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| French
GP - Race:
Michael Schumacher wins the French GP ahead of Ralf Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello. David Coulthard is 4th ahead of Jarno Trulli and Nick Heidfeld. Lap 72: Michael Schumacher looks set for his 50th GP win. Lap 71: Jenson Button retires! Lap 71: 2 more laps! Lap 70: Fernando Alonso retires in the pits but he will be classified. Lap 69: Coulthard drops back a little after that pass attempt. He will likely finish 4th. Lap 68: David Coulthard tries to pass Barrichello but fails! Lap 67: Order - M Schumacher, R Schumacher, Barrichello, Coulthard, Trulli, Heidfeld, Raikkonen, Frentzen, Panis and Burti. Retirements: Hakkinen, Villeneuve, Bernoldi, Montoya and Irvine. Lap 66: Ralf, Rubens and David are going through traffic. Lap 65: Coulthard is pushing hard for 3rd. Lap 65: There are only 5 retirements so far. Lap 64: Barrichello is now just 5 seconds behind Ralf Schumacher with 8 laps to go. Lap 63: Nick Heidfeld in 6th has been lapped by Michael Schumacher. The top 5 are on the same lap! Lap 62: Jenson Button in 12th spins but recovers. Lap 61: Barrichello is now under 7 seconds behind Ralf while Coulthard remains under a second behind Barrichello. Lap 60: Order - M Schumacher, R Schumacher, Barrichello, Coulthard, Trulli, Heidfeld, Raikkonen, Frentzen, Panis and Fisichella. Retirements: Hakkinen, Villeneuve, Bernoldi, Montoya and Irvine. Lap 59: Ralf Schumacher appears to be again struggling with his tyres. Lap 59: Only the top 6 are on the same lap! Lap 58: Michael Schumacher leads Ralf by 15.8 seconds. Barrichello is 3rd just 0.6 seconds ahead of Coulthard. Lap 57: David Coulthard catching Rubens Barrichello for 3rd place. Lap 56: Eddie Irvine retires from 7th! Lap 55: Order - M Schumacher, R Schumacher, Barrichello, Coulthard, Trulli, Heidfeld, Irvine, Raikkonen, Frentzen and Panis. Retirements: Hakkinen, Villeneuve, Bernoldi and Montoya. Lap 54: Barrichello pits for the 3rd time. 3 stopper for Barrichello. Lap 53: Michael Schumacher leads Barrichello by 6.7 seconds. Lap 52: Montoya retires with a car failure! Lap 51: David Coulthard makes his second scheduled pit stop. He also stopped for the 10 second penalty. Lap 50: M Schumacher leads Barrichello by 15 seconds. Barrichello will probably pit once more. Lap 50: Frentzen spins but recovers. Montoya pits. Michael takes the lead. Lap 49: Montoya is 5 seconds ahead of Michael Schumacher. Lap 49: Trulli pits. 8 seconds. Lap 48: Frentzen pits. 8.4 seconds. Lap 48: Order - Montoya, M Schumacher, Barrichello, Coulthard, R Schumacher, Trulli, Irvine, Frentzen, Heidfeld and Panis. Retirements: Hakkinen, Villeneuve and Bernoldi. Lap 47: The question is whether Montoya has to pit again ? He stopped on lap 31 Lap 46: Michael Schumacher pits. 10.7 seconds. Montoya leads Lap 45: Michael leads Montoya by 19.9 seconds. Lap 44: Ralf pits, he seems to have a bad set of tyres. 8.7 second pit stop. Lap 43: Ralf expected to pit. Lap 43: Irvine passes Frentzen for 8th. Lap 42: M Schumacher leads by 17 seconds! Lap 42: Order - M Schumacher, R Schumacher, Montoya, Barrichello, Coulthard, Trulli, Heidfeld, Frentzen, Irvine and Raikkonen. Retirements: Hakkinen, Villeneuve and Bernoldi. Lap 41: Kimi Raikkonen pits for the second time. Lap 40: Montoya is all over the back of Ralf. Interesting to see what happens! Lap 39: Michael Schumacher is now over 15 seconds ahead of Ralf! Lap 38: Montoya is catching Ralf. He is just 2 seconds behind in 3rd. Lap 38: Order - M Schumacher, R Schumacher, Montoya, Barrichello, Coulthard, Trulli. Retirements: Hakkinen, Villeneuve and Bernoldi. Lap 37: Michael Schumacher is now 13 seconds ahead of Ralf Schumacher! Lap 36: Rubens Barrichello pits for his second stop. He rejoins ahead of Coulthard. Lap 36: Rubens Barrichello closing in on Ralf Schumacher. Barrichello could be on a 3 stopper as he pitted very early Lap 35: David Coulthard rejoins in 5th place 32 seconds behind Michael Schumacher! Lap 35: Michael Schumacher is 8.4 seconds ahead of Ralf in 2nd. Lap 34: Coulthard in the pits for his 10 second penalty. Lap 33: Order - M Schumacher, R Schumacher, Coulthard, Barrichello, Montoya, Trulli. Retirements: Hakkinen, Villeneuve and Bernoldi. Lap 32: 10 second penalty for Coulthard due to pit lane speeding!! Lap 31: Montoya pits and Michael takes the lead. Lap 30: Montoya leads Michael Schumacher by 6.6 seconds. Michael is 5.9 seconds ahead of Ralf. Lap 29: Michael Schumacher catching Montoya who could be on a 1 stop strategy! Lap 28: Order - Montoya, M