Ralf dominated the race, he led every single lap. The only man anywhere near him was David Coulthard. Both their team mates (and everyone else) were left in their wake even though they were on the same strategy.
The two Jordans had a good day. Jarno Trulli ran third early on after making a good start but he dropped back to fifth. Team mate Frentzen had a less sparkling day but still managed sixth place.
The two Mclarns both scored points. David Coulthard finished a strong second making him the equal championship leader with Michael Schumacher. Mika Hakkinen was held up slightly by Trulli early on but never really looked on the pace. He finished fourth giving the team usefull championship points.
Ferari had a mixed day. Michael Schumacher retiered early on after a punctured tyre damaged his suspension. Rubens Barrichello struggled to find enough speed but finished first, albeit half a lap down from the leading pair. This however disapointed the Imola crowd as they had expected Ferarri to do well on home turf.
Other Williams boy, Juan Palblo Montoya, was a distance of his more experienced team mate's pace. He ran in fifth (50 seconds behind Ralf)until his second stop when he suffered a gearbox problem and stalled while they were trying to remove the fuel line.
Sauber had a mixed day with Heidfeld finishing one place outside the points and Kimi Raikkonen spinning out with a loose steering wheel early on. Jaguar also had a mixed day with Burti finishing but Irvine retiering with a blown engine. Prost driver Alesi drove a fairly quiet race to finish 9th just behind BAR's Olivier Panis who ran well early on but dropped back. Team mate Villeneuve had a day to forget after retiering with mechanical woes early in the race.
Arrows driver Bernoldi finished his first GP after retiering early on in all three races so far this year. This time team mate Vertstappen was the early retierment. The Benetton had another bad day, Fisichella retiered and Button finished last. The minardi's both failed to finish which disapointed the team.
The honours at the end of the day went to Ralf Schumacher, winning his first GP and .Williams have done a good shop pre-seasion and are now back on the winning scene after a couple of years of struggling. They won their last GP in 1997 when Jaques Villeneuve won the championship. Also BMW who have been back in F1 for only one season before recording a win. Michilan diserve praise too after winning their fourth GP back.
This year is set to be a good one with not only Mclaren and Ferarri batteling it out for the championship but Williams too.
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Race results from Imola 2001
