Michael Schumacher dominated today’s Spanish Grand Prix, leading from start to finish, but not everyone at Ferrari was smiling as his teammate Rubens Barrichello could not move off of the grid to start the formation lap and was unable to join the race because of a probable hydraulic failure. Although unfortunate for Rubens this was probably just as well for everyone else as he had qualified in P2 and was threatening another 1-2 Ferrari tour de force.
| Pos | Driver | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Schumacher (D) | Ferrari | 10 |
| 2 | Juan Pablo Montoya (COL) | Williams BMW | 6 |
| 3 | David Coulthard (GB) | McLaren Mercedes | 4 |
| 4 | Nick Heidfeld (D) | Sauber Petronas | 3 |
| 5 | Felipe Massa (BR) | Sauber Petronas | 2 |
| 6 | Heinz-Harald Frentzen (D) | Arrows Cosworth | 1 |
| Fastest Qualifier: Michael Schumacher (D) | |||
Juan Pablo Montoya was second despite a problem during his second pit stop when his crew chief raised the "lollipop" to signal him to go while the fuel hose was still connected to his car. The mechanic then saw his mistake, lowered it again and stepped forward in front of the moving car which under the circumstances was not a very bright thing to do. Luckily Montoya was able to stop before too much damage was done but he still knocked both of the mechanics over. Neither was seriously hurt but the lollipop man seemed to injure his ankle.
David Coulthard was third followed by the Saubers of Nick Heidfeld and Felipe Massa. Heinz-Harald Frentzen scored Arrows’ first point of the season in sixth leaving only BAR and Jordan (the two Honda powered teams) without a single championship point although Jacques Villeneuve, the top Honda driver, was definitely knocking on the door in seventh place for the second race in a row.
The Toyotas of Allan McNish and Mika Salo in eighth and ninth were the only other cars still running at the end of the race.
On lap 30 Ralf Schumacher ran wide and damaged his Williams’ nose on the kerb. He pitted twice for new front wings and then ran at the back for the rest of the race until his engine let go on the final lap.
As well as the usual mechanical problems there were an unusual amount of structural failures for a race this far into the season. Both of the Minardis were withdrawn from the race when Mark Webber’s rear wing failed in the morning warm-up and then the rear wing on Kimi Raikkonen’s McLaren broke off after only three racing laps.