2001 Canadian Grand Prix

Michael Schumacher won the thirty-eighth pole position of his career by posting the fastest lap in qualifying and he maintained his lead going into the first corner. He opened up his lead to 1.1 seconds until Ralf Schumacher's tyres reached their optimum operating temperatures and he lowered his advantage to four-tenths of a second until a safety car was required on lap twenty for separate accidents for Rubens Barrichello and Juan Pablo Montoya . It was on track for the next three laps although ...

At the drivers' briefing later on Friday, Montoya reportedly threatened to place Villeneuve in the wall and Villeneuve responded by saying he would put Montoya in a tree. Montoya then told Villeneuve that he "killed" marshal Graham Beveridge in a crash at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix three months earlier. [ 17 ] His remark prompted Villeneuve to grab Montoya by the collar on his racing overalls in an attempt to choke him, [ 15 ] [ 18 ] causing Fédération Internationale de l'Automobil...

Heidfeld was the fastest competitor not to qualify in the top ten because his best lap time was 1.383 seconds slower than Michael Schumacher's pole lap and Heidfeld triggered the second stoppage with two minutes to go when he crashed heavily at the final chicane and his car's monocoque was rebuilt for the race. [ 23 ] [ 24 ] [ 25 ] Zonta achieved his team principal Eddie Jordan 's prediction qualifying twelfth and made a driving error on the approach to the first corner. [ 26 ] Jos Verstappen be...

At the end of the first lap, Michael Schumacher led Ralf Schumacher by three-tenths of a second. Following another six-tenths of a second in arrears was Coulthard and the rest of the order was Barrichello, Trulli, Panis, Verstappen, Räikkönen, Zonta, Häkkinen, Montoya, Heidfeld, Irvine, de la Rosa, Villeneuve, Bernoldi, Marques, Button, Alesi, Alonso and Burti. [ 39 ] Fisichella's right-front suspension was broken and he drove into the pit lane to retire. [ 36 ] On lap two, Irvine made contact w...

Barrichello switched off his traction control system two laps earlier because it caused his engine to misfire. [ 2 ] On the sixth lap, the lack of traction control caused Barrichello to lose control of his car and spin leaving the L'Epingle chicane. He fell to fourteenth and his spin Coulthard returned to third place. [ 35 ] [ 36 ] Burti got ahead of Marques for nineteenth on that lap. [ 36 ] [ 39 ] Button was issued a ten-second stop-and-go penalty on lap seven because he was adjudged to have j...

The safety car was deployed on lap twenty when Montoya lost control of the rear of his car over a kerb and crashed into the wall at turn four alongside the circuit. [ 2 ] [ 40 ] Barrichello was close behind Montoya and his attempt to swerve to avoid hitting his car caused him to oversteer into the inside barrier after appearing to lock his brakes heavily. [ 35 ] [ 38 ] [ 42 ] The safety car was withdrawn at the end of lap 23 and Michael Schumacher maintained his lead over Ralf Schumacher at the ...

On lap 35 Ralf Schumacher tried to overtake Michael Schumacher on the inside line but he backed out of the manoeuvre at the chicane. [ 35 ] [ 36 ] Häkkinen overtook Zonta for seventh on the same lap. [ 36 ] The following lap, Ralf Schumacher again tried to pass Michael Schumacher but this time by going around the outside of him and was unsuccessful. [ 35 ] [ 40 ] Häkkinen gained another position when he overtook his fellow Finnish driver Räikkönen entering turn ten for sixth. [ 36 ] [ 40 ] Panis...

Four laps later, Coulthard's engine failed on the back straight because of rising water temperatures, curtailing his race. [ 35 ] [ 38 ] Trulli was afflicted by a brake hydraulic problem which caused his pace to lower and he was overtaken by Räikkönen, Alesi and Verstappen between laps 62 and 63. He drove into the pit lane on lap 64 to retire. Two laps later, Verstappen spun into the barrier due to a failure of his front brakes and was the final retirement of the Grand Prix. [ 36 ] [ 38 ] Unhind...

The top three drivers appeared on the podium to collect their trophies and spoke to the media in a later press conference. [ 10 ] Ralf Schumacher said that he and his brother had not competed against each other competitively in go-kart racing and that the Montréal was the first time of doing so, "It was obviously a great race today. The whole time the two of us together I was waiting for him to make a mistake. Obviously he didn't. I tried it a couple of times at the end of the straight but then ...

Frank Williams , owner of the Williams team, commented that he felt Ralf Schumacher's victory demonstrated that the driver as much as skill as his brother and Häkkinen, "Ralf is a natural winner who is going to get better and better and he gets older and more experienced. I remember telling people in the middle of 1999 that if Ralf was in a winning car, a Ferrari or a McLaren, he would already have won races. His manner of winning was exemplary." [ 46 ] Although his engine failed, Coulthard was ...

Drivers who scored championship points are denoted in bold .