Michael Schumacher Wins 2002 Brazilian GP

It has often been said that you cannot win a race on the first lap, but you can certainly lose one there and once again this came true at the 2002 Brazilian GP. For the second race in a row Michael Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya started from the front of the grid and got tangled up in the first few corners. This time around it was Montoya who damaged his car, had to stop for a new front wing and then played catch-up for the rest of the race.

Complete Brazilian GP results.

Schumacher, driving the new Ferrari F2002 for the first time this year, went on to win despite a hard challenge from his brother Ralf in the closing laps. Ralf’s Williams BMW shadowed the Ferrari looking for a passing opportunity and crossed the finish line less than six tenths of a second behind in one of the closest and most exciting finishes in quite a while.

Last year’s winner David Coulthard was third and scored his first points of the year for McLaren. He spent much of the race following the Renaults of Jenson Button and Jarno Trulli before passing them during their pit stops. Button held on for fourth after Trulli retired with mechanical problems from that position with just ten laps to go.

Pole-sitter Juan Pablo Montoya had beaten Michael Schumacher into the first corner by late-breaking but the extra speed he was carrying caused him to run wide at Turn Two and allowed Schumacher to get alongside and then pass him as they went through Turns Three and Four. On the exit he barely tapped the back of Schumacher’s Ferrari but it was enough to break off his front wing. He dropped to the back after his stop for repairs but then started a charge through the back-markers including setting the fastest lap of the race on lap 60. He had fought his way into sixth place when Trulli’s retirement promoted him to fifth and he then closed to less than a second behind Button at the finish.

Mika Salo drove a solid race to finish sixth, scoring his second point for Toyota this season.

The Jaguars of Eddie Irvine and Pedro de la Rosa finished seventh and eighth, out of the points but better than they had expected.

Local favourite Rubens Barrichello had apparently started with a light fuel load and had passed his Ferrari teammate for the lead when his car suffered a hydraulics failure on lap 16. Barrichello was driving last year’s — supposedly more reliable — car but his luck has never been good at his home Grand Prix and he has only ever managed to finish the race once.

The Williams BMW team with their horsepower advantage and Michelin tyres had been the pre-race favourites at this track and, had Montoya not tangled with Michael Schumacher on the first lap, they could certainly have fulfilled that prediction. Michael Schumacher was the only finisher in the top ten on Bridgestone tyres.

Posted: Sunday, March 31st, 2002

Alex Zanardi Will Return To Racetrack

Alex Zanardi will return to the Lausitzring circuit in Germany in September to wave the green flag to start the CART race according to EuroSpeedway manager Hans-Joerg Fischer.

Zanardi lost both his legs — and almost his life — last September in a horrific crash at the circuit during the closing laps of the inaugural CART race in Germany. CART medical personnel at the scene managed to stabilize him after he had lost nearly 70% of the blood in his body but the damage to his legs was beyond repair and they were both later amputated above the knee.

Last month the Italian driver completed a rehabilitation course to learn to walk on artificial limbs and there is even talk that he could be planning a return to racing at some point in the future.

Posted: Wednesday, March 20th, 2002

Ralf Schumacher Wins 2002 Malaysian GP

For the second race in a row there was a coming together between a Ferrari and a Williams BMW on the first corner of the first lap but this time it was Michael Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya instead of Ralf Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello and the damage was a lot less severe than two weeks ago in Australia.

Complete Malaysian GP results.

As usual Michael Schumacher — starting from pole position — veered

to the right at the start which left a gap for his team-mate Rubens

Barrichello who was immediately behind him on the grid in P3 to

charge forwards and challenge Montoya. By the end of the straight

Montoya had once again got alongside Schumacher and the two went

into the first turn side by side. Schumacher, on the inside, went

a little wide and they collided breaking off Schumacher’s front

wing. Montoya ran wide and slowed almost to a stop and several cars

were able to pass him on the inside before he regained his momentum.

Schumacher had to pit for a new front wing which left him in last

place when he returned to the track.

Avoiding the accident Rubens Barrichello raced off in the lead

followed by Ralf Schumacher and the rest of the pack. Barrichello

had apparently started with a lighter fuel load than Ralf but was

not able to pull too far ahead of him and, after taking two pit

stops to Ralf’s one, ended up behind him on the track. At this point

he had still looked likely to finish second but on the 39^th

lap his engine let go in a cloud of smoke and his day was over.

Montoya had, meanwhile, been penalized with a pit lane drive-through

for his part in the first corner accident but he was now back up

to third place behind Jenson Button who had inherited second when

Barrichello retired. Driving harder than his recent results would

give him credit for Button held Montoya off for a couple of laps

but then Montoya was past and into second place where he finished

behind his team-mate giving Williams a one-two finish. Perhaps the

fact that Button had been released from the Williams team to make

room for Montoya had something to do with the extra effort he put

up to avoid being passed.

Button could still have taken his first ever podium finish in third

but a few laps from the finish his Renault slowed due to a developing

technical problem allowing Michael Schumacher to pass him with half

a lap to go.

