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Formula one grand prix 2003

Japanese GP Race Report: Rubens Wins While Schumi Makes F1 History! 12/10/03
Japanese Grand Prix held at Suzaka October 12th. 2003 While Rubens Barrichello took victory, Michael Schumacher secured a record-breaking sixth World Championship in Suzuka by finishing in 8th place. Kimi Raikkonen came second, while David Coulthard finished third.

Michael Schumacher embraces Barichello 2 sexy Japanese ladies

It was a race that lived up to its billing as a season finale, and although it was a historic race, it was one of Schumacher's worst ever.

The World Champion survived a half-hearted overtaking attempt on Takuma Sato which lost him his front wing (all his own fault), then almost destroyed his nose for a second time on the back of Cristiano da Matta's Toyota and he also swerved aggressively towards his brother in a high-speed blocking manouevre down the start-finish straight.

Ultimately it was Rubens' sheer pace and Raikkonen's obvious lack of it that won Schumacher his sixth World Championship.

"It hasn't sunk in yet," said an emotional Ferrari Technical Director Ross Brawn, after the race, "It's going to take a few hours. It was a tough race and Michael made it very entertaining."


Bentley chicane

Juan Pablo Montoya was the early leader of the race, but his Williams disappeared on Lap 9 with a complete loss of hydraulics. "I lost gears, I lost everything" said a resigned Juan-Pablo Montoya in the pits afterwards. With his retirement BMW-Williams were also out of contention in the Constructor's Championship.

Schumacher himself admitted it was one of his toughest races and that he drove a "messy" grand prix. After his late braking incident with da Matta he flat-spotted his tyres and spent the remaining 12 laps "driving over cobblestones". A clearly exhausted Schumi said he was empty and exhausted after worrying his way through the remaining quarter of the race.

Biggest winners, apart from Schumacher and Ferrari, who picked up the win and both World Championships, were BAR-Honda who took 4th place with Jenson Button and 6th with the amazing Takuma Sato.


villeneuve out of a job pitlane

The track surface was damp for the start of the race, but there were few problems at the front as Barrichello led away from Montoya with Alonso straight past the Toyotas and Coulthard squeezing between them for 5th.

The Michelins adopted to the dampish early track conditions much better than the Bridgestones and so Montoya cruised past Barrichello on the opening lap coming into Spoon corner, a rare overtaking spot.

Further back Jarno Trulli had a stellar first few hundred metres and was up to 13th before the cars approached the esses.

Michael Schumacher had a steady start to get 12th but would have clearly been dismayed to see Trulli already in his rear view mirrors.

Kimi Raikkonen lined up and passed Olivier Panis after following him through the ultra-fast 130R corner on the opening lap.

So at the end of the first lap it was Montoya from Barrichello, Alonso, DaMatta, Coulthard, Raikkonen, Panis and Jenson Button in 8th place.

On Lap 2 Ralf Schumacher managed to spin his BMW-Williams coming into the final chicane, one of three times that he'd manage this feat in the race. He rejoined last. Moments earlier Takuma Sato had put a neat move on Justin Wilson to take 10th place off him.

By Lap 4, the track had dried out and Rubens was able to stabilize the 4.5 second lead that Juan-Pablo had over him. Once ahead of Panis, Raikkonen was soon ahead of Coulthard but the Toyota of Cristiano da Matta looked like holding him up in his bid to catch the leading trio of Montoya, Barrichello and Alonso.

But on Lap 6 suddenly all eyes were on Michael Schumacher who was heading down the pitlane. TV replays showed that Michael had tried an overtaking move on Takuma Sato into the final chicane from way too far back and clipped Sato's rear tyre.


chicane1 pitstop

He was lucky not to tip Sato into a spin, lucky also to lose his front wing just in front of the entrance to the pitlane and he was able to dive into the pits straight away to take his first pit-stop of three and take a new nose on at the same time.

He rejoined in 19th place. However Raikkonen was still only in 4th and needed to win the race.

Then on Lap 9 Montoya lost power and cruised back to the pits to retire just as Ralf Schumacher spun for the second time while failing to overtake Nick Heidfeld.

It was ironic that before the race the Drivers' title looked to be a given for Schumi and the Constructors' title might still be a battle. After 9 laps it was the Drivers' title that looked to be a fight and the Constructors' title won. Ferrari had a three point lead coming into the GP and they were also leading the race.

On Lap 10 we lost Heinz-Harald Frentzen, his Sauber expiring in smoke and his F1 career all-but ended after 157 grands prix.

Alonso then proceeded to glue himself to the back of Rubens Barrichello in second place while Raikkonen found clear air in front of him after da Matta pitted.

The first pit-stops brought no change in the order, but Raikkonen looked to switch from a three-stop strategy to a two-stopper. Team-mate David Coulthard stuck with three stops. Throughout the race the Scot looked quicker than Raikkonen but made no attempt to get in front of him.

By Lap 16 Michael Schumacher was up to 14th place and the two BAR-Hondas were impressively maintaining their pace as the Toyotas fell backwards down the field. Jarno Trulli's Renault was up to 9th and Ralf Schumacher 12th.

Jenson Button led the race again before pitting for his first pit-stop of two.

After the first stops, though, Barrichello started to pull out a gap to Fernando Alonso. Whereas the Renault had been close before the stop, afterwards Rubens began to establish a gap. At the same time he was lapping more than a second quicker than Kimi Raikkonen who could do nothing about the Ferrari pace. Raikkonen's slow middle stint effectively killed off any chance he had of winning the race. Though he was still behind his team-mate, when the pit-stops panned out, he duly rejoined in front of him.

Then on Lap 18 Alonso pulled off and parked the Renault, seemingly with a blown engine. A very fed-up Alonso took to the barriers and stomped off.

All the action was further back as Toyota, Jaguar, Sauber and BAR waged war for 5th place in the Constructors' Championship.

On lap 21: DaMatta was 4th, Button 5th, Panis 6th, Webber 7th and Sato 9th. Added into the mix was the fact that Trulli, and the two Schumachers were in faster cars making their way through the field.

When Takuma Sato held Ralf up, Michael was able to close in. The two brothers pitted at the same time on Lap 25 from 10th and 11th place. They rejoined the track in the same order. When they pitted again, this time Michael a lap early, the elder Schumacher got in front of the younger.

It looked like a late (and great) call from Ross Brawn because a mechanic was scurrying out with a wheel just as Schumi entered the pitlane. Both Schumachers were then held up by Cristiano da Matta who'd pitted at the same time as Ralf and cameout justin front of Schumi. On the 40th lap Ralf was all over the back of the Ferrari as the Ferrari followed the Toyota.

Then, down the start-finish straight on lap 41 Michael pulled one of his famous Schu-weaves, pushing his brother way over into the pitlane exit road as he tried to get alongside him for Turn One. It was an extremely dangerous move, though quite legal under the letter of the law.

The red mist then descended on Ralf who wanted to get past Michael badly. At the same time Michael badly wanted to get past 8th placed Cristiano daMatta. The following lap daMatta was able to brake very late for the chicane to keep the Ferrari at bay.

Schumacher was trying the inside line again but suddenly realised he wasn't going to make it and might get his front wing chopped off just like he did with Sato. He stood on the brakes so hard that he flat-spotted his tyres. Significantly he changed his line at the last minute and came right in front of Ralf. Though Ralf seemed to have enough time to brake, this seemed to distract the BMW-Williams driver who braked late and lost his front wing against Michael's rear tyre.

In terms of a race incident it was clearly a case of the World Champion causing an avoidable accident by changing his line at the last minute and was an easy call for the race director to give him a drive-through penalty.

The fact that it wasn't given shows the degree of ineptitude in F1 race control these days. It didn't matter in terms of the Drivers' title, but it could have had a profound effect on the fight for 5th place in the Constructor's title with Panis, Webber and Heidfeld still battling for 8th and a vital point.

Ralf had to limp back to the pits for a new front wing and no doubt some choice private words with his brother after the race, probably more about the 200mph swerve than the chicane incident.

From there to the finish little happened. Schumacher worried about getting a rear puncture from his nudge from Ralf. Panis came in for his pit-stop promoting da Matta to 7th and Schumacher to 8th. Raikkonen took DC for 2nd during the pit-stops and the order remained the same to the finish line.

The Ferrari mechanics crowded onto the pitwall to welcome an exultant Rubens Barrichello home. If anything it has been their victory in 2003. They have been free from any political involvement or any driver intrigue. They have simply produced the most reliable race car in F1 which duly delivered both Championships despite Michael Schumacher's best attempts to throw it away.

Michael Schumacher has now won his 6th World Championship from 194 races. He's scored 1038 points and completed 56 fastest laps. It's a staggering achievement. His performance today will only add more fuel to those who say he may be the most successful, but he is clearly not the best.

Corinna Schumacher was pictured in the pitlane wearing a Six Times World Champion cap right after the race. For a few moments in the Japanese GP she might have been regretting getting them made.


Result of the Japanese Grand Prix held at Suzaka on October 12th. 2003

Posn.DriverTeam TyresTime
1.BARRICHELLOFerrariB1h25'11"740
2.RAIKKONENMcLaren MercedesM+ 0'11"085
3.COULTHARDMcLaren MercedesM+ 0'11"614
4.BUTTONBAR HondaB+ 0'33"106
5.TRULLIRenaultM+ 0'34"269
6.SATOBAR HondaB+ 0'51"692
7.DA MATTAToyotaM+ 0'56"794
8.M.SCHUMACHERFerrariB+ 0'59"487
9.HEIDFELDSauber PetronasB+ 1'00"159
10.PANISToyotaM+ 1'01"844
11.WEBBERJaguar CosworthM+ 1'11"005
12.R. SCHUMACHERWilliams BMWM+1 lap
13.WILSONJaguar CosworthM+1 lap
14.FIRMANJordan FordB+1 lap
15.VERSTAPPENMinardi CosworthB+2 laps
16.KEISAMinardi CosworthB+3 laps
17.FISICHELLAJordan FordB20 laps
18.ALONSORenaultM+36 laps
19.FRENTZENSauber PetronasB+44 laps
20.MONTOYAWilliamsBMWM+44 laps


Drivers' standings after the Japanese Grand Prix as at October 26th. 2003 (Final standings)

DriverNationalityTeam Points
Michael SchumacherGermanyFerrari93
Kimi RaikkonenFinlandMcLaren91
Juan Pablo MontoyaColombiaWilliams82
Rubens BarrichelloBrazilFerrari65
Ralf SchumacherGermanyWilliams58
Fernando AlonsoSpainRenault55
David CoulthardGreat BritainMcLaren51
Jarno TrulliItalyRenault33
Jenson ButtonGreat BritainBAR17
Mark WebberAustraliaJaguar17
Heinz-Harald FrentzenGermanySauber13
Giancarlo FisichellaItalyJordan12
Cristiano da MattaBrazilToyota10
Nick HeidfeldGermanySauber6
Jacques VilleneuveCanadaBAR6
Olivier PanisFranceToyota6
Marc GeneSpainWilliams4
Takuma SatoJapanBAR3
Ralph Firman Jr.Great BritainJordan1
Justin WilsonGreat BritainJordan1


Formula one motor racing 2003
Country Circuit Date Start Time
Australia flag Australia Albert Park 9 March 03:00
Malaysia flag Malaysia Sepang 23 March 07:00
Brazil flag Brazil Interlagos 6 April 18:00
San Marino flag San Marino Imola 20 April 13:00
Spain flag Spain Barcelona 4 May 13:00
Austria flag Austria A1-Ring 18 May 13:00
Monaco flag Monaco Monte Carlo 1 June 13:00
Canada flag Canada Montreal 15 June 18:00
Europe flag Europe Nurburgring 29 June 13:00
France flag France Magny-Cours 6 July 13:00
Great Britain flag Great Britain Silverstone 20 July 13:00
Germany flag Germany Hockenheim 3 August 13:00
Hungary flag Hungary Hungaroring 24 August 13:00
Italy flag Italy Monza 14 September 13:00
USA flag USA Indianapolis 28 September 19:00
Japan flag Japan Suzuka 12 October 06:30
TeamDriver Driver
BAR HondaJacques VilleneuveJenson Button
FerrariMichael SchumacherRubens Barrichell
JaguarMark WebberAntonio Pizzonia
Jordan FordGiancarlo FisichellaRalph Firman
McLaren MercedesDavid CoulthardKimi Raikkonen
MinardiJos VerstappenJustin Wilson
RenaultJarno TrulliFernando Alonso
Sauber PetronasNick HeidfeldHeinz-Harald Frentzen
ToyotaOlivier PanisCristiano da Matta
Williams BMWJuan Pablo MontoyaRalf Schumacher


US GP: Schumacher Triumph Ends Montoya's Hopes US Grand Prix held at Indianapolis September 28th. 2003

Michael Schumacher celebrates his win Championship contenders Juan Pablo Montoya, 
Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen are joined 
on the yard of bricks by Bernie Eccelstone.

Michael Schumacher needs just a single point in the season-ending Japanese GP after claiming victory at the US GP. Only Kimi Raikkonen, who finished second at Indy, can catch him with Juan Montoya's sixth place not good enough to keep him in the equation.

It was a nightmare race for Juan Montoya and his Colombian fans, which saw him given a drive-through penalty for punting Rubens Barrichello off the circuit, have a refuelling nozzle jam, take on the wrong tyres at the wrong time and have various excursions across the grass.

Ultimately it was the Bridgestone Intermediate tyres of Ferrari that contributed most to Schumacher's victory. Heinz-Harald Frentzen proved that Bridgestones were the thing to have by claiming a podium place for Sauber with team-mate Nick Heidfeld in 5th place and Giancarlo Fisichella in 7th for Jordan.

The race was one full of incredible action early on and a complete lack of it from halfway. Raikkonen got a good start off a dry line as did Olivier Panis, Ralf and Michael Schumacher.

Juan Montoya and Rubens Barrichello had dreadful starts. Barrichello decided not to tough it out with his team leader through Turn One and went from 2nd to 5th, while Juan Montoya got bogged down on the line (again) and was seventh into the first corner.
Kimi Raikkonen leads at the start. Juan Pablo Montoya on the Indy banking.

His afternoon wasn't destined to get much better. On the second lap he tried to force his way past Rubens Barrichello through a space that barely existed. He risked his nose on the side of his friend's car and in an instant the Ferrari was sliding into the gravel and retirement.

There was a chink of a gap there but the stewards decided it wasn't enough and gave him a drive-through penalty once they'd deliberated over the video.

From lap 4 the changeable Indianapolis skies delivered spots of rains that gave the advantage to the Michelin-shod cars. All of a sudden Michael Schumacher was going backwards and he was passed by Coulthard, the two Renaults (Jarno Trulli having stormed to the front from 10th on the grid) and then Montoya.

