in both qualifying and the race.
Both McLarens retired and Barrichello has now moved to within three points of Coulthard's second place in the Drivers' Championship.
There is now much debate about whether the next event at Indianapolis should go ahead. Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley have insisted that the race will proceed but many drivers and team bosses do not want to go whilst the long process of recovering bodies from the World Trade Centre is continuing.
But business may be business. Ecclestone has been quoted as saying "Let's get one thing straight. Michael Schumacher is not yet the 2001 World Champion. Anything could happen. Maybe he could lose his points over one of the next three races. I am sure that won't be the case but it could be."
An unhappy weekend - shame that it masked Montoya's first win, the first of undoubtedly many.
Jean Todt: “I am happy for two reasons. The first is that this difficult weekend is now over. The second is that we got a car to the podium and another across the line in fourth place. Rubens drove a really great race and he could have won. Unfortunately, a problem with the re-setting of the refuelling rig, at the moment of his first pit stop, cost him around seven seconds, which was probably enough to deprive him of the victory. As for Michael, he drove a good race in a professional manner. For various reasons, his heart wasn’t in it at this track. We would have liked to have celebrated our two world titles in front of all our fans, but world events meant this would have been inappropriate. On behalf of all the team, I send our best wishes to Alessandro Zanardi. The thoughts of all of us are with him today.”
Rubens Barrichello: “I am not sure what happened in the pit stop, but it cost me a lot of time - enough to lose the race. But, all the same, we put on a good show. The two stop strategy was definitely the right decision and Ross Brawn was magic to think of this, which gave us the opportunity to fight the Williams. I passed Juan Pablo because I saw he had problems with his rear tyres and locked up and I got past him on the inside. It was a fair fight. With Ralf, I think he was also struggling with his rear tyres and his brakes, especially at Turn 1. So I braked early there. He seemed to want the outside line at the chicane but when he missed it, I got by.”
Michael Schumacher: “Luckily, everything went well and nothing happened. I am glad this weekend is over. It was a pity that Rubens was not able to win this race. But overall, the most important thing is that nothing bad happened this afternoon.”
RACE RESULTS Italian GP Monza, Italy; 53 laps. Weather: Warm, Dry. Classified: Pos Driver Team Time 1. Montoya Williams BMW (M) 1h16:58.493 2. Barrichello Ferrari (B) + 0:05.175 3. R. Schumacher Williams BMW (M) + 0:17.335 4. M. Schumacher Ferrari (B) + 0:24.991 5. de la Rosa Jaguar Cosworth (M) + 1:14.984 6. Villeneuve BAR Honda (B) + 1:22.476 7. Raikkonen Sauber Petronas (B) + 1:23.107 8. Alesi Jordan Honda (B) + 1 Lap 9. Panis BAR Honda (B) + 1 Lap 10. Fisichella Benetton (B) + 1 Lap 11. Heidfeld Sauber Petronas (B) + 1 Lap 12. Enge Prost (M) + 1 Lap 13. Alonso Minardi European (M) + 2 Laps World Championship Standing, Round 15: Drivers: Constructors: 1. M.Schumacher 107 1. Ferrari 161 2. Coulthard 57 2. McLaren 81 3 Barrichello 54 3. Williams 73 4. R.Schumacher 48 4. Sauber 20 5. Montoya 25 5. BAR 17 6. Hakkinen 24 6. Jordan 16 7. Villeneuve 12 7. Benetton 10 8. Heidfeld 11 8. Jaguar 7 9. Trulli 9 9. Prost 4 =. Raikkonen 9 10. Arrows 1 11. Fisichella 8 =. Minardi 1 12. Frentzen 6 13. Panis 5 =. Alesi 5 15. Irvine 4 16. de la Rosa 3 17. Button 2 18. Verstappen 1
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