At your home Grand prix you expect a bit of good luck don’t you? well Rubens Barrichello’s fans had high hopes of him winning the race. Before the race had even began he was in trouble. He had to run back to the pits, get in the spare car which was set up for Michael and get out of the pit lane before it closed. He did it, with only 30 seconds to spare. He probably felt it was pointless after the race because he slammed into the back of Ralf Schumacher with only a handful of laps gone. This didn’t please Ralf too much either as he had to pit for a now rear wing which left him four laps down. The Williams used it a race test session. Ralf, on a one stop fuel load made the fastest lap of the race, showing just what he could have done if Rubens hadn’t slammed into him.
Early on in the race, the second Williams driver Juan Pablo Montoya led after a superb passing move on Michael Schumacher. What made this more impressive was that Juan (and Ralf) were both on one stop strategies but they were quicker than Michael in the Ferarri who was on a two stop strategy.
Juan was taken out by a back marker (Jos Vertstappen) when he came round to lap him. Jos moved out his way but braked later into the corner than Juan and rammed into the back of him.
This left Michael Schumacher and David Coulthard squabbling for the win. Then the rain came. David looked like he’d messed up when he came in for intermediate tyres later than Michael but Michael made a mistake allowing Coulthard to close the gap. Coulthard took the lead with a stunning move on Michael in the first corner of the Brazilian circuit. He didn’t look back. Michael spun again but managed to recover to finish second. David Coulthard crossed the line to win, the first man in 7 races to so other than Michael Schumacher…a great achievement.
Nick Heidfeld brought his Sauber home third for his first ever podium position after driving a flawless race and keeping his head in treacherous conditions. Behind him was Olivier Panis taking his first points of the season, Jarno Trulli who also scored his first points and Giancarlo Fisichella who dragged the Benetton into the points with a cool and collected drive.
Mika Hakkinen came to the park ferme to congratulate team mate Coulthard (he had retired in lap one because the car had stalled). On the podium Coulthard looked delighted as did Heidfeld, Schumacher didn’t look to happy with second though but can you blame him.
"Of course it's very important, it's important to try and win all the Grands Prix that we enter. Ferrari and Michael have had a very good run and we've started a little bit on the backfoot these first three Grands Prix but an incredible amount of effort has gone in from everyone back at the factory and we did take a step forward here this weekend. It's still not enough, but enough in the circumstances to take this victory. Normally I would like to win races in a straight fight, but today, I don't care. I'm delighted to take this victory."
"No no no I'm not unhappy it's just that I would have been more happy sitting in the middle here. That would be the perfect, to some degree, but then they did a better job than we did so that's it."
"I had some problems seeing the pit board during the race with all the spray," he revealed. "I knew I was third after Frentzen went off but I didn't know how many laps there were to go so I was just willing the chequered flag to come out!" "Then I crossed the line and it was just great on the podium," he concluded.
"I think we had a very healthy lead and were looking good for a race win," he said. "I'm disappointed we didnt get it, but I'm still happy for BMW and Williams that we showed we could be so competitive."
