Formula-1 2001 R09 European Grand Prix

2 days ago

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Transcript

00:00:00F1 team on a beautiful day at the nurburgring for the european grand prix race nine of the season

00:00:06I should tell you murray walker's taking a little breather from the next couple of races as part of his retirement year

00:00:12So we join martin brundle and say a very good afternoon to james james allen

00:00:16Thank you very much. Indeed. Jim great job there. And hello everyone in the uk and around the world

00:00:21Well, even before michael schumacher broke down on the parade lap there

00:00:25This really had the feeling of a special event about it

00:00:29150 000 people jammed into this world famous racetrack in the forest of northern germany on a hot sunny

00:00:36June afternoon germany is quite literally feasting itself on this new twist in the formula one story the two brothers from kirpen

00:00:45Just 50 miles away from here who are beating the rest of the world

00:00:49When asked why yesterday michael schumacher cape put it down to two words talent and discipline

00:00:55That's what he thinks separates him and his brother from the rest

00:00:59I can tell you that sales of ralph schumacher caps are now up 70 percent on what they were 12 months ago

00:01:05And not wishing to show any bias whatsoever

00:01:07Their father rolf schumacher has had a special cap made half red and half blue supporting both of his boys

00:01:14Now, of course michael wants ralph to do well

00:01:17We saw that in that carting piece, which louise very skillfully put together

00:01:21You can just sense that michael schumacher wants his little brother to do well

00:01:24When I spoke to michael after the canadian grand prix about ralph's victory

00:01:28He said listen i've achieved everything. I want to achieve in my grand prix career

00:01:33Ralph is just at the beginning of it

00:01:34But of course the great irony is to achieve ralph has to beat

00:01:38Michael and that as patrick head was saying is going to be without doubt

00:01:42The story of grand prix racing over the next few years ralph has been announced this weekend

00:01:46As a williams bmw driver until the end of 2004

00:01:49The same length of contract as michael schumacher has at ferrari

00:01:53So certainly the hackinnon versus michael schumacher story we've had in the last three years is evolving. It's changing

00:01:59It's twisting but let's not rule out mika hackinnon david coulthard and the mclaren team off the pace yesterday in qualifying

00:02:06You can see them there in fifth and sixth places on the grid

00:02:10But they have certainly got a better race car under them than they have a qualifying car

00:02:14It's been a real achilles heel this year qualifying for them, but come sunday afternoon. We've seen time and time again

00:02:20They really believe they can pose a threat here this afternoon

00:02:24So you've been down on the grid martin. It was a fantastic atmosphere already

00:02:27But what's the feeling with schumacher? Is that going to phase him? He's so experienced

00:02:30I guess there is a sense in which he's seen it all before

00:02:33I don't think that will phase him james as much as the fact that he's got the two bmw williams

00:02:38One alongside one just behind him montoya's shown no fear at all in having a go at him almost relishes the chance of course

00:02:46And he'll want to desperately keep those between him and championship contender

00:02:50David coulthard so michael out there very much to win a championship, of course

00:02:55And we've seen just how fast the williams can be off the start line

00:02:59I do believe they've improved the ferrari too off the start line

00:03:02But it's a long haul down to that first corner and through the weekend

00:03:06We've seen the two williams topping all four of the speed traps the pair of them

00:03:10Uh that are situated around the racetrack

00:03:13McLaren will have to run a different strategy

00:03:16Surely they'll run more fuel down there on the third or other grid

00:03:19They do not have the speed to go and just take this race for themselves

00:03:23They're going to have to try to outsmart the others if ferrari are smart and they are smart

00:03:28I suspect they'll have put barrichello on a heavier fuel load

00:03:32To try to interfere with the two mclarens and keep them at bay

00:03:36While michael's busy trying to keep the two bmw williams at bay, but if there's a first corner incident, you're now watching

00:03:42michael breaking down

00:03:44On the outlap. He's in the car. He wanted to be in and uh borrowing a bmw there to recover to the pits

00:03:51A little bit of a faux power on the pr side

00:03:54That actually i've ridden one of those martin that shouldn't go unless you put these silly seatbelts right across you in both directions

00:03:59It shouldn't actually start so they must have doctored it somehow, but it certainly worked for for michael there to be able to get back

00:04:04Yeah, absolutely. So I think I think we're going to see a bit of a cat and mouse game amongst the three leading teams here

00:04:10But I think it's going to be fascinating

00:04:13Indeed it will be and of course as you're saying before the start is going to be critical and launch control introduced at the spanish

00:04:18Grand prix just a few races ago has certainly helped michael schumacher because of course that was perhaps the one weakness

00:04:24He had in his game

00:04:25It's taken but half a second off the time

00:04:27It takes a formula one car to go from nought to 100 miles an hour and amazingly that time is just four seconds

00:04:34Most of the cars I can see out of the window here running scrubbed used tires

00:04:38So they're obviously pretty much expecting in this temperature of today to have to lean quite heavily on those tires

00:04:45We've got a track temperature of 34 degrees centigrade somebody a little bit slow away there

00:04:51It was heidfeld. I think a little bit slow away, but not falling. We got one car standing on the grid. Yeah

00:04:58Yeah, obviously that's uh

00:05:00European manatee it's marques we can now see from the front camera view but marques

00:05:06Anyway was last on the grid

00:05:08So nothing lost at all for him there then but the big problem james

00:05:11And and ross didn't say so if they can't fix michael schumacher's car if he does have a squabble

00:05:16On lap one and there's a red flag. I think they'll have to take barrichello's car off of him to give to michael

00:05:23Yes, and of course we have seen it here before many times. We remember the

00:05:261999 pedro denis accident where he rolled over 97 where ralph schumacher in a jordan took out his brother michael in a ferrari

00:05:33First corner incidents are very common here at the nürburgring and as you say martin

00:05:37It'll give them some problems if they do not have that spare ready ironically, of course rubens barrichello

00:05:43Michael schumacher's teammate at ferrari on his home grand prix had the same thing happen to him his race car broke down

00:05:48On the parade lap, so it seems to be a bit of a ferrari jinx in their driver's home circuit

00:05:54But michael leading the field round now and he'll start to slow them down as they come through the hudson back corner

00:05:59Now along the pit lane here. It's going to take about 29 seconds to make a stop if you're on a one stopper

00:06:05and uh

00:06:06There's a a greater length of speed limit here

00:06:09So I think it changes the strategy somewhat but the problem for the mclarens if they do

00:06:14And I don't know but if they do run the heavier fuel load

00:06:18In an attempt to run longer and try to leapfrog the cars in front of them by using that strategy

00:06:25They may well have the two jordans and others all over the back of them in the early stages of the race

00:06:31While they're running a fat load of fuel every 10 kilos of fuel you carry around this circuit

00:06:36Costs you a quarter of a second per lap and they could be running as much as 25 to 30 kilos more

00:06:43Let's say three quarters of a second per lap more fuel than the cars immediately around them

00:06:49Very intense feeling of expectation. We're standing right across from michael

00:06:54Schumacher's pole position grid slot his brother ralph alongside him one montoya the fast starting colombian the aggressive driver

00:07:01Remember what he did to michael schumacher in the brazilian grand prix his teammate rubens barrichello alongside in the outside

00:07:07You see on the left of your picture when the five lights go off. We'll be rocking and rolling in the eiffel mountains

00:07:13one light

00:07:15two lights

00:07:16three lights

00:07:17four lights

00:07:18You know what happens next

00:07:21Go fantastic start by michael schumacher ralph's got a good one, too

00:07:24And montoya's going well rubens didn't get away so well

00:07:27The two mclarens are attacking him and it looks like montoya's taking the wide side but down into the first corner

00:07:32Michael schumacher holds the line. It's williams two and three and then it's the mclarens behind rubens barrichello a big loser in all of that

00:07:39Yes, barrichello appeared to move at the right time

00:07:42But just did not get bite from those rear tires

00:07:45The engine seemed to just bury itself in the traction control rubens losing momentum all the way down to the first corner

00:07:52Kulthar around one side of him hacking in around the other they are currently fourth and fifth

00:07:57But look at the lead. Michael has already. Yeah, that certainly looks as though he's going to run away and hide this afternoon

00:08:02That's one of the tactics around here run light about 60 70 kilos of fuel when the others are fat with fuel 90 100 kilos

00:08:09That's about a second a lap if you can get away from them

00:08:11And you need to build that margin in order to be able to make your pit stop around about the mid-lap 20s

00:08:16It's all to play for here

00:08:17And we're hoping we're going to see a mixture of strategies

00:08:20It'll be a very very interesting afternoon

00:08:22If we do jordan well up there as well

00:08:23That must be yano trolley looks like he's in about sixth place on board with one montoya coming down then to the vedal chicane

00:08:29Remember, they'll be braking earlier now because they have a lot more fuel on board the brakes not fully up to the 700 degree operating temperature

00:08:37They need to hold their 600 kilo cars plus whatever fuel load they're carrying down to the 60 miles an hour

00:08:44So they need through but everybody safely then around the first lap so far

00:08:49Coming down the main straight there to complete lap one and going to clap to michael

00:08:53Schumacher leads by 1.4 seconds from his brother in third place is montoya fourth is cool

00:08:58Fifth is hacking and sixth is trolley seventh is barrichello eighth height belt who's got ahead of his teammate

00:09:03Kimi reikonen is in ninth place frentzen down to 10th when eddie irvine in 11 jenson button is up into 18th place

00:09:10Yes a bad start then for frentzen drop from uh, eighth on the grid back to 10th

00:09:16Irvine having a reasonable start up from 12th to uh, 11th

00:09:21But uh ralph schumacher now pouring on a bit of pace in the first sector of this the second lap of the grand prix

00:09:28Now once again on board with montoya through that rtl chicane

00:09:32And uh heading straight then to the leading two schumachers. Yes, ralph

00:09:36Certainly not keen to let his brother michael get away montoya keeping a watching brief in third place

00:09:42And then coulthard has certainly benefited from that start line mistake of barrichello

00:09:46Whatever it was that dropped him down from fourth place to seventh and coulthard now in a strong position in fourth

00:09:52Remember what I said before the off about how the mclaren is a better car come sunday afternoon

00:09:56But it is in qualifying

00:09:57You just don't seem to be able to get the most out of these bridgestone tires on a saturday afternoon in the way that

00:10:03Ferrari are able to to get themselves a good grid spot

00:10:06Yes, they tend to struggle in saturday qualifying, but they've been the warm-up kings on sunday morning

00:10:11They weren't this morning suggesting they were on a fatter fuel load

00:10:14But that's a break for david coulthard

00:10:17The second ferrari of barrichello's cannot now come into play at the moment to help out michael schumacher up at the front

00:10:24So a key start an important start for mclaren. There's a replay look barrichello away on time

00:10:30But just not really building speed at all

00:10:33Well, michael having to defend his line a little bit at the front squeezed his brother quite hard to the right and that's how he got

00:10:40Such an advantage down there and all the time barrichello as soon as you're on your back foot

00:10:45You're out of sync with the rest of the pack

00:10:47You're hurting and barrichello really suffering all the way through those first two bends

00:10:52now remember what patrick head was saying before the start of the race about how these

00:10:55Michelin tires on the williams do tend not to have the pace in them in the early stages

00:11:00They like hot conditions. We've certainly got those today

00:11:02They also like lots of rubber on the track and we're building that up throughout this race

00:11:07So you can imagine it's going to the williamses are going to come on stronger and stronger as the race goes on

00:11:11But my information from my contacts inside michelin was that williams were looking at having to start this race on tires

00:11:17Which have been scrubbed done have done at least 10 or 15 laps because that's the edge of the time at which

00:11:23They underperform and then they start to come good again, and then they're very consistent from then on

00:11:27so if that's the case

00:11:28These tires have certainly done a few laps and we can expect them to look pretty much like slicks at the end of the stint

00:11:33Yes, the the rubber sort of balls up rolls up and uh, it's like driving on ball bearings

00:11:40Actually, not quite as severe of course and kultar there with plenty of opposite

00:11:43Look coming out of turn two, but look michael schumacher already into four james. Surely he's on a lower fuel load

00:11:50Michael really attacking the racetrack. He knows we all know from canada and other grand prixsicles

00:11:56Just how much fuel they can get in that williams and how far they can go?

