2004 United States Grand Prix

The 2004 United States Grand Prix (officially the 2004 Formula 1 United States Grand Prix ) [ 3 ] was a Formula One motor race held on June 20, 2004, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana . It was Race 9 of 18 in the 2004 FIA Formula One World Championship .

Rubens Barrichello started from pole position in his Ferrari ahead of teammate Michael Schumacher . However, following a start-line incident between five cars, four of whom retired as a result, Schumacher overtook Barrichello on the safety car restart on lap six, and despite a threat from Barrichello after the final pit stops, Schumacher held on to take his eighth win of the season. Takuma Sato became only the second Japanese driver to achieve a podium finish after Aguri Suzuki .

Heading into round nine, the season had so far belonged to Michael Schumacher , driving for Ferrari , winning all but one race, in Monaco , owing to a crash with Juan Pablo Montoya , and so had 70 points out of a possible 80. However, Rubens Barrichello , Schumacher's teammate at Ferrari, was only 16 points behind him, having taken six podiums and two other points finishes. In the Constructors' Championship, however, Ferrari were dominating, with 124 points: more than double that of second-place...

Williams and Toyota had been disqualified from the last event in Canada for illegal brake ducts, even though, in Williams's case, this proved to be a manufacturing error and had not given them any aerodynamic or cooling gain. [ 4 ]

The bottom 6 teams in the 2003 Constructors' Championship were entitled to run a third car in free practice on Friday. These drivers drove on Friday but did not compete in qualifying or the race.

As the formation lap began, Juan Pablo Montoya's Williams failed to start. Montoya jumped out of the car and ran to the pits to use the spare car; it was set up for him as he was higher up on the grid than his teammate. [ 4 ] Montoya started the race from the pit lane.

Rubens Barrichello led into the first corner from pole position. Michael Schumacher retained second place. Fernando Alonso started in ninth place on the grid, but went around the outside of the similarly fast-starting Kimi Räikkönen in the McLaren, and then used the inside line at turn two to pass Takuma Sato and move into third place. Jenson Button dropped from fourth to sixth, whilst Ralf Schumacher dropped to seventh. Jarno Trulli moved up to eleventh place, having started last, partially hel...

The safety car pulled in at the end of lap nineteen, and as the BARs had not stopped, they were pressuring Michael Schumacher's much heavier Ferrari: the top three were within two seconds of each other for a long period of time. Takuma Sato was very quick through the first and second sectors of the lap, but Michael Schumacher's Ferrari had good traction out of turn eleven, the only overtaking opportunity, and so Sato was unable to pass. On lap 24, Button was the first BAR to make a pit stop. But...

Fisichella, on Bridgestone tires, then suffered a left rear puncture on lap 49. He took the opportunity to make his final fuel stop, rejoining near the back of the field. Barrichello had been pushing hard, and so when he finally stopped for fuel on lap 51, the gap between the two Ferraris had been cut to approximately two seconds - Barrichello had cut the gap by approximately thirteen seconds. On lap 52, Barrichello went up the inside of Schumacher in turn four, but Schumacher cut across the fro...

Christian Klien did not claim responsibility for the crash on lap one, claiming that he had "nowhere to go". [ 11 ] Barrichello was disappointed to have conceded the lead on the safety car restart and criticised the Ferrari technicians for indecision regarding his first pit stop, which lost him position to Kimi Räikkönen. [ 11 ]

Notes

Notes

39°47′42″N 86°14′05″W  /  39.79500°N 86.23472°W  / 39.79500; -86.23472