Italian GP - Monza 10 Spetember 2000

M. Schumacher got away in the lead at the start of the Italian GP, followed by the two McLaren who, together with Trulli, managed to get in front of Barrichello. The predicted pile up at the first corner did not really happen, apart from Irvine and Alesi. A massive accident did take place on the second corner though, with Barrichello getting entangled with the two Jordan, which collided and took out Coulthard as well. Another accident happened just behind them and De La Rosa's Arrows flew in the air and landed on the other cars that had been involved in the first accident. De La Rosa lay on the ground attended by track personnel and Dr Sid Wilkins. De La Rosa was fine and in a later interview explained that he got caught in the smoke of the accident, could not see anything and hit something that sent him flying. The safety car came out immediately and the race went on while all the destroyed cars were being removed. The accident took out both Jordan, Barrichello, Coulthard, De La Rosa. M. Schumacher was in the lead behind the safety car, in front of Häkkinen, Villeneuve, R. Schumacher, Fisichella, Button. Barrichello and Coulthard, who hurt his hand, agreed that the fault was Frentzen's for hitting Barrichello from behind. The Jordan driver, on the other hand, said that Barrichello had braked sharply and he could not avoid hitting him. Salo, who had suffered damage to his car during the accident, went back to the pits and had part of the chassis replaced, while Herbert had to retire.One of the fire fighters was hit by a flying tyre and had to be taken away by ambulance. After the cars were taken away, on lap eight, Sauber made a request that for the race not to be restarted until all the smaller pieces of debris were removed. The laps behind the safety car played havoc with tyre and fuel strategies, with all cars waving madly trying to keep the tyre temperature up. On lap 11 the safety car finally went in and a rolling started ensued as soon as M. Schumacher passed the line. M. Schumacher slowed down considerably to give himself an advantage with the start. All drivers slowed down creating a concertina effect, except from Button who did not expect it and went straight into the side trying to avoid the other cars, retiring. After the rolling start M. Schumacher was in the lead, followed by Häkkinen, Villeneuve, R. Schumacher, Fisichella and Verstappen. On lap 13 Salo went through the chicane for the second time and lost positions. On lap 14 Verstappen made a move on Fisichella and overtook him on the inside for fifth position. Almost immediately Villeneuve got out from third position, causing his team mate Zonta to move into sixth place. On the following lap Heidfeld span out and stopped across the track. The German retired, but left his car stranded in a dangerous position. Zonta, on a light fuel load, flew past R. Schumacher on a straight line. M. Schumacher had been building up a gap and by lap 17 he was over three seconds ahead of Häkkinen. Verstappen was third, in front of Zonta, R. Schumacher and Fisichella. News arrived that the fire fighter hit by the tyre was in a very bad condition. All drivers involved in the accident, including Button, were called by the GP management to explain what had happened. On lap 20 Zonta attacked Verstappen and went ahead, but Zonta fought back as they entered the corner, the two cars were alongside for a while, managed not to touch, then Zonta went ahead taking third place from the Arrows. On lap 23 the BAR mechanics started getting ready to receive Zonta, who came in and out again in 7.2 seconds, rejoining in last but one position. Salo moved into sixth position. On lap 27 Salo had his pit stop (11.4 seconds) at the same time as Mazzacane (11.8 seconds). On the following lap Alesi had his pit stop (8.5 seconds). On the same lap M. Schumacher came up to lap Mazzacane, who got blue flagged but did not make it any easy for the German to pass. On lap 29 Verstappen had his pit stop (9.8 seconds) and Fisichella moved up to fourth position, in front of team mate Wurz and Zonta. On the same lap Häkkinen for the first time put in a faster lap time than M. Schumacher. Gené pitted from ninth (8.4 seconds). On lap 36 M. Schumacher responded to Häkkinen's challenge by putting in the fastest lap. On the following lap Zonta came into the pits again to refuel to the end of the race (6.9 seconds). Diniz pitted after him (11.5 seconds). On lap 39 M. Schumacher had his pit stop (7.2 seconds) and rejoined in second position behind Häkkinen who had not stopped yet. Two laps later Häkkinen went for his one pit stop of the race (6.6 seconds) and joined the race in second position, the lead having gone back to M. Schumacher. Wurz pitted from fifth position (6.1 seconds) on the same lap. Häkkinen came up behind Mazzacane, who was again blue flagged and again made it difficult for the fast car behind to go past him. R. Schumacher and Fisichella both pitted at the same time, but there were problems with the Benetton. Fisichella could not get into gear, then the engine stalled. They managed to restart the car, but he stalled again within seconds. The mechanics had to push him out and he managed to put into gear and go. The news arrived that the fire fighter hit by the tyre (or even a wing) had been taken to the hospital San Gerardo in Monza, where he was diagnosed as being in critical condition with skull and chest trauma. Following the news Italian Minister of Transports, sig. Bianco, announced that he would not take part in the podium ceremony for respect to the family of the wounded fire fighter. With only a few laps left, Häkkinen started pushing very hard, closing up the gap with M. Schumacher, perhaps hoping for a replay of his last-minute overtaking for the lead in the Belgian GP. At the end the Flying Finn had to settle for second position, as M. Schumacher won in front of an ecstatic crowd. R. Schumacher finished on the lowest step of the podium, in front of Verstappen, Wurz and Zonta. Coulthard saw the end of his Championship ambitions in the second corner of the Italian GP, when the accident took him out. The race for the title is now clearly between contenders only, Häkkinen and M. Schumacher. It is likely that the Scot will now suffer the outrage of receiving the team order to help his team mate in the remaining three GPs. The pressure on the two title contenders was made evident when M. Schumacher broke out in tears during the drivers press conference, after being told that he had equalled Senna's record of 41 GP victories. The interviewer moved on to Häkkinen, who was conforting M. Schumacher and who broke down too and asked the interviewer to move on to R. Schumacher. The gap between the leading two in both the Drivers and the Constructors Championship has narrowed, with Häkkinen leading M. Schumacher by only two points and McLaren leading Ferrari by four. Verstappen ran one of his best races, bringing home three points. Wurz managed to find his first two points in more than a year, but too late for him to impress the Benetton management. Similarly, Zonta brought in one point for BAR, again too late to avoid being replaced next year. The whole day was marred by the sad news that the voluntary fire fighter hit by debris during the accident at the second corner had died in hospital. All the cars involved in the accident were ordered to be kept under police control pending an enquire into the young fire fighter death. Next appointment is in Indianapolis in two weeks time.

Images from La Gazzetta dello Sport Online and Raisport