2001 Spanish Grand Prix Race Report
dumbfounded, the joy in the McLaren garage was understandably immense; for it is not often that the Woking concern 'out fox' their rivals from Maranello. With the second round of stops now complete, the order on lap 52 was Hakkinen, Schumacher, Montoya, Villeneuve, Trulli and a relatively un-noticed Heidfeld in the Sauber. Dispite Schumacher's problems with a few backmarkers, it soon became apparent that all was not well with his machine. For the defending champion was dropping back from the leading McLaren at an alarming rate, even allowing some of the lapped drivers to overtake him down the main straight, such was his lack of straight-line speed. Having only used two sets of tyres in Saturday's qualifying session, the gamble for Schumacher to have three sets of new Bridgestone's available for the race, appeared to have hampered his chances of beating Hakkinen. " Michael had a terrible problem with his third set of tyres," said Ferrari Technical Director Ross Brawn, " It was a very bad vibration and he just couldn't respond."
Into the last 5 laps of the race and Hakkinen was leading Schumacher by a now comfortable 30 seconds whilst team mate Coulthard, using the slipstream of Button's lapped Benetton, went past Heidfield on the main straight to move up into 6th place and into what must have seemed an impossible points scoring position at the start of his afternoon. Starting his 65th and last lap, Hakkinen's McLaren Mercedes began to slow dramatically. First impressions were that he had run out of fuel and might still be able to coast round the circuit to the chequered flag. However, approaching the hairpin at turn four, the clutch let out an almighty scream and Hakkinen's race was over. He coasted down to turn 7, pulled off the track, saw the Ferrari of Schumacher go past and stepped out of the car. The German not believing his luck, waved to the crowd as he rounded the final corner, and took his 3rd win of the season and went back to the top of the drivers championship table. Newly promoted Juan Pablo Montoya capped an impressive drive in the Williams with a fine second place and in doing so, record the first points of his Formula One career. " The first four races have been very hard for me and I wasn't expecting to score six points today," said the delighted Colombian, "I made a good
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