The silly season has started again and already one rumour proved to be true: Justin Wilson has made the surprising move to Jaguar, leaving Antonio Pizzonia without a drive for the rest of the season. Because of this change Minardi filled up its vacancy by putting Danish F3000 driver Nicolas Kiesa behind the wheel. But this debutant was not the only new face this weekend. Of the teams that test on Friday, Renault is the only team to use a third car in those sessions on every circuit. This example was followed by Jordan and Minardi this weekend with Gianmarina Bruni and Zsolt Baumgarter respectively.

On Friday it was clear the Bridgestone equipped cars struggled to be competitive in the hot weather conditions. As expected the Ferrari team was the best of the non-Michelin teams but with only an eighth and ninth place it looked like the competition would catch up with the championship points lead. Williams performed strongly by taking the first two places and Wilson made a nice debut for Jaguar by taking seventh place.

Saturday would show the real potential of the teams. Again the Williams boys filled the front row with just 0.018 seconds difference between Juan Pablo Montoya and his team mate. Surprisingly Rubens Barrichello also out-oualified the other Schumacher on his home ground. Barrichello, best of the rest, and Michael Schumacher were split by Jarno Trulli and Kimi Raikkonen. German-based Toyota also had a great weekend with 7th and 9th place on the grid both in front of the struggling McLaren of David Coulthard.

The first corner proved to be an important championship influencer. Kimi Raikkonen had a great start and was trying to pass Barrichello on the outside line. Ralf Schumacher, who had an average start, saw Barrichello catching up with him. Ralf who wanted to keep the Ferrari on the outside of the first corner steered just a little to the left causing Barrichello to take some corrective action. By that time Raikkonen was already next to the Brazilian with two wheels on the grass. The Ferrari driver had nowhere to go and got sandwiched between the McLaren and the Williams. Raikkonen hit his left front wheel, causing it to shear on the spot. The McLaren moved sideways into the sidepod of the Williams and catapulted into the barrier on the outside of the first corner.

Pole man Montoya had no trouble at all and was leading the race when the safety car came out. Team mate Ralf Schumacher was able to make it to the pit, but the sidepod was damaged severely and the team decided to retire the car.

Michael Schumacher did not have a great start and was passed by Fernando Alonso. He managed to get through the first corner safely in fourth place. It looked like it could be one of those days when it all went his way - tree of four championship rivals where already eliminated.

After Bernd Mayländer steered the safety car into the pit lane again, Montoya disappeared into the distance. Both Renault drivers looked strong in second and third place and Michael Schumacher followed. David Coulthard slowly climbed up the racing order. Montoya was the only top driver on a three-stop strategy which proved to be the best option. He never lost the lead and scored a start to finish win.

The battle for second place was far more interesting. After the second series of stops the racing order was slightly altered. Alonso could not keep up with the pace and had already run wide before, allowing Schumacher to take his place. After the second pit stop he also lost a place to David Coulthard who was a man on a mission. Trulli also struggled to keep both drivers behind him. An excellent move by Schumacher broke his resistance. Using the extra tarmac on the outside of the kerbs the Ferrari driver out accelerated him into the next corner. The German crowd went wild.

David Coulthard had watched closely to what the reigning World Champion accomplished and thought he could make it too at the exact same spot. This time however, Trulli kept his car in front of the McLaren but unfortunately for the Italian driver he missed his apex the next corner. He ran wide and Coulthard managed to pass him for third place.

It looked like the running order was set. With Montoya still in the lead, Schumacher looked like he was going to score some very important championship points and increasing his lead. But his luck turned for the worse a few laps before the end. A blown rear tire forced him to pit again dropping him back from second to seventh place. There was too little time left to catch up with the cars in front of him leaving him with just two championship points.

Due to this misfortune, Trulli suddenly found himself on the podium again. Both Toyota’s also benefited and came home fifth and sixth. Trulli made it to the podium, but he was obviously exhausted. He had been sick for two days and slept very little so he was not present at the press conference right after the race.

It seems that Michael Schumacher benefited the most from this season’s new scoring system today, but taken over the season Kimi Raikkonen actually benefits the most. By the old scoring system he would have been two points further behind Michael Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya and would have one point less advantage over Ralf Schumacher. Although this year Ferrari domination is not there anymore, Schumacher is still looking strong for the championship. With still 40 points to be scored, the decision could go down to the wire!

Click here to return to the Ferrari Happenings page.