2004 Italian Grand Prix

  2004 Italian Grand Prix

Race details
Race 15 of 18 in the 2004 Formula One season
Autodromo Nazionale Monza
Date	12 September 2004
Official name	FORMULA 1 Gran Premio Vodafone d'Italia 2004
Location	Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Monza, Italy
Course	Permanent racing facility 5.793 km (3.6 mi)
Distance	53 laps, 306.720 km (190.58 mi)
Weather	Wet track at the start, dry later on
Pole position
Driver	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari
Time	1:20.089
Fastest lap
Driver	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari
Time	1:21.046 on lap 41
Podium
First	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari
Second	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Third	Jenson Button	BAR-Honda

The 2004 Italian Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on September 12, 2004 at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza. Ferrari took a 1-2 in front of the delighted Tifosi, with Rubens Barrichello ahead of team mate Michael Schumacher. Both cars had to make their way through the field from the back, Barrichello having made an early pitstop after choosing the wrong tyres at the start and Schumacher having spun on the first lap.

The race was perhaps best known for speed records set during the race. In the first part of qualifying (which did not count towards grid positions), Juan Pablo Montoya lapped Monza in his Williams FW26 at an average speed of 262.242 km/h (162.9 mph), the fastest ever qualifying lap in the history of Formula One. The next day in the race, Montoya's teammate Antônio Pizzonia reached a top speed of 369.9 km/h (229.9 mph), the fastest speed ever recorded in Formula One at the time (it was to be exceeded by Montoya in 2005).

There was chaos in the Minardi pit garage as the car of Gianmaria Bruni caught fire after fuel escaped from the hose onto the hot bodywork during a routine pit-stop, fortunately it was put out without any serious injury. However, Bruni inhaled some of the extinguishant and was having trouble breathing, so the team decided to retire the car.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Lap	Gap
1	2	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	1:20.089	—
2	3	Juan Pablo Montoya	Williams-BMW	1:20.620	+0.531
3	1	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	1:20.637	+0.548
4	8	Fernando Alonso	Renault	1:20.645	+0.556
5	10	Takuma Sato	BAR-Honda	1:20.715	+0.626
6	9	Jenson Button	BAR-Honda	1:20.786	+0.697
7	6	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:20.877	+0.788
8	4	Antônio Pizzonia	Williams-BMW	1:20.888	+0.799
9	7	Jarno Trulli	Renault	1:21.027	+0.938
10	5	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	1:21.049	+0.960
11	16	Ricardo Zonta	Toyota	1:21.520	+1.431
12	14	Mark Webber	Jaguar-Cosworth	1:21.602	+1.513
13	17	Olivier Panis	Toyota	1:21.841	+1.752
14	15	Christian Klien	Jaguar-Cosworth	1:21.989	+1.900
15	11	Giancarlo Fisichella	Sauber-Petronas	1:22.239	+2.150
16	12	Felipe Massa	Sauber-Petronas	1:22.287	+2.198
17	18	Nick Heidfeld *	Jordan-Ford	1:22.301	+2.212
18	19	Giorgio Pantano	Jordan-Ford	1:23.239	+3.150
19	21	Zsolt Baumgartner	Minardi-Cosworth	1:24.808	+4.719
20	20	Gianmaria Bruni	Minardi-Cosworth	1:24.910	+4.821

• Nick Heidfeld was demoted to 20th place after receiving a ten-place penalty for an engine change in Friday practice.

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	2	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	53	1:15:18.448	1	10
2	1	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	53	+1.347	3	8
3	9	Jenson Button	BAR-Honda	53	+10.197	6	6
4	10	Takuma Sato	BAR-Honda	53	+15.370	5	5
5	3	Juan Pablo Montoya	Williams-BMW	53	+32.352	2	4
6	5	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	53	+33.439	10	3
7	4	Antônio Pizzonia	Williams-BMW	53	+33.752	8	2
8	11	Giancarlo Fisichella	Sauber-Petronas	53	+35.431	15	1
9	14	Mark Webber	Jaguar-Cosworth	53	+56.761	12
10	7	Jarno Trulli	Renault	53	+1:06.316	9
11	16	Ricardo Zonta	Toyota	53	+1:22.531	11
12	12	Felipe Massa	Sauber-Petronas	52	+1 Lap	16
13	15	Christian Klien	Jaguar-Cosworth	52	+1 Lap	14
14	18	Nick Heidfeld	Jordan-Ford	52	+1 Lap	20
15	21	Zsolt Baumgartner	Minardi-Cosworth	50	+3 Laps	19
Ret	8	Fernando Alonso	Renault	40	Spin	4
Ret	19	Giorgio Pantano	Jordan-Ford	33	Accident	17
Ret	20	Gianmaria Bruni	Minardi-Cosworth	29	Fire	18
Ret	6	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	13	Engine	7
Ret	17	Olivier Panis	Toyota	0	Collision	13

Lap leaders

• Lap Leaders: Rubens Barrichello 21 (1-4, 37-53), Fernando Alonso 6 (5-10), Jenson Button 24 (11-34) and Michael Schumacher 2 (35-36)

Standings after the race

• Bold text indicates the World Champions.

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Michael Schumacher 136 2 Rubens Barrichello 98 3 Jenson Button 71 4 Jarno Trulli 46 5 Fernando Alonso 45

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Ferrari 234 2 BAR-Honda 94 3 Renault 91 4 Williams-BMW 60 5 McLaren-Mercedes 52

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

External links

• Comments on 2004 Italian GP

Previous race: 2004 Belgian Grand Prix	FIA Formula One World Championship 2004 season	Next race: 2004 Chinese Grand Prix
Previous race: 2003 Italian Grand Prix	Italian Grand Prix	Next race: 2005 Italian Grand Prix

This page uses some content from Wikipedia. The original article was at 2004 Italian 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.