2002 British Grand Prix

  2002 British Grand Prix

Race details
Race 10 of 17 in the 2002 Formula One season
The Silverstone Circuit modified in 2000
Date	7 July 2002
Official name	LV Foster's British Grand Prix
Location	Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone, Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire, England
Course	Permanent Road Facility
Course length	5.141 km (3.194 mi)
Distance	60 laps, 308.46 km (191.603 mi)
Weather	Dry/Wet, Air Temp: 21°C
Attendance	65,000[1]
Pole position
Driver	Juan Pablo Montoya	Williams-BMW
Time	1:18.998
Fastest lap
Driver	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari
Time	1:23.083 on lap 58
Podium
First	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Second	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari
Third	Juan Pablo Montoya	Williams-BMW
Lap leaders

The 2002 British Grand Prix (formally the LV Foster's British Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held at the Silverstone Circuit in Northamptonshire, England on 7 July 2002. The 60-lap race was the tenth round of the 2002 Formula One season.

Report

Qualifying

Qualifying saw Williams driver Juan Pablo Montoya edge out the two Ferraris to take his fourth consecutive pole position, beating Rubens Barrichello by 0.034 seconds and Michael Schumacher by 0.044. Ralf Schumacher was fourth in the other Williams, three-tenths of a second behind his brother but eight-tenths ahead of Kimi Räikkönen's McLaren in fifth. The top ten was completed by David Coulthard in the other McLaren, Jarno Trulli in the Renault, Mika Salo in the Toyota, Jacques Villeneuve in the BAR and Nick Heidfeld in the Sauber. Alex Yoong failed to set a lap within the 107% time in his Minardi and thus did not qualify.

Race

There were dark clouds overhead at the beginning of the race. On the formation lap, Barrichello stalled and was put to the back of the grid. Then, when the starting lights went out, Allan McNish in the second Toyota retired immediately with a clutch failure. In the early laps, Montoya led from Michael Schumacher, with Räikkönen overtaking Ralf for third and Barrichello charging through the field, reaching eighth by lap 6.^[2]

As the rain started to fall, the drivers made their first pit stops to change from slick tyres to wets. Michael Schumacher and the Williams drivers all pitted on lap 13, but Ralf's stop went wrong as the Williams crew did not have his tyres ready.^[3] Coulthard briefly inherited the lead, but the McLaren team had gambled by leaving him out longer than the other leaders, bringing him in on lap 15.^[2] On lap 16, Michael Schumacher passed Montoya for the lead, and on lap 19 Barrichello completed his charge by passing the Colombian for second.

Jenson Button eventually retired with a suspension failure.

With the Bridgestone tyres better suited to the conditions than the Michelins, the Ferraris began to pull away. Meanwhile, Coulthard was struggling in ninth, McLaren's gamble having backfired.^[2] As the weather appeared to improve, the team brought him and fourth-placed Räikkönen in to change back to slicks. This too did not pay off, as the rain in fact got heavier, and after changing back to wets again, the McLarens toiled at the back of the field, Coulthard eventually finishing two laps behind Schumacher while Räikkönen retired on lap 45 with an engine failure.^[3]

The tyre issue also affected the Renaults, Trulli and Jenson Button running in the points before making three stops apiece.^[4] Trulli dropped out on lap 30 with an electrical problem, before Button suffered a suspension failure on lap 55.

Up at the front, Schumacher led Barrichello by 13 seconds at half-distance. By this point, the Ferraris were so far ahead that Barrichello retained an advantage of over half a minute over third-placed Montoya following a spin on lap 33.^[2] By making one fewer stop, Montoya managed to catch up with the Brazilian and overtake him on lap 41, but Barrichello repassed him five laps later and pulled away again.^[2] Ralf Schumacher benefitted from the misfortunes of the McLarens and the Renaults to regain fourth, only to have another pit stop go wrong when his fuel rig failed.^[3] This left four more Bridgestone drivers - Villeneuve, Heidfeld, Olivier Panis in the second BAR and Giancarlo Fisichella in the Jordan - occupying fourth to seventh.

Michael Schumacher eventually took the chequered flag 14.5 seconds ahead of Barrichello, with Montoya a further 17 seconds back and the last man on the lead lap. Villeneuve and Panis took fourth and fifth, securing BAR's first points of the season, while Heidfeld held off Fisichella for the final point.

