The Hindu : The Schumacher road show continues

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 29, 2002

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Sport - Racing : Motor

The Schumacher road show continues

BARCELONA APRIL 28. Michael Schumacher won his fourth Formula-1 race of this season, by dominating Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix from pole to finish as he threatens to wrap up his fifth drivers' championship before the season's half over.

The victory in an amazing streak gave the German his 16th victory in the last 25 races and the 57th of his career.

Schumacher managed to control the field despite starting with a back-up car after his main car suffered hydraulic problems in morning practice.

Juan Pablo Montoya of BMW-Williams was second, 35.6 seconds behind, followed by McLaren's David Coulthard (42.6 seconds), Nick Heidfeld of Sauber, Felipe Massa of Sauber and Heinz-Harald Frentzen of Arrows.

Those were the only six cars to finish on the same lap as Schumacher, who repeated his win in Spain a year ago and averaged 203.753 kph (126.606 mph) in a winning time of 1 hour, 30 minutes, 29.981 seconds.

It was Montoya's third second place finish of this year joining his runner-up places in Australia and Malaysia. It was Coulthard's second finish in third this season.

Schumacher has 44 points in five races with 23 for Montoya and 20 for Ralf Schumacher. Ferrari also leads the constructors' championship with 50 points to 43 for BMW-Williams and 13 for McLaren.

Asked if he was bored, Schumacher said he managed to entertain himself watching the also-rans. ``Actually not,'' he said. ``I obviously had this group of people in the end in front of me. I was watching them. It was sort of interesting to watch the battle for sixth position.''

``There will some races that will be much more difficult for us,'' Schumacher added. ``But here our Bridgestone tyres seem to be dominant and the car is absolutely fantastic.''

Montoya, who languished down the field in Friday practice, said he was fortunate to escape with points. ``It was a pretty difficult race for us and I think we did the best with what we had,'' Montoya said.

``I've got to say I'm very pleased to get out of here with second place. Today we know there was not much we could do against Ferrari.''

Gearbox gremlins for Barrichello

Rubens Barrichello of Ferrari, who qualified second, stalled on the formation lap and then was unable to get his car started from the pit lane with gearbox problems, leaving Schumacher alone on the front row on an overcast afternoon with temperatures around 65F (18C).

``I tried to push all the buttons on the wheel but I could not engage first gear,'' Barrichello said.

``It was a different problem to that of Michael (Schumacher) in the morning, that was a hydraulic problem.''

``I was determined and confident this weekend, because the car was very good, I only had to start and possibly shoot for a victory. I'm very disappointed today.''

The Minardi team withdrew its two cars on Sunday before the race after seeing rear and front wings fly off their cars in Saturday and Sunday's practice.

Team owner Paul Stoddart called it the `toughest decision' and said he was making it on `safety grounds' after the front wing on Mark Webber's car dropped off in practice on Saturday. On Sunday, Webber again lost the rear wing, both times with the car barrelling down the straight at 150 mph (240 kph).

Alex Yoong of Malaysia also lost a front wing on Saturday, but Stoddart said that was `due to an accident' rather than a `structural failure.'

About the only excitement in the race came on Montoya's second pit stop when he ran over the left foot of the flag man in the pits, as he pulled away early while the car was still being fuelled. He was reported uninjured.

Schumacher got a clean start and immediately began pulling away, piling up an 8.1-second lead over his brother Ralf Schumacher of BMW-Williams after only nine laps. After 14 of the 65-lapper, he was ahead by 12.5 seconds.

Kimi Raikkonen of McLaren had to withdraw with just four laps under his belt, after losing a rear wing and joined Barrichello early on the sidelines.

By 10 laps, both the Jordans were out on a terrible week that saw Jordan lay off 15 percent of its staff.

Due to the narrow nature of the circuit, overtaking comes always at a premium, boring procession where high-speed turns make overtaking tough.

That's exactly how the race shaped up early with Schumacher showing overwhelming superiority.

Schumacher pitted after 26 laps and still maintained his lead, often managing to pull away by a second on every lap.

McLaren's Coulthard got a huge cheer from the 100,000-sellout fans on the 34th lap when he passed fellow Britain Jenson Button of Renault to take third place.

Schumacher pitted again after finishing 47 laps and had a 40-second lead, prompting him to slow down over the final 18 laps. — AP

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