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It is becoming difficult to begin a Grand Prix report without yet more superlatives about Ferrari and Michael Schumacher. From his first qualifying run (which was good enough for pole) to the moment he swept across the finishing line Schumacher completely dominated the weekend. Lest there were any serious thoughts that Rubens Barrichello could race head to head with him, Michael's qualifying performance, on a circuit at which he had never been on pole, was just astonishing. He qualified 0.6 seconds ahead of his team-mate which, even around the long Spa circuit, is a sizeable margin. Kimi Raikkonen surprised everyone with a strong performance throughout practice and qualifying and was easily ahead of team-mate Coulthard. The two Williams were in 4th and 5th, with Pablo Montoya again lagging behind the younger Schumacher. As far as the Ferraris were concerned the result might just as well have been issued straight after the start. Schumacher went through La Source at the head of the field, whilst Raikkonen managed to out-smart himself trying to block Barrichello and the latter nipped cleanly through on the inside for second place. Thereafter Michael dropped his team-mate by around one second per lap and for Barrichello it was an untroubled run into second place. By the time of the second pit stops Michael had pulled out a 26-second lead and in the last part of the race he rather naughtily rubbed everyones' noses in it by dropping back to cross the finish line just 1.9 seconds in front of the second Ferrari. Behind them there was a bit of racing going on between the McLarens and the Williams. Raikkonen lost his third place to Montoya on the second lap and then Coulthard also got in front of the young Finn before the latter's Ilmore engine blew on lap 36 out of 44. Coulthard closed up to the back of Montoya but was not able to get by and the two cars crossed the line in third and fourth place. Other things of note were the second successive failure of the Arrows team to appear at a Grand Prix, whilst tortuous negotiations carry on with an American septuagenarian. Wonder what that is all about. Spectacular failure of the weekend belongs to Honda, who had no less than five engines erupt in smoke, flames and a lot of high TV visibility. They should not have gone for those extra 300 revs. A good finisher was Eddie Irvine in the uncooperative Jaguar, who qualified an unprecedented eighth and finished sixth to grab the final point. There must be contract negotiations coming up. And quite why Ford think that supplying their engines to the Jordan team in addition to Jaguar, when the former comprehensively lost the "Honda race" to BAR, is going to improve matters is anyone's guess. The mysteries of the F1 world........ The superlatives mentioned at the beginning of this article include a record-breaking ten wins in one season for MS, his sixth win at Spa ten years after his first win; and for Ferrari it was their 12th win (out of 14 races) this season, their sixth 1-2 and an astonishing 50 consecutive podium appearances. They really are on a high - and the next Grand Prix is the home one at Monza. Will it be Rubens' turn again? Jean Todt: "A dream race: yet another this year. Michael took off in the lead, making the most of pole position, while Rubens, thanks to a good start, managed to make up a place to go second. Everything went perfectly; the car, the engine, the Bridgestone tyres, the drivers and the team. Words cannot describe the season we are having. We have proved ourselves capable of winning on all types of circuit, thanks to a really exceptional package. Now we must maintain Ruben’s position in the Drivers’ Championship, a result he deserves." Michael Schumacher: “This result was better than we expected, as we were not sure what the situation would be in terms of temperature and tyres. Our car is simply very good on high speed tracks like this one. The car felt good and I just enjoyed myself. I watched my pace for a couple of laps to look after the tyres and after that, with me and Rubens at the front, it was a case of just bringing it home. I had no problems, but having seen so many engines blow up, we eased up towards the end as we still had a margin over Montoya. It was a very nice race for me, as you don’t always need to be fighting to enjoy the drive. The next race is in Monza, which obviously we would like to win as it is our home race. " Rubens Barrichello: "Considering the problems I had since Friday finding the right set-up I am very happy with this result and the fact I have extended my advantage in the championship by two more points. Even this morning, I was still not happy with the set-up and honestly I made the wrong tyre choice. Before the start I did wonder how quick Kimi would be, but I got the jump on him at the start and that made life easier. As he tried to close the door on me, I was already alongside him at the first corner, so he had to back off and there was no way for him to get in front. I never considered asking the team if Michael would let me pass to help me get more points for second place in the championship. Michael was so dominant this weekend and got a good pole. It was clear after 3 or 4 laps I could not follow him and he deserved to win today.“ RACE RESULTS Belgian GP 44 laps. Weather: dry, cloudy Classified: Pos Driver Team Time 1. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1h21:20.634 2. Barrichello Ferrari (B) + 0:01.977 3. Montoya Williams (M) + 0:18.445 4. Coulthard McLaren (M) + 0:19.357 5. R.Schumacher Williams (M) + 0:56.440 6. Irvine Jaguar (M) + 1:17.370 7. Salo Toyota (M) + 1:17.809 8. Villenueve BAR (B) + 1:19.855 9. McNish Toyota (M) + 1 Lap 10. Heidfeld Sauber (B) + 1 Lap 11. Sato Jordan (B) + 1 Lap World Championship Standing, Round 14: Drivers: Constructors: 1. M.Schumacher 122 1. Ferrari 173 2. Barrichello 51 2. Williams 86 3. Montoya 44 3. McLaren 57 4. R.Schumacher 42 4. Renault 15 5. Coulthard 37 5. Sauber 11 6. Raikkonen 20 6. Jordan 7 7. Button 11 7. BAR 5 8. Heidfeld 7 8. Jaguar 4 = 8. Fisichella 7 =9. Minardi 2 10. Trulli 4 =9. Toyota 2 =10. Massa 4 =9. Arrows 2 =10. Irvine 4 13. 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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