The F1 statistics will remember this weekend for Michael Schumacher’s 7th Drivers’ World Championship, won with a second place finish here at Spa, in his Ferrari team’s 700th race. However the German, who also qualified second, had a troubled race.
His Ferrari seemed sluggish away form the line, as Jarno Trulli and Fernando Alonso surged into the first two positions. Schumacher was then overtaken several hundred metres later by David Coulthard, then Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya. His tyres needed time to heat up to full operating temperature. The first lap also saw an accident involving Sato’s BAR, Webber, Bruni’s Minardi and Pantano’s Jordan. The safety car was brought into action.
When things got underway again, Jarno and Fernando maintained their lead, while Raikkonen began chasing them down. However, fate had more to say: Fernando was forced to retire with a mechanical problem after taking the lead when Jarno pitted. Oil, which had sprayed onto his rear tyres, was to blame. As Jarno emerged from the pits, he began struggling with handling difficulties, and gradually slipped down the field. As he tried to defend his position against Montoya, he collided with the Colombian and while he was able to rejoin, he failed to score points with a ninth-place finish.
Kimi Raikkonen took full advantage of the situation to take the lead, in spite of gearbox problems. Michael Schumacher, who was carrying a very heavy fuel load in the first stint, was catching him slowly, and climbed into second position. However, even two more safety car periods, one following a collision between Button and Baumgartner (after the Briton’s tyre punctured) and then a collision between Coulthard and Klien, failed to change the order.
Rubens Barrichello, who had been last when the safety car ducked into the pits for the first time, took third position. The other noteworthy feature of the day’s race was the unusually high retirement rate: 11 cars failed to finish the race, following mechanical failures or over-enthusiastic driving. Among them were both BARs, which means the gap between Renault and BAR remains unchanged at eight points. It was a piece of good news at the end of a day to forget for the French squad…
;)
