It seems perverse that the main reason for this having been such a great Grand Prix was the drizzle that started soon after the start. This turned the usually seamless perfection of most of the F1 teams upside down as they struggled with poor tyre choices, reluctant fuel rigs, inoperative radios and spinning cars everywhere.

Before the race, however, the chill economic wind continued to blow down the pit lane. This time it was Arrows who were allegedly in default of a £3 million payment to engine supplier Cosworth. Following on from the failure of Prost and the recent narrow escape of Minardi the Grand Prix field could have been down to just 20 cars. Remember also that there is still an unsold "franchise" remaining in Bernie's hands.....

Montoya's fourth straight pole position was as much down to Michelins' soft rubber as to Pablo's undoubted talent. Michael Schumacher looked somewhat perplexed when Rubens Barrichello again out-qualified him to put Ferraris second and third on the grid.

When Rubens' car died on the formation lap it looked to be all over for the very up-beat Brazilian but in a stunning catch-up race from the back of the grid he moved to 14th on the first lap, to eighth on the sixth lap and into an unbelievable second place by lap 19. The track was well awash by then and Bridgestone had the ideal answer in their intermediate tyre. Fitted to the Ferraris this gave them an advantage of anything from two to five seconds per lap over the Michelin runners, who had a choice of either a full wet (for which there was not enough water on the track) or an underdeveloped intermediate.

During this phase Montoya dropped well away from the leading Ferraris whilst the McLarens faded to nothing with an engine failure (Raikkonen) and a series of bungled fuel and tyre stops (Coulthard) which was blamed by Ron Dennis on interference on their radio communications' systems. By this time Schumacher was well up the road with a commanding lead. On lap 42 out of 60, as a dry line began to appear, Montoya was able to close on the Ferraris and actually passed Barrichello, who fell asleep coming out of Bridge corner and left a wide open gap. After some great close racing Rubens slipped past again and completed the fourth Ferrari 1 - 2 of the season, with Michael Schumacher well out in front.

Throughout the entire field there were equal dramas. The unfortunate Arrows team went from having one car well in the points (Frentzen) to suddenly having two retirements; the Jaguars, with all their much heralded modifications, were a complete flop and about the only thing left is to sell the entire team back to Jackie Stewart for £1. The two BARs survived well and finished fourth and fifth to earn their first points of the year. Poor Ralf was caterpulted out of the leading group with the double failure of his refuelling rig and the two Saubers performed well with Heidfeld finishing sixth and Massa, despite numerous spins, also running in the top six at times.

In theory Michael could now wrap up the Championship at the next race at Magny Cours but he has to finish 7 points clear of his nearest pursuers - brother Ralf, Montoya and Barrichello. Not bad when you consider that there are still six GPs to go after that!

Jean Todt: “It has been an exceptional day, with a fantastic one-two scored on our rivals’ home turf. Our entire package was excellent: the drivers, the team, the cars and the Bridgestone tyres. The result consolidates our position in both Championships. A technical problem at the start of the formation lap meant Rubens was unable to make the most of his grid position as he had to start from the back. Rubens managed to catch the front runners and then moved up to second place after 19 laps. The six points he picked up have moved him up to second place in the Drivers’ championship. Michael drove fantastically in all conditions, whether dry or wet."

Michael Schumacher: “This is a very special win for me, as I have not finished first so often here and it is also my 60th win. It is also an ideal situation for the championship. We were not expecting rain. The car handled really well although we never had consistent conditions and I struggled a little bit in the wet. But I have to say the intermediates were good in both the almost dry and the wet. We have worked very hard on that with Bridgestone and the whole car tyre packaged worked well. The real question was when to use what tyre. I have to say I was not really sure, so I must thank Ross for making the decisions for me and making the right one. The conditions were really very tricky, especially as the intermediate tyres started to wear out in the dry .”

Rubens Barrichello:“This is a fantastic result for the team and the best I could hope for. I don’t yet know what was my problem at the start of the formation lap. When I lined up at the back of the grid, I concentrated on staying very calm, because I knew I had the car to get past people and I was just hoping to get points. I kept my attitude together and started to pass people and there were times when I was lucky not to crash because of the big speed differential between our cars and some of the opposition. Everything worked fine and the Bridgestone tyres were fantastic. I enjoyed my fight with Juan Pablo. It was a fair one.“

RACE RESULTS
British GP
60 laps. Weather: mainly wet

Classified:
Pos  Driver        Team                      Time        
 1.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari            (B)    1h31:45.015
 2.  Barrichello   Ferrari            (B)    +  0:14.578
 3.  Montoya       Williams           (M)    +  0:31.661
 4.  Villeneuve    BAR Honda          (B)    +  1 Lap 
 5.  Panis         BAR Honda          (B)    +  1 Lap
 6.  Heidfeld      Sauber             (B)    +  1 Lap
 7.  Fisichella    Jordan Honda       (B)    +  1 Lap
 8.  R.Schumacher  Williams           (M)    +  1 Lap
 9.  Massa         Sauber             (B)    +  1 Lap 
10.  Coulthard     McLaren            (M)    +  2 Laps
11.  de la Rosa    Jaguar             (M)    +  2 Laps

World Championship Standing, Round 10:          
Drivers:                     Constructors:             
  1.  M.Schumacher  86        1.  Ferrari     118     
  2.  Barrichello   32        2.  Williams     61 
  3.  Montoya       31        3.  McLaren      37
  4.  R.Schumacher  30        4.  Renault      14 
  5.  Coulthard     26        5.  Sauber       10 
  6.  Raikkonen     11        6.  Jordan Honda  6
  7.  Button        10        7.  BAR Honda     5 
  8.  Fisichella     6        8.  Jaguar        3
= 8.  Heidfeld       6       =9.  Minardi       2
 10.  Trulli         4       =9.  Toyota        2  
=10.  Massa          4       =9.  Arrows        2
 12.  Irvine         3
=12.  Villeneuve     3
=14.  Frentzen       2  
=14.  Panis          2
=14.  Salo           2  
=14.  Webber         2

Click here to return to the Ferrari Happenings page.

Hearts stopped as Rubens was left on the grid

The Montoya-Schumacher battle was enthraling

DC pitted four times during his chaotic race

All the Ferrari stops were faultless

Pablo fought hard to keep up with the red ones

Interference on the radio was blamed by McLaren

The Honda boys were very happy with the BAR result

The revised Jags, on the other hand, were a flop

Michael enjoys his win

Ross Brawn called all the moves to perfection

pics by Sutton, Schlegelmilch & Ferrari