German GP: Race
Times
P. No Driver Team - Car Time/Laps
1. 4 Barrichello Ferrari 1h25:34.418
2. 1 Hakkinen McLaren Mercedes + 0:07.452 215.029 km/h
3. 2 Coulthard McLaren Mercedes + 0:21.168 214.457 km/h
4. 10 Button Williams BMW + 0:22.685 214.394 km/h
5. 17 Salo Sauber Petronas + 0:27.112 214.210 km/h
6. 18 de la Rosa Arrows Supertec + 0:29.079 214.128 km/h
7. 9 Schumacher,R Williams BMW + 0:30.897 214.053 km/h
8. 22 Villeneuve BAR Honda + 0:47.500 213.367 km/h
9. 6 Trulli Jordan Mugen-Honda + 0:50.900 213.227 km/h
10. 7 Irvine Jaguar + 1:19.600 212.053 km/h
11. 21 Mazzacane Minardi Fondmetal + 1:29.504 211.651 km/h
12. 15 Heidfeld Prost Peugeot 5 laps
13. 5 Frentzen Jordan Mugen-Honda 6 laps
14. 19 Verstappen Arrows Supertec 6 laps
15. 23 Zonta BAR Honda 8 laps
16. 20 Gene Minardi Fondmetal 12 laps
17. 12 Wurz Benetton Playlife 14 laps
18. 16 Diniz Sauber Petronas 16 laps
19. 14 Alesi Prost Peugeot 16 laps
20. 8 Herbert Jaguar 33 laps
21. 3 Schumacher,M Ferrari 45 laps
22. 11 Fisichella Benetton Playlife 45 laps
FIA Press Release
Jenson Button fails to get away from the pre-grid and so is forced to start at the back of the grid.
* Lap 1: At the start both front row men are slow away. David Coulthard moves across to protect his position from Michael Schumacher while Mika Hakkinen dives to the right and passes both of them. Schumacher then moves to the left and is hit from behind by Giancarlo Fisichella. Both men go off. At the front Hakkinen leads Coulthard with Jarno Trulli third and Pedro de la Rosa fourth ahead of the two Jaguars of Eddie Irvine and Johnny Herbert and Jos Verstappen's Arrows. Further back Rubens Barrichello moves from 18th on the grid to 10th.
* Lap 2: Herbert moves to fifth place while Irvine drops behind his team mate and Verstappen. Further back Barrichello's charge continues as he moves to eighth ahead of the two BARs.
* Lap 3: As the two McLarens begin to pull away from Trulli, Barrichello passes Irvine to take seventh. Further back Heinz-Harald Frentzen begins to charge, passing Pedro Diniz's Sauber for 14th.
* Lap 4: Frentzen passes Nick Heidfeld to move to 13th.
* Lap 5: Barrichello overtakes Verstappen to take sixth place.
* Lap 6: Barrichello passes Herbert to take fifth while further back Frentzen overtakes both Ralf Schumacher and Alexander Wurz to move into 11th.
* Lap 7: Barrichello sets the fastest lap of the race as he chases after Pedro de la Rosa's Arrows. Further back Frentzen passes Ricardo Zonta to take 10th place.
* Lap 8: Jos Verstappen's Arrows loses half of its engine cover. Barrichello sets another fastest lap while Frentzen passes Jacques Villeneuve for ninth.
* Lap 9: Frentzen passes Irvine for eighth place.
* Lap 10: Frentzen passes Verstappen for seventh.
* Lap 11: Frentzen overtakes Herbert to move into the top six. Further back Ralf Schumacher overtakes Zonta for 11th place while Pedro Diniz passes his Sauber team mate to Mika Salo.
* Lap 12: Barrichello overtakes de la Rosa for fourth place. Frentzen sets the fastest lap as he chases after de la Rosa. Verstappen passes Herbert for seventh. Further back the two Saubers pass Heidfeld and Salo gets back in front of Diniz.
* Lap 13: Herbert retires with a mechanical problem.
* Lap 15: Barrichello overtakes Trulli to take third place.
* Lap 17: Barrichello pits and is able to rejoin in sixth position.
* Lap 18: Frentzen stops and loses only one place, rejoining in sixth position.
* Lap 22: While the order at the front remains the same but in the midfield Villeneuve passes Irvine to take eighth place. Further back Ralf Schumacher and Pedro Diniz pit.
