| Race details | ||
|---|---|---|
| Race 3 of 17 in the 2001 Formula One season | ||
 | ||
| Date | April 1, 2001 | |
| Official name | XXX Grande Prêmio Marlboro do Brasil | |
| Location | Autódromo José Carlos Pace, São Paulo, Brazil | |
| Course | Permanent racing facility 4.309 km (2.677 mi) | |
| Distance | 71 laps, 305.939 km (190.067 mi) | |
| Weather | Air Temp: 30°C | |
| Pole position | ||
| Driver |  Michael Schumacher
|
Ferrari |
| Time | 1:13.780 | |
| Fastest lap | ||
| Driver | Ralf Schumacher
|
Williams-BMW |
| Time | 1:15.693 on lap 38 | |
| Podium | ||
| First |  David Coulthard
|
McLaren-Mercedes |
| Second | Michael Schumacher
|
Ferrari |
| Third | Nick Heidfeld
|
Sauber-Petronas |
The 2001 Brazilian Grand Prix was a Formula One race held at the Interlagos Circuit on April 1, 2001.
This exciting Grand Prix had three notable incidents, two of them being overtaking moves, both on Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher, and both taking place at the "Senna S" corner of the track.
The first of these overtaking maneuvers took place very early in the race. An early safety car was brought onto the track because McLaren driver Mika Häkkinen had stalled on the starting grid. When the safety car came in, F1 rookie Juan Pablo Montoya overtook defending champion Michael Schumacher.
The home crowd though had little to cheer about for Rubens Barrichello. He had problems before he even got on the grid and had to switch to the spare car. He then slammed into the back of Ralf Schumacher on the restart, causing Rubens to be out on the spot. Ralf Schumacher limped back to the pits, but was in for a long time replacing the rear wing; he later spun off when the track was wet.
By lap 39 it was turning into a dream race for Montoya - in his first season in Formula 1, he was leading his "home" Grand Prix by more than 30 seconds over Michael Schumacher.[1] However, this dream would then be ruined while he was lapping Jos Verstappen. Verstappen let Montoya by, but as he pulled in behind Montoya while braking for turn 4 his Arrows slammed violently into the back of Montoya's Williams and both men were out of the race.
Soon after Montoya's retirement it began to rain heavily, forcing everyone to change tyres, some went onto full-wet tires while others chose the intermediates.
Michael Schumacher was fighting understeer all race, and despite planning to stop twice instead of once was only able to run at the pace of Montoya and Coulthard. However he was right back in the hunt after he had pitted early. He still needed to pit again for fuel anyway but was able to change tires as well. Coulthard, who had made his one and only stop, stayed out an extra lap which at that point looked costly.
But then Schumacher, with a dry-weather set up on his car, spun soon after exiting the pit lane allowing Coulthard right back on his tail.
This led to the second amazing overtaking move of the race, this one by David Coulthard. He passed Schumacher with the aid of a backmarker, rather similar to his teammate Mika Häkkinen's move on Schumacher at the Belgian Grand Prix the previous season.
Coulthard stormed on to win, while Schumacher suffered another off on his way to second place and a delighted Nick Heidfeld took his first-ever podium driving for Sauber. It was also Sauber's first podium since Jean Alesi at the 1998 Belgian Grand Prix.
