2001 Monaco Grand Prix

The 78-lap race took place in the afternoon from 14:00 local time and before 100,000 spectators, over a distance of 262.860 km (163.334 mi).^[1][37] The weather was dry and sunny, with the air temperature 23 °C (73 °F) and a track temperature between 36–39 °C (97–102 °F).^[30] Several teams began on the soft compound tyres; a one-stop strategy was determined to be ideal, with some drivers making their first pit stops early to advance their position and others stopping later because of a similar performance level.^[41] At the start of the formation lap, an electronic launch control software glitch caused Coulthard's engine to stall,^[42] prompting the McLaren mechanics to restart his engine; he was required to begin from the back of the grid. His teammate Häkkinen was stuck behind him; he drove away before the final car passed him and was allowed to start from third place.^[43] Michael Schumacher was effective the first driver on the starting grid and made an unchallenged, clean start to lead the field into Sainte Devote, ahead of Häkkinen and Barrichello.^[31][37][43] Montoya passed Irvine for fifth when the latter ran wide attempting to pass Ralf Schumacher on the left at Sainte Devote corner.^[44] Behind the two, Verstappen lost control of his car and made contact with Burti. Verstappen fell to 20th as Burti had one of his endplates removed.^[45]

On the run to the exit of Portier corner,^[46] Heidfeld and Bernoldi collided,^[47] causing Heidfeld to be launched over one of Bernoldi's wheels, and sending him straight into a barrier, making him the race's first retirement on lap one.^[2] At the first lap's conclusion, Michael Schumacher led Häkkinen by 1.5 seconds;^[45] the duo were followed by Barrichello, Ralf Schumacher, Montoya and Irvine.^[46] Montoya recorded the race's fastest lap at that point as he attempted to overtake his teammate Ralf Schumacher. On lap two, Burti fell to 20th when Verstappen and Coulthard passed him. Up front, Michael Schumacher extended his gap over Häkkinen to 1.6 seconds at the start of lap three.^[43] That lap, Montoya shifted down a gear, slowed and collected understeer.^[47] This put him wide at the entrance of the Swimming Pool complex and hit a barrier. This moved Irvine and Trulli to fifth and sixth respectively. Further back, Marques was passed by Verstappen for 17th and Burti entered the pit lane to replace his damaged front wing. Marques lost a further position through a pass by Coulthard for 18th place on lap four.^[43][46]

Michael Schumacher increased his lead over Häkkinen by another six-tenths of a second on the fifth lap with the latter under pressure from Barrichello and Ralf Schumacher. Häkkinen then went slightly faster to lower the gap to 2.5 seconds and set a new fastest lap under 1:23 to be 1.6 seconds adrift on the eighth lap, to which Michael Schumacher responded with his own fastest lap after Schumacher had eased off to save fuel and preserve his tyres upon realising that he was not pulling away from Häkkinen.^[31][45] That lap, Verstappen overtook his teammate Bernoldi for 16th and the latter now had Coulthard behind him.^[43][48] Bernoldi was able to remain close behind teammate Verstappen until an issue forced him to change onto a conservative fuel map and lose a small amount of pace.^[31] On lap 10,^[43] Barrichello began to drop back with a cramp in his right foot, and was advised over the radio by Ferrari's technical director Ross Brawn to consume more water and move his toes, causing Barrichello to brake earlier than expected.^[47][2] Two laps later, Coulthard attempted an unsuccessful pass on Bernoldi at Tabac corner.^[46] Häkkinen's car began to pull to the right on lap 13,^[49] and Barrichello overtook him at the exit of the tunnel for second.^[45] He entered the pit lane on lap 14 to have his car's suspension push rods checked by his mechanics and was stationary for 50 seconds. No damage was found.^[46][48][50] On the same lap, Panis retired with a steering problem, and Häkkinen did the same two laps later because his problem persisted.^[45][47]

In the meantime, Verstappen got ahead of Button for 12th on lap 15. Button retook the position temporarily soon after as Verstappen re-passed him. Coulthard continued to duel Bernoldi for position but still could not effect a pass,^[46][48] causing him to lap slower than normal.^[31] On the 18th lap, tenth-placed De la Rosa had an hydraulics issue losing him gearbox and throttle control.^[2][47] He pulled off at the side of the track to retire on the next lap.^[43] On lap 26,^[46] Burti, who had a long brake pedal, missed the Sainte Devote corner braking point. He stopped away from the barrier and he retired when his reverse gear failed.^[47] Coulthard tried again to overtake Bernoldi on the next lap but the latter defended his position. That allowed Michael Schumacher to lap Coulthard, who could not use the situation to pass Bernoldi.^[46] On lap 31, Trulli retired from fifth at La Rascasse turn with flames coming from the rear of his car due to a loss of engine hydraulic pressure.^[45][47] That elevated Fisichella to sixth.^[43] As Coulthard allowed Barrichello to lap him on lap 32, he sought to use the opportunity to pass Bernoldi but he could not do so.^[45] Two laps later, Fisichella entered Sainte Devote corner too fast, and struck a barrier with his rear wheel. He nonetheless continued in sixth, ahead of Alesi,^[43][45] because his car's suspension was undamaged.^[50]

