Home » Sports » Auto Racing » 2001 San Marino Grand Prix Race Report

2001 San Marino Grand Prix Race Report

© Max J. Davies

Lap 29, Schumacher and Hakkinen pitted with the Williams stationary for 7.9s and the McLaren for 8.2s. Having set blistering lap times before the stops, Schumacher now found himself 8.6s ahead of Coulthard in 2nd place. Trulli appeared to fall asleep behind the wheel, with the Jordan was falling back from Montoya's Williams at a steady rate of knots. Villeneuve was next to retire with a blown Honda engine on lap 31. The French/Canadian banged his steering wheel in frustration, saying "It looked like we were finally going to get some points today, it's been a very difficult start to the season. A bad qualifying session yesterday, we worked hard to get up to 6th, and to have an engine failure is just very frustrating." Having realised that their tyre choice was wrong, Ferrari brought in Barrichello on lap 32 and short fuelled him. The Brazilian stopped for 7.8s and came out ahead of Hakkinen's McLaren in 3rd place, Ross Brawn having weaved his magic once again.

Giancarlo Fisichella pulled into the pits on the same lap and retired his ill handling Benetton Renault with faulty electrics. After 33 laps the positions read, Schumacher, Coulthard, Barrichello, Hakkinen, Montoya, Trulli, with Ralf pulling away from Coulthard by 2 tenths of a second per lap. Eddie Irvine, with a somewhat average drive, retired his Jaguar with a blown Cosworth engine on lap 43 and reiterated the fact that Jaguar is still a long way from being competitive.

Coulthard made his second and final stop of the afternoon on lap 45 and was stationary for 8.7s. Schumacher continued to pull away from the Scot and was 10 seconds ahead when the McLaren pitted. Williams called Ralf in for his 2nd stop a lap later and he rejoined the action after 8.2s and still held his 10 second lead over Coulthard. Pitting from 4th place, Hakkinen followed behind Schumacher and was on his way again after 7.8s desperate to make up ground on Barrichello. The sole surviving Ferrari was in on lap 47 and after 8.7s, exited the pits even further ahead of Hakkinen's McLaren.

Next in was Montoya. Running 5th at the time, the Columbian's stop should have been straight forward. It wasn't. Having been given a new set of wheels, the fuel nozzle stuck on the Willams and when it was finally released, the car stalled. Firing up the Columbian for a second time, the car stalled yet again, the clutch by this time red hot. After a stop lasting 1 minute 8 seconds, Montoya was on his way, lighting up the rear wheels in a display of anger and frustration, knowing that yet another chance to score his first points of the season was all but over. He rejoined the race but was to return on lap 49 and park his BMW Williams for good, saying, "Again I could not finish the race and again I am disappointed. When I stopped for my second pit-stop I had a problem with the clutch and I could not get anymore gears." He added, " I went out of the pits but I was stuck in first gear and all I could do was drive back into the garage. We've been quite unlucky so far but these things happen."