Schumacher Wins Incident-Filled US GP
Sunday June 20th, 2004
By Will Gray
World Champion Michael Schumacher claimed his eighth victory of the season on Sunday when his Ferrari team dominated the United States Grand Prix to secure their third successive one-two finish at the season halfway point.
Brazilian Rubens Barrichello started from pole but claimed second place after Schumacher overtook him with a better pit stop strategy to secure his second win in two seasons at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Blue skies and high temperatures made the race an arduous affair and saw 12 retirements including a heavy crash for German Williams-BMW driver Ralf Schumacher that resulted in a precautionary trip to hospital.
But Michael simply motored on to extend his championship lead over teammate Barrichello to 18 points and put Ferrari on 152 points compared to closest rival Renault's 66 as the field fell around him once again.
Takuma Sato, who retired from the last three races with engine failure, claimed the first podium of his career in third when his car finally held together - a result that equalled the best ever Grand Prix finish for a Japanese driver.
Italian Jarno Trulli lost out to Sato and finished fourth for Renault with Olivier Panis, driving in his 150th Grand Prix, claiming his best result of the season with fifth place for Toyota.
McLaren-Mercedes pair Kimi Raikkonen, of Finland, and Scot David Coulthard finished sixth and seventh and Hungarian Zsolt Baumgartner claimed Minardi's first point since Mark Webber finished fifth in the 2002 Australian Grand Prix.
Juan Pablo Montoya suffered a disaster before the race had even begun as he was forced to leave his apparently faulty Williams-BMW car and step into the spare just before the start of the formation lap.
The Colombian, who looked relaxed as he responded to loud cheers from his fans on the grid, sprinted back to the pits in a panic just seconds before the cars left the grid and he was forced to start from the pit lane.
Barrichello made a clean get-away at the start of the race to lead Schumacher into the first corner but Sato and Briton Jenson Button lost out and dropped to fourth and sixth respectively as Renault's Fernando Alonso moved up to third.
Behind the leaders four cars collided and Austrian Jaguar driver Christian Klien, Brazilian Felipe Massa, of Sauber, Italian Jordan driver Giorgio Pantano and countryman Gianmaria Bruni, of Minardi, all went out of the race.
The race continued under the safety car for four laps as marshals cleared the wreckage and, when it got underway again on lap five, Schumacher made a perfectly timed drafting move to overtake Barrichello and take the lead.
Spaniard Alonso crashed out of third place on lap nine when his right rear tyre blew as he headed down the main straight and he walked away unharmed after crashing spectacularly through a set of polystyrene blocks.
German Ralf Schumacher was not so fortunate on the following lap when he spun his Williams-BMW all the way through the last corner and collided backwards with the barriers at the top of the banking.
The rest of the field miraculously missed his stricken car after it came to rest in the middle of the main straight. A medical team eventually arrived at the scene when Ralf failed to get out of the cockpit.
The safety car came out again and the medical team arrived at the scene a few moments later. The crew laboured for over 15 minutes to extract the German driver from the car and put him on a stretcher. He was then driven by ambulance to the nearest hospital.
Several drivers, including both Ferraris, took advantage of the safety car period to make their first pit stops and at the same time Brazilian Toyota driver Cristiano da Matta stopped out on track to retire.
When the race re-started on lap 17 Schumacher led from Sato and Button, but the Briton came at the end of lap 24 for his stop and Sato followed one lap later to leave Schumacher 5.8 seconds clear at the front.
Incredibly Montoya was now up to second after starting from the pits but he still had to make his first stop. Barrichello sat in third with Trulli, Panis and Sato completing the top six.
Button's race came to an end at the end of lap 27 when an apparent problem with his car forced him back into the pits and he drove straight into his garage to post his first retirement of the season.
Montoya finally stopped for fuel and tyres at the end of lap 35 and came out just behind Sato in sixth place, but the Japanese driver spectacularly moved ahead of fourth-placed Panis on lap 40.
Schumacher made his second stop on lap 41 and was stationary for 10.3 seconds, handing the lead to teammate Barrichello but coming out in second with around a 10-second advantage over third-placed Montoya.
German Jordan driver Nick Heidfeld retired from the race on lap 44 and Italian Giancarlo Fisichella suffered a puncture on lap 49 and was forced to coast around the track in his Sauber before peeling off into the pits.
Barrichello made his second stop at the end of lap 50 and came out just behind Schumacher then chased him down to begin a brief scrap which saw Schumacher firmly close the door on an overtaking attempt in the infield.
Montoya was black flagged on lap 57 for leaving the grid within 15 seconds of the start and pulled into the pits at the end of lap 58 to leave the top six as Schumacher, Barrichello, Trulli, Sato, Panis and Raikkonen.
Australian Mark Webber retired with a fire at the back of his Jaguar to drop the field down to nine cars on lap 62 and at the same time Sato moved ahead of Trulli when the pair were baulked by one of the McLarens.
And to the delight of the back-of-the-grid Minardi team, Fisichella retired his Sauber to allow Hungarian Baumgartner to move into a points scoring position in eighth and he kept going to the end. |
