Formula One Round Four - San Marino Grand Prix

Round Four of the Formula One 2001 season shifted all the focus to Europe as the San Marino Grand Prix started the series of various circuits in Europe. The European leg of the tournament is much significant since all but two of the teams competing in Formula One are from Europe. Mclaren were desparately looking for a headstart in this European circuit as they were lagging Ferrari in the Constructors' as well as the Drivers' Championship.

The San Marino Circuit, Imola, is the second of the only two circuits that run in anticlockwise direction in Formula One. It is also one of the extremely high speed circuits with speeds averaging over 300 km per hour over the track. It has a bleak history since there have been two high speed accidents, both having claimed the lives of driving greats, one of them being the legendary Brazilian Driver, Aryton Senna. The circuit is very close to the Minardi team's base which is just about 20 kms from the track. It is also in close proximity from Ferrari's base. Hence there were a large number of Ferrari supporters in the crowd and the prancing horses were flying everywhere admist the spectators.

The event was heated up right from the qualifying session which saw exhillirating performances from the drivers of Mclaren, Williams BMW and Ferrari. The battle for the grid positions went upto the last minute of the qualifying hour as Mclaren formed the front row, David Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen in first and second place respectively. The second row belonged to the Schumacher family, with Ralf third and Michael fourth on the grid. The top six were completed by Jarno Trulli and Rubens Barichello, with Juan Pablo Montoya on close heels at seventh. Young Kimi Raikkonen displayed a great drive to qualify in the top ten ahead of teammate Nick Heidfield. Olivier Panis also managed to be in the top ten keeping BAR in contention.

The race started in a dramatic fashion with Ralf Schumacher speeding past David Coulthard at the first corner and Jarno Trulli also finding the inside of Mika Hakkinen to take third position from the Finn. Ralf Schumacher extended his lead with every lap as he displayed the awesome power of the BMW engine yet again. The rest of the cars just couldnt match the pace of Ralf Schumacher's Williams and the battle was to be fought out at the pits now. On one of the corners, Michael Schumacher had a clutch problem and dropped back to 9th position, much to the Ferrari fans' dissapointment. But he managed to keep the car going on and returned to terms with the pace of the cars. Rubens Barichello managed to overtake Olivier Panis in the BAR Honda to take 6th position.

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