NewsOnF1 - 2001 European GP

Michael Schumacher wins his 5th race of the season ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya and David Coulthard. Ralf Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello and Mika Hakkinen make the top 6.

Michael Schumacher led from start to finish apart from 1 lap when Juan Pablo Montoya took the lead when Michael went for his first pit stop. Montoya pitted a lap later and gave back the lead to Michael.
There was drama for Michael Schumacher before the race as he went out for an installation lap in the spare car and his car stopped at the other end of the track. He had to borrow a scooter to get back to the pits and take his race car just minutes before the pit lane closed.
The start of the race was clean with no major incidents and Michael Schumacher immediately started building a gap between himself and Ralf Schumacher as the Michelin tyres of Ralf Schumacher were not up to optimum speed. Behind them Juan Pablo Montoya retained 3rd while Rubens Barrichello dropped 3 places to 7th and Coulthard, Hakkinen and Trulli were all up one position.
10 laps into the race and Ralf Schumacher started to close the gap and by lap 16 the gap was reduced to just over a second.
Ralf Schumacher continues to challenge Michael without any success until they both pit for their first pit stop on lap 28. Michael goes out ahead of Ralf and again starts building a gap. Fortunately for Michael, Ralf Schumacher makes a mistake and crosses the white line while exiting the pits and is given a 10 second stop - go penalty and that ruined his chances for challenging for a win.
Juan Pablo Montoya moves to second while David Coulthard on a single stop takes third ahead of Ralf Schumacher.

David Coulthard pits on lap 38 for his only stop giving third place to Ralf Schumacher although the top 3 - Michael Schumacher, Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher were on 2 stops.

Juan Pablo Montoya managed to close the gap slightly but never appeared to threaten Michael. Both stopped for the second time on lap 50 and retained their positions. Ralf Schumacher pits a lap later and loses third place to David Coulthard.
The order for the top 4 remains this way until the end of the race with no one really challenging for positions.
Rubens Barrichello on a single stop was in 5th and was catching Ralf Schumacher ahead of him however a spin on lap 58 ruined any chances for him to catch Ralf and retained 5th. Mika Hakkinen had his own race on a single stop and managed to finish in 6th.

This was the first race this season where all the 6 drivers from the top 3 teams managed to finish in the points preventing any other team for scoring any points. The Jaguar pair managed to finish in 7th and 8th positions while Jacques Villeneuve in the BAR managed to finish in 9th place with Kimi Raikkonen in 10th.

So Michael Schumacher has increased his lead in the Drivers title by another 6 points (68 to 44) over David Coulthard while Ferrari increase their lead in the Constructors' title by 7 points (94 to 53) over McLaren.
Michael Schumacher looks unstoppable with 24 points ahead of David Coulthard with 8 races to go. Ralf Schumacher has closed to within a point for Rubens Barrichello for 3rd (25 to 26) while Juan Pablo Montoya finishing his second race of the season in second place is now in 5th place with 12 points.
Williams are closing in on McLaren in the Constructors championship with the gap now down to 16 points while the teams behind (Sauber, Jordan and BAR) will be fighting for 4th place.

Click here of the Drivers' Championship table for this season

Next stop is the French Grand Prix from Magny Cours on the 1st of July

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