2000 Hungarian Grand Prix

The 2000 Hungarian Grand Prix was the twelfth of the seventeen races of the 2000 Formula One World Championship and was held at the 3.975 km (2.470 mi) clockwise Hungaroring in Mogyoród, Pest, Hungary on 13 August 2000.[1][2] Sole tyre supplier Bridgestone brought the Soft and the Extra Soft dry compound tyres to the Grand Prix,[4] the softest available compounds to teams.[5] Going into the race, Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher led the World Drivers' Championship with 56 points, ahead of McLaren teammates Mika Häkkinen and David Coulthard, who were tied for second on 54 points. Rubens Barrichello of Ferrari was fourth with 46 points while Benetton's Giancarlo Fisichella was fifth on 18 points.[6] In the World Constructors' Championship, Ferrari were leading with 102 points, four points ahead of McLaren in second. Williams stood in third with 22 points and Benetton were fourth with 18 points. BAR were in fifth position on 12 points.[6]

Following the German Grand Prix on 30 July, teams conducted test sessions at circuits that were of a similar characteristic to the Hungaroring to prepare for the event.[7] There were six teams that tested at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo from 3 to 5 August. McLaren test driver Olivier Panis was fastest on the first day, ahead of Häkkinen. Pedro Diniz's Sauber car was afflicted with an oil leak, limiting his team's testing time as the leak was repaired.[8] Coulthard was fastest on the second day. Fisichella set the fastest times on the final day of testing. His Benetton teammate Alexander Wurz spun off and collided with the tyre barrier. His car's wishbone struck his right leg and was taken to the circuit's medical centre before a transfer to a local hospital.[9] Wurz was passed fit to compete in the race the day after his accident.[10] Ferrari opted to spend five days testing at the Fiorano Circuit and concentrated on car development, practice starts, aerodynamic testing and race distance simulations with their test driver Luca Badoer.[11] He was joined by Barrichello on the second day and Michael Schumacher from the fourth day onwards.[11][12] Badoer and Michael Schumacher spent two further days at the circuit performing shakedowns of the Ferrari F1-2000 car.[13]

After consecutive retirements in the previous three races which included first lap collisions in Austria and Germany, Michael Schumacher said that his objective in Hungary was to avoid any incidents on the first lap and to finish in a points-scoring position. He was also confident that Ferrari would perform well at the circuit.[14] Barrichello revealed that he received backing from Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo to challenge for more victories and the championship despite the latter's comments to the press about Barrichello assisting Michael Schumacher's title aspirations.[15]

A total of eleven teams (each representing a different constructor) each with two drivers took part in the Grand Prix with no changes from the season entry list.[16] Prost's Jean Alesi was passed fit in the days leading up to the race by his doctors and then by FIA medical delegate Sid Watkins following tests.[17][18] At the previous race, Alesi had suffered a serious crash which involved a collision with Sauber driver Diniz, although he escaped uninjured apart from abdominal pains and suffered from dizziness and vomiting.[19] Prost had their test driver Stéphane Sarrazin ready to replace Alesi should the latter had suffered a relapse.[20] Alesi said he felt ready to race again: "It took a few days before I really started to recover, but now I sleep and feel much better".[21]

Some teams made technical changes to their cars for the Grand Prix. The characteristics of the Hungaroring requires teams to run their cars with a high load of aerodynamics and attention was placed onto dissipating heat since high temperatures were recorded at the circuit.[22] McLaren introduced a revised aerodynamic for their MP4/15 chassis, aimed at increasing the amount of downforce, and therefore grip, produced by the bodywork. They also brought revised nose wings.[23] McLaren also strengthened the car's steel rear suspension wishbones.[24] BAR fitted their cars with one-off components that were produced to help optimise the performance of the monocoque's cooling systems.[25] Ferrari introduced an aerodynamic setup similar to that used at the Monaco Grand Prix,[26] and the team debuted a modified version of the F1-2000's chimneys.[27] Minardi arrived with new radiator intakes and exits to rectify temperature issues with their Fondmetal V10 engines.[26]

There were four practice sessions that occurred before the Sunday race—two one-hour sessions on Friday, and two 45-minute sessions on Saturday.[28] The Friday practice sessions took place in dry and hot weather conditions;[29][30] track temperature lowered later on when clouds covered the circuit but ambient temperature remained consistent throughout.[31] Nearly 20 minutes passed before any lap times were set as 15 drivers completed out-laps to allow them to conduct systems checks.[18] The track was dirty due to a lack of activity for several months and race organisers were unable to completely clean the circuit.[5]

