2001 European Grand Prix

  2001 European Grand Prix

Race details
Race 9 of 17 in the 2001 Formula One season
The Nürburgring (last modified in 1995)
Date	24 June 2001
Official name	XLV Warsteiner Grand Prix of Europe
Location	Nürburgring, Nürburg, Germany
Course	Permanent racing facility 4.556 km (3.199 mi)
Distance	67 laps, 305.252 km (189.675 mi)
Weather	Sunny, mild, dry, Air Temp: 21°C
Pole position
Driver	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Time	1:14.960
Fastest lap
Driver	Juan Pablo Montoya	Williams-BMW
Time	1:18.354 on lap 27
Podium
First	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Second	Juan Pablo Montoya	Williams-BMW
Third	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes

The 2001 European Grand Prix (formally the XLV Warsteiner Grand Prix of Europe) was a Formula One motor race on June 24, 2001 held at Nürburgring, Nürburg, Germany. It was the ninth race of the 2001 Formula One season. The race, contested over 67 laps, was won by Michael Schumacher driving for Ferrari after starting from pole position. Juan Pablo Montoya finished second driving for Williams, with David Coulthard third driving for McLaren.

After an exciting qualifying session, it was Michael Schumacher in the Ferrari who grabbed pole position from brother Ralf Schumacher and Juan-Pablo Montoya in the Williams-BMWs. This proved to be an important step in winning the grand prix. At the start of the race, Ralf appeared to gain a better start than his brother, but Michael quickly moved across and literally forced Ralf to lift off the throttle, or hit the wall. M Schumacher thus safely held the advantage going into the first corner.

In the early stages, Michael was slowly pulling away, but as the laps passed it became evident that the Michelin-shod Williams-BMWs of Ralf Schumacher and Montoya were starting to show greater speed than the Bridgestone-shod Ferrari. For the rest of the first stint Ralf continued to press his brother, but Michael refused to buckle under the immense pressure. Ralf was now clearly being held up and teammate Montoya was now closing on both of them. Critically for Michael, he and his brother both pitted in at the end of lap 28, thus allowing him to stay in front. Montoya pitted a lap later. After the pitstops, however, the Ferrari showed an improvement in laptimes and was able to comfortably maintain a slender lead. His race was to become even easier when Ralf received a stop-go penalty for illegally crossing the white line that separates the pit exit and racing line (there for safety reasons). Michael Schumacher now comfortably lead over Montoya.

From then on, it was a fairly easy race for the German, who romped to an important victory in the context of the championship.

Classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	1	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	67	1:29:42.724	1	10
2	6	Juan Pablo Montoya	Williams-BMW	67	+4.127	3	6
3	4	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	67	+24.993	5	4
4	5	Ralf Schumacher	Williams-BMW	67	+33.345	2	3
5	2	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	67	+45.495	4	2
6	3	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	67	+1:04.868	6	1
7	18	Eddie Irvine	Jaguar-Cosworth	67	+1:06.198	12
8	19	Pedro de la Rosa	Jaguar-Cosworth	66	+1 Lap	16
9	10	Jacques Villeneuve	BAR-Honda	66	+1 Lap	11
10	17	Kimi Räikkönen	Sauber-Petronas	66	+1 Lap	9
11	7	Giancarlo Fisichella	Benetton-Renault	66	+1 Lap	15
12	23	Luciano Burti	Prost-Acer	65	+2 Laps	17
13	8	Jenson Button	Benetton-Renault	65	+2 Laps	20
14	21	Fernando Alonso	Minardi-European	65	+2 Laps	21
15	22	Jean Alesi	Prost-Acer	64	Spun off	14
Ret	14	Jos Verstappen	Arrows-Asiatech	58	Engine	19
Ret	16	Nick Heidfeld	Sauber-Petronas	54	Driveshaft	10
Ret	11	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Jordan-Honda	48	Spun off	8
Ret	12	Jarno Trulli	Jordan-Honda	44	Transmission	7
Ret	15	Enrique Bernoldi	Arrows-Asiatech	29	Gearbox	18
Ret	9	Olivier Panis	BAR-Honda	23	Electrical	13
Ret	20	Tarso Marques	Minardi-European	7	Electrical	22

Notes

• Lap leaders: Michael Schumacher 66 (1-28, 30-67), Juan Pablo Montoya 1 (29)

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Michael Schumacher 68 2 David Coulthard 44 3 Rubens Barrichello 26 4 Ralf Schumacher 25 5 Juan Pablo Montoya 12

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Ferrari 94 2 McLaren-Mercedes 53 3 Williams-BMW 37 4 Sauber-Petronas 15 5 Jordan-Honda 13

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

Previous race: 2001 Canadian Grand Prix	FIA Formula One World Championship 2001 season	Next race: 2001 French Grand Prix
Previous race: 2000 European Grand Prix	European Grand Prix	Next race: 2002 European Grand Prix

This page uses some content from Wikipedia. The original article was at 2001 European 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.