French GP - Race report
TRULLI SCOOPS MORE POINTS Jordan Honda driver back to points-scoring form Jarno Trulli collected two more points for Benson and Hedges Jordan Honda today as he finished fifth in the French Grand Prix. The two other Honda-powered finishers, Jordan Honda's Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Lucky Strike BAR Honda's Olivier Panis, took the chequered flag in eighth and ninth positions respectively. BAR Honda's Jacques Villeneuve retired early in the race after a system failure shut down his car. Michael Schumacher reasserted his lead in the drivers' world championship with a convincing victory over his brother Ralf, who had started from pole position in his Williams. His Ferrari team-mate Rubens Barrichello joined them on the podium in third place. David Coulthard did his best to stay in the title chase by coming home in fourth with Trulli's Jordan Honda in fifth and Nick Heidfeld in sixth for Sauber. Ralf got the jump on Michael at the start, who had struggled with a clutch problem, the brothers then chased by Coulthard, Barrichello, Juan Pablo Montoya and Trulli, with Frentzen seventh and Villeneuve, who enjoyed a good start and first lap, eighth and Panis in 11th. Mika Hakkinen was already out of the equation after his McLaren failed to get away on the formation lap. Five laps later Villeneuve's race ended in the gravel as a technical problem stopped the car. The younger Schumacher's race pace quickened as he pulled away from his brother's Ferrari and two lap records followed within the opening 20 laps. With virtually all the field on a two-stop fuel and tyre strategy, the first pitstops began soon after that point and the race order shakeout that followed left Ralf in second place to Michael, Montoya third, Barrichello fourth and Coulthard in fifth, who lost two places after he was handed down a 10-second stop-go penalty for speeding in the pitlane. Trulli followed in sixth and by this time Heidfeld had slipped by Frentzen, who then began to come under attack from Eddie Irvine, while Panis battled with Raikkonen just before the second round of pitstops began after lap 40. 10 laps later the pitstops were complete and the new order of race leader Michael, Ralf, Barrichello, Coulthard and Trulli and Heidfeld remained to the flag. Montoya had retired within two laps of rejoining the race. His exit from the race was soon followed by that of Irvine who, with Raikkonen, had got past Frentzen and Panis in the closing laps. Jarno Trulli Position: 5th "It is a great result for me and the team to finish another race in the points and be fighting with the top teams. You really need to be determined to achieve good results and the whole team was certainly determined today. I made a good start but unfortunately lost a place to Montoya as he had better acceleration. Barrichello then overtook me on the straight. The car set-up was perfect and I really pushed hard to keep pace with the front-runners, but they were just much quicker than me. In order to have the speed to challenge the top teams we need to develop our engine power. I lost a bit of time due to the rear tyres but after the pit stop I was achieving very good lap times. I really enjoyed the race and feel we achieved the best that we could today." Kazutoshi Nishizawa - Technical Director, Honda Racing Development "We do not yet know what caused Jacques' problem but it's good to see three cars finishing the race in the top 10. In particular, Jarno drove a very good race to bring home more valuable points. We must use the momentum from this result in our ongoing efforts to increase our competitiveness over the rest of the season." Eddie Jordan, Chief Executive, Jordan Honda "It feels great to be back in the points and bring both cars home. We had a small problem during Heinz's pit stop which unfortunately lost him a couple of places but he drove a very solid race. Jarno proved to be very competitive over the whole race distance. It feels good to be back on form going into our home Grand Prix at Silverstone."" Craig Pollock, Team Principal and Managing Director, BAR Honda "Another difficult day for the team and very disappointing for Jacques not to finish. Olivier drove a good race but was unable to get anything more from the car. The team has to take stock now - we need to focus all our efforts on resolving our problems and making significant testing progress for the next race and the rest of the season." Race results 1 M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari 1h33m35.636s 2 R.SCHUMACHER Williams BMW + 0m10.399s 3 BARRICHELLO Ferrari + 0m16.381s 4 COULTHARD McLaren Mercedes + 0m17.106s 5 TRULLI Jordan Honda + 1m08.285s 6 HEIDFELD Sauber Petronas 1 lap 7 RAIKKONEN Sauber Petronas 1 lap 8 FRENTZEN Jordan Honda 1 lap 9 PANIS BAR Honda 1 lap World Championship standings (after 10 of 17 rounds) Drivers' 1 M Schumacher Ferrari 78 2 Coulthard McLaren Mercedes 47 3 R Schumacher Williams BMW 31 4 Barrichello Ferrari 30 5 Montoya Williams BMW 12 6 Trulli Jordan Honda 9 7 Heidfeld Sauber Petronas 9 8 Hakkinen McLaren Mercedes 9 9 Raikkonen Sauber Petronas 7 10 Villeneuve BAR Honda 7 11 Frentzen Jordan Honda 6 12 Panis BAR Honda 5 Constructors' 1 Ferrari 108 2 McLaren Mercedes 56 3 Williams BMW 43 4 Sauber Petronas 16 5 Jordan Honda 15 6 BAR Honda 12 Round 11 of the FIA Formula One World Championship is the British Grand Prix on Sunday 15 July. -------------------------------------------------------------- Honda Formula 1 Press Office, 19 Heathmans Road, London, SW6 4TJ, UK Tel: +44 (0)20 7384 2133 Fax: +44 (0)20 7384 1238