After his announcement that he would be taking a sabbatical next year Mika Hakkinen looked like all of the pressure had been lifted from him this weekend. In today’s United States Grand Prix it seemed that his competitors were doing their best to add to that feeling.

The day didn’t start out too well for Hakkinen — who had qualified second behind Michael Schumacher yesterday — when he was demoted to fourth on the grid this morning after going through a red light in the early morning warm-up session.

Once the race got underway Michael Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya pulled away from the rest but it was not long before Rubens Barrichello — who was clearly on a two-stop strategy and thus quicker because of a lighter fuel load — passed them both for the lead.

Barrichello pitted first and soon after Montoya swept past Michael Schumacher and into the lead.

Just before half-distance Ralf Schumacher spun his Williams into a gravel trap and ended his race having never been particularly happy with his setup all weekend. A lap later Montoya pitted and then coasted to a halt with a hydraulic failure on the next lap to end a dismal day for the Williams team who had been expecting much better after their previous win in Monza.

From then on Hakkinen seemed to be favourite for the win as Barrichello — his only real competition at that point — would have to make one more stop before the finish. It turned out to be even easier as Barrichello’s Ferrari began smoking five or six laps from the end and even though he began short-shifting to lower the engine revolutions it gave up in a cloud of smoke with just two laps remaining.

Michael Schumacher finished barely a second in front of David Coulthard followed by Jarno Trulli, Eddie Irvine and Nick Heidfeld. Trulli’s Jordan was later disqualified when it was found that the skid plank on the bottom of his car had worn down below the legal limit which moved everyone else up a place and ironically enabled his teammate Alesi to move into the points and score a single point for sixth place.

Complete U.S. GP results.