2000 Brazilian Grand Prix

The race began before 72,000 spectators (mostly supporting Ferrari) at 14:00 local time.^[48][49][50] At the start, the weather was hot and dry, with an ambient temperature of 22 °C (72 °F), a track temperature of 35 °C (95 °F), and a humidity of 76%.^[48][51] According to computer simulations, drivers who made a single pit stop had the fastest overall race times.^[7] Wurz's engine stalled during the formation lap, delaying Alesi and Herbert; both drivers took their starting positions.^[52][2] Wurz began from the pit lane.^[53] Häkkinen led the field into the Senna S chicane after a brisk start from the grid.^[54] Michael Schumacher passed Coulthard for second, who had wheelspin and failed to challenge Häkkinen for the lead. Coulthard kept third after Barrichello made a slow start.^[2] Irvine overtook Fisichella for fifth place. Verstappen advanced from 14th to 11th by the end of the first lap.^[53] Button fell from 9th to 14th over the same distance.^[55] Trulli passed Ralf Schumacher and Villeneuve to take tenth on the track's inside.^[2]

As the top two approached the start/finish line,^[54] Michael Schumacher, who had been close behind Häkkinen's heavier car throughout lap one,^[29][56] steered off the racing line to take the lead heading into the Senna S chicane.^[2] Barrichello slipstreamed past Coulthard for third on the start/finish straight.^[56] He then ran wide, returning Coulthard to third. By the end of lap two, Barrichello had retaken third after a gearbox fault lost Coulthard the use of the first three gears and was slower in the slow-speed corners.^[3] A malfunctioning radio prevented Coulthard from alerting McLaren to the problem,^[7] meaning he braked earlier as engine braking proved ineffective and changed his driving line.^[29] With a series of fastest laps, Michael Schumacher increased his advantage over Häkkinen to four seconds by lap 4 and to 15 seconds by lap 15 for a large enough gap for him to make an early pit stop for fuel. In the meantime, Trulli passed Zonta for eighth, Button overtook Alesi for 13th and Heidfeld lost 16th to De la Rosa. Verstappen progressed from 11th to seventh by passing Villeneuve, Zonta, Frentzen, and Fisichella as Alesi overtook Ralf Schumacher, Villeneuve, Zonta, and Frentzen to advance to ninth.^[53][57] During this time, Wurz and Heidfeld both experienced separate engine failures on laps seven and nine, while Alesi experienced an electrical failure at the Bico de Pato hairpin on lap 11.^[51][2]

After Häkkinen ran wide at the conclusion of lap 14, Barrichello closed up. Before the Senna S chicane, he braked, slipstreamed Häkkinen, and turned left to pass him for second at the start of the 15th lap.^[51][2][56] De la Rosa passed Herbert for 14th on that lap and Trulli overtook Irvine for fifth into the Curva do Sol turn on lap 16.^[53] That lap, Villeneuve retired with a race-long gearbox problem.^[3] The Ferrari and McLaren teams used various pit stop strategies; the Ferrari team planned for two stops in the hope that they would establish a significant enough lead over McLaren on the circuit. McLaren, conversely, planned just one pit stop because they hypothesised that the long pit lane would lose them time.^[50] When the first round of fuel and tyre pit stops began four laps later, Michael Schumacher had a 17.6-second advantage over the rest of the field.^[48] He rejoined the track in third and Barrichello led the next two laps until his stop that dropped the latter to fourth.^[57][58] On lap 21, Irvine lost control of his vehicle's rear into the Bico de Pato hairpin and crashed into a tyre barrier. Six laps later, Barrichello pulled into the pit lane with smoke billowing from his car due to a hydraulic motor issue that had spread from the steering wheel to the throttle linkage.^[51][52][57] As Barrichello exited the car to retire a small fire was extinguished by his mechanics.^[54]

At the conclusion of the 28th lap, Trulli made the first of his two stops from fourth place, emerging in seventh.^[53] Before he slowed with a loss of oil engine pressure on the 30th lap, Häkkinen had pulled away to lead Michael Schumacher by 12 seconds since there was less fuel in his car.^[29][52][58] He slowed and retired in his garage. Michael Schumacher retook the lead, with the yet-to-stop Coulthard second, Verstappen third, and Fisichella fourth.^[53] Coulthard lapped to within a tenth of a second of Michael Schumacher who slowed slightly with an imbalance in all four of his tyres as Ralf Schumacher challenged Fisichella for fourth.^[2][54][56] On lap 32, Gené retired from 11th with an engine failure.^[2] Verstappen (who had conditioning issues) and his teammate De la Rosa made their first pit stops on laps 35 and 37.^[29][53] Four laps later, Frentzen was the first driver on a one-stop strategy to enter the pit lane earlier than scheduled because of heavy rear tyre wear losing him five seconds.^[29][53] Coulthard made his only stop on lap 43 and remained in second position. Michael Schumacher led by 48 seconds when he made his second pit stop on the 51st lap and retained the lead.^[56] On the same lap, Fisichella was kept on the track by his team until he made his only pit stop of the race and kept third place.^[2][57]

