2000 German Grand Prix

The 2000 German Grand Prix (formally the Grosser Mobil 1 Preis von Deutschland 2000 ) [ 5 ] was a Formula One motor race contested on 30 July 2000, at the Hockenheimring in Baden-Württemberg , Germany, in front of 102,000 people. It was the 62nd German Grand Prix and the 11th round of the 2000 Formula One World Championship . Ferrari 's Rubens Barrichello won the 45-lap race after starting 18th. McLaren 's Mika Häkkinen finished second, with teammate David Coulthard third.

Barrichello's victory was widely celebrated among the Formula One paddock as it came after a career setback. The race result tied Häkkinen and Coulthard for second, but it decreased Schumacher's points lead in the World Drivers' Championship to two. Barrichello trailed the McLaren drivers by eight championship points. With six races remaining in the season, McLaren was four championship points behind Ferrari and 76 championship points ahead of Williams in the World Constructors' Championship. Th...

On 30 July 2000, the eleventh of seventeen rounds of the 2000 Formula One World Championship was held at the 6.825 km (4.241 mi) clockwise Hockenheimring near the town of Hockenheim in Baden-Württemberg , Germany. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] There were eleven teams (each representing a different constructor ), each with two drivers and were the same as those on the season entry list . [ 6 ] Sole tyre supplier Bridgestone provided soft and medium dry tyre compounds, as well as intermediate and full wet-weather c...

Following the Austrian Grand Prix on 16 July, the teams tested at three circuits from 18 to 21 July to prepare for the event. [ 9 ] McLaren, Benetton, Jordan , Jaguar , Sauber and BAR went to Silverstone over three days, working on low- drag racing setups . [ 9 ] [ 10 ] Olivier Panis , McLaren's test driver, led testing's first day. [ 11 ] Jaguar test driver Luciano Burti damaged his car's suspension , front and rear wings, and sidepod in an accident at Stowe corner. Testing was briefly stopped ...

Teams setup their cars for the long straights of the Hockenheimring circuit, necessitating reducing aerodynamic downforce and increasing aerodynamic efficiency. [ 17 ] The Jaguar team included multiple characteristics in its cars. It replaced the huge panels mounted behind the front wheels with smaller screens mounted between the suspension. They also returned to the bodywork seen at the Monaco Grand Prix and installed a new uprated Cosworth engine. [ 17 ] Jordan's new car, the EJ10B , was also ...

The Saturday morning sessions were held in damp weather with occasional rain. [ 28 ] Most of practice saw the circuit dry with sunlight appearing through the clouds. [ 29 ] [ 30 ] Häkkinen set the third session's fastest lap, a 1:44.144, one-tenth of a second quicker than Arrows' Pedro de la Rosa . Coulthard, Frentzen, Salo. Trulli, Barrichello, Michael Schumacher, Villeneuve and Fisichella completed the top ten. [ 31 ] Ralf Schumacher, who completed just one lap in the session's second half, lo...

Jos Verstappen had engine starting problems, resulting in Arrows removing the car's floor to install a starter . A lack of qualifying laps for Verstappen left him 11th. [ 43 ] [ 45 ] Zonta, 12th, used a new engine and was impeded by Alesi at the final chicane in the stadium area. He was ahead of Alesi's teammate Nick Heidfeld in 13th whose lap was set simultaneously as Fisichella's. [ 28 ] [ 39 ] Ralf Schumacher, 14th, outpaced teammate Jenson Button, 16th; [ 37 ] the change in weather caught Wi...

The drivers took to the track at 09:30 Central European Summer Time ( GMT +2) for a 30-minute warm-up session. [ 4 ] Ten minutes in, Coulthard lapped fastest at 1:44.065; [ 50 ] Häkkinen was second in the other McLaren, followed by De La Rosa and Michael Schumacher. [ 51 ] Villeneuve and Verstappen collided at the Jim Clark chicane during their installation lap just as warm-up started. [ 52 ] [ 53 ] Yellow flags were waved because both Villeneuve and Verstappen's cars were stationary and obstruc...

