NewsOnF1 - 2002 Brazilian GP

Michael Schumacher wins the race just over half a second ahead of his brother Ralf Schumacher. David Coulthard was third almost a minute behind with Jarno Trulli in 4th ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya and Mika Salo.

The anticipated battle between Michael Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya only lasted for a few hundred meters. At the start, Michael Schumacher had a better start than Juan Pablo but Juan Pablo managed to stay in front getting into the first corner but he went wide and Michael Schumacher managed to get through. Montoya then got too close to Michael that his front wing touched the back of Michael's car which resulted in Montoya losing his front wing and being forced to pit for a new wing putting him at the back of the field.

Ralf Schumacher moved into second as a result and both Jarno Trulli and Jenson Button got in front of the 2 McLaren's after starting superbly.
Meanwhile Rubens Barrichello starting from 8th was on a lighter fuel load and moved from 8th at the start to 2nd in the first 5 laps.

On lap 13 Rubens Barrichello takes the lead from Michael only to retire with hydraulic problems a couple of laps later. Meanwhile Giancarlo Fisichella blows an engine for his 3rd retirement in as many races.

Michael Schumacher continues building a gap to Ralf Schumacher making it appear as if he was on a 2 stop strategy which turned out not to be the case but by lap 16 the gap between them stabilised at 9 seconds. Both were building a huge gap to Jarno Trulli who was in 3rd while David Coulthard who managed to get ahead of Jenson Button was unable to find a way through. Juan Pablo Montoya moved up to 16th place.

On lap 39 Michael Schumacher makes his only pit stop, he put a number of very fast laps just before his stop in order to ensure that he retains the lead by the time Ralf Schumacher makes his pit stop. 6 laps later Ralf makes his pit stop and gives back the lead to Michael. Behind the 2, both David Coulthard and Kimi Raikkonen get ahead of Jarno Trulli through the pits. Coulthard had unsuccessfully tried several times to pass Trulli on the track before his stop while Kimi Raikkonen managed to pass Jenson Button just before his stop.
Meanwhile Juan Pablo Montoya was moving up benefiting from the 2 stops of most of the Bridgestone runners as well as a few retirements and by lap 45 he was in 7th behind Jenson Button.

Ralf Schumacher started to reduce the gap to Michael but never managed to get close to attempt a pass. He got close on lap 57 but wasn't close enough as the Ferrari appeared to accelerate onto the main straight better than the Williams.
On lap 60 Jarno Trulli running in 5th blows an engine and 4 laps from the end Kimi Raikkonen suffers what appears to be a suspension problem and spins into retirement moving Montoya up into 5th who was catching Jenson Button.

Ralf Schumacher tried again to get close to Michael in the final few laps of the race but to no avail and Michael Schumacher kept the lead and won the race with Ralf just over half a second behind. David Coulthard was 3rd just under a minute behind with Jenson Button scoring a 4th place finish for the second race in a row. Juan Pablo Montoya didn't have enough laps in the race to get past Button and finished 5th and Mika Salo managed to bring the Toyota home in 6th place.
Behind the top 6, Eddie Irvine and Pedro de la Rosa finished 7th and 8th while Takuma Sato was 9th 2 laps down with Jacques Villeneuve in 10th and 3 laps down after his car came to a halt on the main straight.

So Michael Schumacher increases his lead in the championship to 8 points over Ralf Schumacher (24 to 16) while Montoya drops to 3rd with 14 points.
Williams still lead the Constructors' Championship by 6 points from Ferrari (30 to 24).
Only Michael Schumacher out of the top 8 was running on Bridgestone tyres.

The new Ferrari driven by Michael Schumacher certainly matched the pace of the Williams and heading to Europe where the temperatures are not as harsh, Ferrari must be feeling good about their chances. It was a bit of a surprise though that Barrichello suffered a car failure for the second race in a car that was very reliable in the past.

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