2001 Brazilian Grand Prix

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• Anexo:Gran_Premio_de_Brasil_de_2001
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The 2001 Brazilian Grand Prix was a Formula One race held at the Interlagos on April 1, 2001.

The Grand Prix had three incidents that were generally noted as being notable, two of them being overtaking moves, both on Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher, and both taking place at the "Senna S" corner of the track.

The first of these overtaking manouvres took place very early in the race, after an early safety car was brought onto the track, when McLaren driver Mika Häkkinen stalled on the starting grid (he was later fined for not putting his steering wheel back on).

When the safety car came in, F1 rookie Juan Pablo Montoya overtook German racer, Michael Schumacher, almost forcing him onto the grass with what some commentators described as "Schumacher-like aggression".^{[citation needed]} Some sports commentators suggested this aggressive technique may have been rooted in Montoya's confidence in handling restart situations due to his experience in Champ Car competition.^{[citation needed]}

The home crowd though had little to cheer about when Reubens Barrichello who had problems before he even got on the grid and had to switch to the spare car. With him clearly not very focused, right after the re-start he slammed into the back of Ralf Schumacher causing Rubens to be out on the spot, Ralf Schumacher limped back for the pits, but was in for a long time replacing the rear-wing, he later spun off when it was wet.

Despite Montoya's move, he finished pre-maturely as he was hit by Jos Verstappen from behind.

Soon after Montoya's retirement it began to rain heavily, forcing everyone to change tyres, some went onto full-wets others chose the intermediates.

A compromised Michael Schumacher was right back in the hunt after he had pitted early, he needed to pit again for fuel, so then he had the fuel and tyres, Coulthard stayed out an extra lap which at that point looked costly.

But then Schumacher with a dry set up on the car, spun soon after exiting the pit lane allowing Coulthard right back on his tail.

This led to the second amazing overtaking move by David Coulthard where he took Schumacher with the aid of a backmarker, rather similar to his team mate's, Mika Häkkinen, move on Schumacher at the Belgian Grand Prix the previous season.

Coulthard stormed on to win, while Schumacher suffered another off on his way to second and a delighed Nick Heidfeld took his first ever podium driving for Sauber, it was also Sauber's first podium since Jean Alesi at the Belgium Grand Prix of 1998.

Classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	4	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	71	1:39:00.834	5	10
2	1	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	71	+16.164	1	6
3	16	Nick Heidfeld	Sauber-Petronas	70	+1 Lap	9	4
4	9	Olivier Panis	BAR-Honda	70	+1 Lap	11	3
5	12	Jarno Trulli	Jordan-Honda	70	+1 Lap	7	2
6	7	Giancarlo Fisichella	Benetton-Renault	70	+1 Lap	18	1
7	10	Jacques Villeneuve	BAR-Honda	70	+1 Lap	12
8	22	Jean Alesi	Prost-Acer	70	+1 Lap	15
9	20	Tarso Marques	Minardi-European	68	+3 Laps	22
10	8	Jenson Button	Benetton-Renault	64	+7 Laps	20
11	11	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Jordan-Honda	63	Electrical	8
Ret	17	Kimi Räikkönen	Sauber-Petronas	55	Spun off	10
Ret	5	Ralf Schumacher	Williams-BMW	54	Spun off	2
Ret	23	Gaston Mazzacane	Prost-Acer	54	Clutch	21
Ret	18	Eddie Irvine	Jaguar-Cosworth	52	Spun off	13
Ret	6	Juan Pablo Montoya	Williams-BMW	38	Collision	4
Ret	14	Jos Verstappen	Arrows-Asiatech	37	Collision	17
Ret	19	Luciano Burti	Jaguar-Cosworth	30	Engine	14
Ret	21	Fernando Alonso	Minardi-European	25	Electrical	19
Ret	15	Enrique Bernoldi	Arrows-Asiatech	15	Hydraulics	16
Ret	2	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	2	Collision	6
Ret	3	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	0	Stalled	3

Notes

• Fastest Lap: Ralf Schumacher 1m 15.692s
• First podium: Nick Heidfeld
• Mika Häkkinen retired right at the start of the race as he stalled on the grid.
• Juan Pablo Montoya was on course for his first F1 victory, but he was hit by Jos Verstappen from behind.
• This race was run under heavy rain.