Barrichello, on a two-stop strategy making his car light, moved from 18th to 10th to end lap one. [ 37 ] At the first lap's completion, Häkkinen led from Coulthard, Trulli, De La Rosa, Irvine, Herbert, and Verstappen. [ 63 ] Häkkinen began to maintain his lead from teammate Coulthard. [ 63 ] Herbert moved into fifth place after Irvine fell to seventh after Verstappen overtook him for sixth on lap two. Barrichello advanced further up the field, passing both BAR drivers for eighth. The McLaren dri...

Barrichello began setting successive fastest laps, closing up to De La Rosa. [ 63 ] Frentzen overtook Zonta for tenth on lap seven. On the next lap, Verstappen's engine cover detached from the chassis as Frentzen advanced four spots over the next four laps. [ 57 ] Further down, Ralf Schumacher overtook Zonta for 11th and Diniz passed teammate Salo for 14th. [ 57 ] [ 63 ] By lap 11, Barrichello had caught De La Rosa and passed him for fourth a lap later. Frentzen began pressuring De La Rosa. [ 63...

On lap 25, a man wearing a white raincoat with French writing critical of Mercedes-Benz appeared from beside the barriers and stepped onto the outside edge towards the Ostkurve. To avoid being apprehended by marshals, he ran in front of a group of cars approaching him at high speed to the inside of the track. [ 35 ] [ 59 ] [ 61 ] [ 62 ] The incident prompted race officials to deploy the safety car and the field closed up. [ 60 ] As the pit stop window approached, [ 27 ] teams rushed their driver...

Racing resumed on lap 29 when the safety car entered the pit lane. [ 57 ] Trulli was immediately put under pressure by Barrichello and resisted his attempts to pass him. On lap 30, Ralf Schumacher spun at the Jim Clark chicane, forcing Verstappen wide. [ 56 ] Later, on the approach to the Ayrton Senna chicane, Diniz made a mistake under braking as attempted to pass Alesi and went across him at high speed. [ 37 ] [ 57 ] [ 61 ] Alesi crashed into the barrier at high speed, [ 60 ] removing his car'...

Salo avoided colliding with the slow to react Wurz on the start/finish straight, [ 62 ] sending Wurz spinning onto the grass. Although Wurz's car stopped at the side of the track with a gearbox jam, marshals were able to move it away and racing continued without the need for a third safety car period due to the Hockenheimring's length. [ 37 ] [ 60 ] [ 61 ] Light rain began to fall in the stadium on lap 32 and on other parts of the circuit a lap later. [ 56 ] [ 58 ] On the following lap, Button w...

The top three drivers appeared on the podium to collect their trophies and in the subsequent press conference . [ 4 ] Barrichello's first win was widely celebrated among spectators and team personnel, [ 27 ] [ 68 ] because it came after an earlier setback, including a major accident during practice for the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix that rendered him unconscious. [ 69 ] Barrichello dedicated his victory to Senna, who had assisted him in his early career. [ 70 ] He also disclosed that he chose to...

Button was overjoyed with his then-career-best fourth and congratulated his team for timing the switch to wet-weather tyres. [ 75 ] Salo regarded his race as "hard" because he chose a high downforce setup, which meant he was slower than his competitors on the straights. [ 64 ] Furthermore, he revealed that near the end of the race, he ran out of engine oil as temperatures gradually rose. [ 76 ] De La Rosa earned points for the second time this season after finishing fifth at the European Grand P...

The majority of media attention, however, was focussed on the intruder who penetrated the circuit's barriers on lap 25. He was identified as Robert Sehli, [ 79 ] a 47-year-old French father of three who spent 22 years working at a Mercedes-Benz production factory in Le Mans . [ 80 ] [ 81 ] The news reported that Sehli was protesting his dismissal on health grounds. [ 81 ] Additional information revealed that he planned to protest 15 seconds before the start of the formation lap but marshals stop...

Drivers who scored championship points are denoted in bold .