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As Ferrari fans in the UK, what would we give for a British GP with a front row of home drivers with our pole man being the recently crowned world champion driving for our beloved Ferrari ? But this is not Silverstone - instead, a heavily revised Hockenheim. Yes, another revised German GP circuit with yet another Mercedes spectator area. £40m spent on what is called a "modern GP circuit". At 2.7 miles in length it is a full 1.5 mls shorter than the original "man's circuit" which has already been dug up. The fans however flocked to celebrate and salute their champion Michael Schumacher. It is said that Michael's core of fans are blue collar rather like Mansel's were in the UK. With our Nige it was easy to see why - a fairly straightforward Brummie with passion. Less clear with Michael, perhaps, but some 120,000 turned up on both qualifying and race days, quite a crowd. Front row was Michael and Ralf followed by Rubens and a rather lack lustre Montoya. Raikkonen, shaming his team mate again, was next up before an on fire Fisichella (I must bump my head more often), Trulli, Coulthard and Heidfeld. At the last minute possible, when already on the grid, Rubens has to swap to the spare car (his for the remainder of 2002). No time is lost or grid position but for goodness sake ! At the start, with Frenzen stalled (later to join the race) and Webber slow away, it is M. Schumacher, R. Schumacher. Barrichello, Raikkonen and Montoya who lead the first lap. Michael managed to stretch a good lead early on and looked very comfortable. Montoya then passes Raikkonen who fights back in true Senna / Alesi style, but the Columbian cements his advantage. At this point go and cut the grass, or just watch the Montoya/Raikkonen pass on replay - or even watch the Superbike GP from Brands on the other channel. There's not a lot happening for a while. The Renaults seem to be having a bad day with Jenson going backwards and Trulli heading an eight car train from 8th to 15th. By around lap 17 Ralf's Michelins were coming on song and he was slightly closing on his brother. He seemed to be dragging Rubens along with him too. The gap to Michael was 4.5 secs at this time. Maybe we were in for a race after all. We then had a spate of retirements on what was to be a very high rate of attrition day. Frenzen, McNish, Button, Villenueve all out. The Ferrari drivers pitted - both without problem. Others were not so lucky. Ralf's stop was spoilt by an in-the-way Villenueve and Raikkonen's stop was fuel only - a decision that was to prove a poor one as he has a tyre failure later and loses a lot of time. By lap 40 Michael's the lead is 7 secs from brother Ralf but maybe Rubens could manage a Ferrari 1-2 ? No chance. On his second stop Ruben's fuel rig gives problems and the resulting 21 secs pit stop puts him out of all contention for P2. Late in the race David Coulthard is lapped which must have hurt like hell. Ralf suffered a last minute engine air pressure problem which causes a brief pit stop and hands second place to Montoya. With further retirements only nine finish. Not a great race it has to be said and it is easy to once
again consider the relative fortunes of our two drivers. However, as they
say, "the harder I work the luckier I get". If I was Rubens I would be
clocking in a little earlier in the mornings. Michael Schumacher: “ Finally winning in Germany after being with Ferrari for seven years is just amazing after everything we have achieved this year. On the first stint, I had a tight battle with Ralf. I was worried about the tyres which were blistering and I had to fight to keep my advantage. On my second stint, the tyres were very good and I could attack consistently. Then, on the third stint, I could settle down and was able to slow more after Ralf had to pit. In the end, I just took it easy to bring the car home. We are approaching our second goal, of winning the Constructors’ title. " Rubens Barrichello: "It was a very difficult race. As I was going onto the grid, I felt there was something not quite right on the race car, so to be on the safe side we decided to take the spare. After the start, the car was going quite well, but it was not easy for me to try and get past Ralf. When I made my second pit-stop the fuel flap on the car did not open and that cost me precious time and a place on the podium. Once back on track, I concentrated on bringing the car home to pick up points for the Championship.“ RACE RESULTS German GP 67 laps. Weather: dry, hot Classified: Pos Driver Team Time 1. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1h27:52.078 2. Montoya Williams (M) + 0:10.503 3. R.Schumacher Williams (M) + 0:14.466 4. Barrichello Ferrari (B) + 0:23.195 5. Coulthard McLaren (M) + 1 Lap 6. Heidfeld Sauber (B) + 1 Lap 7. Massa Sauber (B) + 1 Lap 8. Sato Jordan Honda (B) + 1 Lap 9. Salo Toyota (M) + 1 Lap World Championship Standing, Round 12: Drivers: Constructors: 1. M.Schumacher 106 1. Ferrari 141 2. Montoya 40 2. Williams 76 3. R.Schumacher 36 3. McLaren 49 4. Barrichello 35 4. Renault 15 5. Coulthard 32 5. Sauber 11 6. Raikkonen 17 6. Jordan Honda 6 7. Button 11 7. BAR Honda 5 8. Heidfeld 7 8. Jaguar 3 9. Fisichelloa 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.
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