Monaco GP - Race report
VILLENEUVE REWARDED IN RACE OF ENDURANCE Villeneuve misses out on second podium but takes three points Another Monaco Grand Prix of endurance produced points for a Honda-powered team as Jacques Villenueve finished the 76 lap race of the principality in fourth aboard his Lucky Strike BAR Honda, 1.7 seconds short of another podium place. The three other Honda-powered drivers were among the catalogue of 12 non-finishers. Villeneuve's team-mate Olivier Panis retired with steering problems early in the race while Jarno Trulli exited on lap 31 with a fire on-board his Benson and Hedges Jordan Honda. Heinz-Harald Frentzen stepped unhurt from his Jordan Honda after he struck the tunnel guardwall at speed late in the race. Once again the drama began before the start as pole position man David Coulthard's McLaren Mercedes failed to get off the line, forcing him to start from the back of the grid and effectively handing the race to eventual victor and Coulthard's championship rival, Michael Schumacher. Ferrari made the day theirs as Rubens Barrichello finished second while Eddie Irvine scored Jaguar's first podium finish in third place. The grid got away cleanly at the lights, allaying concerns about the possible effects of launch control failures in the tight confines of the street circuit. Schumacher strode into the lead followed by a train of cars lead by Mika Hakkinen's McLaren, Barrichello, the two Williams BMWs of Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya, Irvine's Jaguar, with Trulli seventh and Villeneuve eighth. Panis finished lap one in 11th with Frentzen in 13th. Montoya became the first victim of Monaco's barriers on lap two, promoting all the Honda-powered cars one place, although a few laps later Panis pitted with steering difficulties and eventually retiring after finding no improvement. He was soon to be joined by Hakkinen, moving Trulli and Villeneuve up to fifth and sixth and signalling the beginning of a hard battle between the Honda-powered pair of the next few laps. By now Frentzen was up to ninth but with Trulli's retirement on lap 31 and then Fisichella's exit from the race a few laps later after hitting the barriers, he was up to seventh on lap 43. However, his race ended as he made heavy contact with the tunnel wall at high speed, coming to a rest just before the chicane but stepping from the Jordan Honda unscathed. Villeneuve had retained fifth position after his one pitstop on lap 56 and only a few laps later moved into fourth position when Ralf Schumacher retired. Irvine, now running third, exited the pits after his stop 10 seconds ahead of the BAR Honda but by the end Villeneuve had reduced this to a little over one and a half seconds, narrowly missing out on his second podium of the year. Jacques Villeneuve Position: 4th "I am really happy to have finished in the points. It's always a tough race and an easy race to make a mistake in but we finished fourth with a car that was a little bit slower. We had a very good set-up this weekend and the team did a fantastic job. The car was good and precise and I could push with it all weekend. I kept pushing Eddie although I knew he had a quicker car but he didn't make a mistake. It's been fun." Kazutoshi Nishizawa - Technical Director, Honda Racing Development "As usual it became a race of survival which is typical of Monaco. Although the start positions were not ideal, our general race set-up was pretty good so it's very unfortunate that three out of the four cars failed to finish. We still need to investigate what caused the various problems and now prepare for the next race. It was a determined drive by Jacques and it is pleasing he was rewarded with three points." Craig Pollock, Team Principal and Managing Director, BAR Honda "I am really delighted for the whole team, our sponsors and Honda. We just missed a podium. We thought perhaps we could challenge for it but it did not come our way today. Monaco has always been a difficult race for us but Jacques drove an absolutely brilliant race today. We are disappointed for Olivier as it would have been great to have had both drivers in the points today." Eddie Jordan, Chief Executive, Jordan Honda "This has sadly not been a good weekend for Jordan. We must put Austria and Monaco behind us and return to our point-scoring form of the first five races of this season." Race results 1 M. SCHUMACHER Ferrari 1h47m22.561s 2 BARRICHELLO Ferrari + 0m00.431s 3 IRVINE Jaguar + 0m30.698s 4 VILLENEUVE BAR Honda + 0m32.454s 5 COULTHARD McLaren Mercedes 1 lap 6 ALESI Prost Acer 1 lap World Championship standings (after 7 of 17 rounds) Drivers' 1 M Schumacher Ferrari 52 2 Coulthard McLaren 40 3 Barrichello Ferrari 24 4 R Schumacher Williams 12 5 Heidfeld Sauber 8 6 Villeneuve BAR Honda 7 7 Trulli Jordan Honda 7 8 Montoya Williams 6 9 Frentzen Jordan Honda 6 10 Panis BAR Honda 5 11 Irvine Jaguar 4 12 Raikkonen McLaren 4 14 Verstappen Arrows 1 15 Fisichella Benetton 1 16 Alesi Prost 1 Constructors' 1 Ferrari 76 2 McLaren Mercedes 44 3 Williams BMW 18 4 Jordan Honda 0 5 Sauber Petronas 12 6 BAR Honda 12 7 Jaguar 4 8 Prost Acer 1 9 Arrows Asiatech 1 Round eight of the FIA Formula One World Championship is the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday 10 June. -------------------------------------------------------------- Honda Formula 1 Press Office, 19 Heathmans Road, London, SW6 4TJ, UK Tel: +44 (0)20 7384 2133 Fax: +44 (0)20 7384 1238