Schumacher, R Schumacher, Coulthard, Barrichello, Trulli. Retirements: Hakkinen, Villeneuve and Bernoldi. Lap 27: David Coulthard rejoins in 4th behind Michael and Ralf. Montoya in the lead and has yet to stop. Lap 26: David Coulthard pits. Lap 25: Michael Schumacher gets ahead of Ralf but David Coulthard is in the lead as he has yet to stop. Lap 25: Michael Schumacher pits. 7.7 second stop. He could get ahead of Ralf Lap 24: Ralf Schumacher in the pits. Long stop 10.3 seconds! Lap 23: Rubens Barrichello on fresh tyres sets the fastest lap of the race so far with a 1:16.181. Lap 22: Ralf leads Michael by 2.8 seconds. Lap 22: Olivier Panis runs wide and Eddie Irvine gets through and takes 8th. Lap 22: Rubens Barrichello pits, he was running 5th. Lap 21: Ralf Schumacher leads Michael Schumacher by 2.6 seconds. Lap 21: Order - R Schumacher, M Schumacher, Coulthard, Montoya, Barrichello, Trulli, Frentzen, Heidfeld, Panis and Irvine. Retirements: Hakkinen, Villeneuve and Bernoldi. Lap 20: Jenson Button pits. Lap 19: Ralf Schumacher sets the fastest lap so far with a 1:16.585. Lap 18: Enrique Bernoldi retires from 13th. The 3rd car failure of the race. Lap 17: Irvine is still pushing Panis for 9th without success. He is 0.155 seconds behind! Lap 17: Ralf is 1.8 seconds ahead of Michael and 3.4 seconds ahead of Coulthard. Lap 16: Order - R Schumacher, M Schumacher, Coulthard, Montoya, Barrichello, Trulli, Frentzen, Heidfeld, Panis and Irvine. Retirements: Hakkinen and Villeneuve. Lap 15: Kimi Raikkonen pits, this must be a 3 stop strategy race for him. Perhaps just an early stop as he was stuck behind Frentzen. Lap 14: The Michelin tyres should now start performing at their best. We should see Ralf increase the gap. Lap 13: The gap between Ralf and Michael is 1.5 seconds. Between Michael and Coulthard - 1.5 seconds! Lap 12: Michael Schumacher posts the fastest lap of the race so far with a 1:16.848. Lap 11: Raikkonen is closing again onto Frentzen. The gap is 0.3 seconds. Lap 10: Ralf Schumacher starting to get away from Michael. The gap is over 1.5 seconds. Lap 9: Eddie Irvine is pushing Panis for 10th place. The gap is under half a second. Lap 8: Order - R Schumacher, M Schumacher, Coulthard, Montoya, Barrichello, Trulli, Frentzen, Raikkonen, Heidfeld, and Panis. Retirements: Hakkinen and Villeneuve. Lap 7: Frentzen takes 7th place back. Exciting!. Lap 7: Kimi Raikkonen moves ahead of Frentzen and takes 7th place. Lap 6: Ralf Schumacher is 1 second ahead of Michael. Coulthard is 0.7 seconds behind Michael. Lap 5: Jacques Villeneuve retires with a technical problem! Lap 4: Ralf Schumacher is starting to build a small gap. Lap 3: Order - R Schumacher, M Schumacher, Coulthard, Montoya, Barrichello, Trulli, Frentzen, Villeneuve, Raikkonen and Heidfeld. Retirements: Hakkinen. Lap 2: Michael Schumacher pushing Ralf as the Michelins are not very strong at this stage of the race. Lap 1: Trulli makes a bad start and loses 1 position while Barrichello moves from 8th to 5th. Lap 1: Mika Hakkinen retires after his car won't start from the pits Lap 1: Order - R Schumacher, M Schumacher, Coulthard, Montoya, Barrichello, Trulli Race start: Michael Schumacher takes 2nd back from Coulthard! Race start: Ralf Schumacher gets a good start and Coulthard takes 2nd from Michael Schumacher! Formation lap: Pedro de la Rosa stopped on the track. Formation lap: Mika's car won't start. They'll try to start it from the pit lane. Formation lap underway! - Hakkinen stalled on the grid. He'll have to start from the back! Track temperature is up to 47 degrees! Formation lap in 2 minutes. It is expected that the teams will adopt a 2 stop strategy here as they did last year, however it is possible that some teams could try a one stopper. Bridgestone introduced a new tyre here that Michael Schumacher described as 'works under any condition' while Michelin is happy with the warm conditions which suits their tyres. Formation lap in 5 minutes. Ralf Schumacher starts from pole position with his brother second on the gird. Coulthard and Hakkinen are 4th and 5th while Trulli in the Jordan is 5th ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya in 6th. Formation lap in 8 minutes. The air temperature is now 26 degrees while the track is 42 degrees!. It is mainly sunny. Formation lap in 10 minutes. The pit lane has closed and all the cars are on the grid. Michael Schumacher was the last to go out on the grid. Formation lap in 15 minutes. Race starting at 2:00 PM local time under sunny weather conditions. The temperature is 24 degrees |