Williams wins, Jos retires
Published on 15 April 2001 by Verstappen Info Page
Ralf Schumacher made history by winning his maiden Formula 1 vistory at the Autodromo ‘Enzo e Dino Ferrari’ circuit after starting on 3rd. Right from the start he took the lead from David Coulthard who did not have a good start. Hakkinen was caught up behind the Scot. Ralf lead the race from begining to end.
Ralfs maiden victory
Jos started from 17th place and his start was not as good as we are used from him. He gained 3 positions in 7 laps. After that he had to retire with mechanical problems. Enrique finished a race for the first time, on a 10th position.
Jos was 14th after 7 laps
Ralf Schumacher and David Coulthard took a sprint and were ahead of the rest by a couple of seconds. Jarno Trulli had a good start as well, he was third at this stage with Hakkinen behind him. Michael Schumacher had a bad day he was driving his laps on a 5th position and all of a sudden was overtaken by Montoya, Panis and Barrichello. Michael later left the race with a problem on his left fron wheel.
A good fight between Olivier Panis and Kimi Raikkonen was going on when all of a sudden Kimi drove left into the wall, luckily he was unhurt. Later it appeared that his steering wheel came off. Half way the race Ralf was still leading and David was still in pursuit followed by Barrichello, Hakkinen, Montoya and Trulli. In the second part of the race it showed that Ferrari's tyre strategy was not the right one, the hard compound Bridgestone did not do what Ferrari expected. The top 6 changed when Juan Pablo Montoya again had a bad case of misfortune. The fuel nozzle was stuck during his second pitstop and then he stalled his engine. After being restarted he was fired off the jack with spinning wheels. One lap later he had to retire, his clutch went bust.
Heinz Harald Frentzen took over Montoya's 6th position and the last Grand Prix without 'traction control' ends with Ralf on the highest podium with Coulthard and Barrichello next to him. Williams, BMW and Michelin are back to stay.
Mika Hakkinen finished just outside the podium
Jos's A22 had a broken exhaust, he told us at the end of the race: "Before I had to stop I heard an exhaust was bust. I notified the team but it gets very warm under the engine cover, this makes the water and oil temperature to rise. This will lead to power failure, nothing could be done." Despite all bad luck this weekend Jos is quite optimistic about the new front wheel suspension. "It is an improvement for sure, we have not been able to use it to its full potential. Hopefully we will be able to do that this week." OrangeArrows will be testing the aerodynamics of the A22.
For an overview of all the times and standings please visit our season page .
