Michael Schumacher Wins 2002 Spanish GP

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.

Complete Spanish GP results.

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 Both of the Minardis were withdrawn from the race when Mark Webber’s rear wing failed in the morning warm-up and then the rear wing on Kimi Raikkonen’s McLaren broke off after only three racing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.

Posted: Sunday, April 28th, 2002

Michael Schumacher Wins 2002 San Marino GP

If you are a Ferrari fan then today’s San Marino Grand Prix had the best of all possible results with Michael Schumacher starting from pole position and leading all the way to the finish. Historically this race was significant to Schumacher as he surpassed Gerhard Berger’s record of starting the most races for Ferrari. His lead was never challenged and by the end he had lapped all but the top five finishers.

Complete San Marino GP results.

Although nominally the San Marino Grand Prix the province of San Marino is too small to have its own race track and so the event is always held at Imola in Italy which is just 50 miles down the road from the Ferrari factory in Maranello. This proximity to Ferrari’s headquarters always ensures a huge turnout of Ferrari faithful tifosi and gives the event more of a home race feel than the actual Italian Grand Prix which is held at Monza later in the season.

Rubens Barrichello started from second place on the grid but quickly lost a position to Ralf Schumacher’s Williams BMW by the first corner. All the front runners made two pit stops and Barrichello took back second place during the first round of stops and kept it to the end to complete the Ferrari sweep. This was his first point-scoring finish this year and he also recorded the fastest lap of the race.

Ralf Schumacher caught Barrichello and was trying hard to get by him in the closing laps but the chance never presented itself on the tight and twisty Imola circuit and he finished third, less than two seconds behind the Ferrari.

Juan Pablo Montoya was fourth but he had looked a little off the pace all day and had never been in serious contention for a podium finish unless one of the cars in front of him had dropped out of the race. Montoya and Michael Schumacher are the only two drivers to score points in all four rounds of the championship so far this year.

Jenson Button drove a good race in the surprisingly fast Renault and finished fifth to score championship points for the third consecutive race.

David Coulthard scored a single point for sixth place but was well off the pace and had been lapped by Michael Schumacher on a circuit that he has usually had good results at in the past.

Jacques Villeneuve (BAR) drove a steady race to finish seventh and was the only one of the four Honda powered cars still running at the end.

Felipe Massa (Sauber) put a confident pass on Jarno Trulli’s Renault to take eighth place with Trulli finishing a few seconds behind him in ninth.

Nick Heidfeld was tenth in the second Sauber but could certainly have done better had not a refuelling problem caused him to make an extra pit stop followed by a pit-lane speeding penalty which brought him back for a fourth time.

Mark Webber’s Minardi was the last car running in eleventh place, two laps down on the leaders.

Rain was threatening before the start of the race but it never materialized and the track was dry throughout the event.

Allan McNish set the pace for technical problems when a gearbox failure on the starting grid left his Toyota coasting off the track just a few seconds later but the number of mechanical breakdowns was unusually high for a cool day with almost half of the field suffering from some sort of equipment failure. The casualties included both of the Toyotas, Jordans, Jaguars and Arrows as well as one each from the BAR and McLaren teams.

For the first time this year there was an empty spot on the starting grid as Alex Yoong could not qualify his Minardi within 107% of the pole time and, without any extenuating weather circumstances or previous good results to fall back on, he was excluded from the race.

Posted: Sunday, April 14th, 2002