This was Schumacher's seventh victory of the season and his 60th in all, and it extended his lead in the Drivers' Championship to 54 points - meaning that he could secure his fifth title at the next race, in France, with six races still to run. Barrichello moved into second in the standings, one point ahead of Montoya and two ahead of Ralf Schumacher.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Lap	Gap
1	6	Juan Pablo Montoya	Williams-BMW	1:18.998	—
2	2	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	1:19.032	+0.034
3	1	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	1:19.042	+0.044
4	5	Ralf Schumacher	Williams-BMW	1:19.329	+0.331
5	4	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:20.133	+1.135
6	3	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	1:20.315	+1.317
7	14	Jarno Trulli	Renault	1:20.516	+1.518
8	24	Mika Salo	Toyota	1:20.995	+1.997
9	11	Jacques Villeneuve	BAR-Honda	1:21.130	+2.132
10	7	Nick Heidfeld	Sauber-Petronas	1:21.187	+2.189
11	8	Felipe Massa	Sauber-Petronas	1:21.191	+2.193
12	15	Jenson Button	Renault	1:21.247	+2.249
13	12	Olivier Panis	BAR-Honda	1:21.274	+2.276
14	10	Takuma Sato	Jordan-Honda	1:21.337	+2.339
15	25	Allan McNish	Toyota	1:21.382	+2.384
16	20	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Arrows-Cosworth	1:21.416	+2.418
17	9	Giancarlo Fisichella	Jordan-Honda	1:21.636	+2.638
18	21	Enrique Bernoldi	Arrows-Cosworth	1:21.780	+2.782
19	16	Eddie Irvine	Jaguar-Cosworth	1:21.851	+2.853
20	23	Mark Webber	Minardi-Asiatech	1:22.281	+3.283
21	17	Pedro de la Rosa	Jaguar-Cosworth	1:23.422	+4.424
107% time: 1:24.527
DNQ	22	Alex Yoong	Minardi-Asiatech	1:24.785	+5.787
Source:[5]

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	1	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	60	1:31:45.015	3	10
2	2	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	60	+14.578	2	6
3	6	Juan Pablo Montoya	Williams-BMW	60	+31.661	1	4
4	11	Jacques Villeneuve	BAR-Honda	59	+1 Lap	9	3
5	12	Olivier Panis	BAR-Honda	59	+1 Lap	13	2
6	7	Nick Heidfeld	Sauber-Petronas	59	+1 Lap	10	1
7	9	Giancarlo Fisichella	Jordan-Honda	59	+1 Lap	17
8	5	Ralf Schumacher	Williams-BMW	59	+1 Lap	4
9	8	Felipe Massa	Sauber-Petronas	59	+1 Lap	11
10	3	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	58	+2 Laps	6
11	17	Pedro de la Rosa	Jaguar-Cosworth	58	+2 Laps	21
12	15	Jenson Button	Renault	54	Wheel	12
Ret	10	Takuma Sato	Jordan-Honda	50	Engine	14
Ret	4	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	44	Engine	5
Ret	14	Jarno Trulli	Renault	29	Electronics	7
Ret	21	Enrique Bernoldi	Arrows-Cosworth	28	Driveshaft	18
Ret	16	Eddie Irvine	Jaguar-Cosworth	23	Spin	19
Ret	20	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Arrows-Cosworth	20	Engine	16
Ret	24	Mika Salo	Toyota	15	Drivetrain	8
Ret	23	Mark Webber	Minardi-Asiatech	9	Clutch	20
Ret	25	Allan McNish	Toyota	0	Clutch	15
DNQ	22	Alex Yoong	Minardi-Asiatech		107% Rule
Sources:[5][6]

Notes

• The podium ceremony was delayed due to serial prankster Karl Power appearing on the top step of the podium before Michael Schumacher arrived to take the top step.

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Michael Schumacher 86 2 Rubens Barrichello 32 3 Juan Pablo Montoya 31 4 Ralf Schumacher 30 5 David Coulthard 26

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Ferrari 118 2 Williams-BMW 61 3 McLaren-Mercedes 37 4 Renault 14 5 Sauber-Petronas 10

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

1. F1 Racing. August 2002.
2. "Lapwatch: British Grand Prix". BBC Sport. Retrieved 2013-10-14.
3. "British GP 2002 Review". Formula One Rejects. Archived from the original on August 16, 2012. Retrieved 2013-10-14.
4. "Grand Prix Results: British GP, 2002". Grandprix.com. Retrieved 2013-10-14.
5. "Grand Prix of Great Britain". FIA.com. Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. Archived from the original on 18 October 2012. Retrieved 26 December 2015.
6. "2002 British Grand Prix". Formula1.com. Formula1.com Limited. Archived from the original on 13 October 2014. Retrieved 26 December 2015.