Coulthard sees off Ferrari Duo
13 May 2001: David Coulthard took his second win of the season for McLaren-Mercedes and closed the Championship points gap to just 4 points from Michael Schumacher when he won the Austrian Grand Prix by just 2.1 seconds from his Ferrari rival . Schumacher was handed second place - and an extra two points - when his team mate Rubens Barrichello let him through on the very last corner. However, there was no champagne from Coulthard, his team mourning the loss of their Mercedes Ilmor engine boss Paul Morgan in a plane accident the previous day.
The early challenge from the BMW-Williams' of Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher came to a premature end. After both BMWs took the lead at the start, Ralf Schumacher dropped from second place with brake trouble after 10 laps and Montoya retired with an hydraulic failure on lap 42 following a controversial incident trying to defend his lead from Michael Schumacher.
A strong race by Kimi Raikkonen saw him put the Sauber into fourth place at the flag, and Olivier Panis, the last driver to remain on the same lap as the leaders, secured fifth spot for BAR.
A low fuel early charge from Verstappen helped him into sixth place and the final point of the day despite a two stop race strategy.
If there was ever a strong argument against the use of the sophisticated electronic launch control systems now used on the cars since Barcelona, it was at the start of the Austrian Grand Prix
When the lights went out, four of the leading cars sat stationary on the grid. Both the Jordans, Mika Hakkinen's McLaren and Nick Heidfeld's Sauber failed to get off the line, Frentzen retiring his Jordan after it was pushed into the pit lane with a broken gearbox, while Heidfeld and Trulli finally got away a lap late from the pits. Mika Hakkinen took three laps before he started - and then the pace car had to come out for two laps while his car was pushed off the grid.
Having to take over manually from his own car's launch control system, Michael Schumacher made an average start from the pole position, Juan-Pablo Montoya a good one from the outside of the front row and Ralf Schumacher an excellent one from the third spot to put the two Williams ahead, Montoya just ahead of his team-mate with Michael Schumacher third. David Coulthard also made an excellent start from the fourth row of the grid, briefly putting himself into fourth spot until Barrichello put the second Ferrari ahead again half way around the first lap.
With the two Williams running ahead of the two Ferraris in the opening laps, it looked like being a difficult fight for Schumacher, but half his problems were over just 10 laps into the race when his brother pulled out of the race with his brake problems.
Montoya hung on to his lead from Schumacher, but appeared to be struggling with balance as the race went on. His lead narrowed to less than a second as Barrichello and Coulthard joined Schumacher, the four cars now in a high-speed train for the lead with Montoya slowing the pace at the head of the field.
It was thrilling racing around at A1-Ring with Schumacher and Montoya racing wheel to wheel on several corners before their dual finally came to grief on lap 16 as Schumacher attempted to out-brake Montoya into the tight corner at the end of the straight.
Montoya's car got out of shape forcing Schumacher wide and driving him off to the outside of the turn. "I normally enjoy these sort of dices, but this time I was a little bit upset because there was no way he could make the corner and he tried to take me out with him," said Michael, who dropped back to sixth place as he accelerated back into the race.
"I had to push hard after that and there was no way to save any fuel," revealed Michael, Rubens Barrichello moving into the lead just ahead of Coulthard. "I also made a slow start like Michael, but I was driving a hard race and thought I could win," said Rubens, but it went wrong for him at the pit stops. He made a quick stop, but Coulthard stayed out and set the fastest lap of the race as he pushed to make up time before his own stop three laps later.
"We had a strategy to run the engine lean for a late stop and it paid off," said David, who came back into the race just ahead of Barrichello and managed to stay there to the flag for his second win of the season. Schumacher managed to fight his way back to third place, but was handed second by his team-mate on the last corner in order to keep him a further two points ahead of Schumacher in the Championship.
"I was very happy he did that. I know some people do not agree with it, but it is the philosophy of Ferrari, but imagine how it would be if I lost the Championship by two points at the end of the year," pointed out Michael.
Disappointment for Jordan - Again
A weekend of great promise for Jordan Honda ended in disappointment when both cars failed to get away at the start and retired almost immediately, thus ending Jordan's achievement of scoring points in every Grand Prix held so far this season.
'The launch control system didn't work so the engine stalled,' said Trulli. 'The system wasn't working properly during the warm-up this morning and, although we made some adjustments, it clearly wasn't enough. I was pushed into the pit lane and re-started the race behind the Safety Car. I was shown some blue flags as I was one lap down, but then a black flag (disqualification) for leaving the pit lane while the exit light was red. I am very disappointed.'
Frentzen was also left on the grid when the red lights went out to signal the start of the race. 'The gearbox broke at the start and totally jammed the gears,' said Frentzen. 'We tried to fix the problem but couldn't, so that was it. I'm very disappointed as the car felt very good and well balanced this morning.'
'After the warm-up I really felt that we were in good shape for the race as both cars ran well with good balance,' said Eddie Jordan. 'Unfortunately it wasn't to be as Heinz had a gearbox problem that jammed the gears so his car couldn't move, and Jarno's engine stalled after the launch control failed. It would appear that the revs were possibly too low for the launch control to activate, which was a fault by the team and not Honda. Jarno had to retire after being shown a black flag for leaving the pit lane to join the race when the pit exit light was red. It's very disappointing for both drivers and we will be having a debrief to establish the reasons for today's poor performance.'
Next Race
The seventh round of the FIA Formula One World Championship will be the Monaco Grand Prix on 27 May.
Austrian Race Result
1. Coulthard McLaren 1:27.45.92
2. Schumacher M Ferrari 2.100
3. Barrichello Ferrari 2.500
4. Raikkonen Sauber 41.500
5. Panis BAR 53.700
6. Verstappen Arrows +1 lap
7. Irvine Jaguar +1 lap
8. Villeneuve BAR +1 lap
9. Heidfeld Sauber +2 laps
10. Alesi Prost +2 laps
11. Burti Prost +2 laps
Retired
Button Benetton
de la Rosa Jaguar
Montoya Williams
Alonso Minardi
Marques Minardi
Bernoldi Arrows
Trulli Jordan
Schumacher R Williams
Fisichella Benetton
Hakkinen McLaren
Frentzen Jordan
DRIVERS' CHAMPIONSHIP TABLE
1 M Schumacher Ferrari 42
2 Coulthard McLaren 38
3 Barrichello Ferrari 18
4 R Schumacher Williams 12
5 Heidfeld Sauber 8
6 Trulli Jordan H 7
7= Frentzen Jordan 6
7= Montoya Williams 6
9 Panis BAR 5
11= Villeneuve BAR 4
11= Hakkinen McLaren 4
11= Raikkonen Sauber 4
13= Fisichella Benetton 1
13= Verstappen Arrows 1
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CONSTRUCTORS' CHAMPIONSHIP TABLE
1 1 Ferrari 60
2 McLaren 42
3 Williams 18
4 Jordan 13
5 Sauber 12
6 BAR 9
7= Benetton 1
7= Arrows 1