The Team McLaren Mercedes team had a difficult Spanish Grand Prix, with drivers David Coulthard and Kimi Raikkonen finishing tenth and eleventh respectively. Michael Schumacher continued his series of victories with a fifth consecutive win. Rubens Barrichello made it a one-two for Ferrari with Renault’s Jarno Trulli joining them on the podium in third. Local hero Spaniard Fernando Alonso was fourth.
A record crowd of 108,300 packed the grandstands at the Circuit de Catalunya on a beautiful sunny spring day. As the cars set off on the parade lap, a protestor ran onto the grid but was soon manhandled away by the marshals, who wrestled him to the ground. Team McLaren Mercedes drivers David and Kimi lined up 10th and 13th after the team had struggled to find the pace required during qualifying.
Trulli made a fantastic start from fourth place to take the lead ahead of pole man Michael Schumacher, while Sato from third got the jump on Montoya to go third. Behind the Colombian came Barrichello, Alonso, Panis, David, Ralf Schumacher, Kimi (10th from 13th) Fisichella, Webber, Da Matta, Button, Massa, Pantano, Klien, Heidfeld, Bruni and Baumgartner. David and Kimi made good starts, and both gained three places to move up to eight and 10th respectively.
Alonso was the first of the leaders to pit on lap eight, followed by Panis in the Toyota. The race leader came in next time round followed by Montoya, Webber, Kimi, Da Matta. Michael Schumacher came in on lap 10 followed by David, Ralf Schumacher and Button, Pantano whilst Sato came in on lap 11. David overshoot his first pitstop with approximately ½ metre which cost him some time and saw both Ralf Schumacher and Kimi gain position. In the run of pit stops, Michael Schumacher also took the lead from Trulli.
Both David and Kimi were on a three stop strategy. Kimi’s third stop took a bit longer as usual as the team had to put some air into the airbottle on the pneumatic valve system.
With 20 laps remaining the order was Michael Schumacher, 10.6 ahead of Ferrari team mate Barrichello, with the Renaults of Trulli and Alonso third and fourth. Kimi and Montoya both came in on lap 47. While the Finn got away after a longish stop, the Colombian’s race was over. This meant that David moved into eleventh spot, one ahead of his Team McLaren Mercedes team-mate.
With ten laps remaining in the 66 lap race, the order was Michael Schumacher, 10 seconds ahead of team-mate Barrichello, with the Brazilian a further 12.8 ahead of Trulli. Fourth was the second Renault of Alonso, followed by Sato, Ralf Schumacher, Fisichella, Button, Massa and David and Kimi in tenth and eleventh spots. Kimi was sitting right on David’s tail, approximately half a second apart. However, the order them remained unchanged to the chequered flag.
This week the Team McLaren Mercedes team will test at the Paul Ricard circuit in France with third driver Alex Wurz and test driver Pedro de la Rosa on Tuesday and Wednesday, whilst David and Kimi will take over on Thursday and Friday.
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