From this race…

Schumacher, Michael

Missing grid spot and reversing back in
As Schumacher lined up on the grid after the formation lap he missed his grid slot and he had to hurriedly reverse back into position to avoid a penalty for the race stewards.

In the closing moments of Friday’s first practice session Ralf Schumacher spun
and lightly touched the wall, knocking the rear wing of his Williams.

"We have done a lot of work today. As usual on a Friday we were a bit
conservative and concentrated on race set-up instead of trying to get a good time
in," Ralf explained. "We think we have also made our tyre choice.
The track was very slippery, therefore several drivers spun. In the first hour,
when the track was still a bit damp in some places, I went off and slid backwards
taking off my rear wing in the process."

On the second lap of the race Juan-Pablo Montoya tried to pass Ralf Schumacher
under braking around the outside of the first corner. As the two Williams drivers
turned in Montoya was ahead but Ralf Spun his car, pushing Montoya on to the grass
and knocking his own rear-wing off. Montoya rejoined the race in seventh place
and Ralf pitted to have a new rear-wing fitted. Williams technical director, Patrick
Head was furious with his drivers and promised he would have stern words with
his two drivers.

Head said: "I’m not into apportioning blame between the two of them.
We’ve had some fantastic drivers in the past but they just haven’t driven into
each other. It’s absolutely ridiculous. For the amount of effort that goes into
this, to have that happen is completely unacceptable. We’ll talk about it afterwards
and try to sort out how it doesn’t happen again."

The crash probably prevented Williams securing third place in the race. Montoya
was closing rapidly on McLaren driver David Coulthard in the closing laps but
ran out of time to catch him.

On lap thirty-three Juan Pablo Montoya came in for his first pit stop, rejoining
in sixth in front of the battle between Jarno Trulli and Jacques Villeneuve. This
was all well and good but his car was fuelled to go much further into the race
and his strategy had been severely compromised. Montoya later admitted that he
had read the wrong pit board.

"We did everything to try and not get a podium," fumed Patrick
Head. "He came into the pits for his pit stop when he had lots of fuel
on board for many more laps, so why he came in we don’t know. We’ll have to look
at it afterwards."

Schumacher lead out the final lap of the American race in commanding fashion with
his faithful lieutenant, Rubens Barrichello in tow. Given that that the sport
had been trying hard to break the United Sates market, it had been a great race
for Formula One. Schumacher slowed as he approached the finish line, intending
to set up a great photographic opportunity for the world’s press but a misunderstanding
between the two drivers lead to disaster.

The two Ferraris had raced from the start. Their strategy had been perfect.
One or other of the red cars had led every lap of the race, it should have been
a glorious win but in his efforts to make headlines Schumacher made a mistake.
The German miscalculated where the finishing line was, slowed too soon and that
allowed Barrichello to sneak ahead by a hairsbreadth, when Schumacher himself
had intended to take the flag.

It was the closest finish in Formula One history, (0.011s) but it was a travesty.
The previous record was set by Elio Di Angelis when he edged out Keke Rosberg’s
Williams in the 1982 Austrian Grand Prix in a breathtaking battle. (Di Angelis
took the flag by eight hundredths of a second.) That was a contest between rivals.
This was a misunderstanding between teammates.

In the post race press conference one American journalist asked Schumacher
a sticky question.

“Why shouldn’t fans, paying good money, feel resentful and offended
by such a manipulated result?”

Not for the first time in the 2002 season Schumacher looked uneasy and he stated
that he had gifted the win to Barrichello as recompense for the Brazilian’s efforts
in Austria where he gave his win to Schumacher to aid him to his fifth world title.

“Today he deserved to win,” Schumacher said.

This was confusing in the extreme given that just ten minutes before the press
conference the German had told the world’s press that he had intended to set up
a dead heat between himself and his teammate. Given Schumacher’s body language
when he climbed from his car this clearly was not the case.

Through his actions and words Schumacher had yet again cheapened the sport.
In the age of millisecond timing it would have been virtually impossible to engineer
a dead heat. Schumacher’s attempts to drown his mistake in a sea of lies were
arrogant in the extreme.