2001 BELGIAN GRAND PRIX

Race

Although a crash during testing at the Mugello Circuit left him with a sore neck, doctors deemed Michael Schumacher fit to compete in Belgium. He stated that he would be unwilling to be concentrated in his driving, and did not say when he felt he would surpass four-time world champion Alain Prost 's all-time record of 51 race victories, which he equalled in Hungary. Coulthard said he set himself the objective of winning the season 's final four races to consolidate second in the Wo... There were 11 teams (each representing a different constructor ) of two drivers each entered for the Grand Prix. Several teams modified their cars to suit the mid- downforce setup of the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. Williams debuted a lighter and stiffer chassis by 3 kg (6.6 lb) for driver Ralf Schumacher with a revised aerodynamic package for better airflow to the FW23 . Ferrari introduced a new front wing to the F2001 that was built upon a set of solutions tested in the prev... Button moved from 13th to ninth by the conclusion of the first lap, while Villeneuve fell four positions over the same distance. At the close of the first lap, Michael Schumacher led Ralf Schumacher by 2.1 seconds. Barrichello was a further six-tenths of a second behind Ralf Schumacher in third, while Fisichella in fourth was 2.2 seconds adrift of Barrichello. Over the next three laps, Michael Schumacher pulled away from the rest of the field, extending his advantage to 6.3 seconds. In th... As Burti was about to pass Irvine on the inside at Blanchimont corner on lap five, Irvine was caught off guard and stayed on the racing line , putting Burti's left-hand wheels onto the grass. Burti's right-front wheel and Irvine's Jaguar made contact. removing Burti's front wing and downforce. Irvine drove over the Prost's front wing and destroyed it. Burti was sent spearing across the gravel trap and into a four-deep tyre barrier at 150 mph (240 km/h). ... Irvine went off the track with the right-hand wheels removed from his Jaguar. He exited his car to assist the track marshals in removing the tyres pinned to Burti and released his car from the barrier. Räikkönen stopped with a transmission failure as Frentzen and Marques made pit stops. The safety car was deployed before the race was stopped. All the remaining drivers went on the starting grid to await the restart. Meanwhile, the FIA medical delegate Sid Watkin... On the lap, after Verstappen hit him, Heidfeld attempted to pass de la Rosa on the left at the La Source hairpin. The two made contact with Heidfeld retiring immediately with front wing and suspension damage. De la Rosa entered the pit lane the lap after with car damage. Up front, Michael Schumacher began to pull away from the rest of the field, increasing his lead over Fisichella to five seconds by the third lap. One lap prior, Montoya's car pulled to one side though he ove... Barrichello made his first stop on the ninth lap. Michael Schumacher led the rest of the field by 20 seconds when he entered the pit lane for the first time on the next lap. He rejoined the race in second. Fisichella led before his own stop at the conclusion of the lap. He retained second place. Panis took his ten-second stop-and-go-penalty on the 12th lap. After the pit stops, the Grand Prix settled into a rhythm with Michael Schumacher further extending his advantage over Fisichella to 24.8 se... On lap 18, while under pressure from Ralf Schumacher, Button struck a plastic bollard marker denoting the left-hand kerb situated on the entry to the Bus Stop Chicane. The contact removed his front wing which folded under his front-left wheel and the lack of downforce sent him into the outside barrier. Trulli entered the pit lane on the following lap to begin the second round of pit stops. His teammate Alesi followed on lap 20. Fisichella was six-tenths of a se... On lap 29, Ralf Schumacher overtook Villeneuve for eighth. Three laps later, Barrichello passed Alesi on the straight towards Les Combes corner for sixth. Jordan lost one of its EJ11s on the lap when the fifth-placed Trulli drove to the side of the track with oil smoke billowing from the rear of his car. In the final three laps, Ralf Schumacher attempted to pass Alesi five times and was unsuccessful each time. At the front, Coulthard reduced Michael Schu... The top three drivers appeared on the podium to collect their trophies and spoke to the media in a later press conference. Michael Schumacher said he slowed to be conservative, "For whatever reason, I thought I had the chance to open up the gap for an extra pit and we didn't know whether they would do so I just wanted to have that safety margin because I was faster than Giancarlo and David couldn't get by I was able to open up such a lead." He said that his 52nd win had no priority... Burti sustained facial and head bruising and he underwent a brain scan , which revealed a head injury though no swelling of the brain. Gary Hartstein , a member of the FIA's medical delegation, predicted that Burti would take up to two months to complete a full recovery. Burti underwent further tests and was placed in an induced coma until he left intensive care on 4 September. He was discharged from hospital six days later and returned to Monaco to continue his recup... Frank Williams , the team principal of the Williams squad, stated that they made an error in keeping Ralf Schumacher's car on a jack at the start of the third formation lap and that nobody could be blamed for it. Button said of his accident that caused him to retire from the race on lap 18, "The car was fine when I turned left, but it didn't want to turn right because the wing had fallen under my wheels, and so I hit the wall." The result left Coulthard nine championship points in ... Drivers who scored championship points are denoted in bold .

Practice

Michael Schumacher recorded the day's quickest lap in the second session at 1 minute, 48.655 seconds. Trulli did not improve his lap but duplicated his first session result in second. Barrichello remained in third, with Fisichella was fourth-fastest, ahead of Häkkinen and his compatriot Räikkönen. Ralf Schumacher, Jaguar driver Eddie Irvine , Alesi and Benetton's Jenson Button rounded out the top ten fastest drivers. Rain fell came 16 minutes in and eased five minutes later. Button...

Qualifying

Panis in 11th was affected by an electrical fault that a change of steering wheel failed to rectify; his third timed lap was set too late to improve his position. Räikkönen was 6th in the final ten seconds until a reoccurring transmission fault left him in 12th. Alesi chose not to switch to the dry tyres and was 13th. Heidfeld in 14th had the same transmission fault as his teammate Räikkönen and yellow flags were waved when he stopped at Burneville corner. An excessive amoun... Verstappen, Alonso, Bernoldi and Marques failed to lap within the 107 per cent limit; all four drivers were allowed to start the race because the stewards deemed that there had been "exceptional circumstances" owing to the changeable track conditions and also because they lapped within the limit during free practice. Afterwards, the McLaren team principal Ron Dennis lodged an official protest to the world governing body of motorsport, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), t...