Classification[]
Qualifying[]
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Lap | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Michael Schumacher
|
Ferrari | 1:13.780 | - |
| 2 | 5 | Ralf Schumacher
|
Williams-BMW | 1:14.090 | +0.310 |
| 3 | 3 |  Mika Häkkinen
|
McLaren-Mercedes | 1:14.122 | +0.342 |
| 4 | 6 |  Juan Pablo Montoya
|
Williams-BMW | 1:14.165 | +0.385 |
| 5 | 4 | David Coulthard
|
McLaren-Mercedes | 1:14.178 | +0.398 |
| 6 | 2 |  Rubens Barrichello
|
Ferrari | 1:14.191 | +0.411 |
| 7 | 12 |  Jarno Trulli
|
Jordan-Honda | 1:14.630 | +0.850 |
| 8 | 11 | Heinz-Harald Frentzen
|
Jordan-Honda | 1:14.633 | +0.853 |
| 9 | 16 | Nick Heidfeld
|
Sauber-Petronas | 1:14.810 | +1.030 |
| 10 | 17 | Kimi Räikkönen
|
Sauber-Petronas | 1:14.924 | +1.144 |
| 11 | 9 |  Olivier Panis
|
BAR-Honda | 1:15.046 | +1.266 |
| 12 | 10 |  Jacques Villeneuve
|
BAR-Honda | 1:15.180 | +1.400 |
| 13 | 18 | Eddie Irvine
|
Jaguar-Cosworth | 1:15.192 | +1.412 |
| 14 | 19 | Luciano Burti
|
Jaguar-Cosworth | 1:15.371 | +1.591 |
| 15 | 22 | Jean Alesi
|
Prost-Acer | 1:15.437 | +1.657 |
| 16 | 15 | Enrique Bernoldi
|
Arrows-Asiatech | 1:15.657 | +1.877 |
| 17 | 14 |  Jos Verstappen
|
Arrows-Asiatech | 1:15.704 | +1.924 |
| 18 | 7 | Giancarlo Fisichella
|
Benetton-Renault | 1:16.175 | +2.395 |
| 19 | 21 |  Fernando Alonso
|
Minardi-European | 1:16.184 | +2.404 |
| 20 | 8 | Jenson Button
|
Benetton-Renault | 1:16.229 | +2.449 |
| 21 | 23 |  Gaston Mazzacane
|
Prost-Acer | 1:16.520 | +2.740 |
| 22 | 20 | Tarso Marques
|
Minardi-European | 1:16.784 | +3.004 |
Race[]
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | David Coulthard
|
McLaren-Mercedes | 71 | 1:39:00.834 | 5 | 10 |
| 2 | 1 | Michael Schumacher
|
Ferrari | 71 | +16.164 | 1 | 6 |
| 3 | 16 | Nick Heidfeld
|
Sauber-Petronas | 70 | +1 Lap | 9 | 4 |
| 4 | 9 | Olivier Panis
|
BAR-Honda | 70 | +1 Lap | 11 | 3 |
| 5 | 12 | Jarno Trulli
|
Jordan-Honda | 70 | +1 Lap | 7 | 2 |
| 6 | 7 | Giancarlo Fisichella
|
Benetton-Renault | 70 | +1 Lap | 18 | 1 |
| 7 | 10 | Jacques Villeneuve
|
BAR-Honda | 70 | +1 Lap | 12 | |
| 8 | 22 | Jean Alesi
|
Prost-Acer | 70 | +1 Lap | 15 | |
| 9 | 20 | Tarso Marques
|
Minardi-European | 68 | +3 Laps | 22 | |
| 10 | 8 | Jenson Button
|
Benetton-Renault | 64 | +7 Laps | 20 | |
| 11 | 11 | Heinz-Harald Frentzen
|
Jordan-Honda | 63 | Electrical | 8 | |
| Ret | 17 | Kimi Räikkönen
|
Sauber-Petronas | 55 | Spun off | 10 | |
| Ret | 5 | Ralf Schumacher
|
Williams-BMW | 54 | Spun off | 2 | |
| Ret | 23 | Gastón Mazzacane
|
Prost-Acer | 54 | Clutch | 21 | |
| Ret | 18 | Eddie Irvine
|
Jaguar-Cosworth | 52 | Spun off | 13 | |
| Ret | 6 | Juan Pablo Montoya
|
Williams-BMW | 38 | Collision | 4 | |
| Ret | 14 | Jos Verstappen
|
Arrows-Asiatech | 37 | Collision | 17 | |
| Ret | 19 | Luciano Burti
|
Jaguar-Cosworth | 30 | Engine | 14 | |
| Ret | 21 | Fernando Alonso
|
Minardi-European | 25 | Electrical | 19 | |
| Ret | 15 | Enrique Bernoldi
|
Arrows-Asiatech | 15 | Hydraulics | 16 | |
| Ret | 2 | Rubens Barrichello
|
Ferrari | 2 | Collision | 6 | |
| Ret | 3 | Mika Häkkinen
|
McLaren-Mercedes | 0 | Stalled | 3 |
Standings after the race[]
|
|
- Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
Notes[]
- First podium: Nick Heidfeld
- Mika Häkkinen retired right at the start of the race as he stalled on the grid.
- Juan Pablo Montoya was on course for his first F1 victory, but he was hit by Jos Verstappen from behind. Verstappen argued that Montoya braked early approaching the next corner.
- This race was run under heavy rain on the last 25 laps of the race.
- First time since 1993 the winner wasn't the eventual world champion at the end of the season.
| Previous race: 2001 Malaysian Grand Prix |
FIA Formula One World Championship 2001 season |
Next race: 2001 San Marino Grand Prix |
| Previous race: 2000 Brazilian Grand Prix |
Brazilian Grand Prix | Next race: 2002 Brazilian Grand Prix |
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This page uses some content from Wikipedia. The original article was at 2001 Brazilian Grand Prix. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Autopedia, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License. |