Schumacher Scores Fifth Straight Win - Spanish GP
Sunday May 9th, 2004
By Will Gray
World Champion Michael Schumacher marked his 200th Grand Prix participation by preserving his unbeaten start to the season with a fifth straight win.
The victory, the 75th of Schumacher's career, saw the German equal Nigel Mansell's best-ever start to a season, which the Englishman achieved with Williams in 1992.
It also saw Schumacher, driving with a cracked exhaust pipe for much of the race, add to his record of finishing in the points in all 14 Grands Prix he has competed in at the Circuit de Catalunya track.
Schumacher came home 13.2 seconds clear of teammate Rubens Barrichello, with Renault's Jarno Trulli claiming the final podium place ahead of Spanish teammate Fernando Alonso.
BAR's Takuma Sato finished fifth after dropping down from his third place grid start, with Ralf Schumacher claiming the only points of the day for Williams in sixth after Juan Pablo Montoya retired.
Sauber's Giancarlo Fisichella, in seventh, and BAR's Jenson Button completed the point-winning positions.
It was another disappointing weekend for McLaren, with David Coulthard leading home Kimi Raikkonen in 10th and 11th. The race was briefly thrown into doubt after a protestor invaded the track but, after his removal, the race got off to an thrilling opening.
Trulli, starting from fourth, made an outstanding start, darting between the front row of Schumacher and Montoya and past Sato to take the lead. Schumacher stuck with Trulli's early pace in second, although the Italian developed a half-second lead after the first lap, but Montoya dropped back to fourth after being overtaken by Sato at the start.
Alonso became the first man in the top ten to pit from sixth, followed by Panis coming in from eighth. Trulli came in on the following lap for a 5.9 second stop that handed Schumacher the lead.
Schumacher pitted on lap 9 and although his stop of 6.7 seconds was slower than Trulli he emerged in front of the Renault driver, Sato taking the lead.
When Sato followed David Coulthard, Ralf Schumacher and Jenson Button into the pits a lap later, Barrichello took the lead, but Schumacher was back in front when his teammate pitted on lap 17.
Trulli, running in second, sparked off the second round of pit-stops on lap 24, followed by Schumacher, who emerged ahead of Barrichello, who was running a two-stop strategy. A slow stop from Sato saw Renault pair Trulli and Alonso push the Japanese driver down to fifth, while Button emerged from his second stop ahead of Coulthard.
Panis, running confidently in seventh, was handed a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit-lane and dropped down to 15th. At the end of lap 30 Montoya and Ralf Schumacher were scrapping in seventh and eighth respectively, finding it hard to find a way past sixth placed Fisichella.
Lap 35 saw Bruni join Baumgartner, who had spun out, in retiring, with the pair soon joined by Heidfeld (gearbox) and Panis (hydraulics).
Trulli once again prompted a series of pitstops from the front-runners on lap 42, pitting from third, and was followed immediately by teammate Alonso - the Renault pair making their third stops.
Barrichello's second stop all but ended his hopes of catching Schumacher, with a 10.4 second visit to the pits seeing him emerge behind Sato in third. Schumacher emerged from his stop with a comfortable gap from Barrichello as Sato pitted in, allowing Trulli and Alonso to move back into third and fourth respectively.
Christian Klien retired his Jaguar on lap 46 and was followed by Montoya, who was forced to end his race after brake failure with 16 laps remaining.
Montoya's retirement saw Button, who started down in 14th place after an error in qualifying, move into the points in eighth place. Pantano joined teammate Heidfeld in retiring on lap 54.
Alonso closed the gap on Trulli as he pushed for a podium place at his home Grand Prix, but could not find enough speed to mount an overtaking manoeuvre. |
