2000 San Marino Grand Prix

  2000 San Marino Grand Prix

Race details
Race 3 of 17 in the 2000 Formula One season
Date	April 9, 2000
Official name	XXIV Grand Prix of San Marino
Location	Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, Imola, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Course	Permanent racing facility 4.933 km (3.065 mi)
Distance	62 laps, 305.609 km (189.897 mi)
Weather	Overcast, Mild, Dry
Pole position
Driver	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes
Time	1:24.714
Fastest lap
Driver	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes
Time	1:26.523 on lap 60
Podium
First	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Second	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes
Third	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes

The 2000 San Marino Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Imola on April 9, 2000. It was the third round of the 2000 Formula One season.

Report

Qualifying saw Mika Häkkinen on pole position with Michael Schumacher second, David Coulthard third, Rubens Barrichello fourth, Ralf Schumacher fifth and Heinz-Harald Frentzen sixth. During qualifying Schumacher took pole position for a brief moment, beating Häkkinen's time by 0.025 seconds. Häkkinen's final timed lap of the session however, was quick enough reclaim pole position. In the first 2 sectors of the circuit, Häkkinen was slower than Schumacher by 0.085 and 0.089 seconds respectively. A small mistake at turn 12 forced the Finn to run wide off the track for a moment, and as he exited the final corner onto the pit straight, the car oversteered. Despite these two errors, Häkkinen reclaimed pole position by 0.091 seconds.

As raceday dawned, it seemed that the McLarens were faster than the Ferraris. At the start, Schumacher did not make a good getaway and, in order to defend his position, moved to the left to block Coulthard. As the two tussled while reaching Tamburello, Coulthard had to lift off, allowing Barrichello to get level with him. In the next corner, Rubens was ahead. At the same time, Jacques Villeneuve had a superb start and got past four cars in front of him. Following Jacques were Jarno Trulli and Eddie Irvine in sixth and seventh respectively. All this had allowed Häkkinen to get a 1.2 second lead over Schumacher and a further 1.9 seconds over Barrichello and Coulthard.

It soon became clear that the race was developing into a battle between Häkkinen and Schumacher. Barrichello and Coulthard were dropping away at a second a lap and they were quite a bit ahead of third group consisting of Villeneuve, Trulli, Irvine, Ralf and Mika Salo. At the front, Häkkinen soon began to edge away from Schumacher, slowly but surely. On lap 20, the gap was out to 3 seconds before it stabilized until the pitstops. Meanwhile Irvine accidentally pushed the speed limiter button, allowing Ralf and Salo to get ahead. On lap 26, over 25 seconds behind the leaders, Barrichello and Coulthard dived into the pits. Coulthard was faster and got ahead of Barrichello. On the next lap, Häkkinen stopped to refuel with a 3.2 second lead. He was stationary for 7.6 seconds unlike Schumacher who was there for 10 seconds. This nearly doubled Mika's lead, up to 5.7 seconds. At the same time, Coulthard had a momentary technical glitch, allowing Barrichello back into third.

Behind the top four, Villeneuve, Ralf and Salo were battling for fifth, sixth and seventh and left Irvine and Trulli to battle for eighth and ninth. At the front, Häkkinen hit a piece of wreckage and lost time. He recovered and increased his lead back up to over five seconds by lap 39. But then Schumacher began to close in. On lap 41, it came down by a second. Another three tenths were chipped away in the next lap. On lap 43, however, Schumacher had to deal with the Sauber of Pedro Diniz who tried to be a bit gentle and the two nearly collided. Schumacher lost over a second but immediately something in the electronics went wrong on Häkkinen's car. It immediately reset itself but Mika had lost two seconds. So, when Häkkinen pitted on lap 44 with a 3 second lead, Michael stepped up a gear, but it did not look like he was going to get the 25 seconds needed to get ahead of Mika.

Next lap, Barrichello went into the pits from third while behind them Ralf drops out with fuel pressure. Coulthard's sector times decreased as he went next time around. He came ahead of Rubens. McLaren had won the smaller battle, i.e. the battle for third. Now it was left to Schumacher to get ahead of Häkkinen. Schumacher came into the pits on lap 49. It was short and he came ahead of Häkkinen. There was a massive difference in their IN and OUT lap times which made the difference. Coulthard still could not match the pace of the leaders, around three tenths slower but he pulled away from Barrichello at over two seconds a lap. In behind them, Salo was hounding Villeneuve. On lap 58, Trulli had gearbox problems and stopped from eighth. Thus, Schumacher won comfortably from Häkkinen with Coulthard in third. Barrichello was fourth while Villeneuve held off Salo.

