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2000 United States GP News |
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Drivers Championship Constructors
Championship United States Grand Prix Race Report. Michael Schumacher wins the US Grand Prix and regains the lead in the Drivers' championship. Rubens Barrichello finishes second and Ferrari also regain the lead in the Constructor's championship. Heinz Harald Frentzen manages to finish 3rd after an exciting fight with Jacques Villeneuve who finished 4th ahead of David Coulthard and Ricardo Zonta. The start of the race was very interesting as the track was damp all the drivers except Johnny Herbert elected to start on wet tyres. David Coulthard jumped the start and got ahead of Michael Schumacher with Hakkinen third and Barrichello in 4th. David Coulthard starts to slow down sandwiching Michael Schumacher between himself and Hakkinen. Michael Schumacher eventually manages to pass Coulthard who also gives way to Hakkinen. Coulthard then stops for a 10 second stop-go penalty after jumping the start and rejoined in 14th. On lap 8, Mika Hakkinen switches to dry tyres while Schumacher stays out on wet tyres. Schumacher increases the gap until he switches to dry on lap 17. Mika Hakkinen then starts crawling his way back and reduces the gap from 10.9 seconds to under 5 seconds but on lap 26 he suffers an engine problem and stops and retires in the pit lane. From then on, Michael Schumacher had no pressure and was leading by a big margin. This caused him to lose concentration and he spun just a few laps from the end but he managed to recover and went on to win the race. Behind him, it was Rubens Barrichello who struggled during the first part of the race running in 8th position with wet tyres but after a number of retirements and some good pit work he finished in 2nd place. Heinz Harald Frentzen finished 3rd and fought hard with Jacques Villeneuve to keep his place. A few laps from the end, Villeneuve overtook him but ran wide into the first corner giving 3rd position back to Frentzen. David Coulthard was 5th. He dropped to 14th after the 10 second stop-go penalty and managed to quickly move to 9th but his car didn't have the straight line speed to match the Arrows of Pedro de la Rosa and was stuck behind him for a number of laps. He eventually passed him in the infield section and managed to go up to 5th after a few cars in front of him retired. Ricardo Zonta made the top 6 after a good drive from 12th. Ralf Schumacher retired with mechanical problems but at one stage was running second to Michael Schumacher. Ralf was very quick on the wet tyres and he managed to pass several drivers moving from 8th to 2nd. Johnny Herbert also had an interesting race after electing to start on dry tyres, he was last after the first lap but managed to get up to 5th after the other drivers switched to dry tyres and overtaking several cars including Barrichello and Villeneuve. But when he went for his pit stop, he overshot his mark and hit a wheel gun and damaged the nose. That lost him any chance for a points finish and ended up in 11th. Jenson Button and Jarno Trulli had yet another clash on the track. As Button tried to pass Trulli on the first lap, they touched wheels and both went off and had to pit suffering from punctures. Trulli retired on lap 13 with a broken suspension while Button retired with an electrical problem on lap 15. So with 2 races remaining, Ferrari are now looking good for both the Drivers' and Constructors' championship with Michael Schumacher 8 points ahead of Hakkinen and could win the title in Japan if he wins or finishes 2 points ahead of Hakkinen. Click
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