00:12:00Yes, it's a big subject to debate this season

00:12:03Of course the size of the fuel tanks ferrari have opted for one that's about 150 liters

00:12:07Which is considerably bigger than the one on your car you have at home

00:12:10No doubt, but uh big enough for a formula one car

00:12:13But mclaren and uh williams slightly bigger one if we look again at the on board of montoya bastard

00:12:18So watch then michael schumacher in front look really squeezing ralph ralph had to get out of the throttle michael

00:12:24We've seen him pull some very dramatic and aggressive start line moves that one

00:12:29I think was fair and reasonable, but a little bit unfriendly, but it made it pay off for him

00:12:36Yes, and you can see the minardi there going across the sand collecting a little bit of beach memorabilia

00:12:41A little bit of work going on on rubens barrichello's front wind

00:12:44Hoping nothing too serious as michael schumacher crosses the start finish line

00:12:48And he's really piling on the pressure now trying to make a break away from his brother

00:12:51His last lap was a 119 613 just two tenths of a second faster than ralph schumacher

00:12:57And that's not consistent with carrying a considerable amount more fuel

00:13:00So it's all evolving nicely here michael schumacher leading from his brother ralph with montoya still third

00:13:05Coulthard fourth hacken and fifth. Jarno trulli going very strongly in sixth place. You're looking there at his teammate

00:13:11Heinz harold frentzen rubens barrichello down to seventh now

00:13:14He's been passed by trulli heidfeld is eighth reichen and ninth and frentzen is still in 10th place

00:13:19You're looking at him here a man who had to go to hospital in cologne on thursday afternoon because professor sid watkins

00:13:24The formula one doctor was not happy about frentzen's recuperation from a very big knock he had in monaco

00:13:30And another one in montreal. He's been having dizziness headaches

00:13:34And the prof wanted to make absolutely sure there was nothing whatsoever between his ears

00:13:37So he sent him to cologne for a cat scan and then gave him the all-clear to race

00:13:41Yeah, when we picked him up in hue as you started talking about him there james

00:13:44He was tippy-toeing right around the outside of turn three

00:13:48And he'll be in the wall again

00:13:50If he can't keep the car where he needs it the jordan then not looking

00:13:53Probably as strong at the early stage of this grand prix as I expected

00:13:56So maybe they too have decided on just a one stopper this afternoon

00:14:02Maybe because of this extended pit lane. It's moved. It hasn't it james. It's really

00:14:06Nip and tuck whether you should two or one. It's really not clear at this racetrack

00:14:10Yeah, we should probably spell out exactly what we're talking about here

00:14:12The nürburgring has traditionally been a race at which you make two pit stops

00:14:15It's the fastest way around here

00:14:17What you're trying to do here is carry enough the fuel it takes to get this car around the race distance

00:14:22Which is just under 200 miles. What's the most efficient and the fastest way of doing that about 165 kilos of fuel?

00:14:29You need to basically lug around if you like well up until now

00:14:32It's been thought that two stops was the best way to go carry about 70

00:14:3660 or 70 kilos in each of the three stints

00:14:39but now with the longer pit lane perhaps it's hoping it's a view that you could actually

00:14:43Make it just a one-stop race because it's about five or six seconds slower now to make a pit stop than it was

00:14:4812 months ago and that's the thinking that's going on before the race

00:14:52It goes on here at the racetrack with the engineers and also the engineers back at the factories in italy and in great britain

00:14:58They're also thinking about it as well and all inputting the information

00:15:02They go out with a certain fuel load in mind at the start of the race

00:15:05And then the thing evolves and they change it perhaps as it goes along at the moment

00:15:09It's difficult to say exactly what's happening

00:15:11But it does look as though michael schumacher has a little bit less fuel than his brother ralph which will mean he'll stop slightly

00:15:17looking at the race so far the teams will be

00:15:20Doing the same as i'm doing and trying to learn something from the relative paces

00:15:24For example schumacher doing a one minute 19.6 up front

00:15:29Clearly obviously in clean air

00:15:32But so is barricado seventh place man in the other ferrari in clear air doing one minute 21.7

00:15:38Over two seconds a lap slower, which suggests that barricado did have a lot of fuel on board and michael schumacher has not

00:15:47So six laps gone

00:15:4861 to go michael schumacher leads from ralph schumacher montoya

00:15:52Third koulthard fourth hacking and fifth and jano trulli in sixth place

00:16:22So

00:16:52So

00:17:22So

00:17:52So

00:18:09Lap eight of the european grand prix at the nerberg ring a little bit of cloud cover now appearing to mask the sunny skies

00:18:17But it's very much sunny skies for the schumacher family

00:18:19Michael is leading ralph by 3.1 seconds with one montoya in the williams

00:18:25Third and then koulthard is fourth and hacking and fifth for mclaren

00:18:28Jano trulli in sixth place as we look at hacking and wife area who has brought their young son hugo with them

00:18:35And he's come to all the grand prixs actually this season as far as I can tell

00:18:39Mika just cannot bear to be separated from his young son who was born shortly before christmas

00:18:44I know when I went down to see mika

00:18:47Uh at valencia where he was testing in the early part of this year. I said, how are you feeling?

00:18:51He said i'm absolutely not good. I haven't had at least some night's sleep since the baby was born

00:18:55But hopefully now he's being able to get some more sleep whether that's put him off his game

00:19:00Whether that's affected him at all this season. I don't know and he's not telling but some drivers pull it out

00:19:06When they have a child some some drivers they just go right off

00:19:10You're looking now that a battle between frentzen and irvine for 10th place and a better weekend for jaguar

00:19:15Eddie irvine looking very strong yesterday afternoon and just a few tenths of a second separating eighth and twelfth on the grid

00:19:21Irvine amongst them really for the first time

00:19:23Yes

00:19:23I remember keke rosberg hacking his manager saying when he had a child suddenly the barriers looked an awful lot closer

00:19:29She said it affects some drivers in a different way to others

00:19:32But marquez then has retired from the race in the european. Menardi the only car to do so so far and as they

00:19:40After the end of lap nine kultar will be disappointed to find he's 11.6 seconds off the lead

00:19:47Although we're pretty sure michael is running a lower fuel load and now ralph has just done the fastest first sector of the grand prix

00:19:56So far are those michelans beginning to work nicely for him?

00:19:59They're pretty colored up. Look his left front has got a a lot of markings on it where it's working pretty hard

00:20:06And that's the phase they have to put those tires through but kultar

00:20:10Just behind this man montoya at least hanging on to that fourth place pulling away from mika hacken and in fifth

00:20:17Pretty much status quo at the front end though

00:20:19The only really major scrap is frenchman in 10th. Irvine in 11th

00:20:24Just four tenths of a second behind him further down the field jensen button in 18

00:20:30Giving olivier panis in the bar a run for his money

00:20:34There's a lot of talk this season martin about these groove tires obviously with mitchell and coming in they were they were questioning

00:20:39How the it would be policed the regulation regarding the grooves at the end of the race?

00:20:43We can see four clear grooves there in the back of that

00:20:46Clarence tires coming towards us though as martin was saying the williams already the front tires and the rears

00:20:50Starting to show signs of going towards slicks now

00:20:53How will the fia the government body of formula one racing police this there's been a few races this season where the williamses have been?

00:21:00Very very marginal, but then they've dropped out as michael schumacher sets a new fastest lap for 119 415

00:21:06Yes, the williams tires have been very marginal during the race

00:21:09But because they haven't finished there's been no kind of protests this afternoon if they do

00:21:13Have pretty much slicks at the end of the race. We might start to see some problems starting to emerge

00:21:17What's what's your view on that? My understanding james is that providing they've got grooves in them

00:21:23That meet the regulations when they start nobody's going to be looking too hard at how deep and how many grooves are left

00:21:29When they finished using them

00:21:31I think we'd have a fiasco because remember if they two or three stop in a race

00:21:34Several sets of tires floating around you could have a car winning the race

00:21:38But one of these three sets of tires turns out to be fractionally

00:21:42Under the depth of groove and I think common sense has prevailed and I don't believe they have to have

00:21:48Any grooves in there necessarily, but if the fia can demonstrate there's a clear performance advantage and they're abusing it

00:21:55Then they will take action. Well, the scope for polemic in formula one is enormous

00:21:59But uh, ted kravitz has some news for us down in the pits

00:22:02Yeah, james just watching the antics on the ferrari pit wall

00:22:05I think they now have to reconsider rubens's role in this race after that rather poor start

00:22:10It does look like he's running heavy

00:22:12He may have been sent out to cover his and michael's two stopping opponents

00:22:16But he can't afford to lose all this time now behind trilley if he's still to be in play by about lap 23 24 25

00:22:23Which is the point at which we're expecting the first of the two stoppers to come in

00:22:28yes, but unfortunately, uh

00:22:30He's 3.8 seconds adrift at the moment of uh, sorry 1.6. It is adrift of truly

00:22:37So barrichello not really able to get up there and put any pressure on jano truly and you're absolutely right ted

00:22:44He's not playing the role this afternoon that ferrari need him to play

00:22:48But certainly michael is at the front but until the pit stops unravel

00:22:52We don't know if michael's doing a good enough job and right now. I think ferrari be disappointed. They're only 3.4 seconds ahead

00:22:59Yes, that's certainly true. If michael schumacher is carrying more fuel than his brother

00:23:03He'll need to build a much bigger margin than this

00:23:05So perhaps all is not as it seems perhaps williams did err on the side of caution

00:23:10And thinking about the wear on those michelin tires, perhaps they didn't put quite so much fuel on board

00:23:14I've got a computer model here, uh of a race strategy

00:23:17Which I was handed by an engineer as ralph schumacher sets a new fastest lap in a 119 205

00:23:22Half a second faster than his brother and this model says that the lap times are more or less what they're setting at the moment

00:23:28the high 19s that's pretty much on target for um a

00:23:34fairly long one two-stop

00:23:36Strategy where the first stint is is quite long, but there are there are several races going on here today

00:23:41Of course, it's not just the race at the front which is between williams ferrari and mclaren

00:23:46There's also the middle race

00:23:47Which is between jordan bar and sauber truly currently leading that one with heidfeld reichen and frentzen up there

00:23:53The bars are having a nightmare of a day. Villeneuve is 12th and pannis is down in 17th place

00:23:59And of course, you've got the third race, which is the arrows is the jaguars, etc. Irvine currently winning that one

00:24:04He's in 11th place mixing it with the jordans and the bars, right?

