Schumacher wins in MonacoJos finishes 8th
Published on 27 May 2001 by Verstappen Info Page
The Monaco Grand Prix 2001 started very sunny, Coulthard had to start from last grid position after his car stalled in the warmup lap. Michael Schumacher went on top from start and kept it that way. Mika Hakkinen was right behind Michael followed by respectively Rubens Barrichello, the two BMW Williams drivers and the Jaguar of Irvine. Only during the pitstops the three fold world champion gave up his first position and increased his lead to David Coulthard in the world championship to 12 points. Second was Rubens Barrichello and Eddie Irvine came 3rd for Jaguar, their first podium. Coulthard managed, after having struggled for position behind Enrique Bernoldi for over 40 laps, to finish in fifth position and took 2 points hoome. Villeneuve was 4th, Alesi fifth who finally won a single point for Prost.
The start was safe and luckily everyone came through Saint Devote undamaged. Jos was not able to perform one his famous starts but managed to overtake a couple of drivers in Loews. Heidfeld was Jos's next victim but the German hit the crash barrier and this caused Jos to loose some positions.
The A22 with number 14 was driving behind his team mate who let him pass in lap 7, Jos was now 16th. Due to other drivers dropping out of the race and overtaking Alonso and Button Jos managed to wrestle through the field. Especially in his fight with Jenson Button Jos showed that overtaking is possible in Monaco. At the chican after the tunnel Jos was very close to Jenson's car and forced him to make a mistake in Tabac, Jos was now 11th. In the meantime David Coulthard was having a hard time. Jos was overtaking other drivers left and right but David Coulthard was not able to overtake Jos's team mate Enrique Bernoldi. Mika Hakkinen dropped out of the race at this stage with a problem, this year is obviously not his.
Next to drop out of the race were Pedro de la Rosa and Jarno Trulli. The Italian rapidly exited his car when the flames came out of the engine. Jos was now 9th and Greg Wheeler told him that he was doing fine and to continue. In lap 42 Jos came in for his first and only pitstop, but the A22 seemed to have a fuel pressure problem. Jos had to be restarted and when he re-entered the track he was 12th again. After Frentzen and Ralf Schumacher had to abandon the race with engine problems Jos finished the race in 8th position after being started from 19th. Very well done.
"It went very well. The warmup was good and the car felt great so I was confident for the race. All the other guys know my start is very good, on this narrow circuit they were doing everything to block me. Enrique and me touched slightly and Alonso was very hard to overtake. A bit further Heidfeld hit me and then my car hit him. Real bummer for that pitstop, we could have had one or two points."
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday the OrangeArrows Team will be testing on Magny Cours with Jos.
For a complete overview of all the times please visit our season page.
