Times
P. No Driver Team - Car Time/Laps
1. 3 Schumacher,M Ferrari 1h27:31.638 209.924 km/h
2. 1 Hakkinen McLaren Mercedes + 0:03.810 209.771 km/h
3. 9 Schumacher,R Williams BMW + 0:52.432 207.848 km/h
4. 19 Verstappen Arrows Supertec + 0:59.938 207.555 km/h
5. 12 Wurz Benetton Playlife + 1:07.426 207.262 km/h
6. 23 Zonta BAR Honda + 1:09.292 207.190 km/h
7. 17 Salo Sauber Petronas 1 lap
8. 16 Diniz Sauber Petronas 1 lap
9. 20 Gene Minardi Fondmetal 1 lap
10. 21 Mazzacane Minardi Fondmetal 1 lap
11. 11 Fisichella Benetton Playlife 1 lap
12. 14 Alesi Prost Peugeot 2 laps
13. 15 Heidfeld Prost Peugeot 38 laps
14. 22 Villeneuve BAR Honda 39 laps
15. 10 Button Williams BMW 43 laps
16. 8 Herbert Jaguar 52 laps
17. 2 Coulthard McLaren Mercedes 53 laps
18. 6 Trulli Jordan Mugen-Honda 53 laps
19. 4 Barrichello Ferrari 53 laps
20. 5 Frentzen Jordan Mugen-Honda 53 laps
21. 18 de la Rosa Arrows Supertec 53 laps
22. 7 Irvine Jaguar 53 laps
FIA Press Release
Before the cars set off on the final parade lap Nick Heidfeld's Prost is still being worked on on the pre-grid until the very last minute but the team just manages to avoid him getting a penalty.
* Lap 1: At the start Jean Alesi is left on the grid as the field goes away. On the run down to the first corner Mika Hakkinen is faster and Michael Schumacher moves right to block a challenge. He then moves to the left to take his line into the first corner. The first cars get through the first corner without a problem but in the midfield Mika Salo and Eddie Irvine collide. Pedro Diniz goes straight on and through a polystyrene block. Irvine is out on the spot. Salo suffers a puncture but continues slowly. At the second chicane Schumacher leads Hakkinen and Coulthard but Frentzen runs into the back of Barrichello. The two cars take off Jarno Trulli and Coulthard. In the dust behind the accident Johnny Herbert brakes and Pedro de la Rosa runs into the back of the Jaguar and is launched into a series of rolls. All the drivers emerge unhurt but a fire marshal Paolo Gislimberti, standing on the outside of the track, is hit by a flying wheel. He suffers "very critical" head and chest injuries. A Safety Car is sent out. At the end of the lap the two Saubers, Herbert (on three wheels) and Ricardo Zonta all pit for repairs.
* Lap 11: As the field prepares for the restart, the leading cars slow down and Jenson Button, who is lying sixth, swerves to avoid hitting Ralf Schumacher and goes into the barriers on the back straight. He rejoins but the car is damaged and he goes off at the Parabolica and retires.
* Lap 12: The race restarts after 10 laps running under caution. Michael Schumacher begins to try to build a lead over Hakkinen and Jacques Villeneuve. Ralf Schumacher is fourth with Giancarlo Fisichella fifth and Jos Verstappen moves up to sixth overtaking Alexander Wurz. Further back Zonta passes both Diniz and Gastone Mazzacane to move to to 10th place.
* Lap 13: Schumacher builds a lead of two seconds over Hakkinen while further back in the field Zonta overtakes Nick Heidfeld.
* Lap 14: Zonta passes Marc Gene and Wurz to move up to seventh place, indicating that he is probably on a two-stop strategy.
* Lap 15: Jacques Villeneuve retires with apparent gearbox problems and on the same lap Jos Verstappen moves up to fourth place overtaking Fisichella. Also on the move is Salo who moves ahead of Diniz for 12th place.
* Lap 16: Ralf Schumacher drops back from third to fifth, losing out to Verstappen and Zonta, who also overtakes Fisichella on the same lap.
* Lap 17: The order begins to settle down although Salo moves ahead of Mazzacane to take ninth place.
* Lap 21: Zonta passes Verstappen to take third place.
* Lap 23: Zonta pits from the first time. He drops from third to 11th.
* Lap 25: Salo continues to race hard and moves up to pass Wurz to get sixth place.
* Lap 28: Zonta passes Mazzacane and Diniz to move back up to ninth.
* Lap 29: Sixth-placed Salo goes into the pits and drops to 10th place.
* Lap 32: The third-placed Verstappen stops and drops to seventh place.
* Lap 36: Zonta is stuck behind Wurz and Benetton decides to bring him for his second stop. He drops back to eighth.
* Lap 39: Michael Schumacher pits and Hakkinen goes into the lead.
* Lap 42: Hakkinen pits and Schumacher goes back into the lead. Wurz also pits from fifth place.
* Lap 43: Ralf Schumacher and Fisichella both pit from third and fourth places. Ralf rejoins third but Fisichella's stop goes wrong and he drops to the back on the field as the car will not restart.
* Lap 50: Hakkinen sets the fastest lap of the race and closes the gap on Schumacher to around five seconds.
* Lap 53: Michael Schumacher wins his 41st Grand Prix victory, equalling Ayrton Senna's record of wins. Hakkinen is second and remains ahead in the World Championship.
Formula-1.co.uk Report
Michael Schumacher today won the highly emotional Italian Grand Prix to close to within two points of championship leader and second placed man here today Mika Hakkinen. Whilst Schumacher's drive and subsequent win were superb, the race will be remembered for the second corner incident in which four drivers were lucky to escape without serious injuries. Sadly, a fire official, Paolo Ginslinberti, seen receiving CPR at the side of the circuit died at the scene of the accident as a result of being hit by debris from the accident.
