2000 Brazilian Grand Prix

The 2000 Brazilian Grand Prix (officially the XXIX Grande Prêmio Marlboro do Brasil ) was a Formula One motor race held on 26 March 2000 at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace in São Paulo , Brazil. The race, which was the second round of the 2000 Formula One World Championship and the 29th Brazilian Grand Prix , drew 72,000 spectators. Michael Schumacher , a Ferrari driver, won the 71-lap race after starting third. Benetton 's Giancarlo Fisichella finished second, and Jordan 's Heinz-Harald Frentzen...

Following his victory in the preceding Australian Grand Prix , Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher led the World Drivers' Championship with ten championship points , followed by teammate Rubens Barrichello with six championship points and Williams ' Ralf Schumacher with four championship points. Jacques Villeneuve of British American Racing (BAR) was fourth with three championship points and Giancarlo Fisichella of Benetton was fifth with two championship points. [ 7 ] Ferrari led the World Constr...

Prior to the event, most the 11 teams tested their cars and new components at various locations across Europe. McLaren , Jordan , Williams, Jaguar and Prost tested at the Silverstone Circuit in the United Kingdom from 14 to 16 March. Luca Badoer , a Ferrari test driver, completed shakedown runs at the Fiorano Circuit in northern Italy. [ 8 ] On the first two days of testing, McLaren test driver Olivier Panis led; on day three, Williams's Jenson Button went fastest. [ 8 ] The BAR, Arrows , Sauber...

The Autódromo José Carlos Pace was resurfaced in February to try to reduce its bumpiness. [ 5 ] The pit lane exit was relocated from the Senna S chicane entry to the Repa Opposta straight . [ 12 ] Following Ricardo Zonta's crash and injury during the 1999 race , a larger run-off area was installed to the outside of Laranjinha turn, and its concrete barrier was padded with tyres. The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA; Formula One's governing body) technical delegate, Charlie Whiting ...

The Grand Prix featured 11 teams (each representing a different constructor ) with no changes from the season entry list. [ 17 ] Several teams modified their cars, either to refine aerodynamic appendages or to address reliability issues that arose during the Australian Grand Prix. [ 18 ] McLaren identified an air filter failure which led to the pneumatic valve system problem in the previous race and modified its design to prevent it from reoccurring. [ 18 ] Ford-Cosworth altered its engine lubri...

Häkkinen improved his 1999 pole position lap by six-tenths of a second with three minutes remaining in the afternoon session, setting the day's fastest lap of 1:15.896. [ 16 ] Second through tenth were Michael Schumacher, Coulthard, Barrichello, Pedro de la Rosa 's Arrows, Alesi, Verstappen, Jordan's Jarno Trulli , Villeneuve and Fisichella. [ 21 ] A brake and balance issue caused Ralf Schumacher to go off the track twice. Alexander Wurz spun and beached his Benetton at Mergulho corner. [ 16 ] [...

Hakkinen's lap of 1:14.159 on a new set of tyres led the fourth session, with teammate Coulthard third. [ 23 ] Barrichello separated them. Michael Schumacher was fourth, Trulli fifth, while Fisichella was sixth, repeating his third practice result. Villeneuve, Verstappen, Ralf Schumacher and Frentzen completed the top ten. [ 26 ] While testing a new rear wing , Barrichello spun twice, [ 23 ] one of which was caused by a broken footrest. [ 6 ] Frentzen and his teammate Trulli ran into a gravel tr...

Frentzen qualified seventh after Pedro Diniz slowed him. Zonta, eighth, focused on aerodynamic setup to improve his car's handling. [ 23 ] [ 31 ] Between the final practice session and qualifying, Button switched engines and worked with race engineer Tim Preston to change his car's setup. [ 36 ] He was fourth early on before falling to ninth. [ 3 ] Villeneuve qualified tenth after traffic slowed two of his timed laps and he ran onto the grass. Ralf Schumacher was the fastest driver to not qualif...

As the top two approached the start/finish line, [ 52 ] Michael Schumacher, who had been close behind Häkkinen's heavier car throughout lap one, [ 28 ] [ 54 ] steered off the racing line to take the lead heading into the Senna S chicane. [ 2 ] Barrichello slipstreamed past Coulthard for third on the start/finish straight. [ 54 ] He then ran wide, returning Coulthard to third. By the end of lap two, Barrichello had retaken third after a gearbox fault lost Coulthard the use of the first three gear...

After Häkkinen ran wide at the conclusion of lap 14, Barrichello closed up. Before the Senna S chicane, he braked, slipstreamed Häkkinen, and turned left to pass him for second at the start of the 15th lap. [ 49 ] [ 2 ] [ 54 ] De la Rosa passed Herbert for 14th on that lap and Trulli overtook Irvine for fifth into the Curva do Sol turn on lap 16. [ 51 ] That lap, Villeneuve retired with a race-long gearbox problem. [ 3 ] The Ferrari and McLaren teams used various pit stop strategies; the Ferrari...

At the conclusion of the 28th lap, Trulli made the first of his two stops from fourth place, emerging in seventh. [ 51 ] Before he slowed with a loss of oil engine pressure on the 30th lap, Häkkinen had pulled away to lead Michael Schumacher by 12 seconds since there was less fuel in his car. [ 28 ] [ 50 ] [ 56 ] He slowed and retired in his garage. Michael Schumacher retook the lead, with the yet-to-stop Coulthard second, Verstappen third, and Fisichella fourth. [ 51 ] Coulthard lapped to withi...

On lap 51, Herbert retired in the pit lane with a gearbox failure. [ 3 ] Four laps later, De la Rosa lost concentration, running into a gravel trap but lost no positions. [ 49 ] [ 54 ] Button battled Verstappen for several laps before passing him for seventh on the 56th, [ 53 ] as Trulli made a pit stop from fourth after his second set of tyres slowed him slightly and rejoined the track in fifth. [ 28 ] [ 51 ] From the 59th lap, Coulthard began to gain on Michael Schumacher, who slowed due to an...

The top three drivers appeared on the podium to collect their trophies and later spoke to the media at a press conference. [ 4 ] Michael Schumacher, who received the winner's trophy from Brazilian footballer Pelé , [ 6 ] said his pit stop strategy helped him to win: "In the past, as you may remember, we could not overtake the McLaren entries, regardless of their strategy. Now we are looking a lot more competitive – which is where we wanted to be – and the season could hardly have started better ...

This promoted every driver behind Coulthard one position; Button was reclassified sixth and became the youngest driver to score a Formula One World Championship point at the age of 20 years, 2 months, 7 days, breaking Ricardo Rodríguez 's record from the 1962 Belgian Grand Prix . [ n 1 ] [ 69 ] [ 70 ] The Brazilian Grand Prix organisers were summoned to a meeting of the FIA General Assembly on 6 April. They were fined $100,000 for the track's safety issues and the three times qualifying was stop...

Drivers who scored championship points are denoted in bold .

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