* Lap 25: As the pit stops approach a man appears beside the track on the straight after the third chicane. He appears to be attempting to use the TV coverage of the race to register a protest. The Safety Car is despatched. Teams immediately decide to bring in their drivers early to take advantage of the situation. The first to stop are third-placed Trulli and fourth-placed de la Rosa.
* Lap 26: Most of the drivers come in but McLaren calls in Hakkinen. Coulthard is forced to continue without having changed tyres.
* Lap 27: Coulthard stops and drops to sixth place.
* Lap 29: The race restarts with Hakkinen leading and Trulli under pressure for second place from Barrichello.
* Lap 30: Jean Alesi and Pedro Diniz collide at the third chicane and the Frenchman has a large accident. The Safety car is despatched again. On the same lap Ralf Schumacher has a spin and has to pit for repairs.
* Lap 32: The race restarts and immediately there is trouble with Wurz suffering a gearbox failure. He pulls off to avoid an accident and is nearly hit by Salo.
* Lap 33: It starts to rain in the pit area.
* Lap 34: Jenson Button is running 10th and is the first major runner to stop for wet tyres. Further back Marc Gene suffers an engine failure.
* Lap 35: As the rain intensifies in the stadium area, it remains dry out in the woods. Hakkinen, Trulli and de la Rosa decide to pit for wet tyres. Barrichello, Coulthard, Frentzen and Zonta continue on dry tyres. Several drivers have spins including Jacques Villeneuve and Eddie Irvine (the Jaguar driver spinning twice).
* Lap 37: Trulli is given a 10-second stop-go penalty for speeding in the pitlane. He stops and drops from sixth to 11th. Zonta is also given a penalty but spins out before he can come into the pits.
* Lap 38: Coulthard pits for wet tyres. He drops from second to fifth place. Further back Button passes de la Rosa to take sixth place.
* Lap 40: Frentzen retires with a gearbox problem. Coulthard overtakes Salo for third place while Button closes up on the Finn as well.
* Lap 43: Button passes Salo for fourth place.
* Lap 44: The rain intensifies but it is still not wet enough for Hakkinen to be able to gain much time on Barrichello.
* Lap 45: Barrichello wins a dramatic victory having started from 18th on the grid.
As Barrichello completes his slowing down lap the rain begins to fall heavily.
Formula-1.co.uk Report
Rubens Barrichello today won his first ever Grand Prix at the incident packed Hockenheim circuit. The Brazilian's win is his first in 124 starts was immediately dedicated to Barrichello's hero, the late and great Ayrton Senna. Indeed, Barrichello's win is the first for Brazil since Senna won in Australia in 1993 with McLaren Ford.
The race began as it finished in dramatic fashion, with Jenson Button stalling his car on the dummy grid and having to start from the back. When the lights went out Mika Hakkinen made a 'fantastic start' from third on the grid to lead into the first corner. Pole man David Coulthard and second placed Michael Schumacher made relatively good starts, but Coulthard defended his position form Schumacher. The German then jinked to his left to take the racing line through the first turn, but was seemingly unaware of Giancarlo Fisichella steaming up the outside. Contact was made and for the second race in succession, Schumacher was out. There will undoubtedly be an awful lot of talk about the incident, but in our view, this was simply a racing incident that eliminated two top drivers. Schumacher firmly placed the blame with Fisichella, who will undoubtedly return the favour.
"I moved out wide to try and get a better line on the corner and Fisichella just came straight at me. "I'm not out of the race because of David (Coulthard)," Schumacher said. "I'm out because of Fisichella. I moved out wide to try and get a better line on the corner and Fisichella just came straight at me. There are limits to what you can do to avoid a situation like that."
With Schumacher out and the watching Ferrari team holding their heads in their hands the attention focused back on the race itself as Mika Hakkinen led David Coulthard through the first lap. Rubens Barrichello had started 18th on the grid after a troubled qualifying session yesterday and had opted to run a two stop strategy. The Brazilian gained eight places on the first lap and soon closed in on the top six runners. After a few laps tailing the ever improving Arrows of Jos Verstappen, Barrichello made it into the top six on lap four and just one lap later was in fourth place after passing Johnny Herbert.