00:24:08The michelans are in the zone. They're just it's just happening as they said it would as you see

00:24:15Bertie then coming in in the prosthesis clearly out of sync out of schedule

00:24:21He would not normally be coming in at the end of lap 13

00:24:24But the two fastest cars easily on the track last time around was ralph schumacher

00:24:29And juan pablo montoya second and third placement both in the bmw williams on the michelans

00:24:35And now let's see it over the line this time and he takes another half second out of michael's lead

00:24:40so michael schumacher now 2.3 seconds in the lead from ralph schumacher and

00:24:47Well ferrari then under pressure. Yes. They certainly are under pressure

00:24:51We've seen it before we saw it two weeks ago in montreal where michael schumacher led with his brother

00:24:55Ralph bearing down on him breathing down his neck throughout the entire race on that occasion

00:25:00Ralph chose not to make any kind of passing maneuver

00:25:03He looked a few times but he didn't make the move today

00:25:06Will he be bolder if he gets the chance? I think he will and I think he would have in canada. I found out that

00:25:11Actually, he kept pulling alongside because he was getting such a toe such a slipstream off of his brother's ferrari

00:25:17He was hitting the rev limiter and that's why he looked like he was easing off at the end of the straight

00:25:21He was bouncing away on the probably 17 800 rpm rev limiter and couldn't make the move

00:25:27I think he would have in canada if he could have without that rev limiter problem

00:25:31And I don't think he'll be taking too many prisoners today either

00:25:35german race director

00:25:35They're having another look at heinzauer frenzen doesn't want to forget that there is another german in this race and one who's won

00:25:42Three races in his uh grand prix career a career which many thought might be heading him

00:25:46away from the jordan team

00:25:48But announcement this weekend from eddie jordan

00:25:49He just saw on the pit wall there that he would be staying with the team throughout 2002

00:25:54But right now he finds himself behind these two saubers and haven't sauber done

00:25:58Well this year heidfeld has got ahead of reichen and that's experience as much as anything off the grid

00:26:03Once again, heidfeld had qualified behind his 21 year old teammate

00:26:07But once again, he's got ahead of him off the start line and reichen will no doubt be kicking himself about that

00:26:13It's a phenomenon

00:26:13We saw last year with jensen button and ralph schumacher that whenever jensen got himself in front of ralph of ralph on the grid

00:26:19Ralph always had him by the end of the first lap. He was always in front

00:26:23It's just a question of experience

00:26:25Yes, it's pure instinct when you're in a pack of 22 grand prix cars going down to the first corner

00:26:32You can't decide what you're going to do next. You just have to react totally to it

00:26:35And it's something you get to do with experience and amazingly it all looks much calmer inside the pack

00:26:41Than than it does from the outside

00:26:43But of course that phase of the race is long over and eddie jordan there looking

00:26:48On at the race truly in sixth currently in a point scoring position

00:26:52And frentzen still back there in 10th place and that is the fight then frentzen 10th eddie irvine 11th

00:26:58Irvine second in the warm-up this morning and looking like he got a reasonable race car underneath him and still looking that way

00:27:05Yeah, george jaguar have made some big moves recently

00:27:08They've done a lot of aerodynamic work in the wind tunnel mark hanford their new star aerodynamicist has been pushing very hard

00:27:14Ralph schumacher though putting the hammer down even more now dipping down under one minute 19 1 18 7 7 1 on that last lap

00:27:21But he's just 1.7 seconds behind his brother as you can see now the gap is visible

00:27:26He's got an eyeball fix on him as they say

00:27:29And uh chasing him down now towards the hairpin ralph will be thinking about where he might make his move

00:27:36And this certainly this bmw williams michelin package has been so strong in this second quarter

00:27:42Of the 2001 grand prix season ralph already two times a winner looking for his third

00:27:48career victory michael schumacher looking for his 49th

00:27:52And six years in age between them and about 1.7 seconds between them on the racetrack at the moment

00:27:57We know that horrible nightmare when you're running down that dark tunnel and whoever's chasing you is getting closer and closer

00:28:04And that's exactly what michael's going through at the moment. Nothing more scary than his brother chasing him down there

00:28:10But he's got the car underneath him

00:28:12I think to more or less do what he wants because we know the bmw is very fast in a straight line

00:28:18And we know they've got a tire that'll hang on well and ralph on yet another quick lap

00:28:23So i'm expecting that gap to be less than 1.7 seconds next time around on the start finish line

00:28:29Yes, that's going to become a battle. This already is a battle

00:28:32I was talking about the aerodynamic developments coming on stream at jaguar and certainly there's quite a lot more

00:28:37Coming on stream in the back end of this year

00:28:39They've got new front wings new diffusers all kinds of things that should just lift jaguar forwards a little bit

00:28:44Step by step and they're right now nibbling at the back of that sort of second race as we look at

00:28:49nikki lauda the uber mensch who is leading the jaguar cosworth pi

00:28:56Trio, which uh oversees the whole of jaguar racing's racing program

00:28:59But jaguar pushing hard and just trying to get on the end of this battle between jordan sauber and bar

00:29:05Yeah, nikki lauda scuttling around the paddock all weekend very much keeping his ear to the ground because he's concerned about the future

00:29:12All of these hot shots are getting signed up in multi-year contracts

00:29:17Not least of course this man ralph schumacher joining up to williams as you've already said james to the end of 2004

00:29:24And nikki lauda looking along the road a little bit wondering where his number one driver is going to come from in the future

00:29:31Yes one montoya the man on the move at the moment though

00:29:34He's just set the fastest first sector time

00:29:35but look at ralph schumacher this time by

00:29:38His first two sectors this lap have been much stronger than michael schumacher's and as they come out of the coca-cola curve

00:29:44About 70 miles an hour fourth gear picking up the speed rising to about 185 miles an hour as they take those pit boards

00:29:51You can just see that ralph has broken underneath the second now the gap between himself and his brother

00:29:56It's montreal all over again

00:29:58And maybe what we were talking about with the michelin tires

00:30:00Maybe the track has come towards them. The temperature is certainly going up here all the time

00:30:05It's the warmest. I can never remember it here at

00:30:08At the nurburgring 29 degrees the track temperature 21 degrees the air temperature

00:30:12I guess we should be thankful martin

00:30:14It's not raining because it certainly normally is by this stage of the race tends to hair and montoya now matching ralph schumacher's

00:30:19Uh pace, although he's now a full 10 seconds adrift of the leading battle

00:30:24But pulling nine seconds clear fourth place man kuta and now you can see the gap for yourselves

00:30:30It was 0.8

00:30:31According to the chrono last time around and ralph remember in canada the last grand prix his fastest lap

00:30:38Was a full eight tenths of a second faster than anybody else in the grand prix and just look at the pressure

00:30:45He's giving michael schumacher germany is on its feet. Here we go

00:30:49It's the schumacher brothers are at it again. The duel is joined

00:30:53Ralph is attacking michael into the vedal chicane, which was designed by michael schumacher as an overtaking opportunity

00:30:59He had the foresight to know he would need it in the future in his formula one career

00:31:03And he certainly used it to good effect many times in the past, but will his brother use it this time around?

00:31:07He's got a good drive out of the coca-cola curve. He's lining his brother up

00:31:11It's not a good place to pass but will he do it?

00:31:13Not this time round, but the vedal chicane next time around that is going to be interesting

00:31:17Ralph schumacher just biding his time having a look at his brother and you could see michael

00:31:21Looking in the wing mirrors both times very distracting for a driver. I'd imagine when you're trying to look forwards

00:31:26That's what you do for a living and uh, you you have a peripheral view and you tend to uh,

00:31:32Pretty much know what's going on in your mirrors without having to directly look at them

00:31:36Unlike most people on the road I seem to find but uh, michael will be very aware of that white and blue nose poking around

00:31:44at uh, the rear of his ferrari and he looks a bit helpless sitting there I have to say because

00:31:50Down at the vedal as you say one of these laps surely ralph will find enough speed

00:31:54To uh, and it's an easier place to overtake

00:31:57You've got to be fairly committed and you've got to have a willing partner if you're going to overtake a fast car into term one

00:32:03But look in the dirty air now the turbulent air that's working

00:32:07So hard to press that ferrari down onto the racetrack when michael schumacher's finished with it

00:32:13He's discarding it in the direction of ralph and he's sliding around and what is this? This is a williams pit stop

00:32:20Getting ready at the end of lap 18. What is that all about? Very strange. Maybe one of them's got a puncture

00:32:25We're not seeing montoya at the moment doesn't seem to be too much wrong with ralph schumacher's car

00:32:29But what about montoya has he got some kind of problem certainly the williams pit crew getting ready to receive one of their two drivers

00:32:36And well certainly on the road montoya has just gone past us. So it was possibly

00:32:40Precautionary on the road you see plenty of bmw drivers riding too close to the car in front

00:32:44But here on a racetrack, it's a good thing and ralph. Is he going to be pressing michael this time around?

00:32:49He's certainly having a look at him thinking about where to pass him

00:32:53I wonder if williams are thinking of doing an early. So if they're stopping once or having a long stint

00:32:59Maybe they'll stop him early tank him up if they can position him back into some clear air

00:33:04But look, he's got so much more grip on the exit of the corners than michael

00:33:09Surely he's got a good chance to overtake him and they'll have to leave him out a while

00:33:13To see if he can launch past and now I can see out of the window the williams boys moving back into the garage

00:33:19So a false alarm there somewhere

00:33:21Maybe one of the drivers called in and said I think I may have a puncture

00:33:25It doesn't look like ralph though

00:33:26Does it explain this to me martin we saw coming out of that hairpin there just as you said how much more grip?

00:33:30Ralph schumacher seemed to have than his brother and then over the the faster section. He seemed to drop back again

00:33:35Well, we were led to be under to understand that the bmw engine is more powerful than the ferrari

00:33:40How come he got closer under the acceleration then dropped back again?

00:33:43There wouldn't be enough difference in the power at those relatively low speed and low revs

00:33:48I think it's all about mechanical grip in those situations james

00:33:52And then as the speed builds up through 100 miles an hour plus it becomes an aerodynamic grip situation

00:33:58And that's exactly what you're seeing ralph as in canada easily now has the faster car

00:34:03But he just can't get near enough in the high speed stuff put yourself in the cockpit of that bmw williams

00:34:09You've got your man in front of you, you know

00:34:11You've got a slight advantage technically over him your tires are giving you more grip out of the slower corners

00:34:15You know this race track like the back of your hand

00:34:17But you know that the guy in front of you does as well. What are you thinking? When do you do it?

00:34:21I would think they're wondering if they're going to change their strategy

00:34:24And we we don't know how much fuel they've got on board. Of course, we can only surmise and ralph

00:34:30He's got to let his team worry about that

00:34:31He's just got to concentrate not make any mistakes and be there to pressurize and punish

00:34:37Michael if he makes a mistake and at the moment he can't stay with him through turns eight and nine

00:34:43To be anywhere near striking distance down into that vedo

00:34:47Well at the moment these two very much in a race of their own but matching them for pace is one montoya

00:34:52He's eight seconds behind, but he's running the same sort of lap times

00:34:55In fact last time through he was actually faster than this pair

00:34:58But everybody else is being left in their way coolthard hacken and trulli and barrichello all lapping well into the one minute 20 bracket

00:35:05Whereas the front boys are in the low 19. So it very much is a battle between schumacher's ferrari

00:35:10Schumacher's williams and montoya's williams

00:35:12Let's not rule him out because anything can happen in this motor race and montoya certainly knows about endurance. He's raced in america

00:35:19He knows about the long haul it ain't over till it's over or the fat lady sings or whatever you want to call it

00:35:24And there is one montoya in third place just eight seconds now behind the leading duo

00:35:29Yes, because ralph schumacher and the sister williams, of course is now being held up

00:35:35This is his chance to come and join the party and

00:35:39He's joining the party by some six or seven tenths of a second per lap now

00:35:44Deficit as you say james eight seconds and michael desperately trying to respond by doing his fastest first sector

00:35:51That's on the way down to the hairpin turn five of the race so far

00:35:55And this is a mclaren bouncing across it must be hacken and by the looks of it bouncing across

00:36:01The grass at the vedal you sometimes get a lot of debris in your side pods and blocking the radiators if you do that

00:36:07too many times so

00:36:08Nicker there and I saw him doing a relatively slow one minute 21.1

00:36:12And that is a carbon copy. Although that's not a smart thing to do if you miss that chicane carry on on the grass

00:36:19Do not try to rejoin. Otherwise, you're at the botticelli out of your little formula one car

00:36:24Fissy keller then making a scheduled or possibly unscheduled pit stop

00:36:29Ralph schumacher having another look down the insides of michael schumacher as fissy keller rejoins the track

00:36:35There's one montoya at the top of the screens

00:36:37Let's talk about the other people in this motor race kuhlthardt is fourth hacken and fifth

00:36:40Just saw him leaping over the curbs. Jarno trulli still holding on in sixth place

00:36:44Just one second behind the mclaren of mika hacken and then it's the second ferrari rubens barrichello having a relatively anonymous afternoon

00:36:51Probably got a lot of fuel on board made a poor stop and he's struggling down in seventh place

00:36:56And behind him by nine seconds

00:36:57He's heidfeld with reichen and ninth and frentzen tenth as ralph schumacher gets some more

00:37:03Excellent drive out of that tight hairpin the dunlop curve a 50 mile an hour corner taking just second gear

00:37:09And then they pick their way up through the shell curve up to about 175 miles an hour as they come out of here

00:37:14Towards the rtl curve. It's a circuit on which they use about 67 percent of the time

