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Formula One: M. Schumacher finishes season with win; Ferrari wins Constructors title

23 October 2000

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

SEPANG, Malaysia-Michael Schumacher rounded off his championship-winning season with his ninth victory of the year after a close-fought battle with David Coulthard in the season finale Malaysian Grand Prix.

Schumachers Ferrari teammate, Rubens Barrichello, finished third despite suffering from the flu. Their combined points total allowed Ferrari to easily clinch the Constructors Championship.

It was a day for the record books. Ferraris 10th Constructors Championship puts the team ahead of Williams, which has won the title nine times, and McLaren, which has eight titles. Schumacher tied the record of most wins in a season (nine) set by Nigel Mansell in 1992 and Schumacher in 1995. This also marked the first time since 1979 that Ferrari has won the Drivers and Constructors Championships in the same season.

"Naturally, its great," Schumacher said of Ferrari winning the championship, "Its ideal because it means we can go into a very nice winter holiday. Thats something which everybody on the team deserves. They just worked flat out through the year and delivered a perfect car to me and to Rubens. It was simply superb."

The Ferrari crew and drivers celebrated by donning red wigs for the post-race festivities.

West McLaren-Mercedes teammates Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard were both quick indeed, but both made errors that cost them the chance of victory. Hakkinen jumped the start and had to pit for a 10-second stop-and-go penalty. That dropped him to 18th place, but he charged back to finish fourth.

Coulthard led in the early stages but had to make an early pit stop after he briefly slid off the track, clogging his cars radiators with grass and debris that caused the engine to overheat. Coulthard then chased hard after Schumacher and crossed the line just 0.732 of a second behind the winning car.

"The whole race was flat out," Schumacher said. "There was no possibility of reducing the speed dramatically and having an easy drive. The last stint was obviously driven in such a way that I wasnt forced into a mistake, and I was able to preserve my tires for the final moment whenever an attack would have happened.

"That was enough just to keep him behind, because he would have had to go quite a bit faster to overtake me. I was thinking that the difference in speed wasnt that great."

"Overall you have to say that he (Coulthard) was slightly faster than we were. Through strategy, though, we caught them. We took a big enough lead, early enough and for long enough, that there was nothing for them to do (about it). We just drove it home safely."

Schumacher averaged 120.669 mph (194.199 km/h) to finish the 56-lap 192.878-mile (310.408-km) race in one hour, 35 minutes and 54.235 seconds.

Johnny Herberts final Grand Prix ended with an accident when a link broke in the right rear suspension of his Jaguar-Cosworth. He had lost time earlier when his engine cut out as he came in for his pit stop.

The 2000 Formula One season ended as it started with the teams and cars circling the globe. The teams traveled from Italy to Indianapolis to Japan to Malaysia. The final leg of the journey will take them back to Europe.

Next years 17-race Formula One season, which includes the second annual SAP United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis on Sept. 30, begins in Australia on March 4.

Text Provided By Paul Kelly

Editors Note: To view hundreds of hot racing photos and art, visit The Racing Photo Museum and the Visions of Speed Art Gallery.