2001 Malaysian Grand Prix

  2001 Malaysian Grand Prix

Race details
Race 2 of 17 in the 2001 Formula One season
Date	Sunday, 18 March 2001
Official name	X Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix
Location	Sepang International Circuit Sepang, Selangor, Malaysia
Course	Permanent racing facility 5.543 km (3.376 mi)
Distance	55 laps, 304.865 km (185.680 mi)
Scheduled Distance	56 laps, 310.408 km (189.056 mi)
Weather	Early Monsoon, Dry Later, Air Temp at start: 32°C
Pole position
Driver	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Time	1:35.220
Fastest lap
Driver	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes
Time	1:40.962 on lap 48
Podium
First	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Second	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari
Third	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes

The 2001 Malaysian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the Sepang International Circuit in Sepang, Malaysia on Sunday, 18 March 2001 at 14:30 MST (UTC+08:00). The race, contested over 55 laps, was won by Ferrari's Michael Schumacher. His teammate, Rubens Barrichello, finished second whilst McLaren driver, David Coulthard, completed the podium by finishing in third place.

Race report

The race began at 14:30 local time, Heinz-Harald Frentzen drastically slowed during the parade lap due to a computer-hardware error. It was thought he would fail to make the start; however, Giancarlo Fisichella bought the Jordan driver some time when he lined up on the incorrect side of the grid, and failed to take his correct grid point after attempting to cross the grid. This caused an aborted start, allowing both the Jordan and Benetton to take the restart.

That was not the end of the dramatic start however: Juan Pablo Montoya's Williams then broke down and refused to fire. The Colombian was forced to take to the T-Car and start from the pitlane.

Michael Schumacher had a great start from pole position to maintain a large gap after the first corner. Ferrari teammate Rubens Barrichello did not have such a start and had slipped from second to fourth by the approach to the first corner. Barrichello managed to overtake Jarno Trulli on the outside, but immediately after tapped the back end of Ralf Schumacher's Williams. This forced Ralf into a spin which put him from second to the back of the pack, after he had started fourth. The McLaren of David Coulthard had a great start, going from eighth to fourth within the first two corners. Kimi Räikkönen had a driveshaft failure which left him stuck on the grid.

Michael Schumacher recorded his sixth consecutive win from pole position.

On the third lap, rain began to fall and both Ferraris ran wide across the gravel allowing Trulli to take the lead. This may have been caused by the oil leak from Olivier Panis' BAR which retired on lap 1. Schumacher ran further across the gravel than Barrichello which meant he fell behind his teammate. Thus, the order became on lap 3: Trulli, Coulthard, Barrichello, Frentzen, Verstappen, Villeneuve, Schumacher and Häkkinen. The safety car came out on lap 4 to cope with the downpour which had suddenly occurred. Leader Trulli went off the track and slipped down the order soon after this. Barrichello pitted and endured a one minute twelve second pit-stop, with Schumacher queueing behind. After the chaos of the safety car period and all the pit-stops which it included, the order had changed to: Coulthard, Frentzen, Verstappen, Häkkinen, Trulli, Alesi, Fisichella, and Ralf, when the race restarted on lap 10.

The two Ferraris had dropped to tenth and eleventh, and Barrichello was soon overtaken by Schumacher. Frentzen lost places to Verstappen, Häkkinen, and Ralf to fall to fifth within the next few laps. It was not long before the two Ferraris were on the back of Frentzen, and Schumacher pulled an overtaking move around the outside. Schumacher was going quickly and overtook Häkkinen, again around the outside, of the final corner. Barrichello soon overtook both Frentzen and Häkkinen too. Schumacher then overtook Verstappen and Coulthard to take the lead on lap 15 as the track began to dry. Barrichello elevated himself to second place as well - the performance of the Ferraris suggesting that they were on a different tyre compound. Many drivers then pitted, but Schumacher stayed out, stretching his lead to more than a minute over Barrichello and lapping at three seconds faster a lap on occasion.

Ferrari recorded a 1-2 finish with Schumacher winning and Barrichello finishing 23.6 seconds down the road. David Coulthard completed the podium by finishing in third place. Ralf overtook Häkkinen and Verstappen to take fifth place before the pair started a battle of their own which allowed Frentzen to overtake then both at once at the final corner; Verstappen just managed to edge back in front on the straight. Verstappen would however, slip down to seventh, when Häkkinen took the final point position of sixth place. Häkkinen was eventually sixth, only narrowly beaten by Ralf (fifth) and Frentzen (fourth).