00:37:19They're on full throttle coming down towards the hudson back now

00:37:23And this is the kind of place where ralph schumacher's got to get very close to his brother

00:37:26a new fastest lap then by

00:37:29Montoya third place man montoya and look ralph is quicker under braking has got more mechanical grip when he gets there

00:37:36and he's even having a little

00:37:38Glance into coca-cola. No for will he'll never get through there

00:37:41But at least it'll annoy michael if he keeps doing it and montoya then on an absolute charge

00:37:467.3 seconds behind this leading battle

00:37:50Montoya, of course under some pressure from his team to achieve a good result

00:37:54Only had one points finished so far this season

00:37:57But he finished second in the spanish grand prix as we ride on board now with heinz harrell frentzen

00:38:01And this is the man that holds the outright lap record here back in 97 with full slicks and one minute 18s

00:38:08We don't stay with him very long unfortunately

00:38:10But look irvine's managing to stay with him back on board then with frentzen heading in to that vedo braking

00:38:16Let's see where he needs to brake about 80 meters. He's hitting the brake pedal

00:38:21Remember, you're traveling probably 100 meters per second when you approach corners like that and it's critical when you decide you're going to press

00:38:29That middle pedal and irvine then as we saw in the warm-up really does have a well-balanced car

00:38:34Of course he too is on the michelin's like the williams so michelin looking like the tire to be on this afternoon

00:38:42Yes, eddie. Irvine pressuring heinz

00:38:43Howe frentzen for a top 10 position michael schumacher leads after 23 laps of this european grand prix

00:38:49His brother ralph is pressing him three tenths of a second behind then

00:38:52It's montoya third koulthard fourth hackett and fifth and jano. Trulli holding station in sixth place

00:39:04So

00:39:34So

00:40:04So

00:40:34So

00:41:04So

00:41:12Lap 25 of the european grand prix at the nurburgring nothing has changed

00:41:16Michael schumacher is four tenths of a second ahead of his brother ralph with fernando alonso in the minari

00:41:22Just moving out of their way into the pit lane

00:41:24He was going to become lap traffic and you can see him there just scuttling off into the pits

00:41:28One montoya still charging hard in third place five seconds behind the leading duo with koulthard in fourth place

00:41:3524 seconds adrift now and hacken and his teammate in the second mclaren 37 seconds adrift

00:41:40So a new outline outright lap record then for montoya last time around a 118.553

00:41:48Quicker than the 97 cars with far more apparent downforce wider slicks full slick tires

00:41:54That's how much progress they've made and montoya the gap down to just 4.7

00:42:00Seconds now, he will be joining that party very soon koulthard now 20 seconds behind montoya

00:42:07Hacken and a further 13 seconds behind

00:42:10koulthard mclaren

00:42:12Having a dismal afternoon at the moment. We're sure they must have started on heavy fuel load

00:42:17So they'll come back into the reckoning a little bit later on

00:42:20But they have not got the pace around this circuit to match these two cars

00:42:24They're going to do well if they can get back into the reckoning

00:42:27I think even if they are carrying absolutely enormous quantities of fuel

00:42:30We know that the ferrari fuel tank is about 150 liters the mclaren I think is about 15 liters more

00:42:36So it's not all that much and the williams about another 10 on top of that

00:42:40That's certainly something that's going to come into play in the second half of the season

00:42:43But here at the nurburgring we're still not quite sure after 26 laps

00:42:47How much fuel the leading cars have got on board michael schumacher in the ferrari ralph schumacher in the williams

00:42:52And here one montoya still closing down the gap taking three tenths of a second out of the leading duo

00:42:58Who are now approaching more lap traffic and in the form of luciano berti?

00:43:02I should just tell you along with taso marquez olivier panis has now retired from this race

00:43:06So just two retirements after 27 laps

00:43:09Yes panis beached spun out into the gravel track in the par when he was holding down 15th place and you can see there

00:43:16Another new lap record then an 18 3 5 4 for montoya and the ferrari mechanics are ready

00:43:22Surely this must be for michael schumacher because we think barrichello is heavily laden with fuel

00:43:28We think schumacher will be in this time and williams appear to be ready to respond

00:43:34Immediately. Yeah, it looks like they're reacting

00:43:35I saw luca baldessari who is michael schumacher's race engineer up on the pit wall looking round at the tires being brought out

00:43:42That's always a telltale sign of which driver from the ferrari team is going to be making the pit stop

00:43:46And it makes complete sense in a way for them both to come in at the same time

00:43:50Although having said that if you were williams, wouldn't you carry on now and do a couple of laps?

00:43:53I think I would if um, I think I would definitely do that. He's clearly got a faster car

00:43:58Michael takes to yes, they're both both schumacher's then pitting at the same time curious response there from williams because

00:44:06It's a straight fight between the mechanics now when they appear to me to have a faster car

00:44:11So they come down hit the 60 kilometer an hour speed board and this could change the lead of the european grand prix. Let's watch it

00:44:19Ralph arrives

00:44:21Look brakes for ralph

00:44:22He's shot overshot his pit a little bit a little bit of an aggressive arrival that puts his mechanics very much on their back foot

00:44:28And it's not a quick stop for williams ralph

00:44:31Came in too hard too hot and everybody steps back just as they should be stepping forward and it's compromised him and look

00:44:39There goes cool thud cool thud will clear ralph schumacher. He will not clear michael schumacher

00:44:45So uh montoya leads the motor race then one montoya leads the european grand prix ahead of michael schumacher with david coolthard in third place

00:44:53Ralph schumacher fourth and mika haken and in fifth so it's all turning around now the question of course

00:44:58Also montoya I can see the williams mechanics are back out again with tires for montoya

00:45:02So he will soon lose that lead that he has but how much fuel have the mclarens got on board?

00:45:07How far are they going to go lap 28 that stop was on which is pretty much the back end of a two-stop window

00:45:13And they took on about eight seconds of fuel

00:45:15So they are both two stopping how much fuel have the mclarens got?

00:45:18They can probably go to about lap 40 if they're carrying one-stop fuel

00:45:22We have to assume that ralph schumacher had to come in on that lap because it doesn't make any sense to me that he did

00:45:27And the fact that the very next time around montoya is in to suggest that they had both chosen the identical laps

00:45:35That's the both the schumacher brothers to pit the amount of fuel

00:45:38They don't carry a kilo more than they have to as montoya rather more cautiously approaches the box and some very

00:45:45Old tires going on that car too. So scrub tires once again

00:45:49Look, they look like you throw them away let alone put them on a car that was leading a grand prix

00:45:53They look more like they should be coming off than going on

00:45:55But that's what I was talking about before mitchell and needing to use tires that have done a 10 or 15 laps

00:46:00And that looks like yes, it is michael schumacher regains the lead cool third second ralph schumacher in third place

00:46:06Montoya now dropped down to fourth entirely predictable montoya not able in that one lap that he had of freedom

00:46:13Uh to make enough time up to get the lead back, but he was only a couple of seconds out wasn't he martin?

00:46:17Yes, and uh, absolutely, but as I sort of have predicted

00:46:22That has at least launched the mclarens back into the frame

00:46:25Now all of the cars have got one stop left to the end of the race

00:46:30The problem is the mclaren is just not fast enough. You don't sort of equate chess with formula one

00:46:35Do you chess is a slow game played by people in gardens moving pieces around very slowly taking half a second?

00:46:41Of a minute rather over each move as heist owl frentzen comes in to make his stop but chess and formula one at times like this

00:46:47They're very very similar louise goodman. What can you tell us? Well while you were watching those pit stops, sir?

00:46:52Eddie irvine finally got past times how frentzen he's been glued to frentzen's rear wing throughout the race so far

00:46:56But just not been able to find a way through but he has finally got past him

00:47:02So then you're watching frentzen taking coming out of the pit line and that clearly is

00:47:09Michael schumacher was that michael schumacher? Yes lapping, uh, one of the arrows which would be enrique

00:47:14Bernoldi enrique bernoldi down in 18th place the man who held up david koulthard for 42 laps of the monaco grand prix

00:47:21No, it looks like josh verstappen. Actually. They've already cleared bernoldi. That must be verstappen

00:47:25Uh, but certainly bernoldi got himself into the headlines when he held up koulthard. Let's hope he doesn't do it this time

00:47:31Now able to uh keep station then

00:47:34Ahead of ralph schumacher now. It's flip-flopped around. He's probably got slightly less fuel than the williams

00:47:41That's behind him

00:47:42of course because ralph's just been in for a top up and look ralph schumacher shaping up for a big stab up the inside into

00:47:48Turn five made it stick look like koulthard a little bit wrong-footed out of turn four and ralph with an important move in this grand prix

00:47:56He could not afford to be tucked up behind the mclaren for too long a great move there from ralph schumacher

00:48:02Yes a move a potential

00:48:04Race winning move really certainly one that will get him back into contention with his brother

00:48:08He wants to win this motor race

00:48:10So does david koulthard for that matter as olivier panis runs across the track having beached his bar earlier on

00:48:16Miserable afternoon so far for british american racing with jacques villeneuve down in 11th place one of the two arrows

00:48:22That's enrique bernalde. I think pulled over at the side of the track

00:48:25Yes, indeed it is. So one arrow is out of the race. Josper stappan still in it in 16th place

00:48:31The arrows team really have not had a good weekend of it not been on the pace that they expected to be

00:48:35Third car to retire then from this race marquez dropping out

00:48:39Early on panis spinning out and bernalde some kind of technical problem as ralph schumacher laps

00:48:46Verstappen and look at montoya pressurizing third place man. David koulthard

00:48:52Schumacher leading then from michael schumacher from ralph schumacher koulthard third montoya fourth right behind him

00:48:58Hacken and some way behind in fifth also on the same fuel strategy as david koulthard in sixth place

00:49:04Rubens barrichello

00:49:05Jarno trulli has made a pit stop and has gone down into seventh place ahead of nick heidfeld eddie irvine is up to ninth

00:49:12And reichen and he's down to 10 and verstappen looking like he was uh ready to let one car through but not two

00:49:19And montoya getting squeezed down onto the apex of the turn five hairpin. I don't think verstappen quite clogged

00:49:25There were two of them coming through costing him a little bit of time

00:49:28Were you surprised there martin at how easily david koulthard let ralph schumacher go through and do you think he'll do the same thing?

00:49:33With one montoya, I think koulthard got out of shape out of four and just had nothing he could do

00:49:38Ralph got the line got the speed down into I don't think koulthard would have happily let him through at all frankly

00:49:43So, uh, i'm expecting he'll uh, he'll give montoya a harder time if he can

00:49:47But if you can't uh, david said he was right

00:49:49Just can't get the thing out of turn three and turn four without the back end stepping out

00:49:53Because he's three tenths of a second slower all weekend than the key cars down to that first hairpin

00:50:00And uh, well, he certainly paid the price when it came to fighting with ralph schumacher

00:50:04Yes getting the power down out of the slow corners certainly seems to be the uh,

00:50:08McLaren's achilles heel this season as we ride on board now with an attacking one pablo montoya

00:50:13That's koulthard in front of us and I think barrichello has passed hackinnon out on the racetrack

00:50:19Yes, indeed barrichello then up to fifth somewhere

00:50:22He's passed mika hackinnon and again a key move for barrichello

00:50:27Can he come into play and spoil koulthard's afternoon as well as you're on board with montoya?

00:50:33Following that mclaren of koulthard four tenths of a second behind him over the timing beam last time around and this then

00:50:40Is the turbulent air situation montoya fighting the car through that 160 mile an hour chicane?

00:50:46And apparently not really able to close that mclaren down straight away great pictures there from on board

00:50:52It's fantastic, isn't it?

