2001 Spanish Grand Prix Race Report
good start and gained some places which helped me a lot and just kept pushing all day long." Jaques Villeneuve a somewhat surprised third, marked BAR's first visit to the podium saying, "Everybody in the team has worked really hard for the past three years and the beginning of the season has been hard but to finally get here (3rd), is the boost that we were all needing." The top six was rounded out by Trulli in 4th, an impressive Coulthard 5th and Heidfeld 6th.
Hitching a ride back to the pits on board the car of team mate Coulthard, Hakkinen was embraced by Schumacher in parc ferme. The respect between the two champions obvious to all. Venting his frustration over Hakkinen's demise, Ron Dennis concluded, " It was without warning. It is never won until it is won and the pain will come tomorrow. It was a great race strategy, it was nice to out manoeuvre Ferrari and it was an easy win, but this is motor racing." When asked about Coulthard's start line problem, the McLaren boss was somewhat open about his views on the matter, "I'm afraid it was a bit of brain fade from David as far as we can tell." Responding to the premature announcement, Coulthard was understandably annoyed with his team boss, " I think it's fair to say that Ron's probably had brain fade to make that comment without talking to me or the engineers first." The general feeling over the matter was that a clear indication had been revealed as to where the much rumoured favouritism lies at Woking.
"Today was our lucky day." announced Ross Brawn. Having seen Hakkinen's first victory of the season disappear with just over a mile to go, not many in the McLaren garage, or the grand prix paddock found it hard to disagree with him.
MJD2001 ©
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