Michelin tyres run well in damp, but not rainy, conditions. It's only when there is a wet track that the Bridgestone intermediate tyre comes into their own. But this scenario wasn't far off.

Montoya, who'd dropped behind the two Renaults after his clash with Barrichello, drove past both Trulli (supposedly under a yellow flag) and Alonso and continued his charge to the front and was past Panis and Coulthard to take second place before the pit-stops.
Ralf Schumacher is back for Williams. Giancarlo Fisichella's Jordan 
blows up on the start finish line.

On lap 16 the Colombian came in for his first pit-stop and all the good work he'd done on the track was destroyed when the Williams refuelling gear jammed.

Raikkonen came in from the lead on lap 18 but the skies were growing increasingly grey and the rain started falling harder. Michael Schumacher took on slicks at his first pit-stop but was very soon back in for a set of Bridgestone Intermediates. It didn't hold him back.

Once equipped with these he started to peg the gap back to the leaders. Through a stroke of good fortune Jenson Button, Justin Wilson and the two Saubers had been fuelled longer and so on their first pit-stop they were able to take on Bridgestone Intermediate tyres.

So when the combination of first pit-stops and wet tyre pit-stops had played out – together with a drive-through penalty for Montoya – Jenson Button led the race.

On Lap 24 Button led from Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Justin Wilson, Kimi Raikkonen, David Coulthard, Fernando Alonso and a hard-charging Michael Schumacher.

Montoya was back in 11th place, his bid for the World Championship all but over.

Ralf Schumacher had disappeared off the scene after locking up down the back straight and going backwards into the tyre barriers after pushing too hard on slick tyres. Olivier Panis had been rapidly overtaken at the start of the race, but on his first pit-stop had changed to wets too early and had to go back in for slicks again – just when it started to rain.

David Coulthard looked like he was on a tyre assessment programme for Raikkonen and combined with undriveable slick tyres and a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pitlane, slipped down the order and into eventual retirement.

Though Jenson Button was leading, his lap times were no match for Michael Schumacher who overtook Heinz-Harald Frentzen for second place as though he were lapping him and then closed in on Jenson at a second and a half a lap.

At least the Brit made Schumacher fight for the lead into Turn One, forcing the World Champion onto the wet line to make the pass. Jenson looked on course for his first podium place, possibly 2nd, but on Lap 41 he had to park his car on the start/finish straight. Another podium taken from him by reliability issues.

As the race wore on and a clear dry line started to appear the Michelin tyred cars started to come back into the reckoning. Montoya had suffered the indignity of being lapped by 5th place Nick Heidfeld and the only way he was going to get back into the fight was from other people retiring. He hauled in Giancarlo Fisichella's Jordan to take 6th place, but that was all he could do.

Raikkonen carved his way through the field, though and once past Heinz-Harald Frentzen looked assured of second place.

Alonso disappeared with a blown Renault engine, while Jarno Trulli managed to get past Nick Heidfeld but ran out of laps to challenge Frentzen. He had to be content with 4th place.

Justin Wilson, who at one stage was 4th, and on one lap looked like he was driving a Ford-powered supermarket trolley - with no means of steering - came home in 8th place for his first ever World Championship point.

All that was left to do was for Michael Schumacher to power to the finish and a win that is almost certain to give him his sixth World Championship. It was ironic that in a season when the team had been highly critical of their Bridgestone tyres that Ferrari should all but clinch the drivers' title thanks to total Bridgestone superiority.

Brawn Worried That Schumi May Still Lose US Grand Prix held at Indianapolis September 28th. 2003

Michael Schumacher in the garage

Michael Schumacher may need just a single point to wrap up the World Championship but Ferrari Technical Director Ross Brawn is worried that he could still miss out on a record sixth title.

Only Kimi Raikkonen can now catch Schumacher, and would only do so if he won at Suzuka and the German finished outside of the points. But Brawn is still concerned that Schumi may lose out, and fears a repeat of the 1986 World Championship when a puncture in the final race of the season cost Nigel Mansell the title.

"We've all got memories of Nigel in 1986. It would be a tragedy for us if we got that close and didn't win it. In many ways there is more pressure just to score one point than going into a championship when it is pretty equal. It's not won yet so we are not counting anything yet. It's going to be quite tough," Brawn said.

"It is going to be a very hard two weeks between now and Suzuka and we've got the constructors to try and win so we have to take our normal approach. To try and do anything different would be a mistake so I just hope the weather gods shine on us in Suzuka."


Result of the U.S. Grand Prix held at Indianapolis on September 28th. 2003

Posn.DriverTeam TyresTime
1.M.SCHUMACHERFerrariB1h33'35
2.RAIKKONENMcLaren MercedesM+ 0'18"258
3.FRENTZENSauber PetronasB+ 0'37"964
4.TRULLIRenaultM+ 0'48"329
5.HEIDFELDSauber PetronasB+ 0'56"403
6.MONTOYAWilliams BMWM1 lap
7.FISICHELLAJordan FordB1 lap
8.WILSONJaguar CosworthM2 laps
9.DA MATTAToyotaM2 laps
10.VERSTAPPENMinardi CosworthB4 laps
11.KEISAMinardi CosworthB4 laps
12.VILLENEUVEBAR HondaB10 laps
13.FIRMANJordan FordB25 laps
14.COULTHARDMcLaren MercedesM28 laps
15.ALONSORenaultM29 laps
16.BUTTONBAR HondaB32 laps
17.PANISToyotaM46 laps
18.WEBBERJaguar CosworthM52 laps
19.R. SCHUMACHERWilliams BMWM52 laps
20.BARRICHELLOFerrariB71 laps
ITALIAN GRAND PRIX Schumi Thanks Ferrari For 'The Greatest Day' Italian Grand prix held at Monza on September 14th. 2003

Michael Schumacher wins at Monza

Michael Schumacher made his return to the podium in emphatic style on Sunday, securing his first race win since the Canadian GP and his first podium finish since the French round of the Championship.

Much to the delight of the tifosi who have waited a long time for another Schumi victory, the Ferrari driver clinched the Italian GP win, having led the 53-lap race from pole to the chequered flag. It was his 50th win with Ferrari.

Schumi's win not only meant a great deal to his confidence levels, but also his chances of winning his sixth World title. With Juan Pablo Montoya finishing second and Kimi Raikkonen fourth, the German was able to extend his lead over his two main rivals. Seven points now separate the top three drivers.

"I think this is the greatest day in my career. It is a long time since I won. We made a big push over the summer break with everyone in the team giving more than a hundred percent," Schumacher said.

"To everyone in the team who was so motivated and worked so hard, from the engineers, the mechanics and even the lady who cleans, I have to say a big thank you. We have worked a lot on our starts and mine was good, but I made a mistake at the first chicane which allowed Juan to close. We had a good fight; it was hard and fair. After that I was able to build a lead."

"The second stint was not so good, but in the final stages I opened up the gap again, easing off when Juan slowed down. After my second stop I got a shock, as the team told me the Williams was coming. I thought 'how did he do that' but then I realised it was Gene. I nearly went off, I was pushing so hard to stay ahead."

"It was a beautiful and emotional feeling on the podium. The result is also a relief. We believed in ourselves and we knew we could fight back. The Championship is still very open. We have improved and we keep on improving. The engine guys have done a tremendous job and that should help us in the last two races."

Rubens Barrichello played a role in helping his team-mate pull away from Raikkonen in the Drivers' standings. After holding the McLaren driver at bay for most of the race, Barrichello finished third ahead of Raikkonen.

"I am quite happy to be third. It is better than being in the wall, like the last race! My car was very good at the start, but I lost time on the first lap with Trulli," the Brazilian said.

"He was alongside me and put me on the grass and so I had to back off, which meant I had to defend my position against Raikkonen and I almost ran into Trulli when he had a problem. By then, Juan was already 2 seconds ahead, even though I was able to close on him a bit."

"Unfortunately, my tyres were not as good on the second stint when I had too much understeer. I also had a problem with backmarkers. Nevertheless, I was able to maintain position ahead of Raikkonen."

The Italian GP results mean that although Ferrari are still second in the Constructors' Championship they were able to close the deficit to Williams to four points.

Barrichello added: "I am happy to have helped Ferrari close the gap to Williams in the Championship."


ITALIAN GRAND PRIX Schumi's 50th Ferrari Win Signals His Return Italian Grand prix held at Monza on September 14th. 2003

Michael Schumacher up close portrait Monza

Michael Schumacher clinched his 50th race win for Ferrari at Sunday's Italian Grand Prix, and made his way to the top step of the podium for the first time since the Canadian Grand Prix in June.

The victory also allowed the German to extend his lead over Championship rival Juan Pablo Montoya to three points. The Williams driver claimed second place at Monza after a hard fought battle with Schumi.

Rubens Barrichello finished in third place, just ahead of Kimi Raikkonen which dealt a further blow to the McLaren driver's Championship chances. The Finn now trails Schumacher by seven points.

It was a race filled with immense tension, but beyond the opening lap, contained very little drama. There were no epic overtaking moves, pit-stop bungles or spectacular offs, though Toyota's Cristiano da Matta did leave the road at speed approaching Parabolica early on with a shredded rear tyre.

As the red lights went out Schumacher got away from the line well and it looked like a sluggish Montoya was going to be swamped by the rest of the field as they charged towards the first chicane. Jarno Truli with a typical stellar Renault start was up from 6th to pass Rubens Barrichello for third going into the braking zone.

Schumacher went into the corner too deep and lost speed allowing Montoya to close up behind him. Trulli by this time was right on Montoya's gearbox. Going into the second chicane Montoya jumped past Schumacher on the outside. Both drivers allowed room for each other in a superb moment that saw them side by side through the centre of the chicane. Although Montoya was on the inside, the Ferrari got more traction going through and out-accelerated the BMW-Williams towards the Lesmo bends.

Trulli tried to capitalise on Montoya's failed move and almost got inside him for Lesmo 1 but, thankfully, backed off at the last minute. A contact here would have sent Montoya out of the race and virtually out of the Championship.

But as the cars sped towards Ascari suddenly Trulli's Renault pulled to the side, his drive gone. It almost caught out the closely following Rubens Barrichello.

Rubens jinked past, followed by Kimi Raikkonen and a fast starting David Coulthard. DC, together with Olivier Panis, and Jacques Villeneuve had taken advantage of a glitch in Jenson Button's launch control. Starting 7th, Jenson was now back down to 9th.

So at the end of the opening lap it was Schumacher from Montoya and Barrichello, Kimi Raikkonen, Coulthard, Gene, Panis, with Villeneuve in 8th.

Further back down the field Fernando Alonso in his haste to get off the line had run into the back of Jos Verstappen's Minardi causing both cars to pit. Justin Wilson had trouble finding first gear and after two laps he had retired his Jaguar.

The order stayed exactly the same in the opening stint, by Lap 8 Schumacher had eked out a 2.5 second advantage in front of Montoya, by lap 12 it was 4.3 seconds. Montoya was radioing in that he had problems with oversteer, something that looked to have disappeared when he put his second set of tyres on. Behind him Rubens Barrichello was menacingly close.

After the first round of pit-stops, which started with Coulthard coming in on Lap 11, Montoya found himself just three seconds down and the Colombian started to leave Barrichello behind and grind down the gap between himself and Schumacher. It edged down lap after lap and by Lap 28 it was just 0.9 of a second.

The BMW-Williams looked a lot better into the braking zone of the first chicane which is where any overtaking move would take place.

But the World Champion resisted all pressure from Montoya's charge and kept his laps consistent and error-free. Montoya came in first for his final pit-stop on lap 32, which meant he had more laps to do at a slower speed with more fuel on board.

Two laps later, when Schumacher emerged from the pits after his final pit-stop behind a BMW-Williams driven by a red and blue helmeted driver, it looked like he'd been jumped. He hadn't, it was Marc Gene whose helmet is very similar to Montoya's.

"We had a nasty ten seconds when we thought he'd lost the lead," grinned Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn afterwards, "Michael thought he was behind Montoya too."

He hadn't and all looked set for a grandstand finish with JPM just 1.3 seconds behind the Ferrari and with a far better car under braking. The two lapped within thousandths of each other until they came to lap the Sauber of Heinz-Harald Frentzen.

Frentzen got out of the way of Schumacher but delayed Montoya by a second. In a battle where tenths were being grabbed each lap it was a hammer blow to JPM, though why he should have lost so much pace afterwards is still a mystery.

Williams tech chief Patrick Head confirmed that there had been no technical problem with JPM's car yet for eight laps he had run a second a lap slower than the car of Marc Gene.

Frentzen then proceeded to delay Rubens Barrichello's Ferrari at a critical time whern Kimi Raikkonen was closing in. Rubens made his displeasure clear with a lot of hand waving. Perhaps the greatest mystery of the afternoon was why stewards failed to give the Sauber driver a drive-through penalty for his efforts.

In the remaining eight laps Schumacher was able to pull out a gap of seven seconds to his main title rival.

David Coulthard disappeared from 5th place with eight laps to go, his engine suddenly dying on the pit straight. This elevated Marc Gene up to 5th place and his best ever race finish.

Though Raikkonen tried hard to chase down Rubens Barrichello the Finn only got as close as a second behind and was never in a position to have a look at an overtaking move, let alone get past. He had to settle for 4th and five points.

Jacques Villeneuve had a – for him – surprisingly touble-free run to 6th place, Mark Webber picked up a dogged 7th place for Jaguar and Fernando Alonso, despite losing half his turning vanes when he short-cut a chicane, dragged his car home in 8th place for Renault.

Though there were no overtaking moves to speak of in the race, the tifosi had got a 1st and 3rd place on a near-perfect afternoon in Monza's royal park. Michael Schumacher wanted to thank everyone at Ferrari from Luca Montzemolo right down to the cleaners.

Ferrari are rumoured to have booked over ninety extra hotel rooms for the final race in Suzuka. Let's hope they've reserved one of those for the cleaner.


