Michael Schumacher won today’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone in weather that ranged from dry to wet and back again, twice. Some of the credit for his win belongs to Ross Brawn for his pit stop strategies but even more of it should go to his Bridgestone tyres. While their dry tyres didn’t seem much better than Michelin’s their intermediates and wets were clearly far superior and at one point allowed Michael Schumacher to make up several seconds a lap on [then] race leading Juan Pablo Montoya’s Michelin shod Williams.
| Position | Driver | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Schumacher (D) | Ferrari | 10 |
| 2 | Rubens Barrichello (BR) | Ferrari | 6 |
| 3 | Juan Pablo Montoya (COL) | Williams BMW | 4 |
| 4 | Jacques Villeneuve (CAN) | BAR Honda | 3 |
| 5 | Olivier Panis (FR) | BAR Honda | 2 |
| 6 | Nick Heidfeld (D) | Sauber Petronas | 1 |
| Fastest Qualifier: Juan Pablo Montoya (COL) | |||
Complete GP of Great Britain results.
Rubens Barrichello’s Ferrari stalled on the grid at the start of the parade lap and so, after he was restarted, he had to start his race from the back of the field. Undeterred he picked off the cars in front of him with ease and was back in the points within a few laps. Some of the best racing of the day took place between him and Juan Pablo Montoya as they scrapped over second place but in the end Barrichello’s Bridgestones made the difference and he took second.
Montoya had qualified on the pole for the fourth straight time and clearly wanted to do better than his three previous DNFs. He streaked away from the line but the wet weather and the poor grip of his Michelin tyres proved to be his undoing and he ended the day in third place. He was the last unlapped car in the race and the only driver in the top seven on Michelin tyres so his achievement should not be underestimated.
BAR finally broke their record of being the only team not to have scored any points at all this year when Jacques Villeneuve finished fourth and Olivier Panis was fifth. Their five points moves them past Jaguar, Minardi, Arrows and Toyota into seventh place in the Constructors’ Championship. They are now just one point behind arch rival and fellow Honda customer Jordan.
Nick Heidfeld took the last point with a sixth place finish for Sauber.
Giancarlo Fisichella, trying hard to get more points for himself and Jordan, was less than a second back in seventh place.
Ralf Schumacher had been circulating in fourth early in the race but finally finished eighth after several pit stop problems relegated his Williams out of the points. Another problem with his refuelling rig left him sitting in the pits for almost 30 seconds while his mechanics tried unsuccessfully to get it to work and then he had to make an extra fuel stop later when they finally fixed the problem.
Felipe Massa (Sauber) was lucky to finish ninth after a race filled with slides, spins and off-course excursions. He almost didn’t make it past the first corner after putting his tyres into the wet grass beside the starting grid and bouncing sideways across the curbs.
Local favourite David Coulthard (McLaren) was 10th after a race filled with problems and strange pit stop strategies. He stayed out for several laps too many on dry tyres after the rain started — presumably gambling on the shower passing quickly overhead — but instead the rain began to fall even harder. He then switched back to dry tyres too quickly and had to pit again for intermediates just a few laps later when again the rain worsened. To compound his problems his mechanics also had problems with his fuel rig and he ended up two laps down on the leaders.
Jaguar had another poor result in their home GP with Pedro de la Rosa finishing 11th and Eddie Irvine spinning out into the barrier in the wet.
Jenson Button also had an uninspiring home race retiring his Renault with just three laps to go.
Arrows started the weekend in financial troubles with Ford withholding the control chips to their Cosworth engines due to outstanding unpaid bills. After they missed the Friday practice session team owner Tom Walkinshaw reportedly paid “some” of the debt himself so that they could race and they promptly outqualified the [Ford] factory Jaguars with the same engines. During the race both Arrows again performed strongly — and better than their heavily funded Jaguar counterparts with Heinz-Harald Frentzen challenging for a finish in the points — until they succumbed to engine problems. Perhaps a refund is in order?
For the second time this year Allan McNish’s Toyota failed to start the race when it stalled on the starting grid and could not be restarted.
Also for the second time this year, the grid was one car short because Alex Yoong failed to set a qualifying time within 107% of the pole and so his Minardi was excluded from the race.