00:50:53When you can see the real attacking and as you were saying on that onboard lap in the build-up to this show today martin

00:50:58How amazing it is you don't see the drivers changing gear anymore

00:51:01The car does it for them basically nowadays. Yeah, it moves up and down the gearbox. It looks montoya

00:51:06Oh montoya having to take to the grass and the old part of the v doll chicane

00:51:11I do not believe he'll be penalized for that

00:51:13He did not lose a position again a position or fail to lose a position by taking that shortcut

00:51:20But of course it stepped him back

00:51:22He snatched the wheel on the way in decided he wasn't going to make it did not want to rip the undertrain

00:51:27Maybe the auto gearbox we were talking about did something he wasn't expecting

00:51:30I'm looking out of the pits window now and I can see in the pit lane

00:51:33The mclaren mechanics are getting ready for one of their two drivers and I think it's going to be mika hakkinen

00:51:38That's indeed mika hakkinen there. He is diving into the pit lane from sixth place

00:51:43So the finnish double world champion not really in contention so far this weekend

00:51:48You saw earlier on how dejected he was about his performance in qualifying

00:51:51So his pit stop comes in very slick tires coming off new-ish ones going on. They haven't done too many laps

00:51:58How much fuel's going in a man waiting there with a new front wing to put on but they have not changed the front wing

00:52:04Couldn't see anything wrong with it as it was coming down the pit lane

00:52:07And uh hacken and then out and that would be a pitting sauber that peels off out of his way

00:52:13And then who is that is that irvine coming through to take what is now sixth place?

00:52:18So eddie irvine in the jaguar is back in the points hasn't made his pit stop yet

00:52:23As hacken and rejoins in front of jean a lacey and that would be a move for position

00:52:28Yes, john lacey was down in 12th place

00:52:30So mika hacken has certainly lost a fair bit of ground there down to 11th 10th place now

00:52:35I would have thought that's not a scheduled stop there for hacken and the fact they had a wing ready as well

00:52:39He's obviously complaining about lack of front end grip. So they've changed his tires

00:52:44They saw there was no damage on the wing and they've sent him so hacken and clearly not happy

00:52:49But look michael now maintaining a 4.6 second lead over ralph schumacher for some reason ralph's not got the pace

00:52:56He had earlier on and of course he's going through that phase again

00:53:00Where he needs the michelins to have done a few more miles. It's funny

00:53:03Isn't it how these tires come and go they have good phases and bad phases?

00:53:07They certainly the tires that went on although they look pretty worn out

00:53:10They haven't yet hit the sweet spot where they're performing

00:53:12Well, the bridgestone tires used by mclaren and ferrari are more consistent over a long run

00:53:17We've seen that throughout the season, but hey, it's still only michelin's first season back in formula one

00:53:22They've won twice and who's to say they aren't going to win this afternoon going back to the hacken and situation there martin

00:53:27We did see him earlier going straight over the top of the vedal chicane

00:53:30I wonder whether perhaps there was some damage

00:53:32He thought maybe he had some problem with the front wing as a result of that

00:53:35They checked it out and found indeed that he didn't yeah, I suspect he had a lot of understeer

00:53:39He didn't he wouldn't know whether it was tires or front wing so he came in they automatically changed the tires checked his front wing

00:53:45Decided not to change anything. But uh, ralph schumacher then second place man 4.6 seconds behind last time around

00:53:53Let's have a look and see what it is this time around five it says on that computer and he's losing time

00:53:58He lost half a second on that lap. Clearly he had to pass the benetton, but nonetheless ralph hasn't got that pace at the moment

00:54:07So you have only seen just half of this race as we see a replay of one montoya almost clipping the back of cool

00:54:13He seemed to close up pretty tight behind him just over half distance then you ain't seen nothing yet

00:54:18Michael schumacher leading ralph schumacher's 5.1 seconds behind him coulthard third montoya fourth barrichello fifth eddie

00:54:25Irvine still holding on in sixth place for jaguar

00:54:42So

00:55:12So

00:55:42Foreign

00:56:13So

00:56:15So

00:56:17So

00:56:4037 laps gone of this european grand prix 30 to go and we've got a great battle developing now between one montoya in fourth place

00:56:47And david coulthard in third place montoya last time by just half a second behind the scotsman

00:56:53Michael schumacher still leading this race from his brother

00:56:55Ralph you missed nothing and you're looking now at this battle between coulthard and montoya and I understand

00:57:01Martin coulthard has yet to make his pit stop. We don't expect him to come in for another two or three laps yet

00:57:07But montoya knows that as well. He knows he's got to come in as eddie

00:57:10Irvine makes a stop from sixth place good day for jaguar so far

00:57:13Irvine was easily the fastest man on the track last time around

00:57:17Now he's managed to get some clear air. He's really homing in on the fifth place man barrichello

00:57:22But now he has to make the stop and quite a long stop

00:57:25It was to seem to be a while getting away there for eddie irvine and clearly that will be his only

00:57:31scheduled stop of the afternoon james, but no other retirements other than bertie and

00:57:38panis marquez, sorry bernaldi panis and marquez the three retirements

00:57:43Uh from earlier on in the race, no other significant events and a mclaren in the pit lane

00:57:48It's coulthard david coulthard then making his one and only scheduled stop and ted kravitz is down in the mclaren garage

00:57:54Yes, james. I'm right next to coulthard. The hose goes on

00:57:57I'm, actually measuring the time that the hose is connected to the car

00:58:00That is crucial because that tells you how much fuel is going into it

00:58:04And i'm looking towards the last corner to see if michael schumacher michael schumacher crosses the finish line now coulthard's out

00:58:10Let's see what he can do

00:58:12Well schumacher leading this race from his brother michael, uh ralph rather but where is coulthard going to end up?

00:58:17Is barrichello going to get him? I don't think so

00:58:18Yeah, barry. It was barrichello went down the pit straight actually and barrichello has taken coulthard

00:58:24but barrichello yet to stop they're both on a one stopper and

00:58:29We think there's a stop and go penalty

00:58:32For car five, which is ralph schumacher for crossing a white line

00:58:37I assume that's the white line on the exit of the pits haven't seen that rule played for a long time

00:58:44So ralph schumacher then it is a fact has a 10 second stop and go penalty means he's got to negotiate the pit lane

00:58:51Now you can see it on the screen and he's taking it straight away. It's going to cost him about 24 seconds

00:58:57He will go to his pit and he must be stationary under the control of his men for a full 10 seconds

00:59:04He has to obey all of the speed limits

00:59:06He can they cannot work on that car in any way shape or form mclaren mechanics rushing out to clear

00:59:13Their pneumatic hoses out of the way and ralph that is the longest 10 seconds of your life

00:59:19Enormous frustration for williams and for ralph schumacher. He was in second place

00:59:23This is going to drop him down behind one montoya behind coulthard and possibly behind barrichello as well

00:59:29Now look i'll try and point the white line out to you as he exits. Let's make sure he doesn't go over it again

00:59:34There's a white line now

00:59:35You can see it to his left where you must not join the racing line or the race track

00:59:41You must stay inside that and clearly he bolted straight out onto the racing line

00:59:45It's not a very elegant pit exit here and they try to keep the cars channeled to the first corner

00:59:51Presumably that's to stop people from deliberately blocking someone who might be

00:59:55Your rivals you come out of the pit lane. You can't swing straight across the racetrack. Absolutely. But uh, look who's who's gone through there?

01:00:01That's that's it. That's what he did. Is it? That's what there it is. Yes

01:00:05That was just what a quarter of the car across the line. I mean

01:00:08You can't be a little bit pregnant. He was definitely outside of that line. No question about it

01:00:13Very stiff sentence for ralph schumacher who is now in fourth place as I predicted

01:00:19He's fallen behind rubens barrichello as well as montoya a little bit of a understeer oversteer situation there for ralph though through that corner

01:00:26He's obviously pretty het up inside that cockpit

01:00:28Yeah, of course you're sitting in the pits and you're losing a lot of temperature change you're cruising down the pit lane at slow speed

01:00:34Then you're sitting for 10 to 10 more seconds

01:00:37You lose an awful lot of temperature and therefore tire pressure and turning oversteer once again into the vedal

01:00:43And that has released michael schumacher to a much more comfortable afternoon

01:00:48Where's montoya montoya is 10 seconds behind michael and half a second a lap faster last time around

01:00:56You're looking now at michael schumacher coming through I think behind heinz harrell frentzen

01:01:00He's the only car who's not been lapped and he's in 12th place

01:01:04So astonishingly after just 40 laps of this motor race

01:01:07Michael schumacher has lapped up to 12 and that includes reichen and who's fallen down to 13th place

01:01:12After the first round of pit stops, so both the salvers in 13th and 14th place big victims of that first round of fuel stops

01:01:19But we're still waiting to see

01:01:20There's a big chunk of people who've not made their one stop as patrick head the technical director of williams comes back in rather disgruntled

01:01:26I would imagine or if certainly not grunted

01:01:28Well, patrick tends to say what he thinks when he thinks it and he did not look a happy bunny at all

01:01:33Did he but michael then leading by about 10 seconds?

01:01:37Interestingly despite that stop and go ralph schumacher did get back out back out onto the track ahead of kuthard

01:01:44So schumacher running fourth at the moment ralph that is kuthard fifth barrichello is up to third

01:01:49But he has not yet pitted. Yes

01:01:51So in fact kuthard pretty much back where he started

01:01:53He started the race in fifth place on the grid at the end of the in the early running

01:01:57he was fifth so that fuel strategy one stop hasn't necessarily done anything for them yet, but

01:02:02All the cars in front of him. I've got to stop again. Yeah, absolutely

01:02:06but uh

01:02:07Of course barrichello

01:02:08We now know why he was so slow off the line and we were right at the beginning of the race

01:02:12He is carrying a lot of fuel as he easily passes franson is busy down the escape road

01:02:17But michael then he's got a new man chasing him now, and he closed him down by 1.1

01:02:23Seconds last time around montoya 1.1 seconds faster. The michelins are back in the sweet zone. Yes, they are. Isn't it fantastic?

01:02:31It's swinging like a pendulum this motor race

01:02:33Anybody that says formula one is all over by the first corner doesn't know what they're talking about

01:02:37It changes all the time. It changes as the track temperature changes. It goes up it goes down the tires come in

01:02:43They go out engines go off drivers have little lapses of concentration

01:02:48So many things can happen to slip in the pit stops. Michael. Schumacher makes very few mistakes

01:02:53And uh, well at the moment he's leading this motor race

01:02:55He's got 25 laps to go, but he has got to stop again sometime

01:02:59I'm guessing we're on lap 42 now and they're pretty much

01:03:03Target for a two-stop would be about lap 47 one montoya though

01:03:07Is that lap by for him not quite so good?

01:03:09He gave a couple of tenths of a second away. So schumacher has stabilized the margin between himself and montoya

01:03:15Barrichello, of course still got to make his one and only stop of the race. Yeah, I think montoya had to uh,

01:03:21Clear the sauber during that lap. So that halted his charge somewhat. So michael schumacher leads

01:03:27Nine seconds ahead of montoya barrichello holding down third place yet to stop ralph schumacher fourth kuthard fifth

01:03:33Villeneuve also yet to stop in sixth place

01:03:39So

01:04:09So

01:04:39So

01:05:09So

01:05:39So

01:05:49Lap 44 of the european grand prix and the last man of the front runners to make a pit stop dives in rubens

01:05:55Barrichello in the ferrari comes in from third place and he will drop down behind ralph schumacher

01:06:03And david kuthard and should slot in just in front of jano truly if this stop goes well there you can see

01:06:09Kuthard going through the frame now looks pretty routine down at ferrari and a little bit

01:06:15Hesitant there, but he went after 10.3 seconds a cracking stop for a one-stop fuel load and barrichello really was fueled to go as far

01:06:23As he possibly could where is he going to rejoin there's truly at the top of the screen in sixth place

01:06:27So rubens barrichello going to slot back in into fifth place providing doesn't cross that white line

01:06:32very nearly he aimed for the corner of it and he found it, but

01:06:36barrichello

01:06:38As we said at the early stage of the race very very heavy on fuel

01:06:41But it uh, it was to be a spoiler to the mclarens

01:06:45He was supposed to be doing that and of course they both launched past him down into term one

01:06:49So barrichello's plot did not work at all

01:06:52Well de la rosa then the last man on the racetrack to make a stop and a good stop remember

01:06:57Of course, they've only got about 22 laps to the end of the grand prix

01:07:02So they should not be putting that much fuel in and even then

01:07:05That was one of the quickest stops we've seen today nine seconds is still quite a long time

01:07:09So a good bit of squabbling going on james down the field

01:07:13Yes, a lot of good squabbling going on what you call the middle race really between the bars the salvas the jordans at the moment

01:07:20Truly is at the front in sixth place de la rosa just made a pit stop there from seventh and truly as I speak

01:07:26Is struggling he's pulling right across the racetrack obviously out of the race and a great shame for jano

01:07:30Truly who's been really very strong this weekend qualified well and eddie jordan

01:07:35Disconsolately thinking what have I got to do to get a break?

