Once again Michael Schumacher won the Canadian Grand Prix for Ferrari in Montreal today. It was his fifth win in this event and his sixth win in eight races so far this season. David Coulthard was second for McLaren and Rubens Barrichello in the other Ferrari was third.
| Position | Driver | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Schumacher (D) | Ferrari | 10 |
| 2 | David Coulthard (GB) | McLaren Mercedes | 6 |
| 3 | Rubens Barrichello (BR) | Ferrari | 4 |
| 4 | Kimi Raikkonen (FIN) | McLaren Mercedes | 3 |
| 5 | Giancarlo Fisichella (I) | Jordan Honda | 2 |
| 6 | Jarno Trulli (I) | Renault | 1 |
| Fastest Qualifier: Juan Pablo Montoya (COL) | |||
Complete GP of Canada results.
Kimi Raikkonen (McLaren) was fourth followed by Giancarlo Fisichella (Jordan) and Jarno Trulli (Renault).
Ralf Schumacher was pressing hard to get past Trulli and into the points but couldn’t quite make it. The exertion was apparently too much for his Williams which sputtered to a smoky stop on the track just as the race finished. Ralf had spent much of the race in fourth place but a problem with his fuel rig on his only planned pit stop forced the team to call him back in again for a second time.
Juan Pablo Montoya was just as unlucky in the second Williams. For the second race in a row he had qualified on the pole and, just like in Monaco two weeks ago, his engine blew up in a cloud of smoke as he was chasing down the race leader.
Rubens Barrichello, starting with a lighter car on a two-stop strategy, made an excellent start and had passed pole sitter Montoya for the lead by the end of the first lap. Unfortunately for him — and Villeneuve — Jacques Villeneuve’s BAR stopped by the side of the track on the eighth lap and the race stewards brought out the safety car to slow the field so that it could be moved to safety. This bunched up the field and ruined Barrichello’s chances of getting far enough into the lead that he could make two stops and still be in front of the pack.
After the race Barrichello was adamant that the safety car was not necessary but it was too late to do anything about it by then. It is unlikely that his strategy — or his team — would have put him in front of Michael Schumacher anyway so in effect he only lost one position.
Villeneuve’s BAR teammate Olivier Panis finished a respectable eighth — his first finish of the year — but BAR remains the only team not to have scored a single championship point all year.