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Time	Gap
1	1	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:24.714
2	3	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	1:24.805	+0.091
3	2	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	1:25.014	+0.300
4	4	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	1:25.242	+0.528
5	9	Ralf Schumacher	Williams-BMW	1:25.871	+1.157
6	5	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	1:25.892	+1.178
7	7	Eddie Irvine	Jaguar-Cosworth	1:25.929	+1.215
8	6	Jarno Trulli	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	1:26.002	+1.288
9	22	Jacques Villeneuve	BAR-Honda	1:26.124	+1.410
10	16	Pedro Diniz	Sauber-Petronas	1:26.238	+1.524
11	12	Alexander Wurz	Benetton-Playlife	1:26.281	+1.567
12	17	Mika Salo	Sauber-Petronas	1:26.336	+1.622
13	18	Pedro de la Rosa	Arrows-Supertec	1:26.349	+1.635
14	23	Ricardo Zonta	BAR-Honda	1:26.814	+2.100
15	14	Jean Alesi	Prost-Peugeot	1:26.824	+2.110
16	19	Jos Verstappen	Arrows-Supertec	1:26.845	+2.131
17	8	Johnny Herbert	Jaguar-Cosworth	1:27.051	+2.337
18	10	Jenson Button	Williams-BMW	1:27.135	+2.421
19	11	Giancarlo Fisichella	Benetton-Playlife	1:27.253	+2.539
20	21	Gastón Mazzacane	Minardi-Fondmetal	1:28.161	+3.447
21	20	Marc Gené	Minardi-Fondmetal	1:28.333	+3.619
22	15	Nick Heidfeld	Prost-Peugeot	1:28.361	+3.647

Classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	3	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	62	1:31:39.776	2	10
2	1	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	62	+1.168	1	6
3	2	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	62	+51.008	3	4
4	4	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	62	+1:29.276	4	3
5	22	Jacques Villeneuve	BAR-Honda	61	+1 Lap	9	2
6	17	Mika Salo	Sauber-Petronas	61	+1 Lap	12	1
7	7	Eddie Irvine	Jaguar-Cosworth	61	+1 Lap	7
8	16	Pedro Diniz	Sauber-Petronas	61	+1 Lap	10
9	12	Alexander Wurz	Benetton-Playlife	61	+1 Lap	11
10	8	Johnny Herbert	Jaguar-Cosworth	61	+1 Lap	17
11	11	Giancarlo Fisichella	Benetton-Playlife	61	+1 Lap	19
12	23	Ricardo Zonta	BAR-Honda	61	+1 Lap	14
13	21	Gastón Mazzacane	Minardi-Fondmetal	60	+2 Laps	20
14	19	Jos Verstappen	Arrows-Supertec	59	+3 Laps	16
15	6	Jarno Trulli	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	58	Gearbox	8
Ret	18	Pedro de la Rosa	Arrows-Supertec	49	Spun off	13
Ret	9	Ralf Schumacher	Williams-BMW	45	Fuel System	5
Ret	14	Jean Alesi	Prost-Peugeot	25	Hydraulics	15
Ret	15	Nick Heidfeld	Prost-Peugeot	22	Hydraulics	22
Ret	10	Jenson Button	Williams-BMW	5	Engine	18
Ret	20	Marc Gené	Minardi-Fondmetal	5	Spun off	21
Ret	5	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	4	Gearbox	6

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Michael Schumacher 30 2 Rubens Barrichello 9 3 Giancarlo Fisichella 8 4= Mika Häkkinen 6 4= Ralf Schumacher 6

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Ferrari 39 2 McLaren-Mercedes 10 3 Benetton-Playlife 8 4= Jordan-Mugen-Honda 7 4= Williams-BMW 7

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

Previous race: 2000 Brazilian Grand Prix	FIA Formula One World Championship 2000 season	Next race: 2000 British Grand Prix
Previous race: 1999 San Marino Grand Prix	San Marino Grand Prix	Next race: 2001 San Marino Grand Prix

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