Michael Schumacher set a new official lap record of 1:20.770 on the 38th lap. He further improved it to a time of 1:20.422 four laps later, extending his lead over his teammate Barrichello to 18.3 seconds.^[48] On lap 43,^[45] Fisichella had an hydraulic failure that caused his gearbox to fail,^[47][2] and he crashed into the tyre wall at Sainte Devote, removing the front left wheel from his car.^[2][49] Bernoldi had less fuel in his car than Coulthard's and made a pit stop at the end of the following lap, allowing Coulthard to lap 4.5 seconds faster than before.^[31][49] He took advantage of Alonso being lapped by Villeneuve to pass the latter for ninth on lap 48.^[43][46] Two laps later, Frentzen in seventh understeered at the apex and he drifted into a left-hand Armco metal barrier exiting the tunnel at 270 km/h (170 mph). He slid along the barrier before stopping at the Novelle Chicane and clambered out of his car unhurt.^[2][49] Alesi entered the pit lane on lap 51, and returned to the race still in sixth. Four laps later, Michael Schumacher made his pit stop from the lead, promoting his teammate Barrichello into first.^[43] Further down the order, Alonso retired with a failed gearbox on lap 57.^[2][48] Ralf Schumacher retired from third position in the pit lane on the next lap with an electrical fault that switched off his engine.^[43][49]

Irvine was promoted to third, Villeneuve fourth, Alesi fifth and Coulthard sixth. Barrichello made his pit stop from first position on lap 60, returning the lead to his teammate Michael Schumacher. That lap, Irvine made his pit stop and retained third place.^[43] Then, Marques' driveshaft broke and he drove onto the run-off area at the Novelle Chicane to retire.^[45][2] Six laps later, Coulthard made his pit stop and emerged in front of Button in sixth.^[46] He then set the race's overall fastest lap at 1 minute and 19.424 seconds on the 68th lap as he drew closer to Alesi in fifth.^[2] Prost reacted by calling Alesi into the pit lane on the next lap for new tyres to better his defence of fifth. However, Alesi was delayed and he rejoined the race behind Coulthard in sixth.^[43] Michael Schumacher led the last nine laps to take his fourth victory of the season and the 48th of his career,^[51] by 0.431 seconds over Barrichello in a staged finish.^{[n 2][44][49]} Irvine achieved Jaguar's first podium finish since its debut in Formula One and its first points score of the season in third,^[37][53] ahead of the faster Villeneuve in fourth.^[43] Coulthard finished a lap behind in fifth, being approximately a minute behind Villeneuve,^[15] and Alesi took sixth.^[1] Button took seventh after coping with an understeer which developed into an oversteer and could not draw closer to Alesi,^[36] who was 28 seconds ahead of him at the finish.^[54] Verstappen and Bernoldi followed in positions eight to nine.^[1] Räikkönen was five laps down and the last finisher in tenth after an early race pit stop to rectify a wheel sensor failure and he had no traction control.^[2] The attrition rate was high with 12 of the 22 drivers not finishing the race.^[55]

The top three drivers appeared in Prince Rainier III of Monaco's royal box to collect their trophies and appeared in the subsequent press conference to speak to the media.^[3] Michael Schumacher said he felt little emotion on the podium because he took "a very straightforward win" and that finishing the race was the most important aspect because the circuit is narrow, "Although it was an easy drive, it was still hard to some degree, because we were still doing reasonably fast lap times. I don't know what it so special."^[56] Barrichello stated his cramp disappeared after his pit stop, "I was asking God to give me a chance to race because the car was brilliant. I never had a car as good as this one of today. But as Michael was saying, I had to save so much because I couldn't do anything else."^[56] Irvine spoke of his delight to finish third and stated his hope to continue Jaguar's form into the Canadian Grand Prix, "It's good for all the guys in the team. Everyone's been working very hard. We haven't been getting very far to be honest until these new aerodynamics arrived on Saturday so it's good for the guys in factory."^[56]

