The Qualifying session started with the McLaren Team still working furiously on Mika's car, NOT a good sign. *sigh* After 11 minutes Trulli, Irvine and Enrique Bernoldi opened the session, with Trulli setting the first temporarily pole. The new Finnish driver, Kimi Räikkönen came third with his first attempt. When Rubens came on the track first time, he took the pole with an improvement on -0,33 sec. Montgoya went off the track with his first fast lap, and Coulthard started with an astonishing bad place; 17th. Häkkinen came out but went back into the pit before even starting on his first fast lap. Obviously the problems with the car were far from over. 20 minutes after the session's start we saw Schumi on the track for the first time, and he took the pole from his Team Mate, also with -0,33 sec. His littlebrother took a second place 6 minutes later with +0,14 sec., and finally McLaren succeeded when David managed to get 4th position with +0,6 sec., but only minutes later he had to give up this place to Montoya. With 24 minutes left of the session Mika finally drove with a car that worked. He took 2nd position, only +0,08 sec. slower than Schumi. Coulthard regained his 4th place, Ralf kept his third, Rubens now on fifth. Kimi Räikkönen and Alonso went both off the track, and after this Schumi improved his own pole with -0,25! His little brother took the top speed, though, with 314 KPH.
Suddenly with only 16 minutes left of the session, Montoya came on the track and blew everyone away, taking third grid position! And not before the very end did we see some action again. Coulthard tried one last time 4 minutes before the session stopped, but he didn't managed to improve. Häkkinen ended up behind two slower cars during his last fast lap, so he didn't improve either. Rubens and Schumi also kept their positions, so tomorrow's race will start with Schumi on the pole (his first pole in Brazil, by the way), his brother on 2nd, Mika on 3rd, Montoya (nice surprise) on 4th, Coulthard on 5th and finally Rubens on a disappointing 6th (considering that he's on home soil).

Mika Häkkinen's comment after the qualifying session: "It was a very close session and I'm quite optimistic for the race tomorrow. The entire team has done a lot of work since Malaysia and we have definitely improved the car and solved some of our problems. Starting from third on the grid is not too bad and I should be able to get good traction at the start. I think I could have gone quicker but was unable to get a clear lap on my last run but that is one of the risks you take when leaving it until the closing minutes."

The race: With a new pilot like Montoya so close to Mika and with McLaren's history from this season's previous races, I gotta say that I was worrying about everything else  that could happen except for what exactly took place today. Mika Häkkinen did not move even one cm when the famous red ligths were shut and the race had begun... Mika is still not familiar to the new clutch system that McLaren has developed (which they claim is their new secret weapon), and when he was suppose to start, the engine simply shut off... But despite of this sad event, the race today was really exciting. David, on the other hand, had a pretty good start, but noone made an impression as big as Montoya did. He was seriously motivated to win today's race, so he decided that he wanted to pass Schumi no matter what - and he really did pass the red devil!

Mika Häkkinen's comment after the race: "Obviously I’m very disappointed and I’m not quite sure what happened. The lights came on and I was getting ready to go but then the clutch behaved so unpredictably and it cut the engine immediately and that was the end of my Brazilian Grand Prix.
Immediately after the start about being in the situation: "It was the first time that has ever happened to me. And it was one of the most frightening experiences of my life. With all those cars going around me, I was very scared. First of all the engine stopped because I pulled out the clutch to get the bite-point. When I went to go, the clutch grabbed so aggressively, I stalled. The car just wasn't able to move because it stalled. Whatever the problem was the team will let everyone know later. They can't say anything precisely because the car is at the other side of the track."

Ron Dennis: "Mika’s clutch problem effectively eliminated him immediately. The pit lane entrance being so far from the start line made it impossible for the mechanics to restart his engine. There are still 14 races to go and you only have to look at last year to appreciate that this Championship is still wide open."

Norbert Haug: "I feel sorry for Mika, but the team will provide him with a better package." [Can we get that in written?]

An interesting fact: Jacques Villeneuve still holds the lap record of Interlagos from 1997.

Map of Interlagos

Australia 4.3.     Malaysia 18.3.    Brazil 1.4.     San Marino 15.4.     Spain 29.4.     Austria 13.5.    Monaco 27.5.     Canada 10.6.     Europe 24.6.    France 1.7.     Great Britain 15.7.     Germany 29.7.     Hungary 19.8.    Belgium 2.9.     Italy 16.9.     USA 30.9.    Japan 14.10.
 Formula One 2000     2001     The Pilots of 2001     Hugo    Pictures   Pictures 2   Pictures 3   Pictures 4   Pictures 5    Pictures 6    Pictures 7    Pictures 8
Back          Tilbage