On lap 51, Herbert retired in the pit lane with a gearbox failure.^[3] Four laps later, De la Rosa lost concentration, running into a gravel trap but lost no positions.^[51][56] Button battled Verstappen for several laps before passing him for seventh on the 56th,^[55] as Trulli made a pit stop from fourth after his second set of tyres slowed him slightly and rejoined the track in fifth.^[29][53] From the 59th lap, Coulthard began to gain on Michael Schumacher, who slowed due to an oil pressure problem.^[3][53] He could not draw close enough to pass due to his gear selection problem,^[57] and Schumacher took his second victory of the season and the 37th of his career in a time of 1:31:35.271, averaging 200.404 km/h (124.525 mph) over a distance of 305.939 km (190.102 mi) and 71 laps.^[1][59][60] Coulthard followed 4 seconds later and Fisichella took third.^[3] Frentzen finished fourth after driving consistently, Trulli finished fifth with a two-stop strategy that allowed him to gain places with a lightly fuelled car early in the race, and Ralf Schumacher was the final points-scorer in sixth. Button, Verstappen, De la Rosa, Zonta and Mazzacane (in his first F1 race finish) were the final finishers.^[57][61] The attrition rate was high; only 11 of the 20 starters finished the race.^[62]

The top three drivers appeared on the podium to collect their trophies and later spoke to the media at a press conference.^[4] Michael Schumacher, who received the winner's trophy from Brazilian footballer Pelé,^[7] said his pit stop strategy helped him to win: "In the past, as you may remember, we could not overtake the McLaren entries, regardless of their strategy. Now we are looking a lot more competitive – which is where we wanted to be – and the season could hardly have started better than it has."^[63] Coulthard stated that his second-place finish gave him a start on his championship campaign following gearbox issues: "It must have been entertaining for those who had places to watch at the first corner. Given the circumstances, I am very happy with my six points."^[63] Fisichella revealed that his car understeered and oversteered for the first 15 laps until its grip and balance improved. Nonetheless, he expressed satisfaction at finishing third: "This is a great result and will help us to be even more competitive in the future. I am confident about the next race when we will have some new aerodynamic parts."^[63]

Approximately one hour after the race, when the cars were subjected to post-race checks at the FIA scrutineering bay by officials, all of the top six finishers, except Fisichella, were found to have excess wear on the wooden planks attached to the floors underneath their cars, in violation of a regulation concerning illegal plank wear.^[7][64] The Ferrari, McLaren, Jordan, and Williams teams had a successful appeal because the bumpy racing surface caused wear from cars bottoming out. All four teams were reinstated after a second inspection caused a 3+1⁄2 hour delay.^[2][65] During the inspection, FIA technical delegate Jo Bauer discovered that Coulthard's front wing endplates were 43 mm (4.3 cm) above the ground (7 mm (0.28 in) too low) rather than 50 mm (5.0 cm) above a line of reference below a car as required by the FIA regulations.^{[29][66][67][64]} Bauer determined that this gave Coulthard a competitive aerodynamic advantage and the stewards disqualified him six hours later. Adrian Newey, McLaren's technical director, rejected the stewards' offer to transport Coulthard's car to Paris for a fair hearing and instead agreed to a set of four measurements in São Paulo. McLaren filed an appeal, claiming that vibrations from the bumpy racing surface damaged and shifted the car's undertray and chassis.^[68] A five-man panel heard the appeal on 4 April at a meeting of the FIA International Court of Appeal in Paris. In a 90-minute hearing, they rejected McLaren's appeal and declared the race result final.^[69]

