NewsOnF1 - 2001 Britain GP

Mika Hakkinen wins his first race of the season and his first ever at Silverstone ahead of Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello. Juan Pablo Montoya, Kimi Raikkonen and Nick Heidfeld made the top 6.

Mika Hakkinen was in a class of his own as he managed to finish over 33 seconds ahead of Michael Schumacher. The Ferrari driver appeared unable to match the speed of Hakkinen at any stage of the race. Mika Hakkinen seems to have sent the strongest message that he remains at the top of his form and is not planning to walk away from Formula 1.

The race started with Michael Schumacher retaining the lead ahead of Mika Hakkinen however Coulthard didn't have a good start and he and Trulli touched, Coulthard spun and rejoined at the back while Trulli retired in the gravel. Behind them Panis and Villeneuve touched with Panis spinning into the gravel and retiring.
The beneficiaries of these incidents were Montoya who managed to get up into 3rd (from 8th), Barrichello in 4th (from 6th and Ralf Schumacher in 6th (from 10th). The big loser was Frentzen who started in 5th and ended up 8th.

A few laps into the race and it was clear than Mika Hakkinen was much faster than Michael and soon he was all over the back of Michael's car. On lap 5 he passed him and started to build a 2 second per lap gap!. It was obvious that Hakkinen was on a 2 stopper while Michael was on a single stop.

10 laps later with Hakkinen in the lead, Montoya starts challenging Michael for 2nd place and 3 laps later he manages to get ahead. Behind Michael was Barrichello and Ralf Schumacher.

Just over a third of the race and Mika Hakkinen pits giving the lead temporarily to Montoya. Hakkinen rejoins ahead of Michael!
A few laps later and Montoya pits and rejoins behind Barrichello and Ralf Schumacher.
Hakkinen and Montoya were on 2 stoppers while Michael, Barrichello and Ralf were on a single stop.

Ralf Schumacher stops for his only stop just after mid race distance but when he rejoins he retires with a gearbox problem.
3 laps later Mika Hakkinen while leading makes his second pits stop and Michael Schumacher over 20 seconds behind follows him into the pits for his only stop. Barrichello remains on the track yet to stop!

Mika Hakkinen retains the lead while Michael Schumacher rejoins behind Barrichello and Montoya with both needing to stop.

A few laps later, Montoya makes his 2nd and final stop and Barrichello pits on the following lap. Michael Schumacher takes second place while Barrichello manages to stay ahead of Montoya.
The order remained this way with no challenges for position until the end of the race.

Behind those 4, Kimi Raikkonen was in 5th with Nick Heidfeld in 6th after fighting off an interesting challenge from Frentzen who was in 7th.
Jacques Villeneuve finished in 8th ahead of Eddie Irvine in 9th and Jos Verstappen on 10th.

Only the top 4 finished the race on the same lap with Mika Hakkinen over half a minute ahead of Michael Schumacher in 2nd. It seems that the Finn wanted to tell everyone that he still has what it takes to win races.

The fight for both titles is almost over as the two challengers to Michael with any chance of winning retired. Michael Schumacher now leads David Coulthard by 37 points and with 60 points available Michael appears untouchable. Ralf Schumacher has now lost 3rd place back to Rubens Barrichello.
Mika Hakkinen is 4th with 19 points while Juan Pablo Montoya drops back to 6th with 15 points.
In the Constructors title, the gap between Ferrari and McLaren has not changed and remains at 52 points with just 6 races to go!. Williams are in 3rd while Sauber have consolidated their 4th place with another valuable 3 points while their rivals Jordan and BAR failed to score today.

Click here of the Drivers' Championship table for this season

The next race is the German GP from Hockenheim on the 29th of July

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