Result of the Italian Grand Prix held at Monza on September 14th. 2003

Posn.DriverTeam TyresTime
1.M.SCHUMACHERFerrariB1h14'19"838
2.MONTOYAWilliams BMWM+ 0'05"200
3.BARRICHELLOFerrariB+ 0'11"800
4.RAIKKONENMcLaren MercedesM+ 0'12"800
5.GENEWilliams BMWM+ 0'27"800
6.VILLENEUVEBAR HondaB1 lap
7.WEBBERJaguar CosworthM1 lap
8.ALONSORenaultM1 lap
9.HEIDFELDSauber PetronasB1 lap
10.FISICHELLAJordan FordB1 lap
11.BAUMGARTNERJordan FordB2 laps
12.KEISAMinardi CosworthB2 laps
13.FRENTZENSauber PetronasB3 laps
14.COULTHARDMcLaren MercedesM8 laps
15.PANISToyotaM18 laps
16.VERSTAPPENMinardi CosworthB26 laps
17.BUTTONBAR HondaB29 laps
18.DA MATTAToyotaM50 laps
19.WILSONJaguar CosworthM51 laps
20.TRULLIRenaultM53 lap
The Monza circuit
HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX Alonso Makes History With Maiden Win 24/8/03 Hungarian Grand prix held on August 24th. 2003

Fernando Alonso in his Renault

Fernando Alonso clinched his first race win on Sunday in Hungary, and in doing so the Renault driver became the youngest F1 driver to take to the top step of the podium.

At 22 years and 27 days, Alonso tasted his first sip of the victory champagne at the Hungaroring, after leading the race from pole position to the chequered flag. Alonso beat Bruce McLaren's record set at the USGP in 1959.

Second and third places both went to Championship contenders, with Kimi Raikkonen beating Juan Pablo Montoya.

The Hungarian Grand Prix result has thrown the Drivers' Championship wide open as Michael Schumacher could only manage eighth place. Although the Ferrari driver holds onto the lead in the race for the 2003 World title, he does so by just one point over Montoya. With three races remaining Schumi has 72 points, Montoya 71 and Raikkonen 70.

Williams, meanwhile, have taken control of the Constructors' race and lead Ferrari by eight points. Williams have 129, and Ferrari 121, with McLaren third on 115.

Just as the German Grand prix was shaped by a first corner incident, the first two corners of the Hungarian Grand Prix were to prove decisive.

Though there was no accident this time round, the shuffling of the pack on the incredibly dusty and hot (a track temperature of 47 C at the start) Budapest circuit was to have a lasting effect to the race order.

The cars on the inside of the grid (even numbers) were slow away while, those on the outside (odd numbers) seemed to have a huge advantage. Mark Webber (P3), Rubens Barrichichello (P5), Kimi Raikkonen (P7) and David Coulthard (P9) had a great opening lap.

As they crossed the line at the end of Lap 1, Webber was 2nd, Barrichello 3rd, Raikkonen 4th and Coulthard 6th

The BMW-Williams drivers were slowly away. Ralf Schumacher, starting from P2, had a dreadful start, ran wide through Turn 1, was overtaken by his team-mate and his brother then spun in Turn 2 and rejoined second from last.

Montoya, who'd qualified in P4, didn't fare much better. He struggled to get away from the dirty inside line and had dropped back to 8th place, most significantly behind a fast-starting Michael Schumacher.

Jarno Trulli might have been on the inside, but the Renault's launch mechanism was faultless as usual and launched him into fifth.

So at the end of the first lap we had Alonso two seconds clear from Webber, Barrichello, Raikkonen, Trulli, Coulthard, Michael Schumacher and Montoya. Further back Jacques Villeneuve had a demon start from P16 and was up to tenth place.

By Lap 3, Alonso was three seconds clear and Rubens Barrichello was right on Mark Webber's gearbox chasing second, he tried to overtake the Jaguar at the small chicane, left his braking way too late and shot through the run-off.

Rubens was now 2nd by way of cutting out the chicane and had to let Webber back in front for fear of getting a stop/go penalty; but in letting Webber back in front, he also let Raikkonen and Trulli past and his overtaking move for 2nd had put him back to 5th.

The kerfuffle let Alonso slip further away as Mark Webber started to get defensive and a train of cars, led by Raikkonen, lined up behind the Jaguar, while the Renault out in front made its escape.

It was this period of delay that ultimately gave Alonso the freedom of strategy to decide and win his own race. By the time he pitted for the firsttime he was 21 seconds clear. Had both the Williams been on his gearbox it would have been a much closer run thing. As it was, Alonso had almost a pit-stop time advantage and rejoined on Lap 13 in second place, just behind Raikkonen, instead of getting stuck with the 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th place runners.

The Webber ‘roadblock' also allowed Ralf Schumacher to climb back to the front. Ralf drove the Hungarian Grand Prix like a man possessed. The view from the onboard camera made his pit-stop inlaps look like a Qualifying effort and not a trip into the pits.

He hauled his way back past car after car, until by Lap14 he was up to 8th place and not far off his team-mate.

Kimi Raikkonen jumped past Mark Webber to take second after the first round of pit-stops and though Rubens Barrichello didn't manage to get past Trulli, Montoya leapfrogged Michael Schumacher. With all the leading runners bar Coulthard on three-stop strategies, as the first round of pit-stops finished, the order was: Alonso, Raikkonen, Webber, Trulli, Barrichello, Montoya, M Schumacher, and David Coulthard in eighth after a very long pit-stop saw the Mclaren take on a lot of fuel.

Ralf Schumacher almost jumped past his brother, but had he left his pit when HE wanted to and not when his lollypop man, Carl Gaden, advised, the two would have collided. Ralf went to accelerate away, but the lollypop stayed down because of the fast approaching Ferrari. It was a split-second decision for the Williams crew, but the right one. As it was Ralf rejoined ninth.

On the 20th lap, Rubens Barrichello had a frightening accident going into Turn 1. As he hit the braking zone his rear left tyre looked to revolve out of the axle and sped past the car complete with shafts spinning away. It was almost as though the transmission had exploded and the complete wheel assembly had left the car. It dumped the Ferrari heavily into the barriers past the small run-off area, but thankfully Rubens was okay.

The great result for Fernando Alonso was that the Safety Car was not brought out, despite debris littering the track and the car was recovered under double waved yellows.

If Montoya's first pit-stop was good to get past Schumi, his second was fantastic. When the cars started their second round of pit-stops Juan-Pablo was being held up by Jarno Trulli holding 4th place. After Trulli and Webber had gone in for their second stops the Colombian put the hammer down with some Fastest Laps and emerged from his second pit-stop in front of them both.

During Juan-Pablo's harrying of Jarno Trulli, Michael Schumacher closed up on them, while his brother stole up on the Ferrari's gearbox.

Several times Juan-Pablo had a look down the inside of the Renault going into Turn 1, but he was never close enough to make a clean pass. The one time he looked to have got enough of his FW25 inside the Renault, on lap 29, Michael Schumacher stayed back, expecting to capitalize on any contact the two cars might make.

Trulli brutally chopped across the nose of the Williams and Montoya had to put his wheels up on the kerb to keep his car in one piece. Schumacher was watching the outcome of all this and clearly wasn't expecting his brother to come steaming up the inside and effectively left the door wide open.

After Ralf's second pit-stop he'd leapfrogged Jarno Trulli, but his brother didn't make it past. Michael needed a Ferrari re-start, which gave him a 10+ second pit-stop, so when he rejoined the track he was still behind Jarno.

Worse, when an out-of-sequence David Coulthard eventually stopped for his second and final time, he came out right behind Trulli and right in front of Schumi and so the Ferrari had to trail behind the heavily-fuelled Mclaren till his third and final stop.

After the second round of pit-stops (for the three-stoppers) it was Alonso, from Raikkonen and Montoya, Coulthard (yet to stop), Webber, Ralf Schumacher, Trulli and Michael Schumacher in P8.

The race order was virtually decided. Ralf Schumacher dived past Mark Webber into Turn 1 on Lap 45 and set off towards his team-mate. His team-mate duly gave all BMW-Williams fans a scare by spinning his car with eight laps to go.

Luckily for Juan he hit nothing and even kept the Williams out of the gravel, continuing with Ralf right on his gearbox till the end of the race.

Coulthard, though he'd dropped to seventh after his second and final pit-stop, took 5th place off Webber after the Jaguar driver, plus Trulli and Schumi, stopped for a third time.

In the closing stages Michael Schumacher put Jarno Trulli under as much pressure as he could but he couldn't force a mistake out of the (increasingly tougher) Renault driver to grab 7th and had to be content with P8.

Fernando Alonso was never under pressure for the lead and almost scored a lights-to-flag victory, with Raikkonen leading for just a couple of tours. His error-free race win made him the youngest ever GP winner, the first ever Spanish race winner and represented Renault's first GP win for 20 years.

It's been a long time since Flavio Briatore has been up on the podium representing the winning constructor in a race, but it looked like tonight he was going to enjoy himself.

The Drivers' title has three drivers within two point of each other. Now it really is Game On.


Result of the Hungarian Grand Prix held on August 24th. 2003

Posn.DriverTeam TyresTime
1.ALONSORenaultM1h39'01"460
2.RAIKKONENMcLaren MercedesM+ 0'16"700
3.MONTOYAWilliams BMWM+ 0'34"500
4.R.SCHUMACHERWilliams BMWM+ 0'35"600
5.COULTHARDMcLaren MercedesM+ 0'56"500
6.WEBBERJaguar CosworthM+ 1'12"600
7.TRULLIRenaultM1 lap
8.M.SCHUMACHERFerrariB1 lap
9.HEIDFELDSauber PetronasB1 lap
10.BUTTONBAR HondaB1 lap
11.DA MATTAToyotaM2 laps
12.VERSTAPPENMinardi CosworthB3 laps
13.KEISAMinardi CosworthB4 laps
14.FRENTZENSauber PetronasB23 laps
15.WILSONJaguar CosworthM28 laps
16.BAUMGARTNERJordan FordB36 laps
17.PANISToyotaM37 laps
18.FISICHELLAJordan FordB42 laps
19.BARRICHELLOFerrariB51 laps
20.VILLENEUVEBAR HondaB58 laps


GERMAN GRAND PRIX King Ralf Conquers Europe 3/08/03 German Grand prix held at Hockenheim on August 3rd 2003

Coultard - German Grand Prix

Ralf Schumacher has done what he failed to do in Canada two weeks ago, he overtook his brother and won a race for BMW-Williams.

It was a controversial race with Ralf's BMW-Williams team-mate, Juan-Pablo Montoya, coming home in second place after putting one of the overtaking moves of the season on Michael Schumacher.

On Lap 43, the Ferrari of the World Champion looked to be slowing and Montoya was reeling him in very quickly. Coming down to the Dunlop Chicane Montoya drove round the outside of the Ferrari leaving just enough room on the inside.

But Schumacher's Ferrari understeered away from the apex of the corner and collided with the Colombian. It was similar to the race incident in Malaysia in 2002, when Montoya overtook on the outside only to be struck by Schumacher. Schumacher spun and beached his car dropping him to sixth place as Montoya continued unchecked.

Even though radio and TV race commentators called it a superb move race stewards decided to investigate it and afterwards Ferrari's usually unflappable technical director, Ross Brawn, accused Montoya of risking both cars in the incident. "He's not a very classy driver," he said.

Adding to the contoversy, Schumacher - who'd beached his car on the kerb in the incident - beckoned for several seconds for marshals to give him a push off it, even though the recovery tractor had been dispatched. It also appeared that a race fan ran onto the circuit to help get Schumacher's car going again.

However the biggest loser of the afternoon was Kimi Raikkonen who led the race till after the first pit-stops and would have recorded his second GP win had his engine not expired on lap 25.

Rubens Barrichello came home in third place for Ferrari with Renault's Fernando Alonso fourth and a recovering Michael Schumacher in fifth place.

The race got underway in cloudy bright conditions with an ambient temperature of 27C, not quite reaching the 30C that had been predicted the day before.

Kimi Raikkonen made good use of his first ever pole position and blasted away into the lead, behind, Michael Schumacher started to put one of his (rarerly seen these days) Schumi chops on his brother, but Ralf was already alongside him and past into Turn One.

It was a historic moment, Ralf had finally got past his brother on the track and not in the pits.

The much-expected midfield carnage further back didn't happen, though, as the entire field negotiated the first turn without incident. Juan-Pablo Montoya lost position to Rubens Barrichello who had a great getaway but he managed somehow to resist the fast-starting Renaults.

So at the end of the first lap the order was Raikkonen, Ralf Schumacher, Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello, Juan Montoya, followed by Jarno Trulli, Fernando Alonso and Olivier Panis in eighth place. Coulthard had gained nothing off the line and was still back in 9th.

Raikkonen set about building a big lead in front of an appreciative grandstand full of Mercedes staff. By Lap Seven Kimi had a six second lead and looked to be romping away with it. Further back, Ralf, after coming under pressure from his brother early on, began to ease away from the Ferrari.

The only dicing going on was at the back after Jacques Villeneuve had lost places at the start. He carved his way past Wilson and Verstappen only to lose it in Turn Two and have to repeat the process all over again.

Though it had been anticipated that the Mclarens had more fuel than anyone else on board, they stopped as early as Lap 16, along with Ferrari – Raikkonen and Schumacher coming in together - while Ralf waited as long as lap 21 before pitting. Had he been lighter-fuelled than the other two, then he would have undoubtedly taken his third successive pole on Saturday.

When Ralf rejoined and the pit-stops shaken out, the order at the front hadn't changed, but the younger Schumacher had closed the gap on Raikkonen to four seconds.

On lap 25, the crowd suddenly erupted with applause, cheers and air horns as Raikkonen's (German) engine suddenly produced a terminal blast of thick white smoke and he parked the car at the side of the track. It was cruel luck and very bad news for the Mercedes grandstand as all of a sudden the Finn's title challenge looked to have taken a deathly blow.

Michael Schumacher was poised to put another 8 – perhaps 10 even – points between them in the title race.

Further back down the field Coulthard had got past Olvier Panis when the Frenchman spun his car going into Turn one. Toyota, like Mercedes had a huge contingent from their Cologne factory at the circuit and it was not a great afternoon for them either.

Panis recovered to pressure Jenson Button for 8th place and then did exactly the same thing all over again. This time his car spun to a stop in Turn One and though it was in the run-off zone for the corner, it was removed by a tractor under double-waved yellows. Later on, Cristiano da Matta's engine blew up to hand team-boss Over Andersson an afternoon he will very much want to forget.

Michael Schumacher, running second, came in at the end of his 35th lap for an early second pit-stop and exited behind the battle DC was having with the two Renaults, Trulli and Alonso. This wasn't good new for the Ferrari team because Coulthard was running a second slower than leader Ralf Schumacher and it looked like Ralf would now put an unbeatable distance between himself and Michael.

But when it became clear that the Ferrari was having trouble just hanging onto the back of Coulthard then Ralf's win looked to be in the bag (subject to reliability).

Juan-Pablo Montoya, who'd managed to jump past Rubens Barrichello during his second pit-stop by staying out longer, was closing rapidly on the World Champion now. And on Lap 43 he chose the most unlikely place to get past him.