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Lap	Gap
1	1	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	1:35.220	-
2	2	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	1:35.319	+0.099
3	5	Ralf Schumacher	Williams-BMW	1:35.511	+0.291
4	3	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:36.040	+0.820
5	12	Jarno Trulli	Jordan-Honda	1:36.180	+0.960
6	6	Juan Pablo Montoya	Williams-BMW	1:36.218	+0.998
7	10	Jacques Villeneuve	BAR-Honda	1:36.397	+1.177
8	4	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	1:36.417	+1.197
9	11	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Jordan-Honda	1:36.578	+1.358
10	9	Olivier Panis	BAR-Honda	1:36.681	+1.461
11	16	Nick Heidfeld	Sauber-Petronas	1:36.913	+1.693
12	18	Eddie Irvine	Jaguar-Cosworth	1:37.140	+1.920
13	22	Jean Alesi	Prost-Acer	1:37.406	+2.186
14	17	Kimi Räikkönen	Sauber-Petronas	1:37.728	+2.508
15	19	Luciano Burti	Jaguar-Cosworth	1:38.035	+2.815
16	7	Giancarlo Fisichella	Benetton-Renault	1:38.086	+2.866
17	8	Jenson Button	Benetton-Renault	1:38.258	+3.038
18	14	Jos Verstappen	Arrows-Asiatech	1:38.509	+3.289
19	23	Gaston Mazzacane	Prost-Acer	1:39.006	+3.786
20	20	Tarso Marques	Minardi-European	1:39.714	+4.494
21	21	Fernando Alonso	Minardi-European	1:40.249	+5.029
22	15	Enrique Bernoldi	Arrows-Asiatech	No time

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	1	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	55	1:47:34.801	1	10
2	2	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	55	+23.660	2	6
3	4	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	55	+28.555	8	4
4	11	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Jordan-Honda	55	+46.543	9	3
5	5	Ralf Schumacher	Williams-BMW	55	+48.233	3	2
6	3	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	55	+48.606	4	1
7	14	Jos Verstappen	Arrows-Asiatech	55	+1:21.560	18
8	12	Jarno Trulli	Jordan-Honda	54	+1 Lap	5
9	22	Jean Alesi	Prost-Acer	54	+1 Lap	13
10	19	Luciano Burti	Jaguar-Cosworth	54	+1 Lap	15
11	8	Jenson Button	Benetton-Renault	53	+2 Laps	17
12	23	Gastón Mazzacane	Prost-Acer	53	+2 Laps	19
13	21	Fernando Alonso	Minardi-European	52	+3 Laps	21
14	20	Tarso Marques	Minardi-European	51	+4 Laps	20
Ret	7	Giancarlo Fisichella	Benetton-Renault	31	Fuel Pressure	16
Ret	10	Jacques Villeneuve	BAR-Honda	3	Spun off	7
Ret	16	Nick Heidfeld	Sauber-Petronas	3	Spun off	11
Ret	15	Enrique Bernoldi	Arrows-Asiatech	3	Spun off	22
Ret	6	Juan Pablo Montoya	Williams-BMW	3	Spun off	6
Ret	18	Eddie Irvine	Jaguar-Cosworth	3	Water Leak	12
Ret	9	Olivier Panis	BAR-Honda	1	Oil Leak	10
Ret	17	Kimi Räikkönen	Sauber-Petronas	0	Driveshaft	14

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Michael Schumacher 20 2 Rubens Barrichello 10 2 David Coulthard 10 4 Heinz-Harald Frentzen 5 5 Nick Heidfeld 3

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Ferrari 30 2 McLaren-Mercedes 11 3 Jordan-Honda 5 4 Sauber-Petronas 4 5 Williams-BMW 2

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

Notes

• Juan Pablo Montoya did not start the race from the grid.
• This race was run under wet/dry conditions.
• Before all the cars even started the race, Kimi Räikkönen's Sauber was already stuck. It was originally said that Kimi had transmission problems but later confirmed as a drive shaft problem.
• Arrows driver Jos Verstappen ran a high of 2nd position in the race, despite starting the race from 18th position.

External links

• A short highlights show of the race

Previous race: 2001 Australian Grand Prix	FIA Formula One World Championship 2001 season	Next race: 2001 Brazilian Grand Prix
Previous race: 2000 Malaysian Grand Prix	Malaysian Grand Prix	Next race: 2002 Malaysian Grand Prix

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