This promoted every driver behind Coulthard one position; Button was reclassified sixth and became the youngest driver to score a Formula One World Championship point at the age of 20 years, 2 months, 7 days, breaking Ricardo Rodríguez's record from the 1962 Belgian Grand Prix.^{[n 1][71][72]} The Brazilian Grand Prix organisers were summoned to a meeting of the FIA General Assembly on 6 April. They were fined $100,000 for the track's safety issues and the three times qualifying was stopped for falling advertising hoardings. The governing body ruled it "exceptional circumstances" and allowed the track to remain in Formula One.^[73] The FIA's president, Max Mosley, said that no increased fine or race cancellation were imposed because the organisers provided evidence to prevent either action from occurring: "Bearing in mind that we allowed the Brazilian promoters to place the signs there – and they probably didn't know what potential there was for the failures which occurred – it seemed only fair to impose the comparatively modest penalty."^[74]

Häkkinen limited his media interviews and left the track before the race ended.^[7] He expressed his disappointment at having to retire from the race's lead, "Nothing can describe how I feel, We have been quick all weekend, right the way through, so I am not happy to be leaving Brazil without any points. We have some work to do before the start of the European season."^[60] Button was quoted in the press as saying that he would rather score points in the race than a court of appeal, "I heard the news about David as I was making my way to the airport to fly back from Brazil – and I can't say it gave me any great feeling of joy. You want to earn any success through your driving skills, not someone else's misfortune."^[75] Eddie Jordan, the Jordan team owner, said that both his cars finishing the event demonstrated they could last a full race distance after retiring from the Australian Grand Prix with mechanical issues. According to Frentzen, the team's season had begun in Brazil and required maintenance to improve their performance, "But we are a very strong team with a good atmosphere, I get along well with Jarno and everything is fine so far."^[76]

After the race, Michael Schumacher led the World Drivers' Championship by 12 championship points, with Fisichella moving from fifth to second after finishing second. Ralf Schumacher dropped to fourth, while Barrichello fell to third and Frentzen was fifth.^[8] In the World Constructors' Championship, Ferrari increased its lead to 26 championship points, while Benetton advanced from fourth to second. Jordan's first championship points of the season put them third, while Williams and BAR were fourth and fifth with 15 races remaining.^[8]

Drivers who scored championship points are denoted in bold.

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	3	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	71	1:31:35.271	3	10
2	11	Giancarlo Fisichella	Benetton-Playlife	71	+39.898	5	6
3	5	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	71	+42.268	7	4
4	6	Jarno Trulli	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	71	+1:12.780	12	3
5	9	Ralf Schumacher	Williams-BMW	70	+1 Lap	11	2
6	10	Jenson Button	Williams-BMW	70	+1 Lap	9	1
7	19	Jos Verstappen	Arrows-Supertec	70	+1 Lap	14
8	18	Pedro de la Rosa	Arrows-Supertec	70	+1 Lap	16
9	23	Ricardo Zonta	BAR-Honda	69	+2 Laps	8
10	21	Gastón Mazzacane	Minardi-Fondmetal	69	+2 Laps	20
Ret	8	Johnny Herbert	Jaguar-Cosworth	51	Gearbox	17
Ret	20	Marc Gené	Minardi-Fondmetal	31	Engine	18
Ret	1	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	30	Oil pressure	1
Ret	4	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	27	Hydraulics	4
Ret	7	Eddie Irvine	Jaguar-Cosworth	20	Spun off	6
Ret	22	Jacques Villeneuve	BAR-Honda	16	Gearbox	10
Ret	14	Jean Alesi	Prost-Peugeot	11	Electrical	15
Ret	15	Nick Heidfeld	Prost-Peugeot	9	Engine	19
Ret	12	Alexander Wurz	Benetton-Playlife	6	Engine	13
DSQ	2	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	71	Illegal front wing endplates (+4.302)1	2
DNS	16	Pedro Diniz	Sauber-Petronas	0	Safety concerns2	—
DNS	17	Mika Salo	Sauber-Petronas	0	Safety concerns2	—
Sources:[43][77]

Notes:

• ^1 – David Coulthard finished second but was disqualified for an illegal front fender endplate.
• ^2 – Sauber withdrew Pedro Diniz and Mika Salo on the grounds of safety due to separate rear wing failures on their cars.^[41]

Drivers' Championship standings +/– Pos Driver Points 1 Michael Schumacher 20 3 2 Giancarlo Fisichella 8 1 3 Rubens Barrichello 6 1 4 Ralf Schumacher 6 8 5 Heinz-Harald Frentzen 4 Sources:[8][78]

Constructors' Championship standings +/– Pos Constructor Points 1 Ferrari 26 2 2 Benetton-Playlife 8 5 3 Jordan-Mugen-Honda 7 2 4 Williams-BMW 7 2 5 BAR-Honda 4 Sources:[8][78]

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

23°42′13″S 46°41′59″W / 23.70361°S 46.69972°W / -23.70361; -46.69972