Michael Schumacher waited for other drivers to clean the dirty track surface and set the first session's fastest time on his first quick lap, at 1 minute and 20.198 seconds, in the final moments of the session.[32][18] He was almost six-tenths of a second faster than teammate Barrichello. Jaguar's Eddie Irvine was third fastest, ahead of Williams' Ralf Schumacher. Fisichella, BAR driver Jacques Villeneuve, Jordan's Jarno Trulli, Diniz, Mika Salo of Sauber and Williams' Jenson Button completed the top ten.[32] The two McLaren set no lap times during the session, opting to conserve their tyre usage.[33] Several teams placed their focus on the session to testing the high downforce aerodynamic packages fitted to their cars.[5]

In the second practice session, Coulthard set the day's quickest lap of 1:18.792 with approximately fifteen minutes of the session left;[34] The lap was half a second slower than teammate Häkkinen pole lap at the 1999 Grand Prix. Häkkinen finished with the second fastest lap time. The two Ferrari drivers were third and fourth—Michael Schumacher ahead of Barrichello. Trulli was running quicker finishing fifth fastest, ahead of Fisichella and Williams drivers Ralf Schumacher and Button. Heinz-Harald Frentzen for the Jordan team and Irvine followed in the top ten.[35] Several drivers lost control of their cars during the session due to the low grip racing surface appearing to be problematic for racers.[30][34] Pedro de la Rosa for Arrows made contact with the tyre wall but he was not injured in the impact.[29]

The weather remained dry, hot and sunny for the two Saturday practice sessions,[36][37] with no indication of rain at the time of the beginning of the third session.[38] Barrichello was fastest in the third practice session, with a time of 1:18.268 that he recorded with three minutes of the session remaining.[38] Coulthard was second fastest and was one thousands of a second off Barrichello's pace. Frentzen set the third fastest time, ahead of Michael Schumacher in fourth, Häkkinen and Ralf Schumacher in fifth and sixth. Salo, Button, Trulli and Fisichella took the final top ten places.[39] De La Rosa almost lost control of his car at the final turn three minutes into the session and the engine in Gastón Mazzacane's Minardi car failed due to a differential fault.[36][38]

The final practice session was held on a circuit that was slightly drier but still dusty than the preceding session. Teams finalised car setups and scrubbing their tyres. Michael Schumacher lapped faster than he had done the day before and was fastest at 1:17.395 that he recorded with twenty minutes of the session remaining.[33][40][41] He was ahead of Coulthard in second place by 0.630 seconds and Barrichello in the other Ferrari in third position.[37] Frentzen set the fourth fastest time, narrowly faster than Ralf Schumacher. Häkkinen, Trulli, Fisichella, Salo and Diniz followed in positions six through ten.[36] Diniz was briefly stuck at the entry to the pit lane due to his engine stalling while in first gear.[36][41]

Michael Schumacher took his fourth pole position of the 2000 season.

Saturday's afternoon one hour qualifying session saw each driver was limited to twelve laps, with the starting order decided by their fastest laps. During this session, the 107% rule was in effect, which necessitated each driver set a time within 107 per cent of the quickest lap to qualify for the race.[28] The session was held in dry and clear weather conditions,[42] which was quite similar to practice but with a warmer track temperature.[43] The hot conditions made the track more slippery.[44] A majority of the fastest teams used new sets of rear tyres and front scrubbed compounds to lower the amount of understeer when lapping fast.[45] Michael Schumacher qualified on pole position for the 28th time in his career, and his fifth of the season, with a lap time of 1:17.514,[44] which he set on his first fast lap midway through qualifying.[45] He was joined on the front row of the grid by Coulthard, who was 0.372 seconds slower than Michael Schumacher's pace on his third and his last run.[33][36] McLaren did not optimise Coulthard's vehicle to run with a low amount of fuel and had an oversteer in the first two sectors of the circuit.[46] Häkkinen, third, made significant changes to the setup of his car by adjusting the rear anti-roll bar and the front torsion beams he tested early in qualifying to discover if it improved his performance.[33][45] Ralf Schumacher used the newer Williams qualifying engine and qualified fourth in his best qualifying performance of the season.[33][47] He said he was pleased with revisions to his car's aerodynamics.[36] Barrichello, fifth, had car handling difficulties and said Coulthard prevented him from lapping faster. Frentzen, sixth, had excess oversteer in the track's final two sectors.[36]