Later, on winning his 41st Grand Prix, Michael Schumacher broke down during the press conference and could not conduct the interview. Schumacher's victory equals the late Ayrton Senna's total number of wins.
The race began with Michael Schumacher making a good getaway fro his pole position, while team-mate and second placed starter Rubens Barrichello got bogged down. This in turn held back Jacques Villeneuve, while Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard slotted in behind leader Schumacher.
Surprisingly virtually all the 22 starters made it through the revised first chicane, with only Eddie Irvine and Jean Alesi making contact. The Jaguar driver was out on the sport while the 21 remaining cars hurtled towards the second chicane.
Heinz-Harald Frentzen made sharp contact with team-mate Jarno Trulli as both yellow Jordan's entered the breaking area. The sequence of events that took place then is somewhat hard to pinpoint, but Frentzen's Jordan - now minus its front wheels, hit both David Coulthard and Rubens Barrichello and joined Trulli in the gravel trap. Further back Pedro de la Rosa's Arrows Supertec made sharp contact with the back of Johnny Herbert's Jaguar Cosworth. The Spaniard was launched into the air and into a series of horrific cartwheels landing in the gravel trap and hitting both Coulthard's McLaren and Barrichello's stricken Ferrari. The debris from the incident also hit the 30 year old Paolo Ginslinberti who died at the circuit.
With the car inverted, the dust began to settle as wheels continued to fly in all direction. Clearly the FIA have vastly underestimated the energy that needs to be dissipated in an accident such as this, as few tethers actually did their job in retaining the front wheels. There are stronger tethers anticipated next season, but the ferocity of the impacts would have made little difference in this case one cannot help but feel. Thankfully it seems that all drivers escaped this horrific accident without injury, while Heinz-Harald Frentzen admitted that he had set off the accident, but pointed out that Barrichello had braked earlier than he expected. The fact that he hit Trulli and not Barrichello seemed irrelevant at the time.
We were then treated to classic FIA mismanagement as Charlie Whiting opted to send out the safety car and not to red flag the race and bring it to a halt. Johnny Herbert, Eddie Irvine, Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Jarno Trulli, Pedro de la Rosa, Rubens Barrichello and David Coulthard were all out of the race with debris littering the circuit. At the side of the circuit Sid Watkins and his team could clearly be seen giving CPR to the Paolo Ginslinberti and still the cars continued their slow laps around Monza.
This unsavoury situation lasted for 11 of the 52 scheduled laps before the drivers lead by Michael Schumacher as the drivers desperately tried to keep some heat in their tyres and perhaps more significantly some try pressure. On the 11th tour Michael Schumacher produced a quick spurt of speed and then slowed to bunch the field up. Unbeknown to him Jenson Button was not quite aware of the usual restart technique and plunged off the the left at the circuit at high speed glancing the barriers on his left as he did so and then rejoining. The next corner he was off altogether probably as a result of damage inflicted in his first off seconds before. Button firmly laid the blame for his lapse in concentration in Schumacher's direction, but there is no escaping the fact that the young BMW Williams driver still has a great deal to learn. As Villeneuve later summed up when asked about Button's incident 'he should calm down and take it a bit easier...' and pointed out that Schumacher had done nothing out of the ordinary.
The race duly restated on the 12th lap with Schumacher leading Hakkinen, Villeneuve, Ralf Schumacher and Jos Verstappen in the Arrows Supertec. The Ferrari driver soon pulled out a small gap to Hakkinen while Ricardo Zonta, who had set the pace during the morning 30 minute warm up session, began to carve his way through the field. Team-mate Villeneuve's race soon came to a smoky halt as his Honda V10 cried enough promoting Verstappen and Zonta to third and fourth respectively. Zonta was soon on the tail of Verstappen, but unlike the Benetton's he had already passed with relative ease, the Arrows Supertec was the fastest car at Monza in a straight line speed. However, a few laps later the underrated Zonta was through only to call into the pits for fuel.
Zonta's pace was being flattered in that he was running a two stop strategy compared to the one stop preferred by most of his rivals, but his racing was clean and his overtaking incisive. Come the end of lap 53 Zonta scored a well deserved championship point for Honda on their 200th Grand Prix start.
And so the race played out with Schumacher gradually easing out the gap to ten seconds over Mika Hakkinen prior to the fuel stops. Once these were completed, the status quo was restored and Schumacher went on to score his third win at Monza.
Ralf Schumacher had a good steady race and brought home another four points for BMW Williams to virtually sew up their third place in the constructors championship. Jos Verstappen drove a brilliant race in his Arrows Supertec to take three championship points for fourth place, while Alexander Wurz also kept his nose clean and secured his first points since last year's Austrian Grand Prix.
David Coulthard along with Rubens Barrichello will be thanking their lucky stars when they get home this evening. The Scot knows that his championship hopes are now over as he trails Hakkinen and Schumacher by 19 and 17 points respectively with just 30 points possible over the last three races. Coulthard put on a brave face and said 'that's it finito' and added that he would now look forward to the US Grand Prix in two weeks and begin his preparations for next years championship battle.
Monza was a strange race in many ways. The second corner tragedy alone is enough to make the Italian Grand Prix one to forget. The Formula One circus now heads to Indianapolis and the first US Grand Prix since 1991 and the championship battle is now between just two men. Mika Hakkinen and Michael Schumacher.
Schumacher later managed to face the press once again and tried to explain his emotional reaction to his win. "We are here in Italy, We were in some difficulties in the last races and not as competitive as we were usually.... and for that reason we are back on the road. The crowd outside has been amazing, more than it was than in 1998. It was a lot closer to me, Different." The emotion of Imola 1994 is still with Michael Schumacher.