Instead of waiting till the start/finish straight Montoya attacked round the outside of the Dunlop Chicane. Martin Brundle described it as, "One of the great overtaking moves" and Radio 5 commentator Maurice Hamilton reckoned the Colombian left Schumacher a car's width plus half a metre. That didn't prove enough.

Round Schumacher's car gyrated leaving him perched on the outside of the kerb with his wheels spinning in the gravel. He had the engine going, but couldn't get any traction. Frantically he waved towards the marshals gesturing that he wanted a push. However, just as in Panis's accident, the tractor came out to recover the car under waved yellows. Schumacher would not get out of his car, though and gestured that he wanted a push. Three marshals and what looked to be a fan (but could possibly have been the tractor driver) in T-shirt and shorts arrived on the scene and pushed him back into the race.

By then he'd slumped to sixth place.

The drama in the closing stages was supplied by David Coulthard. Jarno Trulli's Renault had given up the ghost and DC was all over the back of Fernando Alonso, who clearly had a problem of some kind. After a number of abortive attempts Coulthard made to overtake him under braking for the NGK chicane on Lap 57.

Just as he jinked to the inside Alonso jinked to the inside at the same time and hit the brakes. Coulthard had to take rapid avoiding action and slewed his car to the outside and bounced spectacularly sideways through the gravel his car launching into the air up the hill.

Had it been a deliberate blocking move then it was extremely dangerous and risked the Mclaren steaming right into the back of the Renault.

Alonso hung on to 4th place and almost caused another accident at the final Coca Cola turn when he looked to brake in the middle of the corner to keep a hard-charging Michael Schumacher behind him. Schumi almost stole 4th place, emphasizing yet again his capacity for great recoveries.

The Ferrari driver took 5th place and four valuable points to take him past the magic 1000 World Championship points career total, but his 50th Ferrari race win will have to wait.

It was a great win for the BMW-Williams team who said before the race that the challenge of the circuit would show them just how far they'd come with the FW25. Now it looks like they can be serious challengers for an ever more open title race.


Result of the German Grand Prix held at Hockenheim on August 3rd. 2003

Posn.DriverTeam TyresTime
1.R.SCHUMACHERWilliams BMWM1h34'43"622
2.MONTOYAWilliams BMWM+ 0'16"821
3.BARRICHELLOFerrariB+ 0'39"673
4.ALONSORenaultM+ 1'05"731
5.M.SCHUMACHERFerrariB+ 1'06"162
6.WEBBERJaguar CosworthM1 lap
7.BUTTONBAR HondaB1 lap
8.HEIDFELDSauber PetronasB1 lap
9.FRENTZENSauber PetronasB1 lap
10.PIZZONIAJaguar CosworthM1 lap
11.FIRMANJordan FordB2 laps
12.FISICHELLAJordan FordB2 laps
13.WILSONMinardi CosworthB2 laps
14.VERSTAPPENMinardi CosworthB3 laps
15.COULTHARDMcLaren MercedesM4 laps
16.DA MATTAToyotaM7 laps
17.VILLENEUVEBAR HondaB9 laps
18.TRULLIRenaultM23 laps
19.PANISToyotaM23 laps
20.RAIKKONENMcLaren MercedesM35 laps


British GP: Rubens Wins 2nd Spectator Interrupted Race British Grand prix held at Silverstone on July 20th 2003

Rubens Barichello

Rubens Barrichello has won Sunday's British Grand Prix, clinching his first victory of the season, in a grand prix that saw more overtaking than the rest of the season put together.

The Brazilian finished ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya and Kimi Raikkonen, however, the race was disrupted early on by a crazed, religious prankster who walked across the Hangar Straight in a bid for publicity.

Exactly the same thing had happened at Hockenheim in the 2000 season, when a disgruntled French Mercedes worker had sent out the Safety Car and Rubens went on to win the race. This time, however, there was no element of fortune in the result, because Barrichello looked the fastest man on the track.

It was a race full of incident with a Safety Car deployed after just the fifth lap when David Coulthard's head-rest assembly came away from his car and landed on the racing line through Copse corner. The second Safety Car, brought out to recover the spectator, sent all the teams in for their first scheduled pit-stops at once and when they re-assembled behind the Safety Car, Michael Schumacher had slipped down to 14th place.

It was an afternoon of fantastic wheel-to-wheel battles right the way down the grid, with aggressive-but-fair overtaking manouevres throughout the race. The only real moment of controversy happened on the opening lap when Michael Schumacher squeezed the Renault of Fernando Alonso so hard that he put him onto the grass on the inside of Stowe corner.

Schumacher, in a car that clearly looked quicker than the rest, patiently picked his way though the field and recovered to fourth place by the end of the 60 laps.

The race started in bright conditions with Rubens Barrichello, unused to starting from pole, allowing Jarno Trulli to lag back before he took up his position at P2 on the grid. Consequently the No.2 Ferrari's tyres had cooled by the time the lights went out and Rubens was slow away.

Trulli was immediately past him and Raikkonen too. Further back, Michael Schumacher tried to put his brother under pressure into Copse corner but Ralf toughed it out and kept 4th place. Copse is a 190mph corner and only a place for the bravest of the brave overtaking manouevres.

Coming down the Hangar Straight Alonso, who'd had a demon start to grab sixth place, was right on the tail of Michael Schumacher and as he jinked to the inside, so Michael moved over to block him, Alonso kept on going, and then so did Michael.

In fact the World Champion moved so far over that there wasn't even a car's width left and Alonso had to take to the grass. Luckily he kept control of the car, but he was so slowed by the shallow entry to Stowe that the following Montoya was easily past the Renault before the Vale complex.

At the end of the opening lap it was Trulli from Raikkonen, a rapidly recovering Barrichello, Ralf Schumacher, Michael Schumacher, Juan Montoya, Fernando Alonso and Cristiana da Matta.

Jenson Button started off from 20th on the grid and had hauled himself up to 15th on the opening lap, David Coulthard started from 12th and was up to 9th.

As the race started to settle into a pattern after the opening five laps it was suddenly closed up again by debris on the exit of Copse corner. David Coulthard's McLaren had shed the head-rest assembly in a moment not seen in F1 before.

The unfortunate Scot had to pit and rejoin at the back, though the presence of the Safety Car meant his loss of time wasn't too disastrous. Jordan used the opportunity to pit Ralph Firman, which became a huge advantage a handful of laps later.

When the race re-started Juan Pablo Montoya closed right up on 5th place Michael Schumacher but Copse was not the place to have a go at a driver with the World Champion's experience and Juan subsequently dropped back.

The man setting fastest laps was Rubens Barrichello, who throughout the day looked to be ‘on a mission' and possibly ‘on a mission to save his Ferrari drive'. On Lap 11 he forced Raikkonen to run wide in the Vale chicane and passed him round the outside into the Abbey chicane. Rubens was up into P2.

But as they came round for Lap 12, there was a man seemingly in fancy dress wandering down the Hangar Straight holding a small banner. That part of the track has the fewest spectators but it was extremely worrying that he'd got through the perimiter fence.

Immediately race control put out a Safety Car and the race was thrown into confusion as all the teams looked to make their first pit-stops. They were prepared to queue their cars in pitlane rather than let them run another lap. Unluckily for the World Champion, Rubens Barrichello got to the Ferrari pits first and so Michael Schumacher had to wait behind him.

When he rejoined, he was not only behind a lot of cars who'd stopped at the same time, he was also behind drivers like da Matta and Firman who stopped after the first Safety Car.

As the race was due to be restarted we had the following unlikely order: Da Matta led from Panis, Coulthard was third, then Trulli, Raikkonen, Ralf Schumacher, Firman and Barrichello in 8th.

Big losers had been the second placed men in each team, so Montoya (12th), Alonso (13th) Schumacher (14th) and Button(18th) had all gone backwards.

After the re-start on Lap 14 Kimi Raikkonen looked like a man on a mission and picked off Trulli, Coulthard and Panis virtually in successive laps. At this time he was second while his main Championship rival Michael Schumacher was back in 14th and stuck firmly behind Fernando Alonso.

Rubens Barrichello also began to start picking his way through as the natural order in F1 began to re-assert itself. Right the way through the field there were overtaking moves for virtually every position. Unlike almost any other circuit Silverstone provides overtaking places in five or six places and they were all used in the 2003 British GP.

On Lap 19, though, Ralf Schumacher, who'd been falling back, dived into the pits for an unscheduled pit-stop. He'd bounced the kerbs too hard, broken a ‘turning vane' (or bargeboard) and it had dropped into his radiator pod sending the water temperatures soaring.

He rejoined in 20th place and made little progress for the rest of the race.

Rubens made his way through to second place and Montoya also gradually chipped away at the field. While they were moving forwards, Trulli's Renault was moving backwards.

Michael Schumacher was temporarily stuck in a BAR-Honda sandwich and some feisty (but fair) resistance from Jacques temporarily delayed his move up the field. Once Schumi had got past, Jacques also tried a blocking move on his team-mate Jenson Button into Bridge for good measure. Thankfully Jenson saw it coming and there was no coming together.

The Toyotas, on a three-stop strategy, departed from their positions at the front of the race and by Lap 32 we had the podium places – but not in their correct order. Raikkonen led a fast closing Barrichello by nine seconds with Juan Montoya three seconds further back in third.

Raikkonen pitted for his second and final pit-stop much earlier than Rubens, and when he came out again Rubens was putting the hammer down with fastest laps (and a new lap record to boot). It seemed as though Rubens wouldn't need to get ahead of Raikkonen on the road he could do it in the pit-stops.

But the Ferrari driver emerged behind the McLaren, though given the pace at which he caught him, coupled with the mood Rubens had been in all afternoon, few spectators thought P1 was beyond him at this stage.

Rubens duly passed Raikkonen and after forcing Kimi to take a defensive line through the Abbey chicane, they went side by side through Bridge (very reminiscent of Montoya and Raikkonen at last year's German GP) and Rubens was past.

Only mechanical failure looked likely to rob Rubens of victory but his F2003GA carried on to the flag. Excitement in the latter part of the race was provided by David Coulthard in the Mclaren who'd been forced into three pit-stops by his fifth lap bodywork incident.

He passed da Matta comfortably and then fought it out wheel to wheel with Jarno Trulli. The hard-charging Jenson Button won BAR-Honda team honours by getting in front of Jacques Villeneuve and then closed on da Matta. He couldn't get past and had to settle for 8th.

Michael Schumacher worked his way through to what will be a relieved fourth place, while Raikkonen threw away 2nd by running wide onto the grass at Stowe and letting Montoya cruise past. So at the finish, the men who'd been separated by twelve places at one point, were next to each other in 3rd and 4th.

The intervention of the spectator had shuffled the F1 pack far more effectively than any rules change and we'd had a grand prix to remember, thanks to a circuit that provided real overtaking opportunities. The fact that the Silverstone race is under threat should be put to the F1 fans' vote.

Do we want races like this, with so many overtaking moves it was hard to remember them, or races like Magny Cours where the press centre is, apparently, so much better…?

British GP: So, How Did The Nutter Get Onto The Track...? 20/07/03 Huw Alban analyses how a spectator could gain access to the Hangar Straight.

As Planet-F1's F1 test reporter from Silverstone, I am well versed in the access arrangements at the circuit, having attended virtually every F1 test there in the last four years.

Along the length of the Hangar straight is the old style 2 meter fencing, with a 'V' shaped pattern at the top. Along the length of this fence are access gates (sometimes used by media at F1 tests) through which the race marshals gain access to the track. Once through one of these gates you step out onto a narrow strip of grass, just behind a 1 meter high concrete slab wall.

To control spectators and keep them behind the spectator barrier, the circuit had employed a large number of spectator marshals who were situated all around the track and located in between the main debris fence and the spectator barrier. Roughly speaking today those marshals were about 50-100 meters apart. In addition there are of the orange-suited trackside marshals who are situated at strategic positions around the circuit, in between the track wall and the debris fence.

Today, the race was in full flow when the 'spectator incident' took place. Everyone was on their feet watching a fantastic show of overtaking at almost every corner. No doubt a measure of that enthusiasm could also be attributed to the spectator marshals (who would blame them) and it would be child's play to nip under the spectator barrier, dash the meter or so to the debris fence, out through one of those access gates, jump down from the grass strip and out onto the circuit.

In fairness to Silverstone, the marshal that collared this individual did a very good job, and the circuit received a large compliment from Mclaren's David Coulthard during an interview for the circuit's radio station. "They couldn't have done a better job," he said.

The 3 meter high fencing, designed to stop cars entering spectator areas, has recently been installed at the Chapel curve, and covers most of Club corner - however, those access gates are still there. In future, the extension of 3-metre fencing and some extra marshals on race day to man the gates and access points, should be able to close any security loopholes.

Result of the British Grand Prix held at Silverstone on July 20th 2003

Posn.DriverTeam TyresTime
1.BARRICHELLOFerrariB1h28'34"554
2.MONTOYAWilliams BMWM+ 0'05"400
3.RAIKKONENMcLaren MercedesM+ 0'10"600
4.M.SCHUMACHERFerrariB+ 0'19"568
5.COULTHARDMcLaren MercedesM+ 0'36"800
6.TRULLIRenaultM+ 0'43"000
7.DA MATTAToyotaM+ 0'45"000
8.BUTTONBAR HondaB+ 0'45"400
9.R.SCHUMACHERWilliams BMWM+ 0'58"000
10.VILLENEUVEBAR HondaB+ 1'03"500
11.PANISToyotaM+ 1'05"200
12.FRENTZENSauber PetronasB+ 1'05"500
13.FIRMANJordan FordB1 lap
14.WEBBERJaguar CosworthM1 lap
15.VERSTAPPENMinardi CosworthB2 laps
16.WILSONMinardi CosworthB2 laps
17.HEIDFELDSauber PetronasB2 laps
18.ALONSORenaultM8 laps
19.FISICHELLAJordan FordB16 laps
20.PIZZONIAJaguar CosworthM28 laps


French Grand Prix Report: Ralf Leads From Pole To Flag FRENCH GRAND PRIX held at Magny-Cours on July 6th 2003

the start of the French grand prix

Ralf Schumacher clinched his second successive win of the season at Sunday's French Grand Prix.

The expected charge from Ferrari's Michael Schumacher failed to materialise - as the cars left the line, the World Champion was lucky to hang onto fourth place by the end of the first lap.

Ralf drove away from the rest of the field and the only realistic threat came from BMW-Williams team-mate Juan-Pablo Montoya, who finished the race second to give the team their first 1-2 in France since Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve did it in 1996 (a year when they won the drivers' and constructors' titles).