Out front Mika Hakkinen seemed to be able to hold David Coulthard behind with relative ease, while simultaneously dropping Jarno Trulli and Pedro de la Rosa by around a second a lap. Another man on the move was Heinz-Harald Frentzen who started the race from 17th position. By lap ten, the German lined up and passed Johnny Herbert's Jaguar Cosworth for tenth position. It was pleasant to see Herbert actually racing, but as ever his Jaguar didn't keep going for long and the British driver duly retired from the race on lap 13.
Rubens Barrichello made the first of his two scheduled stops on lap 17, dropping from third position to sixth. Immediately the Brazilian was back up to speed putting in the fastest lap of the race as he set about re-passing the likes of Pedro de la Rosa and Jarno Trulli all over again.
Perhaps the turning point of the German Grand Prix was the safety car that was called into action on lap 25 of the race. A spectator had managed to get onto the circuit on the run down to the Ayrton Senna Curve and was busy wandering along the side of the circuit, before dashing across the track and giving Mika Hakkinen a quick wave of his hand. The race director had no choice but to bring out the Safety Car while security wen to retrieve the invader.
As soon as the safety car board went out it was a mad dash to the pits. Unfortunately for second placed David Coulthard, his pit box was already taken by Mika Hakkinen. While the Finn was serviced by the McLaren mechanics, Coulthard had to complete another four mile lap, soon catching the safety car. Hakkinen duly lined up behind Coulthard, but the Scot dove for the pit lane and re-emerged in sixth position. Quite why David Coulthard didn't just wait behind Mika Hakkinen while he was serviced is unclear.
Significantly, the Safety Car had allowed Rubens Barrichello to make his second stop. The Ferrari crew gave Barrichello enough fuel to finish the race. When the race restarted, Barrichello was soon past Jarno Trulli.
In the meantime the hapless Pedro Diniz continued his stunning record of crashing out of as many races as possible and bringing out the Safety car once again. The Brazilian was dicing with Jean Alesi near the tail of the field and managed to get alongside the Prost driver on the approach to the Ayrton Senna Curve. As in Canada, Diniz opted to simply move over on the car alongside him and the ensuing accident could have been a lot worse than it actually was. Alesi's Prost was instant pitched into the air and into the Armco, shedding wheels and body work. Alesi stepped shakily away while Diniz helped the marshals push his car out of the way.
Given the never ending attacks on Michael Schumacher regarding his driving standards, it is now about time that Diniz's driving record is looked at. Just two weeks ago he managed to take out Giancarlo Fisichella with some imaginative driving, adding to a catalogue of blunders throughout the season. A three race ban may just have an effect [although this is doubtful[ and also save Sauber spending more Petronas cash.
As the field picked up speed, Mika Salo ran into the back of Alexander Wurz's Benetton on the start finish straight, sending the Austrian spinning into retirement.
Just two laps later on lap 32 the rain arrived. Unlike qualifying, the rain came down in the stadium section, but not on the straights leading into the forest. The rain wasn't particularly hard, but it allow David Coulthard to pass Heinz-Harald Frentzen for fifth position. Eddie Irvine spiced up the action with a spin, while Jacques Villeneuve attempted to pass team-mate Ricardo Zonta around the outside at turn one. Contact was inevitable and Villeneuve produced a lovely pirouette and lost four places.
With rain continuing to fall, Mika Hakkinen pitted for wet Bridgestone tyres on lap 35. While Rubens Barrichello and David Coulthard stayed out on their normal hard compound slick tyres. Four laps later Coulthard called it a day as he too stopped for wet tyres. Out front Rubens Barrichello just kept on going.
With two laps remaining Heinz-Harald Frentzen retired his Jordan Mugen Honda and Barrichello had made t quite clear that he intended to win this race. Interestingly as Barrichello slithered around the stadium section, Mika Hakkinen was unable to make an inroads into his lead as the circuit was virtually dry through the forest section. And so the race came to it's conclusion and Rubens Barrichello crossed the line seven seconds clear of second placed Mika Hakkinen and 21 seconds clear of David Coulthard.
Barrichello stood on the podium with tears of joy racking his body. No one will begrudge Barrichello his first Grand Prix win and it was good to see Barrichello take his time on his slow down lap, taking in the win and waving to the cheering German fans. Back in Parc Ferme, Barrichello was greeted by Michael Schumacher who as ever, was happy to congratulate his team-mate.
A fantastic race for all unless you happened to be called Michael Schumacher, Giancarlo Fisichella or Jean Alesi.
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