2001 United States Grand Prix[edit]

2001 United States Grand Prix
2001 United States Grand Prix
Race 8 of 18 in the 2001 Formula One World Championship
Race details
Date	June 3, 2001
Official name	XXX SAP United States Grand Prix
Location	Indianapolis Motor Speedway; Indianapolis, Indiana
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	4.195 km (2.606 miles)
Distance	73 laps, 306.235 km (190.238 miles)
Weather	Sunny, cool
Pole position
Driver	Rubens Barrichello;
Time	1:11.384
Fastest lap
Driver	David Coulthard
Time	1:13.275 on lap 23
Podium
First	David Coulthard;
Second	Rubens Barrichello;
Third	Michael Schumacher;

Qualifying[edit]

Qualifying had massive surprises with the Sauber team coming right up to the pace of the leaders all of a sudden, and that too out of the blues. However, not even them were able to prevent the two Ferraris locking out the front row, with Rubens Barrichello on pole ahead of Michael Schumacher. The first of the Sauber men was Nick Heidfeld, who was a comfortable third. Championship leader Ralf Schumacher was just able to edge the second Sauber of Kimi Räikkönen in the battle for fourth. McLaren were left red-faced with David Coulthard down in sixth and Mika Häkkinen, well overshadowed by countryman Räikkönen down in eighth. Seperating them is the Williams of Juan Pablo Montoya.

Race[edit]

At the start, Rubens Barrichello blasted off from pole position but Michael Schumacher had a hard time defending from Nick Heidfeld but eventually succeeded. David Coulthard was able to huff and puff his way past Kimi Räikkönen but there was trouble behind when Mika Häkkinen touched Jarno Trulli, sending Trulli into the other Jordan of Heinz-Harald Frentzen. Both Trulli and Frentzen retired on the spot, with Häkkinen continuing with no damage. There was debris on the track and the safety car was brought out with the order being Barrichello leading from Schumacher, Heidfeld, Ralf Schumacher, Coulthard, Räikkönen, Juan Pablo Montoya and Häkkinen.

Once the race restarted, Heidfeld went wide and both Ralf and Coulthard sailed through. Ralf was not as quick as Coulthard and Heidfeld and soon both of them passed him. Behind, Montoya spun off and retired while trying to pass Räikkönen. During the first round of stops, the action was from Coulthard and Häkkinen as they respectively found a way by Schumacher and Räikkönen. However, Häkkinen retired after a tyre failure punted him into the wall. Coulthard was in all sorts of action, first defending from Schumacher on lap 41 and then passing Barrichello two laps later only for Barrichello to accelerate by immediately on the main straight. However, superb teamwork during the second round of stops got Coulthard ahead of Barrichello and into the lead. Heidfeld lost a place to Ralf after being given a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pitlane. Coulthard won from Barrichello, Schumacher, Ralf, Heidfeld, Räikkönen, Giancarlo Fisichella and Olivier Panis.

Classification[edit]

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	4	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	73	1:32:42.840	6	10
2	2	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	73	+1.157	1	8
3	1	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	73	+2.329	2	6
4	5	Ralf Schumacher	Williams-BMW	73	+27.746	4	5
5	16	Nick Heidfeld	Sauber-Petronas	73	+33.333	3	4
6	17	Kimi Räikkönen	Sauber-Petronas	73	+48.528	5	3
7	7	Giancarlo Fisichella	Benetton-Renault	72	+1 Lap	13	2
8	9	Olivier Panis	BAR-Honda	72	+1 Lap	12	1
9	10	Jacques Villeneuve	BAR-Honda	72	+1 Lap	14
10	8	Jenson Button	Benetton-Renault	72	+1 Lap	11
11	18	Eddie Irvine	Jaguar-Cosworth	72	+1 Lap	16
12	22	Jean Alesi	Prost-Acer	71	+2 Laps	18
13	14	Jos Verstappen	Arrows-Asiatech	71	+2 Laps	22
14	19	Pedro de la Rosa	Jaguar-Cosworth	71	+2 Laps	20
15	15	Enrique Bernoldi	Arrows-Asiatech	70	+3 Laps	17
16	20	Tarso Marques	Minardi-European	70	+3 Laps	21
Ret	3	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	34	Tyre	8
Ret	21	Fernando Alonso	Minardi-European	24	Driveshaft	15
Ret	6	Juan Pablo Montoya	Williams-BMW	15	Spun off	7
Ret	23	Luciano Burti	Prost-Acer	7	Engine	19
Ret	11	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Jordan-Honda	0	Collision	9
Ret	12	Jarno Trulli	Jordan-Honda	0	Collision	10

Notes[edit]

Lap Leaders: Rubens Barrichello 49 (1-49),David Coulthard 24 (50-73)
At the first corner, Mika Häkkinen touched the Jordan on Jarno Trulli, sending it into the other Jordan on Heinz-Harald Frentzen. Häkkinen continued with no damage but both Trulli and Frentzen were out.
David Coulthard was third before the first round of pitsops but superb pitwork in both the first and the second round of stops meant that Coulthard emerged in front of Michael Schumacher after the first stop, and then Rubens Barrichello after the second round to lead and win the race.
Nick Heidfeld was running fourth but was given a drive-through penalty for speeding the pitlane and lost a place to Ralf Schumacher.
Jordan boss Eddie Jordan called Mika Häkkinen 'blind' after the race.
This race saw both Ferrari drivers finishing on the podium for the first time of the season.
This was the McLaren team's first victory in the United States since 1991.

Standings after Grand Prix[edit]

Drivers

Constructors

1. Williams-BMW - 92
2. McLaren-Mercedes - 70
3. Ferrari - 68
4. Jordan-Honda - 29