Bernoldi, who battled Coulthard for 35 laps, alleged that the McLaren team principal Ron Dennis and the director of motorsport for Mercedes-Benz Norbert Haug had approached him and threatened to shorten his career if a similar scenario occurred in the future, a claim that Dennis denied, "It was quite a while after the race when I talked to him and I was cool, calm, and collected and I was not angry. I just told him that in my opinion it was unsporting behaviour."^[57] An audio tape released to the press by McLaren on 11 June vindicated Dennis; according to transcribers he said to Bernoldi, "that was not sporting and you shouldn't carry on like that."^[58] Bernoldi told Dennis he was following orders and was not required to allow Coulthard past since the latter was on the same lap as the former.^[15] The Arrows team principal Tom Walkinshaw rejected a claim by Dennis that Bernoldi would not permit Coulthard to pass Bernoldi for television exposure. Coulthard spoke of his belief that Bernoldi was over defensive and said he would raise the issue at the next Grand Prix Drivers' Association meeting, "We agreed not to move once a driver has made his move. You make your decision – and up the hill a couple of times I was coming to get my wheels alongside him and he moved over."^[59] Bernoldi argued he was driving a routine race and was on the circuit to better his driving ability.^[59]

After the race, the FIA examined several Bridgestone tyres for possible illegal wear. It discovered nothing abnormal and the result of the race was declared final.^[60] Jackie Stewart, the three-time Formula One World Champion and Jaguar team founder, praised Irvine's performance and the driver's maturity, "He practised well, he qualified well and he raced well. You couldn't ask for more. He proved himself here by driving in a very controlled way so he was ready to take advantage of opportunities and to resist any pressure from Jacques (Villeneuve) at the end."^[53] Alesi earned his first championship points finish since coming sixth in the 1999 Japanese Grand Prix and the Prost team's first since Trulli's second-place result at the 1999 European Grand Prix.^[61] He declared the result "a great thing" for himself and Prost and said that he predicted similar results in the future, "I totally enjoyed my race. But towards the end, when I felt the car vibrating in the tunnel, I was really worried. It was a flat tyre and I had to go back to the pits to change it, which cost me the fifth place points. What is really important today is that I scored the first point for the team this year – or last."^[61]

The result increased Michael Schumacher's lead in the World Drivers' Championship to 12 championship points over Coulthard. Barrichello consolidated third position as Ralf Schumacher's non-finish kept him in fourth. Heidfeld was in fifth place.^[7] In the World Constructors' Championship, Ferrari increased their advantage over McLaren to 32 championship points. Williams and Jordan still held third and fourth places and Sauber were fifth with ten races remaining in the season.^[7]

Drivers who scored championship points are denoted in bold.

Pos	No.	Driver	Constructor	Tyre	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	1	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	B	78	1:47:22.561	2	10
2	2	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	B	78	+0.431	4	6
3	18	Eddie Irvine	Jaguar-Cosworth	M	78	+30.698	6	4
4	10	Jacques Villeneuve	BAR-Honda	B	78	+32.454	9	3
5	4	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	B	77	+1 lap	11	2
6	22	Jean Alesi	Prost-Acer	M	77	+1 lap	11	1
7	8	Jenson Button	Benetton-Renault	M	77	+1 lap	17
8	14	Jos Verstappen	Arrows-Asiatech	B	77	+1 lap	19
9	15	Enrique Bernoldi	Arrows-Asiatech	B	76	+2 laps	20
10	17	Kimi Räikkönen	Sauber-Petronas	B	73	+5 laps	15
Ret	5	Ralf Schumacher	Williams-BMW	M	57	Electrical	5
Ret	20	Tarso Marques	Minardi-European	M	56	Transmission	22
Ret	21	Fernando Alonso	Minardi-European	M	54	Gearbox	18
Ret	11	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Jordan-Honda	B	49	Accident	13
Ret	7	Giancarlo Fisichella	Benetton-Renault	M	43	Gearbox/accident	10
Ret	12	Jarno Trulli	Jordan-Honda	B	30	Hydraulics/engine	8
Ret	23	Luciano Burti	Prost-Acer	M	24	Gearbox	21
Ret	19	Pedro de la Rosa	Jaguar-Cosworth	M	18	Hydraulics	14
Ret	3	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	B	15	Steering	3
Ret	9	Olivier Panis	BAR-Honda	B	13	Steering	12
Ret	6	Juan Pablo Montoya	Williams-BMW	M	2	Accident	7
Ret	16	Nick Heidfeld	Sauber-Petronas	B	0	Collision	16
Sources:[39][62]

Notes

• ^1 – David Coulthard started the race from the back of the grid after stalling on the formation lap.^[43]

Drivers' Championship standings +/– Pos Driver Points 1 Michael Schumacher 52 2 David Coulthard 40 3 Rubens Barrichello 24 4 Ralf Schumacher 12 5 Nick Heidfeld 8 Sources:[7][2][63]

Constructors' Championship standings +/– Pos Constructor Points 1 Ferrari 76 2 McLaren-Mercedes 44 3 Williams-BMW 18 4 Jordan-Honda 13 1 5 BAR-Honda 12 Sources:[7][63]

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

43°44′4.74″N 7°25′16.8″E / 43.7346500°N 7.421333°E / 43.7346500; 7.421333