With the future of the British Grand Prix at Silverstone in doubt, the track produced one of the best races of the season so far. The excitement began in Friday practise, with Michael Schumacher spinning at Priory in both sessions. It seemed like even the man who had won nine out of the ten grands prix so far could make mistakes.

Saturday came, and with black clouds in the sky the big question of the day was: was it going to rain, and if so, when would the rain come? The threat of rain later in the day turned pre-qualifying into a farce, with most drivers going as slowly as they could through Luffield and down the pit straight, so that they would make their qualifying run earlier, and so be more likely to miss the rain. Michael Schumacher surprised everyone by spinning at Priory yet again, however it now seems that he spun on purpose, at least this time, in order to clock a slow lap time. Some drivers, however, decided that rain wasn't on the cards, and the fans cheered to see those such as Jenson Button performing a flat-out pre-qualifying lap, and clocking the fastest time.

Qualifying proper came and went with black clouds looming, but no actual rain, meaning that the slow bicycle race of pre-qualifying was even less justified than it seemed before. Raikkonen scored an early lead over the two Ferraris, and with Button last to go the hopes of his home crowd were piled high on his shoulders. He was fastest in the first sector of the lap, but lost time in the last two sectors and qualified third, splitting the Ferraris with Schumacher just behind him. There were various drivers moved backwards on the grid, mostly for engine change penalties, but Olivier Panis had his time disallowed for slowing down¹ too much during his in-lap and consequently being in the way for Alonso's hot-lap.

The Race

The threat of rain hung over the race too, but the majority of people predicted that the weather would stay dry, yet cold. Air temperature was just 17 degrees at the start of the race, with track temperature being 30 degrees. The crowd was kept entertained all weekend in between the F1 schedule with various support races. The Red Arrows made an appearance, though the display had to be altered due to heavy clouds.

The Minardis sported a different livery from usual - all their sponsors had been removed and the only message on their car was 'John Boy' in tribute to John Walton, their much-loved sporting director, who had suffered a heart attack the previous Monday, and had died that Friday.

The race began with no on-grid problems, and Raikkonen made it to Copse corner first, Barrichello kept his second place, and Button and Schumacher battled for third. All the drivers made it through the first corner safely, although there were a couple of close calls with some cars running over the grass on the outside of the corner. The Renaults surprised everyone by not making their usual lightning starts - Trulli didn't make any places and Alonso was only up to 14th after having been pushed back to 16th on the grid due to an engine change.

By the end of the first lap, Raikkonen had stormed ahead with a 3.5 second lead over second-place Barrichello. However, as Barrichello's tyres warmed up they improved, and so he was able to keep the gap to the leader at around 4 seconds until the first round of pit stops. Montoya and Sato swapped places twice in the first few laps, as they ran wide in turn while having a look at overtaking David Coulthard, who was in 6th place.

It seemed to be a choice of either two or three stops for this race, with Barrichello coming in for his first on lap nine, having put in a series of fastest times in the previous few laps. Raikkonen was also pushing hard, as was Schumacher who soon bettered his team-mate's lap time. Coulthard pitted on lap 10, with Raikkonen coming in on the next lap and Button pitting on the same lap. Raikkonen came out of the pits to find the BAR of Sato in his way, which he had to overtake due to Sato's two-stop strategy to Raikkonen's three. The move came into Copse, at 160 mph.

The world champion made his first stop on lap 15, and he was stationary for around nine seconds, showing that he had elected a two-stop strategy. He emerged from the pits in the lead, and admitted afterwards that he was amazed that he had come out in front. It seemed that nobody would be able to catch him now, with most of those behind him still having two more stops to make to his one.

On lap 17 Olivier Panis had a most unusual retirement - he pulled off the track near Beckets because his fire extinguisher had gone off inside his Toyota, covering his visor and steering wheel in foam and making it impossible to carry on. Apparently this accident is more common in testing where things are being altered and moved every few laps, but it is a very strange thing to happen in the middle of a race.

By lap 20, the race order was Michael Schumacher in the lead, followed by Raikkonen, Button and Barrichello, with Fisichella, who was yet to stop, in 5th place. Montoya, Coulthard, Trulli, Webber and Alonso followed. Suddenly, the gap between Schumacher and Raikkonen shrunk, with the leaders lapping a second slower than Button and Barrichello. It looked like Schumacher was trying to back the McLaren up so that his team-mate could have a chance at overtaking him.

Button pitted on lap 27, with Raikkonen and Barrichello both coming in on the next lap. Barrichello managed to leapfrog Button in the pits, but there was still too much of a gap between him and Raikkonen for him to consider taking second place. Bruni managed to knock his fuel-man over as he tried to leave the pits with the fuel line still attached on lap 31, but there were no serious injuries and the Minardi made it back on to the track. The other Minardi, with smoke pouring out of the back, pulled off the track at Stowe.

Schumacher came into the pits for the second time on lap 37, and just managed to emerge ahead of Raikkonen. As all his rivals still had to pit once more, it seemed that Schumacher had the race in the bag. Schumacher again slowed to push Raikkonen back towards Barrichello, and Raikkonen was unable to find a way past the Ferrari. The gap between Raikkonen and Barrichello soon dwindled to just one second.

Trulli then changed the pace of the race by crashing spectacularly after Bridge with an apparent suspension failure. He bounced off a tyre wall and hit the gravel trap, which rolled the car and ripped most of its wheels off. Trulli was dazed, but unhurt, and the safety car was deployed while the marshals cleared the track of debris and re-built the tyre wall.

All those with a stop still to make now made it, with Raikkonen and Barrichello diving into the pits at the same time. Raikkonen and the McLaren pit crew came out on top, and the two cars joined the queue behind the safety car. The race order behind the safety car was Schumacher, Raikkonen, Barrichello, Montoya, Fisichella, Coulthard, Webber, and Massa in 8th place.

The safety car came in on lap 46, and with everyone having made all the stops they needed, they were going to have to rely on their overtaking skills to make places. Raikkonen looked to have the speed to take Schumacher for first place, however the backmarkers Klein and da Matta were between him and his goal, and by the time he had got past them Raikkonen had lost the advantage of cold tyres. The rest of the cars spread round the track, with nobody looking likely to challenge the man in front. Barrichello was gaining on Raikkonen, but the race ended before he got close enough to make a challenge.

Michael Schumacher celebrated his 80th Formula One win with his customary leap on the podium, however he will have been concerned by the pace of the new McLaren MP4-19B which has proved itself to be much faster and more reliable than its predecessor since it was introduced in France the weekend before.

Final Standings