01:07:38He's just the beginning of the year for jordan looked pretty good. They qualified

01:07:41Well, they got points and now they can't get points to save their lives. He's going to creep home

01:07:47Is looking pretty hot at the back there, isn't it?

01:07:49But truly does not want to walk back to the pit a bit unfair of him to crawl back without if it's terminally ill

01:07:56But he appears to be trying to do that at the moment

01:07:58So michael then trying very very hard michael schumacher leading by nine seconds keeps putting in

01:08:05Times very close to or slightly improving on his fastest laps of the afternoon. He's really responding to montoya's new charge

01:08:14Well, he's just putting a second lap

01:08:16Can you believe it on jensen button the man who was so strong last year for bmw williams now gone two laps down

01:08:22In the benetton having a pretty sad afternoon down in 19th place way off the pace and uh, he's uh,

01:08:29Quite a long way behind his teammates as well. Fisichella who's in 16th place believe it or not martin

01:08:34Michael schumacher who is driving we have to say extremely well everything that the other teams have thrown at him

01:08:39He's been able to resist about would you believe to clap hacken and make a hack in there just diving through the bottom of the screen

01:08:45Yeah, there's hacking and now he's uh, 75 seconds off the lead last time around and of course

01:08:51That means one thing and one thing only with a a minute 18 for a lap 78 seconds for a lap

01:08:57He's being honed in on for a good old lapping ted's down in the pits

01:09:02Yeah martin as there is a quiet sense of a bit of confidence actually in this mclaren pit

01:09:06There were a couple of thumbs up between the mechanics when ralph came in for his penalty

01:09:11And when barrichello was slow away from his pit stop

01:09:13It does look like kutat is on for a podium at the moment second or third. I reckon but at least it's solid championship points

01:09:21Yes kutat then the reason being we think of course that schumacher montoya ralph schumacher all have to stop again

01:09:30And they're there in front of kutat kutat maintaining a 9.2 second gap in fourth place to third place man ralph schumacher

01:09:37So there is a chance that their strategy will launch david kutat onto the podium and a little kiss there

01:09:44between the sauber and the prost heidfeld and the lacy getting a little bit too intimate there through the last corner and

01:09:53Quite a tussle been going on between those two for 12th place

01:09:56And heidfeld being very aggressive this afternoon, but so what do mclaren have to do?

01:10:01well

01:10:01Currently michael schumacher is 8.4 seconds ahead of juan montoya ralph schumacher after that stop and go penalty is

01:10:0829.7 seconds behind his teammate with kuthard 10.7 seconds behind him

01:10:13So if the leaders all make the stop the one who's going to fall into kuthard's clutches is definitely going to be ralph schumacher

01:10:20I don't think montoya will he's got too big an advantage

01:10:23So he will be able to pit and rejoin in front of kuthard

01:10:25But ralph schumacher is under serious threat make a hack in and though just making room for michael schumacher

01:10:30Hacking and of course blue flags wet flags waving at him rather than for him for a change having to yield immediately

01:10:37But you know, I don't think kutat's going to be on the podium. I don't think he's got the pace to keep ralph

01:10:42In in sight he's lapping some one and a half seconds a lap slower sometimes as he comes past the pits here

01:10:48So I think he's pretty much nailed to fourth place at the moment

01:10:51They may be putting thumbs up because he's got the edge on barrichello

01:10:55But barrichello is 18 seconds behind and also closing something like a second elapsed sometime

01:11:00So kuthard not showing

01:11:02A lot of pace and really they just cannot get that mclaren hooked up around here for some reason

01:11:07But montoya on a new charge the lead now down to 7.9 seconds

01:11:13But what a stunning race michael schumacher is driving

01:11:16He's not in the fastest car on the racetrack james, but he's leading the race. Well, he's done it many times in the past

01:11:21It's what makes him special

01:11:22I think every now and then in the history of motor racing

01:11:25There's a driver who can win cars for you in the win races for you in a car

01:11:29But really doesn't deserve to do it. He's done it throughout his career at benetton. He had occasionally the best car there

01:11:34Occasionally at ferrari he's had the best car but throughout that time williams or mclaren have had the edge

01:11:39He's gone out there and he's made it stick. He now has

01:11:4248 wins if he wins today, it'll be his 49th homing in on the all-time records, of course of alan prost 51

01:11:49Grand prix victories

01:11:50We're likely to see I think at some point this season michael schumacher becoming the most successful grand prix driver

01:11:56In the history of the sport and there's so many targets just 33 points behind alan prost in the all-time point scoring list

01:12:03He's breaking all the records. He's enjoying his motor racing and at the moment here at the nurburgring

01:12:08He really is driving a superb race

01:12:10But juan montoya from colombia the man who gave him such a hard time at the brazilian grand prix

01:12:15Wants to try and get on terms. He needs a good result, too

01:12:18We're looking at replay then of hacken and just letting michael schumacher go past and it's a sad sight to see mika hacken like this martin

01:12:25What's going through his mind now? He's had such a miserable start to the season just eight points

01:12:30in eight races

01:12:31Do you think he's planning on?

01:12:33Packing it in at the end of the year. Well, I doubt it but we saw norbert haug

01:12:38The boss man of mercedes-benz motor racing division there just throwing his arms up in the air saying what is going on?

01:12:45You know it is

01:12:47It's a big event, you know mclaren being lapped by ferrari is a very very significant event as you see the williams mechanics

01:12:55Getting ready for one of their two men remember and that must be frentzen because truly is already out of the race, of course

01:13:01So both jordan's now then that makes the fifth retirement of this grand prix frentzen truly and uh, he joins

01:13:09And we got a ferrari in the pits james. Well, we might well have a uh, we might well have a williams as well

01:13:14It's not going to be quite the race

01:13:15It was last time but michael schumacher coming in he had an 8.4 second lead

01:13:20So juan montoya who stopped two laps after him first time around and he's making the stop at the same time this time around

01:13:26So what's going to happen here michael schumacher expected to get out front just missing the back of montoya nice

01:13:32Synchronized swimming there between the two montoya diving in there to his pit box from second place

01:13:38He should be able to rejoin just in front of his teammate ralph schumacher. That's obviously what his intention is. Where is ralph?

01:13:44Where is ralph?

01:13:45Top of the screen there will montoya be able to get out in front of him looks like he might do it

01:13:50That's a sauber actually ralph obviously has fallen

01:13:53A little way behind I think ralph's just gone past the window james as you're looking at the screen. So

01:13:58Montoya maintains his position ralph's got to stop again yet

01:14:02Remember that'll be ralph's third stop of the afternoon two for tires and fuel one for crossing the white line a violation of the regulation

01:14:10So montoya looking very very secure in second place

01:14:15Can he give michael schumacher a run to the end of the grand prix that is frenton locking up a wheel?

01:14:21Dan dunlop hairpin and then losing the car on the exit curious, wasn't it? It just suddenly snapped away from him

01:14:27I wonder whether something broke there

01:14:28That was a very strange accident indeed seemed to have it all under control and then it just swung out to the left

01:14:34So heinzauer frentzen retiring from 10th place

01:14:36And we now have a leaderboard michael schumacher on lap 50 leading by 8.9 seconds from one montoya ralph schumacher

01:14:43Third kuthard fourth barrichello fifth hacken and sixth irvine seventh a lap down

01:14:48De la rosa eighth a lap down ninth is villeneuve 10th is reichen and 11th is jean

01:14:52Alessi and 12th nick heidfeld and this is why michael schumacher wins so many grand prix look

01:14:58They're both on an outlap. You saw michael schumacher and montoya pitting at an identical time

01:15:04Michael was eight tenths faster in the first sector of the outlap

01:15:08Five tenths faster in the third sector and to take a second sector and two tenths faster in that final sector

01:15:15So he just all the time takes everything that's available to him and montoya now has to charge again talent and discipline

01:15:22He said yesterday when asked what made him different from the other drivers. You agree with that?

01:15:27I think he's just smart to be honest. Um, I think it's extremely modest of him to talk about his talent discipline

01:15:33Yes, he does have and uh, he just he's just got it all worked out

01:15:37He knows where to go and find the easy bits and that's easy go out and maximize the outlap and the inlap

01:15:43And you've bought yourself a couple of three seconds and you know, if you win a grand prix by three seconds

01:15:48It's relatively easy, isn't it?

01:15:50Absolutely looking though at colombian one montoya trying to chase down

01:15:55Michael schumacher 10.2 seconds though now and there's ralph schumacher

01:15:59and he will be making his

01:16:01third pit stop of the day his second for fuel, of course, he had a stop and go penalty for uh,

01:16:07crossing the

01:16:08White line at the exit of the pit lane the mechanics ready taking his tire blankets off that keep the tires nice and warm

01:16:13So that when the driver goes back out on them this they're already almost up to racing temperatures

01:16:19And ralph schumacher will dive into the pit lane. He's currently two

01:16:2415 seconds ahead of kuhlthardt

01:16:25It won't be enough to get back in front of him probably but ted kravitz will be able to tell us all about ralph stop

01:16:31Yes, james, uh ralph looks like he's in the pit lane. I can see him now

01:16:35I can tell you there was such a sense of despair when he got that stop and go penalty

01:16:39They just thought you know, I mean is he a star driver or not?

01:16:41He's certainly been signed up for williams to be one. So the hose goes on a line about one point montoya

01:16:48Actually, this has worked very well for him this race

01:16:50He really needed this kind of performance after those two wall experiences in the last two races six seconds hose on time for ralph

01:16:59So then kuhlthardt

01:17:00Clears ralph schumacher kuhlthardt does not have to spit again ralph schumacher has the faster car

01:17:08Can he catch and pass david kuhlthardt for the second time this afternoon? Yes

01:17:13He managed to get out just in front of rubens barrichello as well

01:17:15That's the other aspect of this so it's all chopping and changing but michael schumacher pressing home his advantage now

01:17:21No more fuel stops to go for the front runners lap 52

01:17:2515 laps to go montoya 11.2 seconds behind ralph schumacher third kuhlthardt fourth barrichello fifth

01:17:32Mika hakkinen down in sixth place. It's all to play for

01:17:54So

01:18:24So

01:18:54So

01:19:24So

01:19:26So

01:19:4812 laps to go in the european grand prix nick heidfeldt struggling with the sauber from the looks of things

01:19:54Michael schumacher though still leading the race from one montoya in second place kuhlthardt third ralph schumacher fourth chasing him down

01:20:01rubens barrichello fifth and

01:20:03Mika hakkinen sixth and heidfeldt definitely having some problems there going right off the racing line

01:20:09And everybody else having to swerve around him got a feeling he's got a loose left rear if you watch heidfeldt's car

01:20:15I think the car's moving around in the back end one of I think it's his left rear wheel is loose and he's

01:20:22Struggling to get that back to the pits louise

01:20:24I thought on pear shake for the jordan team. Yano the first of the drivers to retire. Yano. What was your problem?

01:20:29I had a clutch problem since the beginning of the race

01:20:31I was struggling a little bit with the clutch, but the car was feeling very good anyway in balance

01:20:36So I was pushing and pulling away from the rest of the group behind me

01:20:40And I was following hakkinen. I was as quick as him, but unfortunately could overtake him after the piece of new tires

01:20:46I was feeling very good, but still had the problem. I was I tried to help it not using the traction control. But anyway after

01:20:54Some more laps. Uh, just the clutch just gave up. You're not having much luck at the moment

01:20:57Are you getting a bit frustrated?