Michael Schumacher dropped behind both Mclarens during the race, but a disastrous refuelling incident for David Coulthard and a slow five laps from Kimi Raikkonen enabled the king of strategy to jump from 5th to 3rd, a position he held to the finish.

Though the race was an absorbing strategy battle, there was little on-track overtaking. Renault had a dreadful afternoon at their home race, with both cars running into problems virtually on the same lap and retiring. That in a race which saw 16 cars finish.

Before the race got underway there was talk of Michael Schumacher taking off rear wing to make him fast through the first sector, and importantly the major overtaking point at Magny Cours into the Adelaide hairpin. But the World Champion was swallowed up by the McLarens as the lights went out and the BMW-Williams sprinted off to have a race of their own.

Michael Schumacher and David Coulthard headed into the Estroril turn together and with Schumacher on the outside it looked like he would soon be relegated to 5th place. But Schumi was on the racing line and had more traction, and was able to edge ahead. A lesser driver than Coulthard might have been tempted to run wide and put pressure on the World Champion, but a 170mph curve is not really the place for that kind of move and Michael was able to get to the Adelaide turn in front.

Already the World Champion's race looked compromised but not as much as team-mate Rubens Barrichello's. Rubens spun the second Ferrari at the final chicane at the end of the first lap and rejoined the race in last place. Barrichello, unlike all the other top runners, had gone for a two-stop strategy, but he was destined for a long, slow fight up the field picking off cars as they pitted for tyres and fuel.

So at the end of the first lap it was Ralf Schumacher from Juan Montoya, Raikkonen, Michael Schumacher, Coulthard, Trulli (who'd tried to get past DC into Adelaide but ran wide), Alonso and Barrichello in 8th place.

By Lap 8 Ralf had pulled out a four second gap over Montoya and after the first pit-stops it was up to seven seconds thanks to a stuck wheel nut on Juan-Pablo's car.

Unusually, at the start of the race Michael Schumacher looked sluggish and his F2003-GA was holding up a train of David Coulthard and the two Renaults before the first stops. After Mclaren's first stop Coulthard managed to get out in front of the World Champion and gradually edge out a gap. At that stage, it looked pretty bleak for Ferrari, and that the two Renaults might also leapfrog him and relegate him to 7th place.

As it happened, the Renaults fell back and a re-invigorated Schumacher was not far from Coulthard when he came in for his third and final pit-stop on lap 49. By that time Fernando Alonso's had blown up and Jarno Trulli's car slowed and parked with an engine gremlin - not great news at their home race in front of 2,500 Renault personnel.

Coulthard stopped his McLaren, but the first refuelling rig would not work and the team had to return it and make a grab for the back-up. But an agitated Lollypop man raised the lollypop a fraction too early, DC's reaction was instant and the second rig wasn't clear of the car's bodywork as he accelerated away. The refueller tumbled to the floor as Coulthard slammed on the brakes, before being shooed out of his box. "I'm going to give him a bollocking," DC joked after he knew he wasn't injured, "he fell over and broke my front winglet!"

The 16-second pit-stop promoted Schumi to 4th. McLaren had run shorter than Ferrari and though there were no problems during Raikkonen's final pit-stop, Schumacher was able to stop five laps later, five laps in which he put in some very fast times. After Michael's final pit-stop he exited ahead of Raikkonen and 3rd place was his.

Ahead of him the two BMW-Williams were getting closer and closer together. Juan Montoya stopped earlier than Ralf for his final pit-stop and put in some fast laps just as Ralf hit traffic. Seeing that he might be leapfrogged during his third pit-stop Ralf radioed the team to come in a lap earlier. It was a good call and he exited the pitlane only a second ahead of Montoya.

Juan then faded backwards leaving Ralf to survive a small moment on Lap 66 when he lost concentration and ran too deep into the Chateau d'Eau corner and almost off the track. Michael was closing on Montoya at the finish while Raikkonen had slipped a long way back with his lap times varying by as much as four seconds. Coulthard, despite the missing winglet, finished fifth a long way clear of Mark Webber in 6th, a recovering Rubens Barrichello in 7th and Olivier Panis in 8th.

The race may have lacked the excitement of the wheel to wheel racing seen at the Nurburgring, but the result has put Williams in a strong position in the World Championship titles. Ralf was 14-1 to be World Champion before the race, the odds will be shorter on Sunday night.

Result of the French Grand Prix held at Magny-Cours on July 6th 2003

Posn.DriverTeam TyresTime
1.R.SCHUMACHERWilliams BMWM1h30'49"213
2.MONTOYAWilliams BMWM+ 0'13"813
3.M.SCHUMACHERFerrariB+ 0'19"568
4.RAIKKONENMcLaren MercedesM+ 0'38"047
5.COULTHARDMcLaren MercedesM+ 0'40"289
6.WEBBERJaguar CosworthM+ 1'06"380
7.BARRICHELLOFerrariB1 lap
8.PANISToyotaM1 lap
9.VILLENEUVEBAR HondaB1 lap
10.PIZZONIAJaguar CosworthM1 lap
11.DA MATTAToyotaM1 lap
12FRENTZENSauber PetronasB2 laps
13.HEIDFELDSauber PetronasB2 laps
14.WILSONMinardi CosworthB3 laps
15.FIRMANJordan FordB3 laps
16.VERSTAPPENMinardi CosworthB4 laps
17.TRULLIRenaultM25 laps
18.ALONSORenaultM27 laps
19.FISICHELLAJordan FordB28 laps
20.BUTTONBAR HondaB49 laps


King Ralf Conquers Europe EUROPEAN GRAND PRIX held at the Nurburgring on 29th June 2003

the start of the European grand prix

Ralf Schumacher has done what he failed to do in Canada two weeks ago, he overtook his brother and won a race for BMW-Williams.

It was a controversial race with Ralf's BMW-Williams team-mate, Juan-Pablo Montoya, coming home in second place after putting one of the overtaking moves of the season on Michael Schumacher.

On Lap 43, the Ferrari of the World Champion looked to be slowing and Montoya was reeling him in very quickly. Coming down to the Dunlop Chicane Montoya drove round the outside of the Ferrari leaving just enough room on the inside.

But Schumacher's Ferrari understeered away from the apex of the corner and collided with the Colombian. It was similar to the race incident in Malaysia in 2002, when Montoya overtook on the outside only to be struck by Schumacher. Schumacher spun and beached his car dropping him to sixth place as Montoya continued unchecked.

Even though radio and TV race commentators called it a superb move race stewards decided to investigate it and afterwards Ferrari's usually unflappable technical director, Ross Brawn, accused Montoya of risking both cars in the incident. "He's not a very classy driver," he said.

Adding to the contoversy, Schumacher - who'd beached his car on the kerb in the incident - beckoned for several seconds for marshals to give him a push off it, even though the recovery tractor had been dispatched. It also appeared that a race fan ran onto the circuit to help get Schumacher's car going again.

However the biggest loser of the afternoon was Kimi Raikkonen who led the race till after the first pit-stops and would have recorded his second GP win had his engine not expired on lap 25.

Rubens Barrichello came home in third place for Ferrari with Renault's Fernando Alonso fourth and a recovering Michael Schumacher in fifth place.

The race got underway in cloudy bright conditions with an ambient temperature of 27C, not quite reaching the 30C that had been predicted the day before.

Kimi Raikkonen made good use of his furst ever pole position and blasted away into the lead, behind, Michael Schumacher started to put one of his (rarerly seen these days) Schumi chops on his brother, but Ralf was already alongside him and past into Turn One.

It was a historic moment, Ralf had finally got past his brother on the track and not in the pits.

The much-expected midfield carnage further back didn't happen, though, as the entire field negotiated the first turn without incident. Juan-Pablo Montoya lost position to Rubens Barrichello who had a great getaway but he managed somehow to resist the fast-starting Renaults.

So at the end of the first lap the order was Raikkonen, Ralf Schumacher, Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello, Juan Montoya, followed by Jarno Trulli, Fernando Alonso and Olivier Panis in eighth place. Coulthard had gained nothing off the line and was still back in 9th.

Raikkonen set about building a big lead in front of an appreciative grandstand full of Mercedes staff. By Lap Seven Kimi had a six second lead and looked to be romping away with it. Further back, Ralf, after coming under pressure from his brother early on, began to ease away from the Ferrari.

The only dicing going on was at the back after Jacques Villeneuve had lost places at the start. He carved his way past Wilson and Verstappen only to lose it in Turn Two and have to repeat the process all over again.

Though it had been anticipated that the Mclarens had more fuel than anyone else on board, they stopped as early as Lap 16, along with Ferrari – Raikkonen and Schumacher coming in together - while Ralf waited as long as lap 21 before pitting. Had he been lighter-fuelled than the other two, then he would have undoubtedly taken his third successive pole on Saturday.

When Ralf rejoined and the pit-stops shaken out, the order at the front hadn't changed, but the younger Schumacher had closed the gap on Raikkonen to four seconds.

On lap 25, the crowd suddenly erupted with applause, cheers and air horns as Raikkonen's (German) engine suddenly produced a terminal blast of thick white smoke and he parked the car at the side of the track. It was cruel luck and very bad news for the Mercedes grandstand as all of a sudden the Finn's title challenge looked to have taken a deathly blow.

Michael Schumacher was poised to put another 8 – perhaps 10 even – points between them in the title race.

Further back down the field Coulthard had got past Olvier Panis when the Frenchman spun his car going into Turn one. Toyota, like Mercedes had a huge contingent from their Cologne factory at the circuit and it was not a great afternoon for them either.

Panis recovered to pressure Jenson Button for 8th place and then did exactly the same thing all over again. This time his car spun to a stop in Turn One and though it was in the run-off zone for the corner, it was removed by a tractor under double-waved yellows. Later on, Cristiano da Matta's engine blew up to hand team-boss Over Andersson an afternoon he will very much want to forget.

Michael Schumacher, running second, came in at the end of his 35th lap for an early second pit-stop and exited behind the battle DC was having with the two Renaults, Trulli and Alonso. This wasn't good new for the Ferrari team because Coulthard was running a second slower than leader Ralf Schumacher and it looked like Ralf would now put an unbeatable distance between himself and Michael.

But when it became clear that the Ferrari was having trouble just hanging onto the back of Coulthard then Ralf's win looked to be in the bag (subject to reliability).

Juan-Pablo Montoya, who'd managed to jump past Rubens Barrichello during his second pit-stop by staying out longer, was closing rapidly on the World Champion now. And on Lap 43 he chose the most unlikely place to get past him.

Instead of waiting till the start/finish straight Montoya attacked round the outside of the Dunlop Chicane. Martin Brundle described it as, "One of the great overtaking moves" and Radio 5 commentator Maurice Hamilton reckoned the Colombian left Schumacher a car's width plus half a metre. That didn't prove enough.

Round Schumacher's car gyrated leaving him perched on the outside of the kerb with his wheels spinning in the gravel. He had the engine going, but couldn't get any traction. Frantically he waved towards the marshals gesturing that he wanted a push. However, just as in Panis's accident, the tractor came out to recover the car under waved yellows. Schumacher would not get out of his car, though and gestured that he wanted a push. Three marshals and what looked to be a fan (but could possibly have been the tractor driver) in T-shirt and shorts arrived on the scene and pushed him back into the race.

By then he'd slumped to sixth place.

The drama in the closing stages was supplied by David Coulthard. Jarno Trulli's Renault had given up the ghost and DC was all over the back of Fernando Alonso, who clearly had a problem of some kind. After a number of abortive attempts Coulthard made to overtake him under braking for the NGK chicane on Lap 57.

Just as he jinked to the inside Alonso jinked to the inside at the same time and hit the brakes. Coulthard had to take rapid avoiding action and slewed his car to the outside and bounced spectacularly sideways through the gravel his car launching into the air up the hill.

Had it been a deliberate blocking move then it was extremely dangerous and risked the Mclaren steaming right into the back of the Renault.

Alonso hung on to 4th place and almost caused another accident at the final Coca Cola turn when he looked to brake in the middle of the corner to keep a hard-charging Michael Schumacher behind him. Schumi almost stole 4th place, emphasizing yet again his capacity for great recoveries.

The Ferrari driver took 5th place and four valuable points to take him past the magic 1000 World Championship points career total, but his 50th Ferrari race win will have to wait.

It was a great win for the BMW-Williams team who said before the race that the challenge of the circuit would show them just how far they'd come with the FW25. Now it looks like they can be serious challengers for an ever more open title race.

Result of the European Grand Prix held at the Nurburgring on June 29th 2003

Posn.DriverTeam TyresTimeComment
1.R.SCHUMACHERWilliams BMWM1h34'43"622
2.MONTOYAWilliams BMWM+ 0'16"821
3.BARRICHELLOFerrariB+ 0'39"673
4.ALONSORenaultM+ 1'05"731
5.M.SCHUMACHERFerrariB+ 1'06"162
6.WEBBERJaguar CosworthM1 lap
7.BUTTONBAR HondaB1 lap
8.HEIDFELDSauber PetronasB1 lap
9.FRENTZENSauber PetronasB1 lap
10.PIZZONIAJaguar CosworthM1 lap
11.FIRMANJordan FordB2 laps
12.FISICHELLAJordan FordB2 laps
13.WILSONMinardi CosworthB2 laps
14.VERSTAPPENMinardi CosworthB3 laps
15.COULTHARDMcLaren MercedesM4 laps
16.DA MATTAToyotaM7 lapsRetired: Engine
17.VILLENEUVEBAR HondaB9 lapsRetired: Gearbox
18.TRULLIRenaultM23 lapsRetired: Fuel pressure
19.PANISToyotaM23 lapsRetired: Brakes/spun off
20.RAIKKONENMcLaren MercedesM35 lapsRetired: Engine


Williams: 'Juan Would Have Had A Bigger Go Than Ralf' Canadian Grand Prix June 16th 2003

the hairpin bend Michael supporting his team

Ralf Schumacher failure to even attempt to pass his brother Michael during Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix has not gone down favourably with his Williams' team boss who believes team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya would have at least had a go.

The younger of the two Schumacher brothers followed Michael around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve for almost 50 laps after losing the lead to the Ferrari driver in the first round of pit stops. Although Ralf was often less than a second behind Michael, who had brake problems, he made no attempts to take the lead.

Adding to Williams' frustration was the fact that team-mate Montoya caught up to the pair in the closing laps of the race but could not get passed Ralf to have a go at overtaking Michael.

Sir Frank told Reuters: "I've got to be careful what I say, but possibly to probably Juan would have had a bigger go. But I'm not so sure that he could have got close enough to have a go."

Technical director Patrick Head also believes that Montoya could have given Michael a better fight for the victory. He told ITV: "With the terminal speed and power of the Ferrari and its traction out of the last corner, presumably there was just no way past."

