Michael wins French Grand Prix; Jos 13th
Published on 01 July 2001 by Verstappen Info Page
Michael Schumacher has made an important step towards a possible Worldchampionship with his victory at Magny Cours. Ferrari is virtually unbeatable in the constructors championship. For the drivers' title the difference is 31 points, but for the constructors' title the gap is a mere 52 points. Arrows is far from that. Bernoldi had to retire from the race in the 18th lap, Jos finished the race and came 13th.
Seven drivers did not make the finish, which is not too bad. Mika Hakkinen is not able to get from his position on the grid for the warmup lap and Pedro de la Rosa has problems with his car. He manages to keep it running but was not very competitive during the race. Mika Hakkinen is not able to get out of the pitbox and retires from the race without having driven one lap in the race.
Ralf Schumacher's start from pole is good, he is able to keep his brother behind him but is unable to create a gap. Jos has his usual good start and after one lap he is 14th. Jacques Villeneuve retires from the race in lap 5 with technical problems. Most drivers are on a two stop strategy, some even three (Barrichello and Bernoldi). This is why Bernoldi is able to keep up with Jos right after the start, until his retirement from the race.
The race itself is not very spectacular, most drivers switch position during the pitstops. Ralf loses his leading position to his brother when his pitstop takes a bit longer than planned due to problems with his right rear wheel. Michael makes his pitstop one lap later, which is perfect and rejoins the race in front of his brother. David Coulthard did not do himself or the team a favor by driving too fast in the pitlane, which resulted in a stop & go penalty of 10 seconds. In the end the Scot came 4th. Jos's pitstop did not go too well either as refuelling causes problems. It takes that long that he rejoins the race at the back. Juan Pablo Montoya was race leader for an instant but blows up his engine in lap 52.
Irvine's fight with Panis and Frentzen are quite good. The last few laps Rubens and David are fighting for a place on the podium but in the end the Brazilian came third.
During the last 15 laps the top 6 does not change and Michael drives away from his brother Ralf. For a few moments it seemed Jos had problems, a couple of laps in 1.21 and 1.22 but then his lap times are 1.19's again and finishes in 13th position. We hope to be able to speak to Jos later and ask what he thought of today's race.
