Race
Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher led the World Drivers' Championship with 26 championship points heading into the race, with McLaren driver David Coulthard second on 20 championship points. Rubens Barrichello , Schumacher's Ferrari teammate, was third with 10 championship points, ahead of Sauber 's Nick Heidfeld in fourth with seven championship points and Jordan 's Heinz-Harald Frentzen in fifth with six championship points. Ferrari led the World Constructors' Championship with 36 champi... Following the Brazilian Grand Prix on 1 April, almost every team tested their cars , setups , tyres and car components on European racing tracks with their racing driver and test drivers in preparation for the San Marino Grand Prix. BAR, Jordan and McLaren tested for three days in inclement weather at Northamptonshire 's Silverstone Circuit . Jordan's test driver Ricardo Zonta led the first day, while BAR's Jacques Villeneuve and McLaren's test driver Al... When lap one ended, Ralf Schumacher led Coulthard, Trulli, Häkkinen, Michael Schumacher and Montoya. Ralf Schumacher and Coulthard began pulling away from Trulli, who was battling Häkkinen for third, and a pack of cars formed behind them. Heidfeld passed Irvine for 12th, and Verstappen overtook Burti for 16th on lap two. Panis was investigated for a possible jump start but was not penalised. Michael Schumacher appeared to slow exiting the final curve ending lap... On lap six, while closing on Button, Alonso's brakes failed due to a leaking brake caliper. This launched him over the high kerb at the Variante Alta chicane, onto the grass, and damaged his car's front-right suspension against the tyre wall at the turn's exit. : 369, 416 Alonso was unhurt but became the race's first retirement. Two laps later, Verstappen stopped at the side of the Rivazza turn with a broken exhaust pipe that caused a serie... Räikkönen in ninth was racing Panis when the steering wheel disconnected from the spline cresting the hill on the straight connecting the Tosa hairpin and Piratella turn. On lap 18, his car veered sharply to the left and crashed into the retaining barrier at low speed. : 187 Although Räikkönen was unhurt, he was forced to retire. Button made the race's first scheduled fuel and tyre pit stop on lap 20. He had to make another pit stop on the following lap when hi... Montoya made his pit stop from fourth on lap 28 and rejoined in seventh, behind Trulli. Coulthard entered the pit lane for the first of two pit stops on the next lap and remained second after establishing a sufficient lead over teammate Häkkinen. : 416 Montoya closed up to Trulli on that lap, passing him on the outside at the Tamburello chicane for sixth. Ralf Schumacher made his pit stop from the lead on lap 29 and retained an eight-second lead over Cou... Ferrari moved Barrichello from a two-stop to a one-stop strategy in order to put less fuel in his car and allow him to pass Häkkinen. He made his pit stop on lap 33 and rejoined the track in third, having pulled ahead of Häkkinen. : 416 Benetton brought Fisichella into the pit lane to retire with a misfiring engine on the same lap because the team did not want to risk an engine failure. : 416 The following fifteen laps saw little action as Ralf Schumache... The top three drivers appeared on the podium to collect their trophies and spoke to the media in the subsequent press conference. : 220–221 Ralf Schumacher lauded his car setup and the engine, believing his win might begin a three-way battle for the World Championship. He said of the victory, "It's a great experience, and I hope for it to be one of many. I've waited long enough for it, I guess. Since I joined Williams, we've had a lot of work to see that and it paid off today." [ 8... Williams's victory was popular amongst the paddock. Jaguar team principal and three-time world champion Niki Lauda heralded Ralf Schumacher's win as "the perfect race", adding, "The first Grand Prix win is always the most difficult. The next ones come easier. It will be a big boost for his confidence." Williams technical director Patrick Head characterised Schumacher's form at Imola as "perfect", stating, "Winning for the first time helps you a lot. What's happened will be very goo... Drivers who scored championship points are denoted in bold .
Practice
Barrichello recorded the fastest time of 1:31.998, ahead of teammate Michael Schumacher. McLaren's Mika Häkkinen and Coulthard were third and fourth, followed by the Jordan pairing of Jarno Trulli and Frentzen, Sauber's Kimi Räikkönen , BAR's Olivier Panis , Jaguar's Eddie Irvine and Panis's teammate Villeneuve in fifth to tenth. Three drivers lost control of their cars at the wet turn 17 during the session. Verstappen was unable to set a lap time when his car stopped, owing to a drop in ... The track had dried sufficiently after the first session, allowing teams to mount slick tyres on their cars for the second session, which provided a more accurate indicator of the pace of drivers. With around 15 minutes to go, Michael Schumacher set the day's quickest time of 1:25.095, with his teammate Barrichello second. Williams's Ralf Schumacher , Häkkinen, Panis, Räikkönen, Irvine, Villeneuve, Trulli and Jaguar's Luciano Burti were in the next eight placings. Coulthard went of... It became sunny for the final session as the circuit gradually dried, and nearly every driver lapped faster than the previous session. Most drivers used wet-weather tyres, and some lost control of their car on the wet circuit. Michael Schumacher set the fastest lap of 1:30.737, followed by teammate Barrichello in second. Coulthard, Räikkönen, Frentzen, Heidfeld, Ralf Schumacher, Panis, Arrows's Enrique Bernoldi and Häkkinen occupied positions three to ten.