"It was a bit frustrating to finish second because one has got to remember that at the end on the first lap we were lying first and second, but one driver lost it at the chicane [Montoya] and lost 10 seconds."

"But I think one has to suspect that Juan might have got very bored if he was sitting on the tail of another car for 40 laps, but I can't really make any view of that, I wasn't driving the car."

Ralf, however, says he did the best he could to try and win his first race of the season. He told the post-race press conference: "I was never close to even try, that's why I didn't."

"Maybe some might think again that I took it too easy but if there is no possibility I won't try it. There's eight points for the team and for me and for Juan as well so it was important for us to score points at the same time."

Down On Power Alonso Claims Fourth Canadian Grand Prix June 16th 2003
Fernando Alonso

The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve may be best suited to the cars with the more powerful engines, but that did little to stop Fernando Alonso from securing his seventh points-finish of the season and narrowly missing out on a podium finish.

The Renault driver began the race in fourth place alongside eventual race winner Michael Schumacher and managed to maintain the pace of the front-runners. Alonso in fact led the race on two occasions, and continued to up his pace throughout the race.

As the 70-lap race came to an end the Spaniard was lying in fourth place, just two seconds behind race winner Schumacher. Alonso earned him an additional five points towards his Championship campaign and remains in third place.

"I'm happy with the result, especially because I finished the race in the leading group. For the first time this year, we were really fighting for the win, and it was a good feeling!" he said.

"I lost some time during my first stint, but managed to catch it up again at the end, even though I could not get past the cars in front. It has been a very positive weekend, and I particularly want to thank the team because I didn't have a single problem with the car all weekend. We go to the next race in a strong position in the Constructors' and the Driver's Championships."

Team-mate Jarno Trulli did not fare as well adding another retirement to his list. The Italian's race was effectively ruined on the second lap when he was hit by the Jaguar of Antonio Pizzonia. Although Trulli continued to run he eventually retired on lap 26.

"To put it simply, nothing went right for me today. At the start I seemed to find a lot of traffic on the run to the first corner, then Pizzonia hit the rear of my car in the second hairpin on lap two, which punctured the tyre," he said.

"After that, I was having trouble controlling the car and I pitted a second time, where the team identified a broken left front wheel. When I got back out on the circuit, I spun on the exit of Turn 10 with a traction control problem, and then had to retire because of the damage sustained in the collision. To say it was a bad day for me would be quite an understatement."

Result of the Canadian Grand Prix on June 16th 2003
DriverPosn TimeTeamNotes
Michael Schumacher11 hr 31:13.59Ferrari
Ralf Schumacher2+ 00.78Williams
Juan Pablo Montoya3+ 01.35Williams
Fernando Alonso4+ 04.48Renault
Rubens Barrichello5+ 1:04.23Ferrari
Kimi Raikkonen6+ 1:10.50McLaren
Mark Webber7+ 1 lapsJaguar
Olivier Panis8+ 1 lapsToyota
Jos Verstappen9+ 2 lapsMinardi
Antonio Pizzonia10+ 4 lapsJaguar
Cristiano da Mattalap 65ToyotaRetired: Mechanical
Justin Wilsonlap 62MinardiRetired: Mechanical
Jenson Buttonlap 53BARRetired: Mechanical
David Coulthardlap 48McLarenRetired: Mechanical
Nick Heidfeldlap 47SauberRetired: Engine
Jarno Trullilap 25RenaultRetired: Mechanical
Giancarlo Fisichellalap 2JordanRetired: Mechanical
Ralph Firman Jr.lap 21JordanRetired: Mechanical
Jacques Villeneuvelap 17BARRetired: Brakes Failed
Heinz-Harald Frentzenlap 7SauberRetired: Mechanical

Schumi Admits Ferrari Got Strategy Wrong

the 'rascas' hairpin bend
not what it used to be
now much less sharp
but still a traffic jam a panorama round the swimming pool
showing many of the yachts in the harbour

Michael Schumacher may have finished Sunday's Monaco Grand Prix two places higher than he started, but the Ferrari driver admits his race strategy did not work out as planned.

Schumacher started the race from fifth place on the grid after qualifying with a heavy fuel load. However, this also meant four drivers were ahead of him, including Jarno Trulli.

The Renault driver couldn't match the pace set by the leading Williams duo and dropped back. And, as Schumacher could not find a way to pass Trulli, he too fell back.

It was not only Trulli, though, that prevented Schumacher from challenging for victory. The German concedes that his F2003-GA was not at its optimum during some parts of the 78-lap race.

"To go from fifth on the grid to third on the podium in Monaco is quite good. I could say that I might have been able to finish higher if I had not been stuck behind Trulli in the early stages, but our strategy was to go for a long first stint and that meant having more fuel, which is why I was behind him," Schumacher said. The World Champion now trails Kimi Raikkonen by four points in the Drivers' Championship.

"During some parts of the race I was not able to push as hard as I wanted as the overall package was not at its best at those times. I enjoyed the chase towards the end of the race and I pushed all the way to the flag, as I could see that the two in front were very close and there was always the chance they might make a mistake. We have seen again this weekend, as I have said before, that the competition is very close this year."

Team-mate Rubens Barrichello also finished the race in the points, claiming eighth place after an uneventful race. Like his team-mate, Barrichello also found himself behind slower cars as a result of his grid slot.

"I don't have much to say at the end of a race which can only be described as disappointing. Any time I was able to push to the maximum I came up behind traffic and so I never managed to get the best out of the car, which had great potential," he said.

"It is impossible to overtake on this track and, having lost a place at the start, I was unable to improve my situation."


Result of the Monaco grand prix on Sunday June 1st 2003

DriverPosn TimeTeamNotes
Juan Pablo Montoya11 hr 42:19.01Williams
Kimi Raikkonen2+ 00.60McLaren
Michael Schumacher3+ 01.70Ferrari
Ralf Schumacher4+ 28.50Williams
Fernando Alonso5+ 36.20Renault
Jarno Trulli6+ 40.90Renault
David Coulthard7+ 42.20McLaren
Rubens Barrichello8+ 53.20Ferrari
Cristiano da Matta9+ 1 lapToyota
Giancarlo Fisichella10+ 1 lapJordan
Nick Heidfeld11+ 2 lapsSauber
Ralph Firman Jr.12+ 2 lapsJordan
Olivier Panis13+ 4 lapsToyota
Jacques Villeneuvelap 64BARRetired: Engine
Justin Wilsonlap 34MinardiRetired: Fuel system
Jos Verstappenlap 34MinardiRetired: Fuel system
Mark Webberlap 17JaguarRetired: Engine
Antonio Pizzonialap 11JaguarRetired: Electrics
Heinz-Harald Frentzenlap 0SauberRetired: Hit barrier
Jenson Buttonlap 0BARRetired: DNQ:Accident in qualifying

Austrian GP Race Report: Schumi Sets Austria Alight - Sunday May 18th 2003

start of Austrian grand prix the winner Michael Schumacher had the greatest escape of his Formula 1 career in the Austrian GP when his car momentarily caught fire in the pitlane. Quick work by the Ferrari pitcrew put the fire out, but despite worries over the integrity of the car, he went on to claim an extraordinary race win. Schumi's flaming delay handed the advantage in the race to Juan-Pablo Montoya and it was only thanks to a blown engine on his BMW-Williams that Schumacher was able to go on and take the win. Throughout the pit-stop, coolhand Schu gazed in his mirrors impassively as the crew fought the flames, and once given the signal exited his pitbox. As pitlane fires go, it was nothing like the scale that engulfed his Benetton team-mate in 1994, but it still looked a race-ending incident.

Kimi Raikkonen was never in a position to challenge in his McLaren and just about held on to second place under intense pressure in the final few laps from Rubens Barrichello. Just off the podium, Jenson Button had his best race of the season while a patient David Coulthard picked his way through to 5th place.

The sense of tension at the start of the race was not helped by the Toyota of Cristiano da Matta stalling twice on the grid causing two aborted starts and three formation laps.

After the first abort he was sent to the back of the field, after the second, Heinz-Harald Frentzen's race car refused to start and he sped back to the Sauber pit to get into the T-car. With such a short lap in Austria and with the car set up for Nick Heidfeld, the race was already well under way before he could use it and he was out.

When the red light finally went out, there was a huge space on the left hand side of the grid left by missing cars, as both Alonso and Webber started their races from the pitlane.

Michael Schumacher had a faultless getaway as did Montoya and Barrichello, while it was Raikkonen in P2 who faltered. Unusually for Austria there was no argy bargy in either of the first two turns. Schumacher was cleanly into the lead, Montoya in second and Kimi Raikkonen had to adopt a defensive line to keep Barrichello behind him. Biggest winner on the opening lap was Antonio Pizzonia who jumped up to 6th place, the closest he'd get to the front of an F1 race in his career.

While the Michelin tyres were taking time to scrub in Schumacher shot off down the road establishing a clear gap early on, while Rubens Barrichello put Raikkonen under pressure for his third place.

Rubens was suffering from a bad cold all weekend, as was clear to see from the post race press conference, and though he's consistently quick in Austria, his physical condition clearly hampered him.

Jos Verstappen's Minardi had failed to get away cleanly from the line, the newly-installed launch control failing to work properly and his car came to rest on the inside of the track approaching turn one. For some reason – probably the quick lap time and the lack of free working time for the marshals - this necessitated the introduction of the Safety Car and so the queues formed up.

When the race got underway again on Lap 5, Schumacher sprinted off, though not at the same rate as before. Raikkonen seemed to be able to keep Barrichello at bay more easily now, too.

The complexion of the race threatened to change entirely on Lap 13 when a shower hit the track. Schumacher was suddenly lapping two seconds slower, and then four seconds slower. The Michelin dry weather tyres cope far better in these conditions than the Bridgestones and Montoya was able to close on Schumacher at three seconds a lap at one stage

Sadly for the neutrals and the Williams fans, the rain eased off as quickly as it had arrived and Montoya pitted three seconds behind Schumi.

Rubens Barrichello was the first of the Ferraris to pit and it was now the Scuderia's turn (after Williams in earlier races) to encounter problems with the fuel rigs. Both the No.1 and the back-up rig were brought forward to refuel Rubens and he was stationary for a far-too-long 19.7 seconds.

However a lap later the real drama unfolded. When Michael Schumacher came in the nozzle looked slow to be attached, then, as it was taken off after just five seconds of fuel flow, it dropped fuel onto the side of the Ferrari which caught alight.

How it caught alight is yet to be determined, but the flames licked the side pod of the F2003-GA as the nozzle was withdrawn, that itself spouting flames. Within seconds the flames had been doused by the pitcrew and an unmoved Schumacher had calmly driven away.

In all it took just 20 seconds, but now Montoya was ahead and faster on the road. Schumacher's strategy was compromised slightly by the lack of fuel in his car and Williams Chief Operations Engineer Sam Michael guessed correctly that he'd have to be back in on lap 41.

All of a sudden it looked like Montoya's race, but on lap 32 his BMW engine expired with what the team diagnosed as a water leak.

Raikkonen had the lead momentarily, but it didn't look like he had the pace to keep an increasingly confident Schumacher at bay. Schumi had been closing on Kimi after his pitstop and just as Montoya took to the side of the road with smoke billowing from his failed BMW, Schumi got past Raikkonen.

The only major questions to be answered – apart from the prospect of a late shower – were, had the car been wounded in some way and what would happen the next time they tried to use the refuelling rig?

Because Michael had been short fuelled the team couldn't even try it out on Barrichello first and so on lap 41 the Ferrari cruised into its box for what turned out to be a routine 12 second stop and no problems at all. With Michael now behind him on the road it was time for Kimi to get the hammer down before his final pit-stop, but he couldn't respond.

The only drama in the closing stages of the race was provided by Rubens Barrichello who charged up to the back of Raikkonen for the last seven laps intent on making it a Ferrari 1-2. And he all but did it. The F2003-GA was clearly a match for the McLaren, especially under braking, but Kimi could eke out just enough advantage down the straights and through the exits of turns.

Rubens got alongside Kimi at the exit of turn three and was almost three-quarters of a car length in front by the next turn, but any move across might have taken both cars off and so he let Raikkonen go. It was fair driving from Rubens, just as Jenson Button had given the Ferrari driver a lot of space earlier when he made a lunge up the inside into turn two to overtake the BAR-Honda.

Button had a fairly lonely race to 4th place, while David Coulthard took advantage of Ralf Schumacher oversteering wide onto the grass to poach his 5th place off him.

Fernando Alonso, in the spare car after his race car developed a hydraulic leak, drove for 37 laps before pitting and had made his way up to 5th place before his stop. He looked to have the better strategy than team-mate Trulli who rapidly went backwards through the field.

Alonso's car developed an oil leak and he spun out of the race in turn one when the engine seized, his R23 leaving a tell-tale black pool when it was craned out of the way. Michael Schumacher, Ralf Schumacher and Jenson Button all had big moments on the oil which was laid on the racing line of the braking zone

In the closing laps Schumacher eased up to ensure his car got to the line and duly took the chequered flag with as much enthusiasm as he'd greeted his pole position yesterday. Last year the grand prix had been marred by unnecessary Ferrari team orders and the crowd had reacted.

This time there was no such reaction. Like so many other grands prix this year it had been one to remember, but for a completely new set of reasons. The Ferrari F2003-GA may not be as far ahead of the competition as the F2002 was, but at the A1-Ring it certainly passed the flame-proof test.


Result of the Austrian Grand Prix held at the A1 ring on Sunday May 18th 2003

Posn.DriverTeamTime
1.M.SCHUMACHERFerrari1h24'04"888
2.RAIKKONENMcLaren Mercedes+ 0'03"362V
3. BARRICHELLOFerrari+ 0'03"951
4.BUTTONBAR Honda+ 0'42"243
5.COULTHARDMcLaren Mercedes+ 0'59"740
6.R.SCHUMACHER Williams BMW1 lap
7.WEBBERJaguar Cosworth1 lap
8.TRULLIRenault1 lap
9.PIZZONIAJaguar Cosworth1 lap
10.DA MATTAToyota1 lap
11.FIRMANJordan Ford1 lap
12.VILLENEUVEBAR Honda1 lap
13.WILSONMinardi Cosworth2 laps
14.FISICHELLAJordan Ford9 lap
15.HEIDFELDSauber Petronas23 laps
16.ALONSORenault25 laps
17.MONTOYAWilliams BMW37 laps
18.PANISToyota63 laps
19.FRENTZENSauber Petronas69 laps
20.VERSTAPPENMinardi Cosworth69 laps

The Spanish Grand Prix held at Barcelona on Sunday May 4th. 2003

Kimi Raikkonnen and Michael Schumacher Fernando Alonso

Michael Schumacher moved to within four points of the world championship lead with victory at the Spanish Grand Prix, but was made to work hard by Renault's Fernando Alonso. Schumacher had parked Ferrari's F2003-GA at the front of the grid on its Grand Prix debut and led for most of the afternoon to claim his second consecutive race of the season. But the German failed to produce the fireworks expected of the new Ferrari. Instead, it was the home favourite who again lived up to his reputation as a world champion in the making.

