'Michael, you have 19 laps to pull out 25 seconds. We need 19 qualifying laps from you.' Schumacher: 'Thank you.' F1
Another one that belongs in the Ross Brawn column as the Ferrari technical director came up with the strategy that gave Schumacher the best chance of beating the McLaren drivers to the victory.Stuck behind Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard at a track where overtaking is notoriously difficult, Brawn realised a two-stop strategy wasn’t going to work, he needed three stops from Schumacher.
But he was just 11s ahead of Coulthard when McLaren made the swap, still needing a gap of 14. He did it, laying down one qualifying lap after the other at, according to F1.com, an average of 1.8s per lap faster than Coulthard. Although he initially pulled away from Schumacher, the Ferrari driver closed the gap by lap 31 and delaying his second stop by some four laps was able to get the jump on Hakkinen in the second round of pit stops. Schumacher took the race win by 1.8s and in doing so wrapped up his first World title as a Ferrari driver, the Scuderia’s first since 1979.
In sunny and dry conditions the race was by no means extraordinary as the reigning World Champion crossed the finish line 14 seconds up on his brother. But what was unbelievable, at least at the time, was that it was Schumacher’s 13th win of the season, a new record for the most wins in a single season.
Schumacher only managed the sixth fastest time in qualifying while Alonso put his car up on pole position. The German had a lot to do come Sunday’s 56-lap race. Despite heavy rain falling before the start of the race, the wet track favouring the Michelin runners over Schumacher’s Bridgestone tyres, he worked his way up to third place by lap 14, although was almost 30 seconds behind Alonso.
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