NewsOnF1 - 2001 Monaco GP

Michael Schumacher wins his 5th race at Monaco and his 4th race of the season. His team-mate Rubens Barrichello was 2nd ahead of an impressive Eddie Irvine giving Jaguar their first podium finish since they took over the Stewart team. Jacques Villeneuve finished 4th with David Coulthard in 5th and Jean Alesi giving the Prost team their 1st point this season.

Only 10 drivers managed to finish the race with Button in 7th ahead of the 2 Arrows and Raikkonen who was 5 laps down. There were a lot of retirements due to drivers touching the barriers but there were a few mechanical related failures as well.

On the formation lap, David Coulthard stalls on the formation lap and is forced to start from the back of the grid. McLaren indicate that it was a technical problem.
At the start of the race everyone got away cleanly with Michael Schumacher leading Mika Hakkinen and Rubens Barrichello. On the first lap Nick Heidfeld hits a barrier as a result of a tangle with Bernoldi. He retires. 2 laps later Juan Pablo Montoya makes a mistake and hits a barrier and retires.
13 laps into the race and Mika Hakkinen suffers from a steering problem and loses 2nd place to Barrichello. Hakkinen pits a lap later and rejoins. He eventually retires a couple of laps later. Olivier Panis also faces handling problems with his car and after an unscheduled pit stop he retires too.

Michael Schumacher in the lead was building a gap to Rubens Barrichello and by lap 22 he was 11 seconds ahead. David Coulthard found himself stuck behind the Arrows of Bernoldi for a long time and was only gaining places as the cars ahead retired or ran into problems.

By lap 27 Michael Schumacher laps David Coulthard who was still stuck behind Enrique Bernoldi. Rubens Barrichello was 2nd with Ralf Schumacher in 3rd and Eddie Irvine in 4th.

On lap 31 Jarno Trulli retires with a massive engine failure with flames all over the back of his car. The cause of the retirement is believed to be hydraulics. Trulli was running in 5th and appearing to be holding up both Jacques Villeneuve and Giancarlo Fisichella.
On lap 35, Fisichella running in 6th hits the barrier but manages to keep going.

Coulthard remained stuck behind Bernoldi until lap 44 when Bernoldi went into the pits. Once clear of Bernoldi, he managed to put in very fast laps and with the high rate of attrition he was on a charge trying to score some points.

On lap 50, Frentzen hits a barrier and retires just on the exit of the tunnel.

By lap 52, the top 6 were Michael Schumacher ahead of Rubens Barrichello, Ralf Schumacher, Eddie Irvine, Jacques Villeneuve and Jean Alesi.
Michael Schumacher was the first of the top 5 drivers to make his first and only stop on lap 55. 2 laps later, Ralf Schumacher retired with electrical problems from 3rd place and Eddie Irvine moved up to third.
Villeneuve made his pit stop on lap 57, Barrichello on lap 61, Irvine on lap 62 and David Coulthard made his pit stop on lap 66 as he had saved fuel as a result of being stuck behind Bernoldi for 44 laps.

On lap 68, Michael Schumacher was leading Rubens Barrichello and Eddie Irvine. Villeneuve, Alesi and Coulthard made the top 6. On lap 70, Alesi made an unscheduled pit stop and lost 5th place but managed to get out of the pits before Button could pass him. He dropped 1 place to 6th.

The order remained that way until the end of the race with Michael slowing down in the last few laps as he didn't need to push his car with Barrichello in 2nd and Irvine in 3rd.

David Coulthard set the fastest lap of the race with a 1:19.424 which is an all time record for this track.

So Michael Schumacher now leads the Drivers' championship by 12 points from David Coulthard. Rubens Barrichello is 3rd with 24 points while Ralf Schumacher is 4th with 12 points. Heidfeld remains in 5th with 8 points but Jacques Villeneuve and Jarno Trulli are in 6th with 7 points each.
With yet another retirement from Mika Hakkinen and Michael Schumacher extending his lead over Coulthard, the McLaren team will probably start giving Coulthard priority for the rest of the season.

Ferrari now have a massive lead in the Constructors' championship with 76 points to 44 for McLaren. Williams remain in 3rd place with 18 points while Jordan is in 4th with 13 and Sauber and BAR in 5th with 12 points each.

The battle for the Honda supremacy is hotting up with BAR catching Jordan fast. Villeneuve and Trulli are equal on points while BAR is just a point behind Jordan.

Click here of the Drivers' Championship table for this season

Next stop is Canada on the 10th of June.

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