Alonso briefly took the lead after the German's second pit stop and cut the deficit to just five seconds before having to make do with second place. The Spaniard finished sandwiched between Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello on the podium for his highest ever finish in only his 21st Grand Prix.

Williams made some amends for a difficult weekend with fourth and fifth respectively from Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher. Cristiano da Matta picked up Toyota's first points of the season in sixth, while Mark Webber did the same for Jaguar in seventh and Briton Ralph Firman put in his best performance so far to complete the top eight in his Jordan. Schumacher's win cut the gap on championship leader Kimi Raikkonen by 10 points after the Finn crashed into the back of Antonio Pizzonia's Jaguar in a dramatic start. Raikkonen, who started from last after failing to record a qualifying time, hit Pizzonia, who failed to get away because of launch control problems. The accident brought out the safety car for five laps but not before Jarno Trulli and David Coulthard had clashed at the second corner, causing Trulli to spin out of the race from fourth place. Coulthard returned to the track after a visit to the pits to change his tyres, while Schumacher and Barrichello were lucky to escape unscathed after touching wheels at the first corner.

After the restart, Schumacher pulled away with ease from his Brazilian team-mate for a lead he rarely looked like conceding, until Alonso found his way past Barrichello. The Spaniard then gradually cut into the German's advantage before Schumacher lifted the tempo in the last 10 laps to secure a reasonably comfortable victory. Coulthard's race, meanwhile, was shortlived as the McLaren team's misery was compounded when he touched with Jenson Button and spun into the gravel trap. There was a second successive race retirement for Button's team-mate, Jacques Villeneuve, who was forced out on lap 13 with smoke billowing from his BAR.

Result of the Spanish Grand Prix held at Barcelona on May 4th. 2003

PosNoDriverTeamLapsTime/RetiredGridPoints
11Michael SchumacherFerrari65Winner110
28Fernando AlonsoRenault65+5.7 secs38
32Rubens BarrichelloFerrari65+18.0 secs26
43Juan Pablo MontoyaWilliams-BMW65+62.0 secs95
54Ralf SchumacherWilliams-BMW64+1 Lap74
621Cristiano da MattaToyota64+1 Lap133
714Mark WebberJaguar -Cosworth64+1 Lap122
812Ralph FirmanJordan-Ford63+2 Lap151
917Jenson ButtonBAR-Honda63+2 Lap5
109Nick HeidfeldSauber-Petronas63+2 Lap14
1118Justin WilsonMinardi-Cosworth63+2 Lap18
1219Jos VerstappenMinardi-Cosworth62+3 Lap19
Ret11Giancarlo FisichellaJordan-Ford43+22 Laps17
Ret20Olivier PanisToyota41+24 Laps6
Ret10Heinz-Harald FrentzenSauber-Petronas38+27 Laps10
Ret5David CoulthardMcLaren-Mercedes17+48 Laps8
Ret16Jacques VilleneuveBAR-Honda12+53 Laps11
Ret7Jarno TrulliRenault0+ secs4
Ret15Antonio PizzoniaJaguar -Cosworth0+ secs16
Ret6Kimi RäikkönenMcLaren-Mercedes0+ secs20


Imola: Win for Michael Schumacher 20 April 2003 - [15:20]

Michael Schumacher wins at Imola Michael Schumacher has won the San Marino Grand Prix behind the wheel of the F2002, after a wonderul performance and using a well thought-out strategy. Kimi Räikkönen and Rubens Barrichello completed the podium.
When the lights went out, Ralf was the quickest and beat Michael to the fist corner. Behind the leaders, there were some problems caused by the terrible starts of Mark Webber and Jacques Villeneuve, finding themselves in 11th and 13th after the first lap, while at the front, the situation was as follows: Ralf, Michael, Barrichello, Montoya, Räikkönen, Alonso, Panis and Coulthard.

Michael Schumacher piled the pressure on his brother, the Ferrari clearly faster than the BMW-Williams. The younger brother fended off the elder, however, and the order at the top did not change until Panis pitted on the 11th lap, rejoining the track in 16th position.

Then came the flood of pitstops, culminating in a stop for Michael Schumacher on the 18th lap. Ralf had stopped two laps earlier, losing a few tenths to a slight engine problem, and ended up behind Michael who had, in the meantime, put in the fastest lap of the race. Räikkönen and Coulthard were at the front at this stage, before they made their stops on the 22nd and 21st laps. So on lap 23, Michael was leading Ralf, Barrichello, Räikkönen, Montoya, Coulthard, Alonso and Panis.

The race continued on a track where it is almost impossible to overtake, and Michael Schumacher went on to win on a three-stop strategy, like BMW-Williams, but Ferrari were much quicker and Michael never under threat. Montoya had a problem with the fuel hose on his second stop so he had to come back in later. Ralf Schumacher made a slight error on the 52nd lap allowing Barrichello to pass. The Brazilian hounded Räikkönen but to no avail, the Finn having gone for a two-stop strategy, like the Renault drivers.

At the finishing line it was a win for Michael Schumacher ahead of Kimi Räikkönen, Rubens Barrichello, Ralf Schumacher, David Coulthard, Fernando Alonso, Juan-Pablo Montoya and Jenson Button.

In the constructors' championship, Ferrari have of course reduced their deficit, now lying second, 19 points behind McLaren-Mercedes. Renault are now down to third position, ahead of BMW-Williams in fourth. In the drivers' championship, Räikkönen has limited the damage and remains in the lead ahead of David Coulthard, but Michael Schumacher is now third, trailing the young Finn by 14 points.

Result of the San Marino Grand Prix held at Imola on Sunday April 20th 2003

PosNumDriver TeamTiresTimeAverage SpeedPitstops
1. 1 M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari B 1h28'12"058 207.895 Km/h 3
2. 6 RAIKKONEN McLaren Mercedes M + 0'01"882 207.821 Km/h 2
3. 2 BARRICHELLO Ferrari B + 0'02"291 207.805 Km/h 3
4. 4 R.SCHUMACHER Williams BMW M + 0'08"803 207.550 Km/h 3
5. 5 COULTHARD McLaren Mercedes M + 0'09"411 207.526 Km/h 2
6. 8 ALONSO Renault M + 0'43"689 206.193 Km/h 2
7. 3 MONTOYA Williams BMW M + 0'45"271 206.132 Km/h 4
8. 17 BUTTON BAR Honda B 1 lap(s) 2
9. 20 PANIS Toyota M 1 lap(s) 3
10. 9 HEIDFELD Sauber Petronas B 1 lap(s) 3
11. 10 FRENTZEN Sauber Petronas B 1 lap(s) 2
12. 21 DA MATTA Toyota M 1 lap(s) 3
13. 7 TRULLI Renault M 1 lap(s) 2
14. 15 PIZZONIA Jaguar Cosworth M 2 lap(s) 2
15. 11 FISICHELLA Jordan Ford B 5 lap(s) 2
16. 14 WEBBER Jaguar Cosworth M 8 lap(s) 5
17. 12 FIRMAN Jordan Ford B 11 lap(s) 2
18. 19 VERSTAPPEN Minardi Cosworth B 24 lap(s) 1
19. 18 WILSON Minardi Cosworth B 39 lap(s) 2
20. 16 VILLENEUVE BAR Honda B 43 lap(s) 1



Brazilian Grand Prix April 6th.2003

The man at the top of the victory podium crossed the finish line second,the man on the second step crossed it first, and on the third step sat a bottle of Champagne, because the driver given third place was on his way to hospital.

Kimi Raikkonen was declared the winner in a race Giancarlo Fisichella said he had won. The Italian was not declared the victor, because crashes by Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso brought the race to a halt after 55 of the potential 71 laps. The rules dictate that the results are counted from two laps prior to the red flag, the time during which Fischella passed Raikkonen to take the lead.

The Brazilian Grand Prix, raced in torrential rain Sunday at Interlagos near Sao Paulo, ended in a farce that barely avoided crossing the thin line to a tragedy. Despite their destroyed cars, Webber and Alonso were not seriously injured and will race again at Imola, Italy, in two weeks. Alonso spent the night in the hospital but only bruised his leg.

Fischella was voted the best driver of 2002 by his fellow drivers.Even though his car, a Jordan, was clearly inferior to Raikkonen's McLaren-Mercedes, Fischella took the lead when the Finn made an error.

"I was very disappointed for two reasons, "Fischella said:"First of all for Fernando, I hope he's alright, then also because I won the race."

Alonso and Webber were only two of the casualties on a day when 10 of the 20 cars were involved in accidents and failed to finish the race. A river of water across the track on turn 3 knocked out six cars, including those of Michael Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya, two potential champions. All were the victims of a new rule governing wet-weather tires, one of a series of changes made by the International Automobile Federation over the winter.

Teams have criticised the new rules on safety grounds, but this rule, which limits tyre manufacturers to supplying one kind of raintyre at each race,was approved by all the teams.

"The teams agreed that tyre makers would bring only one kind of rain tyre to each race. In the past, they had a choice between full-wet tyres-similar to the tyres on a regular road car, with lots of tread - and an intermediate wet tyre, designed for a track that is only damp.

In Brazil, the teams faced a deluge during both practice sessions Friday and at the start of the race, but the tyre makers had brought intermediate tyres.

Because of the rain, the race began, not from the usual standing start, but from behind a safety car - for eight laps. The safety car would return four more times because of accidents. The race was not so much a competition of driver against driver as it was of each individual against the elements.

On lap 54, Webber spun violently, hit the wall and left debris strewn all over the track. A few seconds later, Alonso then smashed into one of the Webber's wheels and shot into the wall.

While the new rules had contributed towards a greater spectacle in the first two races, the federation has failed in the area where it aims to be a world leader: safety. Perhaps the group really does have what it wanted: Raikkonen leads the championship with two victories and 26 points, while Schumacher is eighth with eight points. McLaren has won all three races and leads the constructors' series, while Ferrari lies third.

But at what cost?

It also begs the question of whether the FIA really needs to rewrite the rules. Schumacher has had his worst start ever to a season, not because of the rules but because he has made errors in all three races.

Result of the Brazilian Grand Prix held at Interlagos on Sunday April 6th. 2003

PosNumDriver TeamTiresTimeAverage SpeedPitstops
1. 6 RAIKKONEN McLaren Mercedes M 1h29'53"179 204.197 Km/h 1
2. 11 FISICHELLA Jordan Ford B + 0'00"831 204.166 Km/h 1
3. 8 ALONSO Renault M + 0'06"695 203.944 Km/h 3
4. 5 COULTHARD McLaren Mercedes M + 0'07"391 203.918 Km/h 2
5. 10 FRENTZEN Sauber Petronas B + 0'09"392 203.842 Km/h 0
6. 16 VILLENEUVE BAR Honda B + 0'17"910 203.521 Km/h 1
7. 14 WEBBER Jaguar Cosworth M + 0'20"070 203.440 Km/h 2
8. 7 TRULLI Renault M + 0'23"569 203.309 Km/h 2
9. 4 R.SCHUMACHER Williams BMW M + 0'33"556 202.935 Km/h 2
10. 21 DA MATTA Toyota M 1 lap(s) 4
11. 2 BARRICHELLO Ferrari B 8 lap(s) 1
12. 17 BUTTON BAR Honda B 22 lap(s) 1
13. 19 VERSTAPPEN Minardi Cosworth B 24 lap(s) 0
14. 1 M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari B 28 lap(s) 1
15. 3 MONTOYA Williams BMW M 30 lap(s) 1
16. 15 PIZZONIA Jaguar Cosworth M 30 lap(s) 0
17. 20 PANIS Toyota M 37 lap(s) 0
18. 12 FIRMAN Jordan Ford B 37 lap(s) 1
19. 18 WILSON Minardi Cosworth B 39 lap(s) 1
20. 9 HEIDFELD Sauber Petronas B 46 lap(s) 0

Malaysia: Grand Prix held on Sunday March 24th. 2003

P.NoDriver Team - EngineTyresGaps/Laps AverageStops
1.6RAIKKONENMcLaren MercedesM1h32'22"195201.629 Km/h2
2.2BARRICHELLOFerrariB+ 0'39"286200.210 Km/h2
3.8ALONSORenaultM+ 1'04"007199.327 Km/h2
4.4R.SCHUMACHERWilliams BMWM+ 1'28"026198.477 Km/h2
5.7TRULLIRenaultM1 lap(s)2
6.1M.SCHUMACHERFerrariB1 lap(s)4
7.17BUTTONBAR HondaB1 lap(s)2
8.9HEIDFELDSauber PetronasB1 lap(s)2
9.10FRENTZENSauber PetronasB1 lap(s)2
10.12FIRMANJordan FordB1 lap(s)1
11.21DA MATTAToyotaM1 lap(s)3
12.3MONTOYAWilliams BMWM3 lap(s)2
13.19VERSTAPPENMinardi CosworthB4 lap(s)3
14.15PIZZONIAJaguar CosworthM4 lap(s)3
15.18WILSONMinardi CosworthB5 lap(s)3
16.14WEBBERJaguar CosworthM21 lap(s)3
17.20PANISToyotaM44 lap(s)2
18.5COULTHARDMcLaren MercedesM54 lap(s)0
19.11FISICHELLAJordan FordB56 lap(s)0
20.16VILLENEUVEBAR HondaB56 lap(s)0

Third Time Lucky For Kimi Raikkonen - 23/03/03

Sepang in Malaysia

After missing out on the victory at the 2002 French Grand Prix, and again at the previous race in Australia, Kimi Raikkonen finally broke his duck and claimed the win at Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix.

Raikkonen was able to stay out of trouble throughout the race, taking advantage of the first lap accident involving Michael Schumacher and Jarno Trulli. He was soon up to second place and chasing down race leader Fernando Alonso. But with Alonso's Renault carrying just 50 litres of fuel, the Finn soon found himself leading at the Sepang circuit.

After 56 laps Raikkonen crossed the line to win his first ever grand prix, a moment Kimi says will take a bit of time to sink in. "It's difficult to say how I feel now - it's tomorrow morning when I will know what it feels like to win my first grand prix. It was hot out there, but I could ease off for the final laps."