Qualifying
Panis was pleased with the improvements to his car and took eighth. Frentzen was hampered on his second run by Tarso Marques 's Minardi car, and on his third run, his car developed understeer, leaving him ninth. Räikkönen qualified ahead of teammate Heidfeld for the first time in 2001, securing tenth after running across the grass after braking too early for the final turn. : 187, 213 Villeneuve in 11th was the fastest driver to not qualify in the top ten due to slowe...
References
44°20′38″N 11°43′00″E / 44.34389°N 11.71667°E / 44.34389; 11.71667
Race Result
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | David Coulthard | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:23.054 | — |
| 2 | 3 | Mika Häkkinen | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:23.282 | +0.228 |
| 3 | 5 | Ralf Schumacher | Williams-BMW | 1:23.357 | +0.303 |
| 4 | 1 | Michael Schumacher | Ferrari | 1:23.593 | +0.539 |
| 5 | 12 | Jarno Trulli | Jordan-Honda | 1:23.658 | +0.604 |
| 6 | 2 | Rubens Barrichello | Ferrari | 1:23.786 | +0.732 |
| 7 | 6 | Juan Pablo Montoya | Williams-BMW | 1:24.141 | +1.087 |
| 8 | 9 | Olivier Panis | BAR-Honda | 1:24.213 | +1.159 |
| 9 | 11 | Heinz-Harald Frentzen | Jordan-Honda | 1:24.436 | +1.382 |
| 10 | 17 | Kimi Räikkönen | Sauber-Petronas | 1:24.671 | +1.617 |
Championship Standings After This Race
The Paddock Breakdown
Barry · Gary · KatGary — 33 · Three Fantasy F1 leagues
The rain hadn't come, not truly, just a persistent, sullen dampness clinging to Imola's asphalt – a deceptive calm before the storm of ambition. Coulthard's McLaren, a 91-1-6, wrestled with the slick surface, its 3. 5-liter V10 spitting a frustrated chorus of horsepower, a testament to the delicate dance between man and machine. Barrichello, in the Ferrari 1-17, seemed almost…unperturbed, a quiet intensity radiating from the cockpit, a stark contrast to Schumacher's controlled aggression. The Jordan team, stubbornly clinging to their Honda-powered 101T, offered a poignant reminder of the gulf separating the giants from the hopefuls.
The rain, a bruised plum darkening the asphalt, arrived with the unsettling precision of a gambler's hand. Pole position, that fickle prize, belonged to Coulthard – a sixth time he'd claimed a front-row start this season, a numerical echo of the 1988 Monaco Grand Prix, a year etched in the collective memory of the circuit. Barrichello, a shadow of Schumacher's brilliance, began seven places behind, a distance that mirrored the points gap between them in the championship, a silent testament to the German's relentless dominance. A strange symmetry, wasn't it? The race, like so much in this sport, was about more than simply crossing the line first.
Kat — 30 · Technical journalist
The rain hadn't relented, a sullen grey drape over Imola's unforgiving asphalt. Coulthard wrestled the McLaren, a furious red blur against the gloom, pushing for an impossible gap. A fractured radio silence from the pit wall – a single, desperate plea from Brown – hung heavier than the damp air. Schumacher, a ghost in his scarlet Ferrari, shadowed him, the championship leader's eyes reflecting the slick track and the simmering pressure. It wasn't just a race; it was a reckoning, a brutal test of wills played out on a circuit steeped in tragedy. Barrichello, a quiet observer, moved steadily, a calculated force within the Ferrari strategy. The scent of wet tyres and ambition mingled, thick and potent.
The rain, a sullen grey drape over Imola, seemed to mirror Ralf Schumacher's mood – a quiet, simmering intensity. He'd spent the morning meticulously studying the track, not with frantic calculations, but with a patient, almost devotional focus. A glance at his father, Klaus, offering a silent, encouraging nod from the pit wall, fueled that resolve. It wasn't about raw speed, not entirely. It was about understanding the rhythm of this brutal circuit, about anticipating the slippages, the moments where the car betrayed you. The Williams team, a well-oiled machine built on meticulous detail, knew this. Victory, here, wouldn't be seized; it would be earned, drop by agonizing drop. A legend was being forged, not in bursts of brilliance, but in the persistent, relentless pursuit of control.