The Monaco Grand Prix – 25-27 May 2001

The Monaco circuit lies on the Southeast coast of France, 10 miles from Nice. Monaco has seen an amazing amount of action over the years. In 1955, Alberto Ascari made history by being the only driver to crash into the harbour, in 1961 Stirling Moss drove a phenomenal race in Rob Walker’s privateer Lotus to beat off the likes of Richie Ginther and Phil Hill in Ferraris. During the sixties Graham Hill was the ‘Master of Monaco’ taking a total of five wins on the street circuit, this record remained unbeaten until 1993 when Ayrton Senna took his sixth win in seven years. Monaco has proved to be the circuit that sorts the men from the boys.

Qualifying

It was a fast qualifying session at Monaco, with the slowest lap time of the day (Marques, 1m22.201s) being faster than Mika Hakkinen’s lap record at the circuit from 1999. It left David Coulthard in a very good position to repeat his win of last year, pole! After 40 minutes of the 60 minute session it looked like Michael Schumacher was facing his sixth pole position of seven races but seconds before the end Coulthard stole the show with an incredible lap time of 1m17.430s. Mika Hakkinen and Rubens Barrichello have secured third and fourth places on the gird leaving, once again, Ferrari and McLaren as the dominating teams, not forgetting the strong competition from the Williams of Ralf Schumacher. The session also showed that there is still life left in Eddie Irvine who managed a qualifying time of 1m18.432s putting him 6th on the grid. Leaving him reasonably tough competition for the front runner during the race.

The Race

This race can definitely not be described as one of the hardest that Michael Schumacher has faced. After David Coulthard stalling on the grid as the other drivers pulled away for the parade lap Schumacher was effectively in pole position for the start of the race and never looked back. He simply coasted round the circuit putting in a few faster laps when he needed to. Starting in last place did not deter Coulthard despite this causing him to be held up for about half the race by the Arrows driver Bernoldi. At the Monaco circuit it is virtually impossible to overtake so it wasn’t until the Brazilian’s pit stop that Coulthard could pass. He finished in 5th place gaining two points and continuing his record of scoring points in every grand prix so far this season. However this was little consolation to him after putting in a blinding performance at Saturday’s qualifying session. Coulthard’s team-mate Mika Hakkinen didn’t have a good race either, at the start it looked like the 1998 winner could put in a good challenge for Schumacher but retired early due to an unidentified handling problem. The race leaves Michael Schumacher with his fifth win at Monaco and the same record of wins at the Monte Carlo circuit as Graham Hill and Alain Prost. Eddie Irvine also put in a fine performance to follow his outstanding qualifying session to finish third and give Jaguar their first podium finish.

Results

1. M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari 1h47m22.561s
2. BARRICHELLO Ferrari + 0.431s
3. IRVINE Jaguar +30.698s
4. VILLENEUVE BAR Honda +32.454s
5. COULTHARD McLaren Mercedes +1 lap
6. ALESI Prost Acer +1 lap
7. BUTTON Benetton Renault +1 lap
8. VERSTAPPEN Arrows Asiatech +1 lap
9. BERNOLDI Arrows Asiatech +2 laps
10. RAIKKONEN Sauber Petronas +5 laps

Top Ten Drivers in the Championship after the Monaco GP

Top 6 Teams in the Championship after the Monaco GP