Speaking about his race Raikkonen said: "I made a good start and was coming into the second corner when I saw two cars hitting each other. I was going to stay on the outside, but at the last moment I saw one of the cars going backwards and I managed to take the inside line. It was the right decision."

"I then overtook Nick Heidfeld to take second. I was taking it easy for the last 20 laps to ensure that I brought the car home and was not pushing. I'm going to fly home to Switzerland tonight so I don't think we will have a big party, but I'm sure we will celebrate a bit."

However team-mate David Coulthard wasn't so happy. "I made a good start off the line. I saw that there was going to be a coming together at the second corner and managed to take a wide line to avoid it. However on lap three, at turn four, the engine started to cut out and finally stopped completely at turn nine whilst I was in second place. The team later told me that it was an electrical problem and obviously I'm disappointed as we could have both finished on the podium today."

Team boss Ron Dennis was very emotional as he watched Raikkonen cross the line, and the man who seldom seems to show emotions was teary-eyed after the race. "It's his first win and I can't tell you how important that is for a grand prix driver. It takes a weight off his shoulders and he deserves it. We can win - we have shown that in the last two races - and hopefully we will continue that in the remaining grands prix this season."

Later he added: "Australia had some unusual circumstances clouding our competitiveness, but today we showed the excellent work done by the whole team and especially Michelin, who provided us with an outstanding tyre. A driver's first GP win is his most significant and Kimi will be even better for it. Apologies to David who suffered an electrical fault which stopped his car. We look forward to the remainder of the season, but we are under no illusions about the competitiveness of our rivals."

Result of the Australian Grand Prix held on Sunday March 9th. 2003

PosDriver Nat TeamTime Status
1.David CoulthardGBMcLaren-Mercedes1:34:42.124
2.Juan Pablo MontoyaCOLWilliams-BMW8.675
3.Kimi RaikkonenFINMcLaren-Mercedes9.192
4.Michael SchumacherDFerrari9.482
5.Jarno TrulliIRenault38.801
6.Heinz-Harald FrentzenDSauber-Petronas43.928
7.Fernando AlonsoERenault45.074
8.Ralf SchumacherDWilliams-BMW45.745
9.Jacques VilleneuveCDNBAR-Honda1:05.536
10.Jenson ButtonGBBAR-Honda1:05.974
11.Jos VerstappenNLMinardi-Cosworth-1 lap
DNFGiancarlo FisichellaIJordan-Fordon lap 52
DNFAntonio PizzoniaIJaguaron lap 52
DNFOlivier PanisFToyotaon lap 22
DNFNick HeidfeldDSauber-Petronason lap 21Spun
DNFJustin WilsonGBMinardi-Cosworthon lap 17
DNFMark WebberAUSJaguaron lap 16Suspension
DNFCristiano da MattaBRToyotaon lap 8Spun
DNFRalph FirmanGBJordan-Fordon lap 7Spun
DNFRubens BarrichelloBRFerrarion lap 6Spun


Michael Schumacher using all of the track

The Australian Grand Prix has got the new-look Formula One season off to a hectic start, with mixed weather conditions, early incidents and a series of race leaders brightening the opening laps of 2003.With the field starting on a mixture of wet, intermediate and 'slick' tyres, the grid order was immediately reshuffled over the early laps, although the two Ferraris still romped away from the field. With the track drying rapidly, however, some teams opted to make early fuel and tyre stops, including David Coulthard, while others made up ground while their rubber was well attuned to the track surface.Rubens Barrichello then received a stop-go penalty for jumping the lights but, before he could make it back to the pits, the Brazilian crashed at turn five. Rookie Ralph Firman went off at the same point, prompting suggestions that oil from an early event may have been left on track, while Cristiano da Matta's debut lasted little longer, the Brazilian spinning off under braking.With the safety car on tack, Ferrari took the opportunity to take Michael Schumacher off his intermediate tyres, as Juan Montoya's slick-shod Williams-BMW took chunks out of the German's advantage. The Colombian then led the race until he made his own stop for fuel and tyres under green flag conditions, leaving Kimi Raikkonen - who had started from the pit-lane - to assume control of the race.The Finn continues to lead at one-third distance, with the field under another safety car for Mark Webber's stranded Jaguar.

And It's Go Go Go! – March 9, 2003

Flying Scot! start

Just so you all know I still haven't caught my breath! That was, simply said, fantastic! David Coulthard won an action-packed and incident filled Grand Prix at Melbourne to kick off his season with maximum points ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya in second and Kimi Räikkönen in third. Doesn't that sound off? Well, let me explain to you all why.

This is the first race that a Ferrari has not won since Monaco of last year when Coulthard took the honours at Monaco. This is the first race since Monza of 2001 that Michael Schumacher has not been on the podium. This is the first race since Indianapolis of 2000 that someone else than Michael Schumacher has led the championship. This is the first race since the European Grand Prix of 1999 that a Ferrari has not been present on the podium. And to top it all off, this is the first race that a car fitted with Bridgestone tyres has not reached the podium since the 1998 season! Now what could possibly explain all this?

Ferrari, indeed, fouled up. There is nothing more that can be said about it, Jean Todt, Ross Brawn, Michael Schumacher, and Rubens Barrichello screwed up! Prior to the race the track had been soaked wet in a rain shower, which left the track damp while the drivers were doing their reconnaissance laps roughly twenty minutes before the race. Amazingly enough, the track died quickly and by the warm-up lap the track was dried up enough to suit dry weather tyres, allowing Kimi Räikkönen to make a very smart move which I will explain shortly. 2 Ferraris in the lead

The race started with a sigh, however, when the two Ferrari's blasted off from the grid, albeit a bit early for Rubens, to create a near ten second gap to Frentzen in third during the first few laps. A furious battle was going on behind the two red cars for third, fourth, fifth, and sixth place between both Renault's and BAR's, and Olivier Panis caught in the mix as well having started fifth. Montoya got a fair start to keep his spot, while Nick Heidfeld blasted up to fifth behind his teammate. Montoya would lose ground quickly as the track was still fairly damp, and was passed by both Sauber's, only to pass them in a few laps time. Justin Wilson, last on the grid, had a fantastic start to his first race and rocketed off the line to run his Minardi in ninth spot in the early stages, but would retire later.

The Mclaren cars, meanwhile, had a quiet start to the race. David Coulthard, a lowly fifteenth, managed to get a good start and gain ground, though pitted early to change to dry tyres. Kimi Räikkönen executed a perfect race strategy to take advantage of the damp yet drying conditions. Starting the warm-up lap on wets, he immediately took notice that it was dry enough to change tyres. The Finn pulled into the pits off the warm up lap, allowing to, in effect, make a pit stop before the race. Able to add fuel and change tyres, he managed to change his race strategy to a one stop and would greatly benefit. Rubens Barichello

Rubens Barrichello meanwhile suffered early spinning off the track and into the wall. The Brazilian had also jump started the race and would have suffered a penalty, yet he decided to take himself out of the running. Michael Schumacher would enter the pits that lap and Ferrari would foul up his pit stop with rear wheel troubles, dropping him back to seventh. Further down the field, Cristiano da Matta exited his first race from the gravel as he spun off trying to pass Mark Webber and Ralf Schumacher at the same time. The race, lead by Montoya, would be brought under safety car conditions as Ralph Firman smacked the same spot that Barrichello did, leaving even more debris on the track. Running order was Montoya, Trulli, Ralf Schumacher, Mark Webber, Kimi Räikkönen, and Michael Schumacher in sixth. Coultard

The eventual winner, Coulthard, was seemingly nowhere at this point. As the race restarted Mark Webber dropped down behind Kimi and Michael, and the Australian would bring out the safety car only a few laps later when his suspension snapped and he was left on the racing line. This allowed the field to gather up again and leader Montoya would pit at the exact same time as Ralf Schumacher and this would cost the latter time, even more as he also suffered rear wheel problems, and a spin exiting the pits. Jarno Trulli also pitted, amazingly leaving Kimi Räikkönen who had started from the pits in the lead! A fierce battle between the Finn and Michael Schumacher would take place at the front for several laps before the lap 28 as Schumacher was forced to pit a second time for fuel. Räikkönen, having executed a perfect strategy before the race, was on a one-stop plan and was free to put in some very fast laps to extend his lead and looked very well positioned to take his first victory.

On lap 33 Kimi entered the pits and the Silver Arrows accomplished a very clean stop to allow the Finn to rejoin the race behind Montoya. Michael Schumacher was third, but was gaining fast on Räikkönen, who was initially stuck behind a back marker and of course had cold tyres and more fuel than his challenger. David Coulthard, having completed his second pit stop a lap earlier than his teammate, was fourth after a solid race to continually gain on the front. Schumacher and Kimi

Schumacher caught Kimi and a fantastic battle ensued once more with an excellent battle at turn one. Michael attempted to make a move around the outside and was half a car length ahead on the turn-in, but Räikkönen muscled his way on the inside to retain his position and force Schumacher onto the grass. Unfortunately, something had indeed gone wrong in Kimi's stop. After battling with Schumacher the race stewards penalized Räikkönen with a drive through penalty for speeding in pit lane, having cruised through at marginally below one kilometer per hour too fast! Talk about strict, the penalty ruined what was to be the Finn's first victory! The penalty dropped him down to sixth, ruining his chances at a win.

This left Montoya, Schumacher, and Coulthard at the front for the moment, with Montoya having made his last pit stop a couple of laps earlier. An uncharacteristic mistake by the reigning world champion at the very fast Waite corner would send him running over the kerb, destroying the bargeboards along with the underside of the car. Lap after lap parts began to fall off the German's car and he was shown the black and orange flag, which means he had to pit to have the dragging parts of his car repaired.

Schumacher would rejoin the race in fourth, and was once again behind Kimi Räikkönen in third! The pair quickly began to make up ground to the leaders while battling very closely. With only ten laps to go David Coulthard would take the lead as Montoya spun at turn one and narrowly avoided hitting the tyre wall. Quickly taking back to the track, Montoya would get up to speed right ahead of Räikkönen and Schumacher and the three would battle all the way to the end. Montoya was slower than the men behind but was able to pull away on the straights with BMW power, though both Kimi and Michael looked here and made a move there, but to no avail.

Coulthard meanwhile cruised to take the victory a comfortable eight seconds ahead of Montoya, and the following three cars would finish the race within a second of each other! The same took place for sixth, seventh, and eighth place with Heinz-Harald Frentzen leading Fernando Alonso and Ralf Schumacher. Jarno Trulli was fifth, and coupled with Alonso's points this puts the Renault team ahead of Ferrari! Like that isn't going to change…

Now it is only a matter of time until we hear Ron Dennis' comments on how fantastic the new rules are and that he will fully support the FIA, seeing as his drivers both reached the podium!

The Aftermath aftermath

For me it is too early to comment on how the rule changes will have affected the Grand Prix weekend. Qualifying was great in my opinion, though it is too early to say about the no refueling rule and the Grand Prix itself as today's race was littered with incidents and safety cars, along with mistakes and difficult conditions to start the race. A few more rounds, and then we should have a clear picture of where we stand.

That said, today was simply marvellous. My man of the race was definitely Kimi Räikkönen, and that is said truthfully and honestly despite supporting him as a fellow countryman. Kimi concocted a perfect race strategy, drove flawlessly, beat Schumacher on the track, and overcame a silly penalty to finish third in a race that should have been his first victory even more so than last year in France. Michael and Juan screwed themselves, with Michael's off-track excursion that broke his car and forced him to pit, and Juan's spin that practically handed the victory to Coulthard on a silver plate! As Montoya clearly pointed out in the press conference though, "Shit Happens!"

Simply excellent though to watch, and unfortunately the BAR race strategy did not work so well and the two cars finished just out of the points. That was a feat to overcome though as well, as the Honda engine lasted through to the end! Renault performed magnificently as did Sauber and I predict a very close race between those two teams along with BAR and Toyota, who did not have a good day today but were strong nonetheless.

Also, I specifically enjoyed the podium celebrations and press conference today. It was good to hear "God Save The Queen" once again, though I was keenly waiting to sing along to the Finnish national anthem, "Maamme Laulu" today. That said, Kimi showed the world how we Finns do it, taking a huge gulp of champagne on the podium instead of wasting it on the crowd below! It would be alcohol abuse to do it otherwise!

Overall a great weekend to watch and follow, and I eagerly await the next round at Malaysia. The early stages of today's race did send a slight warning to the world that we may see a flashback to last year. Ferrari was running very strongly in the lead today until the team and drivers fouled up, and that will certainly not happen too often. But it was great (the following comment is strictly pointed at racing suit colour) to see an all white podium! We will see, but I will not be one to get too worked up, yet.

  • As last year is there anything that can stop yet another run away win by Ferrari?
  • Radios and telemetry in the cars have been banned.
  • Yet what about the innovative ideas like putting drivers in each others cars?
  • How about seeing Michael Schumacher racing in a Minardi?
  • How about the cars carrying extra weights like handycaps in horse racing?
  • How about a maximum budget like for a political election?
Watch the space for continuing wins by Ferrari and Michael Schumacher.
Further information is available on http://www.homeoff1.com/schedule.asp

Schu Faces Tougher Challenge - 01 March 2003

Rule changes will make it harder for Michael Schumacher to dominate the 2003 world championship.

That is the opinion of Australia's driving hero Mark Webber as the 26-year-old landed on Melbourne for a busy week of pre-race promotion.

'I think Michael will win the championship this year, yes I do,' he said, having switched from a rookie of the year mantle at Minardi to Jaguar Racing this season.

He reckons Schumacher will surpass Juan Manuel Fangio's record of five world titles in 2003: 'But he won't win it nowhere near as early as he did last year.'

Schumacher won the 2002 Formula One crown with six races still remaining on the calendar, as his Scuderia Ferrari outfit painted the circuit red with fifteen wins.

A revised points system, reducing the advantage of first place over second, and one-shot qualifying will both be debuted at Albert Park next weekend in a bid to spice up the racing action.

Some of the many formula one motor racing web sites:-  link already visited  link not yet visited   shame about the advertising
http://crash.net/f1/home.asp?championship_id=1&language_id=1
http://www.gp2003.com/index.php?lang=uk
http://MSportF1.com
http://F1Racing.net
http://eurosport.com/home/pages/V3/L0/S25/sport_Lng0_Spo25.shtml
http://F1i.com
http://F1Newsonline.net
http://motorsport.com/news/series.asp?S=F1
http:// PlanetF1.com
http://f1.racing-live.com/en/index.html
http://TotalF1.com
http://GrandPrix.com
http://Pitpass.com
http:// F1Central.net
http://F1NewsToday.com
http://www.formula1.com/ - the official formula one web site
http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/ - lot of redirection by microsoft
http://speedtv.com/articles/auto/formulaone/


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