The Saubers of Nick Heidfeld and Felipe Massa took the remaining

points finishing in fifth and sixth places respectively.

Allan McNish would almost certainly have finished in the points

for the first time had it not been for a disastrous pit stop where

his mechanics only had three new tyres ready for him. After a long

delay they finally put one of his old tyres back on the car and

sent him out just as the missing wheel arrived. The next lap he

had to make another stop to have the wheel exchanged and he finally

finished seventh.

Both McLarens failed with technical problems, David Coulthard went

out on the 15th lap and Kimi Raikkonen followed him nine

laps later.

The Jordan team also had a bad day with Takuma Sato running into

the back of team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella early in the race. Both

cars had to pit for new wings which left Sato in ninth place and

Fisichella — the last car still running — in 13th.

Posted: Sunday, March 17th, 2002

Schumacher Questions Montoya’s Penalty

In the press conference immediately following the Malaysian Grand Prix Juan Pablo Montoya and Michael Schumacher were both questioned about their first corner incident.

Montoya said that he had given Schumacher enough room and that Schumacher had run wide and hit him due to his Ferrari understeering. Schumacher, not surprisingly, seemed to differ slightly saying it was a matter of opinion and that if Montoya had given him some more room then they wouldn’t have touched.

Where they did agree was on the subject of Montoya being awarded a pit lane drive-through penalty after the incident. When asked if he thought that Montoya had been treated harshly Schumacher said, "To be honest, yes. I think we’ve seen far more extreme situations where nothing has happened, and today, a little touch and something was done. We don’t seem to have a very consistent situation. That’s something we may all want to improve in future".

Ralf Schumacher who is Michael’s brother and Montoya’s team-mate agreed when asked for his view of the incident, "Michael did his usual come-over, to block his position, which is fine. Then they both went into the first corner and he made the line a bit tight. Therefore he came to the outside and couldn’t go anywhere, with under-steer and then they crashed into each other. I think it was a normal racing incident and it was not fair to give him a penalty. There were other opportunities could have got fined, really".

Posted: Sunday, March 17th, 2002

Michael Schumacher Wins Eventful 2002 Australian GP

The 2002 Formula 1 season got off to a flying start today when Ralf Schumacher drove straight into the back of Rubens Barrichello’s Ferrari and was then launched over it as it slowed for the first corner. Schumacher landed safely in a gravel trap but the chain reaction crash that followed eliminated almost half of the cars in the race before they had gone more than a few hundred feet.

Complete Australian GP results.

Schumacher blamed the crash on Barrichello changing direction several times in front of him to block being passed which is illegal and also commented that while not illegal Barrichello also braked too soon for the corner. Not surprisingly Barrichello who had started from pole position saw things slightly differently and claimed to have braked later than usual and thought that Schumacher was going too fast and would never have made the corner.

Apart from Schumacher’s Williams and Barrichello’s Ferrari both of the Sauber (Nick Heidfeld and Felipe Massa) and Renault (Jarno Trulli and Giancarlo Fisichella) entries were destroyed as was Olivier Panis’ BAR and Allan McNish’s Toyota. Luckily no one was hurt but this was particularly unfortunate for rookies Massa and McNish who have still yet to complete a single racing lap.

Many of the drivers were expecting the race to be red-flagged and restarted so they ran back to the pits to get into their spare cars but it didn’t happen and the race continued behind the safety car until the track could be cleared.

The Arrows team had an equally unfortunate day as both of their cars stalled on the grid before the warm-up lap and did not start the race at all. Although both drivers were eventually able to get started and join the race they were soon both black-flagged and excluded from the results. Heinz-Harald Frentzen for leaving the pit lane when it was closed and Enrique Bernoldi for switching to the spare car after the race had started.

Michael Schumacher who had missed the first corner carnage by running across the grass then started his run to the front. He tailgated Jarno Trulli for a few laps but Trulli was out of his depth and finally spun his Renault off the track.

Then Schumacher caught Juan Montoya and they had several laps of close driving before Schumacher passed him and drove off into the distance. In the post-race press conference he said that his tyres had just got up to temperature and Montoya’s seemed to be going off.

Kimi Raikkonen drove a steady race to a podium placing third in his first start for McLaren and Eddie Irvine made the most of inheriting a points-paying position and drove his Jaguar home in fourth.

Australian Mark Webber had the crowd on their feet when he finished in fifth place in his home Grand Prix in his first ever F1 race. His two points will be a great relief to perennial back-marker Minardi — which had only scored one point in the last five years — as it will mean that they will get some much needed help with their travel expenses from the FIA in the second half of the season.

Mika Salo scored an unexpected point for the new Toyota F1 team in their debut race despite nearly losing it when he spun out chasing Webber for fifth with just a couple of laps to go but he managed to keep the engine running and drove home safely in sixth position.

Jacques Villeneuve had been in sixth place and looking strong when the rear wing on his BAR broke on the 27th lap and he crashed out of the race.

David Coulthard briefly found himself leading the race after the first corner but a faulty gearbox caused him to spin and eventually failed completely on the 33rd lap.

Posted: Sunday, March 3rd, 2002