Barcelona, Spain, May 7 – Never — ever — count your chickens before
they hatch.
That age-old adage was never more true than today, when what had appeared since Friday
to be Michael Schumacher’s Spanish Grand Prix went all wrong, and Ferrari’s arch-rivals
at McLaren wound up with a 1-2 finish for reigning World Champion Mika Hakkinen —
taking his third consecutive win at Barcelona — and David Coulthard.
Schumacher had dominated the weekend, in practice, qualifying and the race warm-up.
He made a strong start from the pole, with Hakkinen second and Williams’ Ralf Schumacher
third after a storming start from fifth position, while Coulthard held fourth ahead
of Rubens Barrichello, who had a miserable start from third.
As is so often the case on today’s modern F1 circuits, there was not much passing
going on, and certainly not among the front-runners, placing all the emphasis on
pit stops.
When Michael came in for his first stop on Lap 23, his signboard holder (also known
as the lollipop man) raised the stop sign fractions of a second early, causing Michael
to leave just that little bit too early, before the fuel nozzle was fully disconnected.
As a result, chief mechanic Nigel Stepney, who was standing behind the refueller
and trying to assist in the nozzle removal, was caught by the right-rear wheel and
thrown to the ground. He was taken to the track medical center, where he was diagnosed
with damaged ligaments in his leg.
Despite all the mayhem left in his wake, Michael was able to maintain his lead after
Hakkinen made his stop a lap later. However, Coulthard had a problem selecting a
gear after his stop and lost fourth place to Barrichello.
The order remained this way, with Hakkinen shadowing Michael and the trio of Ralf,
Barrichello and Coulthard covered under a 1.5sec blanket until Coulthard was called
in early for his second stop on Lap 40 in an attempt to improve his track position.
Things went more smoothly this time, and he was away in 7.5sec.
Ralf and Barrichello pitted on the following lap, and Coulthard was just able to
squeeze past Ralf in Turn 1 as he and Barrichello were returning to the circuit.
The two leaders hit the pit lane together the next time around, and this is where
the wheels came off Schumacher’s race. While Hakkinen was down and away in a blistering
6.4sec, Michael’s crew had a very difficult time attaching the fuel nozzle, and he
was stationary for a race-killing 17.5 sec.
Things then went from bad to worse for Michael. As Hakkinen motored off into the
distance, Michael was falling back into the clutches of Coulthard. After blocking
an inside move in Turn 1 on Lap 46, Michael was a sitting duck when Coulthard pulled
the outside pass in the same turn on the following lap, reminiscent of his winning
move at Silverstone two weeks ago.
McLaren had their 1-2 finish all set up now, just what the doctor had ordered for
the ailing points situation, but the agony wasn’t over for Michael yet.
He continued to fall slowly back through the field, with brother Ralf the next challenger
in his mirrors, setting up one of the most remarkable F1 passes in recent memory.
On Lap 50, Ralf attempted his pass on Michael at the Caixa corner, but big brother
wasn’t going to let him go without a fight. He pulled back alongside as they continued
through the following Banc Sabadell corner, but his speed pushed them both wide,
not to mention dangerously close, as their wheels were inside each other twice.
While the two brothers were disputing third place, an opportunistic Barrichello swept
past on the inside — making it three-wide for a brief moment — to take them both,
with Ralf taking up chase on his rear wing and Michael peeling off for the pit lane
with a deflating tire.
Did Michael push Ralf wide to help his teammate into third, or was it just one of
those racin’ deals? You’ll have to decide for yourself, because nobody’s talking.
Michael held onto fifth after his third stop and, with the remarkable rookie Jenson
Button having worked his way up into sixth after starting 11th, the stage seemed
set for the run to the finish.
Unfortunately, Button’s engine expired just two laps from the finish, elevating Heinz-Harald
Frentzen to sixth to claim one of what are very hard-to-come-by points for Jordan.
Mika Salo parlayed a one-stop strategy into an eventual seventh-place finish for
Sauber, finishing a lap down, while BAR’s Ricardo Zonta did a terrific job to come
from 17th to eighth after struggling all weekend. Benetton teammates Giancarlo Fisichella
and Alexander Wurz rounded out the top 10.
Jaguar teammates Eddie Irvine and Johnny Herbert took small consolation in finishing
both cars, as they sandwiched Jordan’s Jarno Trulli in 11th, 12th and 13th, the final
cars scored one lap down. Minardi teammates Marc Gene and Gaston Mazzacane were two
laps down in 14th and 15th, and Prost’s Nick Heidfeld was the final car running at
the finish, three laps down in 16th.
The attrition wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Pedro Diniz was the first to go,
planting his Sauber in the kitty litter on the first lap. On Lap 2, Jean Alesi and
Pedro de la Rosa came together, ending a miserable weekend for both. Alesi’s weekend
was bad from the start, but de la Rosa’s only went sour after qualifying, when his
career-best ninth-fastest time — in front of his hometown crowd — was disallowed
for fuel irregularities, relegating him to the back of the grid.
Jacques Villeneuve’s DNF was also sorely felt. He ran well all weekend, started sixth
and held his spot in the opening scrum and looked set for another points-paying finish
for the new BAR/Honda package when his engine went blooey on Lap 22, although the
team categorized it as the ever-popular “hydraulic problem.”
Jos Verstappen retired in the pitlane on Lap 46 with a transmission problem, putting
an end to Arrows’ misery, and — other than Button’s late demise — that was it for
the attrition.
With McLaren taking max points and Michael unable to better a fifth-place finish,
Hakkinen has moved into second place in the World Drivers Championship, 14 points
behind Michael’s 22, with Coulthard two points further back. Perhaps more significantly,
McLaren has moved to within seven points of Ferrari in the World Constructors Championship,
49-42, fighting back into contention in what seemed to be an near-hopeless battle
not so long ago.
The circus moves on to the Nurburgring in two weeks for the Grand Prix of Europe,
and Speedvision will have live coverage of both qualifying and the race, as always.
We’ll see then if McLaren can maintain the roll they’re on, or if Ferrari and Michael
Schumacher can come back slow their momentum.
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