Schumacher Scores Seventh French GP Win
Sunday July 4th, 2004
by Will Gray
World Champion Michael Schumacher secured his ninth victory in this season's tenth race after a mid-race strategy change allowed the Ferrari driver to beat Renault's Fernando Alonso in the French Grand Prix on Sunday.
Spaniard Alonso had lead from pole position and Ferrari chose to switch to a risky and aggressive four-stop strategy after realising the pace of the French team on home ground was too strong to beat with their original plans.
Schumacher took the lead after the second stop and eased home with a comfortable lead over Spaniard Alonso to claim his seventh win at the Magny-Cours circuit in 12 appearances.
Italian Jarno Trulli looked set to make it two Renaults on the podium but Schumacher's Ferrari teammate Rubens Barrichello stole the final podium spot just two corners from home.
Jenson Button, who lost out in the final round of pitstops, finished fifth as the lone BAR-Honda finisher after his teammate Takuma Sato retired with a blown engine once again.
Scot David Coulthard led home Finnish teammate Kimi Raikkonen in sixth and seventh to give the MP4-19B machine a relatively successful debut and Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya completed the points finishers with eighth for Williams-BMW.
Alonso made a clean getaway from pole and Schumacher tucked in behind as Trulli made it past both Button and Coulthard to take third as the field headed into the first corner.
Coulthard dropped to sixth from third and Spaniard Marc Gene, making his first Grand Prix start since last year's Italian Grand Prix, also lost out when he dropped all the way down to 11th after starting eighth.
Frenchman Olivier Panis fell to the back after a slow start in his Toyota while Alonso controlled the race from the front, setting impressive fastest lap times as the track temperatures rose to 44 degrees Celsius.
But Schumacher responded with several strong laps of his own as he kept right on to the back of Alonso as Trulli, closely trailed by Button and Coulthard, dropped away.
Schumacher was the first to pit, at the end of lap 11, and came out in traffic. Alonso, now leading his teammate in a Renault one-two, waited for a further three laps before his stop and came out just ahead of Schumacher.
Sato retired his smoking BAR-Honda machine on lap 17 his fourth retirement in five races and Montoya made a costly mistake when he spun his Williams at the end of that lap.
Schumacher made his second stop at the end of lap 29 and, once again, he came out in the middle of traffic. Alonso was able to stay out until lap 32 but his quick stop was not enough to stay ahead of new race leader Schumacher.
Alonso lost time on fading tyres as Schumacher pushed hard in the laps between their stops and the German driver eased into his usual position with 38 laps of the race remaining.
Zsolt Baumgartner became the second race retirement when he finished in a gravel trap but by lap 40, at the front, the race was fairly settled with Schumacher 4.9 seconds ahead of Alonso.
Trulli was a further 21 seconds back in third with Button fourth, around one second behind the Renault, Barrichello up from tenth on the grid to fifth and Coulthard, Raikkonen and Montoya completing the points scoring positions.
Schumacher made his third stop at the end of lap 42 and his surprisingly short 6.5-seconds stop suggested he would stop again. Alonso stopped for 8.7 seconds at the end of lap 46 and dropped back to second.
Button made a crucial pit stop at the end of lap 52 and, after a costly delay, he came out in the middle a battle for third between Trulli and Barrichello then lost fourth place to Barrichello when the Ferrari passed him early in the lap.
Schumacher worked hard to grow a 21.7-seconds lead by the start of lap 58 and at the end of that lap he came in for a smooth 5.8-second stop which put him comfortably out still in front of Alonso with a clear drive towards victory. |
