Strategy delivers 1-2 for Ferrari
In a rain free race at Monza, again there was an extremely good Ferrari team who managed to get both cars in front after some problems in the beginning of the race. The podium was completed by Jenson Button who drove a incident-free race.
The start of the Monza race promised to be exciting, after the circuit had been under rain during the whole day. However, when the start was to be given, the circuit was drying up with some areas still being very wet.
The start was as usual a success for Renault as Alonso came through the first chicane in second place behind Barrichello. Soon the Brazilian had a large gap with his competitors thanks to his intermediates. His teammate and world champion Schumacher was worse off, as he spun in the second chicane of the first lap and was heading for a hard race.
However, as the circuit dried, Alonso quickly gathered pace, driving away from third man Montoya and eventually overtaking the leading Ferrari. Soon after that, Barrichello was in the pitlane for normal dry weather tyres.
In between the first and last pitstops, the 4 leaders being Button (who led the race since his first stop), Alonso, Montoya and Barrichello closed to each other towards their pitstops. When there were 24laps to go and R. Barrichello entered the pitlane, the first 3 were within 4 seconds, with Sato chasing a further 3 seconds down.
Meanwhile, Michael Schumacher was running one quick lap after another, and thanks to a fast last stop he had the duo Button-Alonso in sight and was quickly closing on them. 11 laps before the end Barrichello had to come in for a last 5.5 seconds stop, which was enough to stay in front to later win the race.
Behind him there were 2 other major happenings, with Fernando Alonso spinning in the second chicane. The Spaniard afterwards was furious at himself and at the officials who did not want to push him just a bit back onto the tarmac. Michael Schumacher was afterwards able to pass Button relatively easy and secured Ferrari's 1-2.
With Button 3rd and Sato 4th, BAR has now passed RenaultF1 in the constructors championship, a huge deception for the French team.
Further in the points were Montoya on 5th who lost some places just after his second pitstop, David Coulthard who at the end brilliantly held off Pizzonia. The Scot had started from the pitlane after a small problem and drove the race with only one pitstop.
The complete results are as follows:
1 R. Barrichello Ferrari 1:15:18.448
2 M. Schumacher Ferrari + 1.347
3 J. Button BAR + 10.197
4 T. Sato BAR + 15.370
5 JP. Montoya Williams + 32.352
6 D. Coulthard McLaren + 33.439
7 A. Pizzonia Williams + 33.752
8 G. Fisichella Sauber + 35.431
9 M. Webber Jaguar + 56.761
10 J. Trulli Renault + 1:06.316
11 R. Zonta Toyota + 1:22.531
12 F. Massa Sauber + 1 laps
13 C. Klien Jaguar + 1 laps
14 N. Heidfeld Jordan + 1 laps
15 Z. Baumgartner Minardi + 3 laps
16 F. Alonso Renault + 12 laps DNF
17 G. Pantano Jordan + 22 laps DNF
18 G. Bruni Minardi + 26 laps DNF
19 K. Räikkönen McLaren + 40 laps DNF
20 O. Panis Toyota + 53 laps DNF