01:21:00um, let's say i'm not frustrated because

01:21:03I mean somehow yes, because i'm not scoring point

01:21:05But i'm showing everybody that i'm doing very good performance with the team. We just need some more luck this year

01:21:10we've been performing very well in qualifying and

01:21:14Most of the

01:21:15Let's say last four races. I was always driving and running for the point and then to retire. This is a really bad. It's a shame

01:21:23Thank you

01:21:24So heidfeld then managed to limp back to the pits. Michael schumacher appears to have the measure of montoya kutat

01:21:31Trying desperately to respond to ralph schumacher's new charge ralph schumacher

01:21:3711.8 seconds behind him and that is going to be the fight for the final podium position

01:21:43Kutat very much has track position

01:21:45Schumacher in amongst the traffic barricada nailed a long way down there in fifth place hacken and still maintaining

01:21:53Six, but sadly then both jordans out of the race five retirees so far frentz and trulli bernaldi panis

01:22:00and marcus

01:22:03Yes, jordan retiring two cars nick heidfeld. They're retiring with whatever the problem was at the back of that sauber, but

01:22:09amazingly

01:22:11The reliability of the front runners has been exemplary today. We've still got both ferraris

01:22:15We've still got both williamses and we've still got both mclarens and that means slim pickings points wise

01:22:21For all the other teams eddie. Irvine would love to get a point for jaguar

01:22:24He's just outside at the moment in seventh place his teammate pedro de la rosa having a much better afternoon than he's had recently in eight

01:22:31Villeneuve is up into ninth and kimi raikkonen in the sauber is tenth

01:22:34But they can't break through and think about scoring points if the top three teams are occupying the top six slots

01:22:42Montoya then appears to have lost out through the traffic

01:22:44He's not been as clean through the back markers as michael schumacher

01:22:49The gap was 13.3 seconds last time around he comes over the line now

01:22:54They're showing different computer figures out there to what we've got in here, but it's still

01:22:59Well shows up here. He lost four tenths last time around again

01:23:02So montoya then appearing not to be able to take the fight to michael schumacher. Can coulthard fend off ralph schumacher?

01:23:10Montoya, just one second place to his credit ralph schumacher there two wins to his credit

01:23:15And he's not going to win today

01:23:17We saw on the grid the two schumacher brothers side by side and everybody was hoping for battle royal between them

01:23:23We had it for the first 25 or so laps until they both made their pit stops at the same time

01:23:29And michael schumacher emerging in front of his brother

01:23:32But as we look at a replay there of bertie and button having a good old tussle

01:23:36For 14th place with it looks like bertie getting the edge these two old adversaries from formula 3

01:23:41No, bertie gets the edge. In fact, and they seem to be enjoying themselves amongst the tail order

01:23:47but certainly

01:23:49After the first round of pit stops ralph schumacher made the terrible mistake of crossing the pit lane exit line

01:23:54That caused him to have to have a 10 second stop and go penalty because it was deemed dangerous

01:23:59By the race stewards and that of course played right into his brother's hands

01:24:02He was able to open out a margin and it was one montoya then who took the fight to michael schumacher

01:24:07As he is to this moment

01:24:09Yes, it's not good for coulthard from a championship perspective

01:24:12Is it at the moment michael's on 10 points if they finish as they are at the moment coulthard on?

01:24:19Four that would put michael 24 points in the lead of the world championship with a mere 80

01:24:25Remaining so coulthard cannot afford to give up that podium place to fourth place man

01:24:30Ralph schumacher at the moment

01:24:32He's losing about a second a lap to schumacher schumacher homing in on that gap

01:24:37But getting there is one thing passing him is another although we did see him

01:24:41Past the mclaren between term four and five earlier in this grand prix, of course this time last year martin

01:24:47Michael schumacher had a decent lead in the championship then came his sort of summer wobble really wasn't it french grand prix engine blew up

01:24:54Uh german grand prix austrian grand prix taken out of the first corner and all of a sudden

01:24:59He lost all those points advantage

01:25:01He had and mclaren's were able to get back into it

01:25:03But I have a feeling though martin that was because they really had a lot of pressure on them at the time

01:25:07Ferrari michael schumacher and the team 21 years since they'd won a world championship. It was a monkey on their back

01:25:12They seemed to me to be going about this season in a much more methodical

01:25:16Crushingly effective way. Do you agree? Yeah, they've had good reliability, but there's another significant factor james. Look what we've got

01:25:22We've got michael schumacher

01:25:24But between him and coulthard is a williams with another williams pressurizing coulthard

01:25:29Michael's got the speed and he's able now to get other cars between him and he's the only championship contender

01:25:36And another significant thing williams are only 20 points behind mclaren in the constructors title

01:25:41They've only had four finishes in those four finishes. They've scored 28 points

01:25:45They really are beginning to be on a fairly major role through this mid part of the season

01:25:51And we're all sure that when we get to hockenheim monda spa the high-speed circuit

01:25:56We think the williams is going to be super strong

01:25:58I'm sure it will of course that bmw engine enormously powerful, but don't rule out mclaren

01:26:02I'm sure any of you at home that are mclaren fans and they have very many they are a fantastic

01:26:07Grand prix team they've just gone off the boil a little bit recently

01:26:10But for sure they'll bounce back and they'll be strong and they will win races as we ride on board there with juan montoya in second place

01:26:1814 seconds behind michael schumacher

01:26:21And montoya looking pretty comfortable at the moment on his way to second second place of the year

01:26:25And louise has some news for us. I'm still here with heinz harrell friends and heinz harrell

01:26:29We've heard about your teammates gearbox problems. What was it that put you out of the race?

01:26:33well, my traction control just stopped working and

01:26:36Came out of the blue. I just

01:26:38spun around and

01:26:41And that was it. How was the how was the car?

01:26:43Otherwise because you weren't managing to match your teammates times were you were there other problems?

01:26:48well, I was

01:26:49It was all right. I had to do an early pit stop because I was stuck behind the saubers

01:26:54and

01:26:55We came in and I got new tires went out and tried to be as quick as possible

01:27:00But all of a sudden I felt something wrong on the rear

01:27:03and

01:27:04after I stopped the race, I saw that I had some problems on the rear tires, so

01:27:09Basically, I was stuck a little bit with the problem in in that second stint. But anyway

01:27:15Uh, I couldn't go any further than that

01:27:18Back to you. Yeah back in the commentary box, of course

01:27:21We while we're hearing about frentzen's woes of the afternoon. You saw barrichello

01:27:26Barreling into turn three getting it completely out of shape sliding across the grass and miraculously ending up

01:27:32On back on the racetrack pointing in the right direction

01:27:35He was beginning to make a fairly major charge on ralph schumacher fourth place, man

01:27:40And that has cost him dearly hacken is too far behind though sixth placement hacken and too far behind to do anything about it

01:27:49So barrichello with a lucky escape just before all that martin

01:27:53We were talking about the mclaren team and their their problems of late as we see josh verstappen becoming the uh,

01:27:59Sixth retirement seventh retirement of the day the second arrows to pull out of the race

01:28:03I wonder how much the adrian newy story whether or not he was going to leave the team go to jaguar

01:28:08That whole thing may have destabilized the team a little bit taking their eye off the ball

01:28:12Ron dennis hinted this morning in a press conference that he felt maybe they had perhaps taken their eye off the ball

01:28:17It's so easy to get distracted. Isn't when you're so focused like that team is well as ron said this morning

01:28:22This is a team sport and you have a momentum

01:28:25And anything that puts you slightly off your stride has a strong effect when the cars are so competitive and so close

01:28:32Between the top three teams as it is now and I was surprised that ron this morning openly admitted that

01:28:39That really has slightly put them on their back foot and this afternoon

01:28:43You can see although kultar doing a great job to be up there in third place at the moment

01:28:47But ralph schumacher now just five seconds behind as we're on board montoya

01:28:52Through the rtl curves and heading up now towards turn eight. He's 13 seconds behind

01:28:59He's just yo-yoing

01:29:00He does not appear to have whatever for whatever reason the spirit to go and attack michael schumacher ted

01:29:06What can you tell us well martin? I can tell you uh at mclaren i'm watching pat fry

01:29:11Who's david cooltard's race engineer? He's slumped back in his seat right next to ron dennis

01:29:17They're watching the times tumble. I reckon though

01:29:20He might just might be able to hold on to that p3 spot. He's now 0.5 0.4

01:29:26Behind ralph in front of ralph rather but significantly he's got five laps left

01:29:32So if it continues at a second a lap, I think dc might make it but by just under a second

01:29:38Yeah, it is uh looking nip and tuck but even better than that. Look cool. Todd's clearly had

01:29:43Been able to leap past a few back markers and uh

01:29:47He's got this cool thud then coming out of the last corner

01:29:49Look two cars that are squabbling for a position as well between himself and ralph

01:29:55Maybe you're absolutely right here ted

01:29:57thankfully

01:29:58I think I might be wrong cool thud is looking like a podium candidate because

01:30:03There's just not enough time for ralph to make up for that extra stop and go penalty

01:30:07Yes, you'll get four points if you finish on the podium david coolthard and that will be very welcome indeed

01:30:12Ralph schumacher will be well licking his wounds after this and thinking about crossing that white line which gave him the stop and go penalty

01:30:19And definitely meant that he didn't finish second or maybe even win this race and dropped him down into fourth place

01:30:25So martin, we've had 62 of the 67 laps

01:30:29Who is your driver of the day? Who's the outstanding performer? No question about it

01:30:33Michael schumacher a brilliant stunning pole position that put him in control of the race

01:30:37He took control of the race then from the beginning

01:30:40He didn't wilt under pressure and a little bit of a rude moment where he tried to stick his brother in the pit wall

01:30:46Down to that turn one

01:30:47He knew he had to keep track position and whatever they've thrown at him despite having a significantly quicker car at certain stages of this race

01:30:55Michael has been able to withstand that michael schumacher is really winning this race

01:31:01So martin brundle's driver of the day is michael schumacher currently leading this race with four laps to go

01:31:06And the other man whose name i'd throw in the pot would be eddie irvine

01:31:09Who's done a fantastic job to keep that jaguar on the island and he is in seventh place at the moment

01:31:15Taking the fight to the top three teams and it's great to see jaguar doing that

01:31:18I think they're just pulling a 118 out of the bag from somewhere

01:31:22Look, and he's still got the two back markers between him and ralph that podium then looking more secure by the meter

01:31:30Ralph schumacher with the two back markers between himself

01:31:34And that's the sauber and the prost

01:31:37Hopefully we'll be able to negotiate them easily

01:31:39The rule with back markers, of course is they get waved blue flags and they see them

01:31:44Hopefully move out of the way if they pass through more than three, I believe then they get a stop and go penalty

01:31:50So they're all under strict instructions once they're being challenged to get out of the way

01:31:53But he doesn't seem to be catching them all that quickly

01:31:55Does he a lot of black smoke coming out of ralph's car every time he hits the brake pedal now as well?

