Silverstone, Northants, England, April 23 – When the Easter morning fog burned off, Silverstone Circuit found itself under sunny skies for the first time in nearly a week. When the checkered flag ended the 51st running of the British Grand Prix, McLaren/Mercedes luxuriated in its first rays of sunshine in this entire 2000 world championship season, as David Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen finished one-two. Championship leader Michael Schumacher came third ahead of Williams/BMW teammates Ralf Schumacher and Jenson Button. Jordan's Jarno Trulli picked up the final championship point.
As is often the case, the start was critical to the ultimate outcome. While
pole-sitter Rubens Barrichello and Heinz-Harald Frentzen got away cleanly,
Michael Schumacher – blocked to the inside – was attempting a demon
outside move on Hakkinen, left wheels in the wet grass. The two wiggled
and juked, allowing Coulthard through on the inside at Copse. Hakkinen was
able to tuck in behind his teammate, but Schumacher flinched and tumbled
quickly to eighth behind Button, Jacques Villeneuve and brother Ralf
Schumacher, who nipped the Canadian for sixth on the second lap. Michael
would not have that success and was stuck behind Villeneuve for the first half
of the race, at which point he'd fallen 25sec behind his race-leading
teammate.
At Lap 31, Coulthard made a brilliant outside pass for the lead at Stowe,
doing to Barrichello what Nigel Mansell had done to Nelson Piquet at that
same corner in 1987. Coulthard's ascendency came just as those on one-stop
strategies were thinking of pitting for the fuel and tires that would carry them
to the finish. A lap later, Hakkinen was the first to stop, followed by
Coulthard and Schumacher's front door man Villeneuve.
At this point, McLaren was looking good. Then Barrichello inexplicably spun
in the slow complex coming to pit-in, got into the wet grass trying to recover
and motored to his pit to retire with what was described as "hydraulic"
problems. Suddenly, with Schumacher in the lead but yet to pit, McLaren's
chances looked golden for a one-two.
When the surviving Ferrari finally did pit on Lap 38 of 60, it was pure
Michael Schumacher – five scorching laps after Villeneuve's stop, a perfect
8.8sec Ferrari pit stop and a blazing out-lap on a clear racetrack. He had made
up a good 12sec on Hakkinen, but it would not be enough – and Schumacher
knew it. He made a brief run, then happily settled for third.
Meanwhile, the race among the two-stop guys was muddling along. Frentzen
was the best of that bunch until his gearbox locked up in one of the higher
gears. The Williams/BMW team, which is showing remarkable early-season
strength, slipped into fourth and fifth – R. Schumacher and the precocious
Button. When Villeneuve retired from sixth with four laps to go, Trulli picked
up the last championship point for Jordan – all six front-runners finishing on
the lead lap.
The victory was 124th for McLaren and the 100th since Ron Dennis took the
helm. It was also Coulthard's seventh grand prix triumph and the first
one-two for McLaren since last year's Belgian Grand Prix – also won by the
Scotsman.
Although Schumacher lost little ground to Hakkinen in the World
Championship, Coulthard vaulted past his teammate to second, 20 points
behind the Ferrari ace and two ahead of his world champion compatriot. The
McLaren sweep marked the first chink in Ferrari's armor, the Italians'
manufacturer's title advantage now trimmed to 17 points – 43 to 26 – with
Williams a surprising third with a dozen.
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