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| |  Sunday, 15 July, 2001, 13:52 GMT 14:52 UK Hakkinen halts Schumacher charge Hakkinen makes it a McLaren hat-trick at Silverstone By BBC Sport Online's Andrew Benson at Silverstone McLaren-Mercedes halted Michael Schumacher's winning charge at the British Grand Prix, but from David Coulthard's point of view it was with the wrong driver. Mika Hakkinen bounced back to the top of Formula One with a bang with a crushing victory at Silverstone, but Coulthard's championship chances are now all but over after he crashed out after just three laps. By then he was already fighting a losing battle, having spun at the first corner following a collision with Jarno Trulli's Jordan-Honda. Coulthard managed to keep going at the back of the field for three laps before spinning off going through Bridge corner. The first impression was that his rear suspension had broken after being damaged in the first-lap melee.
Schumacher now has an almost insurmountable 37-point lead with a maximum of 60 points available. Hakkinen, meanwhile, made the race his own. He trailed Schumacher for the first four laps before pouncing when the German made a mistake. The Ferrari, which was doing a one-stop strategy compared to Hakkinen's two, ran wide out of Copse corner and Hakkinen forced his way past into the following high-speed Becketts complex. He then made his lighter fuel load count, pulling away from the Ferrari at as much as two seconds a lap as he sought to build a big-enough advantage to stop and get out in front of the Ferrari. He did it with ease, stopping on lap 21 and rejoining comfortably ahead of Schumacher.
By that time, Williams-BMW's Juan Pablo Montoya had passed Schumacher as well. Hakkinen rejoined behind the Colombian, retaking the lead when Montoya made his first stop on lap 25. The Finn never lost the lead again. He made his second stop on lap 39, as Schumacher came in for his one and only. When they both came out again, Hakkinen's lead was 21.1 seconds. "I always wanted to win this race. It feels really good, especially after all the trouble that have been going on this year," he said afterwards. Schumacher admitted: "We simply weren't fast enough this weekend. I don't think we are in a difficult situation in general, we just didn't get it right.
"My car wasn't really the way I would have liked to have it and particularly into Copse I had a lot of problems. "I got it sideways a couple of times and that is what happened [on lap four]. "I ran wide and Mika got beside me and that was that. I had a pretty difficult day. He was flying and it would have been very difficult to win this race." Ferrari number two Rubens Barrichello was third, like Schumacher on a one-stop strategy, with Montoya fourth and the two Saubers of Kimi Raikkonen and Nick Heidfeld taking the final points-scoring positions. Crushing performance Hakkinen's crushing performance, which shattered the lap record, seemed a remarkable turnaround in form for McLaren and particularly Hakkinen, who has not won a race since the end of August last year. In fact, McLaren have been there or thereabouts at a lot of races this season, but have failed through a series of mistakes to get it together. The race, though, was a stark indication that they can never be discounted, as Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn has been saying all along. Hakkinen and McLaren were as dominant at Silverstone as they have often been throughout the last three years, when they have usually been the quickest combination in F1. It is unlikely to be enough to stop Schumacher racking up a fourth championship, but it could well lead to some thrilling races between now and the end of the season. ends Result of the British Grand Prix at Silverstone on 15 July, 2001 1 Mika Hakkinen (Fin) McLaren-Mercedes World Championship positions 1 M Schumacher 84 | |
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