01:31:59And a lot of dust that is coming and let's watch him down into here

01:32:02If we get this out, yeah a lot of black dust

01:32:04So wonder if ralph's beginning get a bit of a spongy brake pedal in that car because he's certainly

01:32:09Not having anything like the pace he had earlier on kultar then pulling that 118 out last time around

01:32:16That's given him this gap and I think it's all over ralph. I don't think can do anything about it at this stage

01:32:23So germany came to the nurburgring this afternoon and pretty much the whole of germany

01:32:27It feels like i've never seen so many people here as there are today

01:32:31It took us an hour and a quarter to do what is normally a 20 minute drive in from our hotel this morning

01:32:36It was chaos there was cars everywhere

01:32:38This is one of the few grand prix circuits in the world where the race fans the campers could park their motorhomes

01:32:44And their camper vans right next to the racetrack and they absolutely love it

01:32:48They turn up in their huge numbers not only germans, but dutch italian french plenty of brits here as well

01:32:54A fantastic festival of motorsport at one of the world's most famous racetracks the nurburgring been open since 1927

01:33:02And so much history here. It's worth remembering martin

01:33:04It's the 25th anniversary at the moment this year of nikki lauda's massive accident on the old nurburgring circuit

01:33:10Which we no longer use following that accident and certainly the history here. Michael schumacher is part of this history

01:33:17He's won here before for ferrari

01:33:19He's won here for benetton and he's three laps away now from winning again

01:33:23This will be if he can make it his fifth grand prix victory of the year and would put him on a majestic looking

01:33:2968 points in the world championship after just nine races

01:33:33And he's looked peerless hasn't he through the afternoon there then his second place man montoya both williams

01:33:39Sort of not pushing hard at this stage. So I wonder if there's a bit of a gremlin

01:33:45I wonder if they've realized that they just can't go fast enough to make the difference and they'll settle happily

01:33:51For what will now have to be second and i'm sure not so happily fourth place for ralph schumacher and still look ralph now has

01:33:59Cleared one of the back markers and the blue flag situations. It gets quite complex and I still can't help noticing

01:34:05There's such a lot of carbon dust flying out of the front wheels of that williams

01:34:10But the blue flags work, of course for all of the front runners not just the leader of the race

01:34:15But also if you're one lap down lapping somebody who's two laps down you should also get the same service

01:34:22Doesn't always work out like that. It has to be said but it is a complex situation then for look at the the

01:34:28The glowing of the front discs there for ralph and the williams surely has got some hot brakes and that then is a lacey

01:34:36dropping out on the

01:34:3865th lap of the race

01:34:40In the frost, of course a lacey I would imagine that's down at the hairpin turn five can't quite see it at the moment

01:34:47Probably outbraked himself on the way in as john a lacey out of the race michael schumacher though is on his final lap

01:34:54He's backed off. His last lap was a lot slower than that of one montoya

01:34:58He's not worried anymore about the threat from the colombian as we watch again

01:35:02A lacey trying a do or die maneuver down the inside of kimmy reichen and that was for 10th place

01:35:07And a lacey well, you've got to love a trier haven't you even at this stage of the race and down in 10th place?

01:35:12He's given it absolutely everything poor old jean

01:35:14Well, maybe in manucure your home circuit in a couple of weeks

01:35:17You'll have a better day, but you couldn't have a much better day than this man michael schumacher

01:35:21They're spraying the champagne already in the grandstands. It's going to be his 49th career victory

01:35:28He's now just two behind the all-time record of alain prost

01:35:32What a magnificent racing driver he is as he comes out of the bit curve for the final time

01:35:38The air horns are sounding the red yellow and black flags are flying in the grandstands

01:35:43And michael schumacher coming up towards the vedal chicane to complete what has been a memorable european european grand prix for him

01:35:51And for ferrari he was on pole position

01:35:53He had a great fight from his brother for the first 25 laps

01:35:56But then that challenge faded away michael rose to the occasion and michael schumacher wins the european grand prix

01:36:04His fifth victory of the 2001 season. Well done

01:36:09And he's pleased too, isn't he?

01:36:10And so he should be that was really a stunning performance and there then montoya has taken that second place

01:36:17So, uh six world championship points for him coulthard will comfortably be on the podium and that's a save

01:36:23That's a result for david coulthard this afternoon and uh, the strategy did pay off for mclaren

01:36:29It did bring him into about as much contention as he was going to be in today and luckily for him

01:36:36Ralph had that extra stop and go penalty

01:36:38But coulthard made it stick in the middle of the race when he needed to had a bit of extra pace at the end

01:36:43And I somewhat dejected ralph then fourth place. He won't even be up there on the podium and he'll be disappointed with that

01:36:50to say the least

01:36:52So it's not changed any of the positions in the world championship

01:36:55But it has moved michael schumacher just that little bit further ahead now of david coulthard

01:37:00He'll enjoy a 22 point advantage as we look at rubens barrichello who finished in 24 point advantage

01:37:06I'm, sorry

01:37:06As we look at rubens barrichello in the second of the two ferraris mika hakkanen crossing the line eddie irvine very close

01:37:13To scoring that final point for jaguar tried very hard until the final moments

01:37:18But mika hakkanen managed to secure another point making it nine out of nine races. I hope for his sake

01:37:23He doesn't go on to score 17 out of 17 races

01:37:26I'm sure he'll have his day too

01:37:27But look at that and look at how there are a few more of the bmw williams flags as well in the crowd now

01:37:32Ralph schumacher and juan montoya certainly putting that team back on the map

01:37:36There is a big fan base for them now and this huge crowd

01:37:40Here at the nurburgring have been entertained very much by the race today. We are not worthy

01:37:45They say by the side of the racetrack and well, michael schumacher certainly enjoying his moment

01:37:51they are where they should not be and the circuits pay a very very heavy fine if

01:37:56Fans get onto the racetrack like that because it is dangerous and uh, it is difficult for everybody

01:38:01But nonetheless, they're pretty pleased with their day a little bit of beer drunk around here tonight

01:38:06I would imagine because michael schumacher in the end dominated this race

01:38:11It shows that he won by 4.2 seconds, but he was swanning around the last lap kuthad third then ralph schumacher fourth barrichello

01:38:19Scruffy afternoon in fifth hacken and taking that final point irvine and de la rosa jaguar seventh and eighth

01:38:25Looking down a bit fizzy keller 11th

01:38:27Bertie in the prost 12 button then 13

01:38:31Alonso alaisi still classified as a finisher

01:38:34Despite that big brave maneuver to try to pass raken and for 10th place and here then are the retirements for stappan

01:38:40Heidfeld franson truly bernalde panis and marcus

01:38:44So none of the front runners experiencing any real reliability problems rubens barrichello tried to throw it off the road

01:38:51But somehow managed to collect it all up again and was able to finish the race

01:38:56So all of the top six managing to finish it

01:38:59Michael schumacher's won this grand prix and the man who talks to him in the pit lane ross braun is talking to ted kravitz

01:39:05Ross congratulations great performance, but I guess it didn't take all of your tactical acumen to win michael that race today

01:39:11It was a bit tight. We were a bit concerned

01:39:14It was big relief to see ralph come in the same lap

01:39:17um

01:39:18We had an idea they might struggle a little bit more on their second and third sets

01:39:21They only seemed to have one set prepared properly. So we knew it was going to be a little bit easier on the second set

01:39:27Uh, what would have been the outcome of ralph and nanny's problem? I don't know but um, certainly closer than it was

01:39:33But I think we might have just etched it but after ralph's stop go penalty, it was pretty plain sailing from then on

01:39:39It was really then looking after the car

01:39:42Yeah, you saw with mika

01:39:44What can happen the last three laps? So then it was just sequester conserving the car and keeping an eye on montoya

01:39:50Well done ron, uh ross. Well done

01:39:52Yes, i'm sure as ross said a significant moment then when williams had to pit at the same time as ferrari the identical lap this afternoon

01:39:59We're just five days away from first practice for the next grand prix in france next weekend 24 points ahead

01:40:0780 points left in play michael schumacher looking in a very strong position

01:40:13Remember there coulthard gave him more than a run for his money at the french grand prix last year

01:40:18And he's certainly going to have to do the same this time around james

01:40:21Yes, the french grand prix last year very memorable for the way in which david coulthard attacked michael schumacher

01:40:27And came away with the race victory also was the beginning

01:40:31Of schumacher's wobbly period during the season one wonders whether that's going to happen again as he talks there to his brother

01:40:36And he shakes hands with david coulthard ralph. Just telling him about the little misfortune

01:40:41He suffered and how he crossed the white line

01:40:43He's probably complaining about it, but uh, we'll we'll wait and see if there's any fallout from it

01:40:47Ruben's barrichello there being weighed as well. Jenson button fernando. Alonso, too

01:40:52And michael schumacher absolutely ecstatic with his 49th career victory now just 23 points

01:40:59Behind alan frost in the all-time points just two victories behind him as well

01:41:02He's going to break all the records this year. No doubt, but for the moment

01:41:06He's just made the german crowd very very happy indeed

01:41:09The problem is with those five days remaining and of course no testing during the week of a grand prix

01:41:14That's a regulation in formula one. How will mccarran find the pace?

01:41:18They need to leapfrog two teams now

01:41:21Not just the ferrari but the williams as well because michael is using the williams as a buffer every time on top of that

01:41:27Of course

01:41:27There was a test at manucor just before the canadian grand prix at which the two williamses were incredibly fast

01:41:33Michelin have a new tire for that race weekend

01:41:35I understand that having been embarrassed as they were bridgestone had brought something new too for that race

01:41:40So it will be an extremely good grand prix. I hope at the french grand prix, uh one week from today

01:41:46But ferrari celebrating at the moment

01:41:49And it certainly has been a good day for them very methodical the way they've gone about their business this weekend qualifying was exemplary

01:41:56The race was exemplary, too

01:41:57They were lucky as ross braun said that williams chose to pit ralph schumacher the same lap as them

01:42:03I think they probably expected he would do a couple of laps more, but he didn't and michael schumacher has won again

01:42:09Fantastic

01:42:14Fantastic and isn't he happy there's jean tot the team principal

01:42:18A man who can take a lot of the credit I think for turning this ferrari team round since he joined

01:42:23Back in 1992. It wasn't really until he got ross braun and michael schumacher there in 1996 that he was able to really start

01:42:30Ramping things up and in his period he is in fact, he has presided over the most successful period in ferrari's history

01:42:36There's balbir singh who is the physio?

01:42:39He's the food guru of michael schumacher his spiritual advisor really goes with him everywhere around the world goes to all his tests

01:42:45And he doesn't do his physical training just make sure that michael is in top condition in terms of what he eats

01:42:50And in the way he feels and certainly he's played a very big part in the success story of michael schumacher

01:42:57So michael then has won nine of the last 13 grand prix. That's including of course at the end of last year

01:43:03So michael schumacher on an absolutely amazing role and how pleased is he?

01:43:10Yes, very I think is the answer to that matter

01:43:15And the german national anthem rings out at the nurburgring

01:43:33So

01:44:03So

01:44:22What about that then and now the italian national anthem in honor of the winning constructor ferrari

01:44:33So

01:45:03So

01:45:05So

01:45:28Ferrari wins again at the nurburgring with michael schumacher

01:45:31Juan montoya also on the podium and he'll be very happy about that after the couple of very wobbly races

01:45:36He had but otto schillie the minister of the interior of the german government presents michael schumacher with his very lovely trophy

01:45:44He's got one or two of those in his cabinet already. In fact, he's got 49 of them now

01:45:49And how many more will he collect in the next few years?

01:45:51He's contracted to ferrari until the end of 2004

01:45:55And the winning constructor trophy presented

01:45:57by

01:45:58The ceo of the main sponsor here to nigel stepney who is was the chief mechanic of the ferrari team now moved up into the management

01:46:05Overseas everything to do with the race team kurt beck the prime minister of this area. We're in here in germany

01:46:12Presents one montoya with his trophy and that will be

01:46:15Well received by him. He'd be very happy about that and david coulthard did extremely well there to collect four points in third place

01:46:22Get the final spot on the podium very steady drive from david under very difficult

01:46:26Circumstances mclaren really not at the races here this weekend

01:46:30And there'll be some head scratching down in woking over the next few days as the champagne begins

01:46:36And michael schumacher is closing in very much on the all-time records martin. It's been a great day

01:46:41It's been a fascinating race hasn't there's a pity ralph got that stop and go it spoiled the race really in many respects

01:46:47Coulthard there pretending he's happy. I'm sure he's not at all happy

01:46:50It was a solid run for that final podium position, but look at this man

01:46:55He absolutely is heading towards another world championship. Can coulthard stop him?

01:47:02So jim another great win for michael schumacher how many more for him this season? I wonder

01:47:07Thanks very much. Indeed james. Thanks to martin as well

01:47:10Well try and answer that he's won this race in each of his championship years in 94 in 95

01:47:16In 2000 2001 as well, but it looks very much that way at the moment

01:47:21You'll be sure to stay with us. We have a competition your chance to ride in a formula one car

01:47:26There are the views of tony jardine our pre-race guest patrick head. We're going to have a word with him, too

01:47:33And we'll hear what those top three have to say. We will be right back

01:47:45Foreign

Formula-1 2001 R09 European Grand Prix

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