Michael Schumacher Wins 2002 German GP

Michael Schumacher won his ninth Grand Prix of the season at the redesigned Hockenheim circuit in Germany today in front of over 100,000 fans. Starting from pole the newly crowned World Champion led all the way to the chequered flag to the delight of his home supporters.

Complete GP of Germany results.

In the early part of the race his younger brother Ralf was close on his heels but a slow pit stop put an end to the challenge and he eventually fell to third after making an extra stop to have the pressurized air for his pneumatic valve actuators recharged just four laps from the end.

Ralf’s extra stop allowed his Williams team mate Juan Pablo Montoya to move into second place on the podium. Montoya completed one of the best moves of the day when he drove wheel-to-wheel with Kimi Raikkonen through several corners before finally pulling ahead of the McLaren and heading off into the distance.

Recently a race without Rubens Barrichello having a problem at the start has been as rare as a race that his Ferrari team mate didn’t win and today was no exception. After he had taken his place on the grid Barrichello’s mechanics noticed a problem with his car and he had to run back to the pits for the spare while his primary car was wheeled away. Luckily for Barrichello now that Michael Schumacher has won the championship the spare car is going to be set up for him for the rest of the year and so it was ready for him to jump straight into it. Even so he made it onto the track with just a few seconds to spare before the pit lane was closed and he would have been forced to start the race from the pit lane.

Unbelievably Rubens bad luck wasn’t finished yet and problems with his fuel rig on his second pit stop cost him extra seconds and dropped him to fourth place where he finished. Somewhere in Ferrari’s attic there must be a portrait of Rubens Barrichello or a voodoo doll in his likeness as it is uncanny how he can have so much bad luck while everything goes perfectly for his team mate.

David Coulthard was fifth for McLaren — having already been lapped by Schumacher — and Nick Heidfeld took the last point for Sauber in sixth.

There were an unusually high number of retirements only three other drivers were still running at the end — Felipe Massa (Sauber), Takuma Sato (Jordan) and Mika Salo (Toyota).

After not starting last week’s French Grand Prix the Arrows team was back on the grid but both Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Enrique Bernoldi suffered engine problems and neither was able to finish the race.

Once again the grid was incomplete as for the third time this year Alex Yoong failed to qualify his Minardi and so had to sit out the event.

Posted: Sunday, July 28th, 2002

Hakkinen Retires, Coulthard and Raikkonen Stay At McLaren

As expected McLaren announced during practice for this weekend’s German Grand Prix that David Coulthard and Kimi Raikkonen will both return to drive for the team next year. It will be Coulthard’s eighth season and Raikkonen’s second with the Woking based team. Alexander Wurz will also stay on as a test driver.

During the announcement they showed a video on which Mika Hakkinen announced his official retirement from Formula One racing. Hakkinen told McLaren that he wanted to retire at the end of last season but they persuaded him to take a year’s sabbatical before making a final decision.

Hakkinen’s decision was not unexpected as he seemed to lose a lot of his enthusiasm for the sport last year after a couple of potentially serious accidents. On the tape he said that he wanted to spend time with his family and watch his son grow up and that he didn’t think the risks involved in continuing were worth it.

Hakkinen’s Formula One career spanned 11 years, the last nine of which were with McLaren. Prior to that he drove for Lotus for two years alongside Johnny Herbert. During his time at McLaren Hakkinen won 20 races and the Drivers’ World Championship twice, in 1998 and 1999.

Posted: Friday, July 26th, 2002

Michael Schumacher Wins 2002 French GP And Fifth World Championship

Michael Schumacher won the French Grand Prix today and also clinched his fifth Formula One World Championship to equal Juan Manuel Fangio’s 45 year old record. It was his eighth win in the eleven races that have been run so far this year. Going into the race he said that he wasn’t thinking about the championship as to win it he would not only have to win the race but also have his title challengers finish several places behind him but in the end it all fell into place and the championship was his with six races left in the season.

Complete GP of France results.

His Ferrari team mate Rubens Barrichello who was closest to him in points – but not a threat due to team orders – didn’t have such a good day. When the formation lap started his car was still up on jacks on the grid and his mechanics had to push him back into the pits before they could continue to work on his car. Eventually when the race was several laps old they gave up and Barrichello’s day was over.

Schumacher’s victory almost didn’t happen as he crossed the pit exit blend line when he rejoined the track after his first pit stop and was given a drive-through penalty by the stewards. This dropped him from first place and put him behind Kimi Raikkonen who had been a contender all day in his McLaren and who now drove the best race of his short career to keep Schumacher behind him. Raikkonen was five laps away from winning his first Grand Prix when he slid wide on some oil from Allan McNish’s stranded Toyota which allowed Schumacher to regain the lead.

McLaren boss Ron Dennis immediately protested Schumacher’s pass of Raikkonen as there were yellow flags waving locally for the Toyota but as Raikkonen had run wide and almost off of the track there was nothing else that Schumacher could have done. The stewards agreed, the protest was rejected and Schumacher’s win and championship stood.

David Coulthard, who also received a drive-through penalty for crossing the white line at the pit exit, finished in third place in the second McLaren.

Juan Pablo Montoya had started well from his fifth straight pole position and had managed to keep Schumacher and the rest of the pack behind his Williams until his first pit stop but he was obviously holding them up and once Schumacher had got around him there was no way that he could keep up with him. Montoya’s second stop took several seconds longer than it should have and he eventually finished fourth. His team mate Ralph Schumacher, who was the last car on the lead lap, finished a second behind him in fifth place having also received a drive-through penalty for crossing the pit exit blend line.

Jenson Button finished sixth for Renault who had earlier announced that he would not be with them next year.

Still running at the end were Nick Heidfeld (Sauber), Mark Webber (Minardi), Pedro de la Rosa (Jaguar) and Alex Yoong (Minardi). Allan McNish was the last classified driver in 11th place but his Toyota had been towed away long before the chequered flag was waved.

Eddie Irvine was lucky not to have been injured when the rear wing fell off of his Jaguar at speed causing him to spin off of the track.

On a day when records were being broken and penalties were being handed out freely Felipe Massa (Sauber) had the dubious distinction of receiving two drive-through penalties – his first was for one of the most blatant jump-starts ever seen in a Grand Prix and his second was for crossing the infamous pit lane blend line as he finished his first penalty.

Olivier Panis (BAR) and Takuma Sato (Jordan) collided on the first corner and, despite both being able to continue at the time, neither of them made it to the halfway point in the race.

Only one of the Jordans lined up on the starting grid after Giancarlo Fisichella had a massive accident in practice on Saturday morning and was not able to qualify or take part in the race. Fisichella was not physically injured but he slammed into the tyre barrier with such force that he was told by the FIA medical experts that he shouldn’t drive.

Neither of the Arrows cars took part in the race after they both failed to qualify inside the 107% rule – which was hardly surprising as they didn’t take part in any of the practice sessions and they only made one qualifying attempt each.

The Arrows team has severe financial problems and would probably have already been sold if it wasn’t embroiled in a legal battle with one of its creditors. Had they not taken part in qualifying they could have been heavily fined and they might even have lost their place on the grid which would have made them virtually worthless so it looks like they purposely did just enough to avoid being penalized while deliberately not getting into the field for today’s race.

Ironically this left Heinz-Harald Frentzen without a drive for the weekend and so he agreed to drive the second Jordan for the team that dumped him almost exactly a year ago. In the end there were apparently legal issues which could not be resolved in time and so the Jordan stayed in the pits.

Posted: Sunday, July 21st, 2002

Michael Schumacher Wins 2002 British GP

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.

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.

Posted: Sunday, July 7th, 2002