Fisichella qualified seventh and he said Michael Schumacher slowed his final run.[44][48] Ferrari attempted to inform Schumacher about Fisichella behind him but Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn told Barrichello by pressing the wrong radio button. Brawn apologised for the error and Benetton technical director Pat Symonds downplayed it.[33] Button was the slower of the two Williams drivers in eighth. Salo took ninth and attributed this to cloud cover coming during his last run. Irvine placed tenth.[44][48] Wurz in 11th failed to qualify in the top ten by two-tenths of a second after switching to the setup for his teammate Fisichella.[46] Trulli qualified 12th after experiencing oversteer that could not be rectified by car component and setup changes.[36][48] He was ahead of Diniz in 13th who was slowed by traffic and had difficulty setting up his vehicle.[36][46] Alesi was the faster of the two Prost drivers in 14th. De La Rosa took 15th on the soft compound tyre and was the highest qualifying Arrows entrant.[49] Villeneuve was 16th after his BAR chassis was unable to produce sufficient amounts of downforce.[44] Johnny Herbert qualified 17th for Jaguar with excess oversteer and he spun late in the session. He was followed by Zonta in 18th who had a lack of downforce. Nick Heidfeld switched to the spare Prost AP03 vehicle for his fourth run and he reported excess oversteer en route to qualifying 19th.[36] Jos Verstappen, 20th, was unable to adapt to the high-downforce circuit in his Arrows car.[46] The Minardi drivers qualified their underpowered cars in 21st and 22nd;[44] Marc Gené outqualified his teammate Mazzacane by two-tenths of a second after the latter went wide onto the grass during his fastest lap and lost nearly half-a-second.[48][50]

Qualifying classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Lap	Gap
1	3	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	1:17.514	—
2	2	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	1:17.886	+0.372
3	1	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:17.922	+0.408
4	9	Ralf Schumacher	Williams-BMW	1:18.321	+0.807
5	4	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	1:18.330	+0.816
6	5	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	1:18.523	+1.009
7	11	Giancarlo Fisichella	Benetton-Playlife	1:18.607	+1.093
8	10	Jenson Button	Williams-BMW	1:18.699	+1.185
9	17	Mika Salo	Sauber-Petronas	1:18.748	+1.234
10	7	Eddie Irvine	Jaguar-Cosworth	1:19.008	+1.494
11	12	Alexander Wurz	Benetton-Playlife	1:19.259	+1.745
12	6	Jarno Trulli	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	1:19.266	+1.752
13	16	Pedro Diniz	Sauber-Petronas	1:19.451	+1.937
14	14	Jean Alesi	Prost-Peugeot	1:19.626	+2.112
15	18	Pedro de la Rosa	Arrows-Supertec	1:19.897	+2.383
16	22	Jacques Villeneuve	BAR-Honda	1:19.937	+2.423
17	8	Johnny Herbert	Jaguar-Cosworth	1:19.956	+2.442
18	23	Ricardo Zonta	BAR-Honda	1:20.272	+2.758
19	15	Nick Heidfeld	Prost-Peugeot	1:20.481	+2.967
20	19	Jos Verstappen	Arrows-Supertec	1:20.609	+3.095
21	20	Marc Gené	Minardi-Fondmetal	1:20.654	+3.140
22	21	Gastón Mazzacane	Minardi-Fondmetal	1:20.905	+3.391
107% time: 1:22.940
Source:[50][51]

The drivers took to the track at 09:30 Central European Summer Time (UTC+2) for a 30-minute warm-up session.[28] Weather conditions for the session were hot and sunny.[52] The circuit was cleaned by rainfall during the evening before.[5] Teams used the session to adjust and check their race and spare cars before the race.[53] Coulthard set the fastest time of the warm-up session with a lap of 1:19.261 with ten minutes left. The Ferrari cars were second and third—Michael Schumacher quicker than his teammate Barrichello but he was 0.120 seconds off Coulthard's pace. Ralf Schumacher was fourth in his Williams car.[54] Häkkinen set the fifth-fastest time, 1.2 seconds slower than his teammate Coulthard, due to him encountering traffic on his best lap.[55] Frentzen was the last of the top six fastest drivers.[54] Coulthard drove one installation lap in the spare McLaren alongside the start-finish straight in an effort to clean up his grid position on the right-hand side of the track.[56] Irvine drove into the pit lane with smoke billowing from his car due to an engine failure.[52][55]

The race started before 120,000 spectators,[57] (with 30,000 from Finland),[33] at 14:00 local time.[28] It ran for 77 laps over a distance of 306.075 km (190.186 mi).[1] The conditions on the grid were dry before the race; the air temperature was 32 °C (90 °F) and the track temperature ranged between 34 and 44 °C (93 and 111 °F);[58][59] conditions were expected to remain consistent throughout the race.[60] Temperatures were warmer than observed in the warm-up session and drivers were required to consume a large amount of water to cope with the physical demands of cockpit temperatures and the circuit.[33] Every driver except for De La Rosa began on the extra soft tyre compounds.[61] Whilst the grid was forming up, Mazzacane's car was afflicted with a gearbox problem and he was forced to begin the race with his spare car. Herbert also planned to use his spare car as his regular car developed a leak which was fixed before the start.[62] When the event began, Coulthard made a slow start on the dirty section of the track.[49] His teammate Häkkinen had more momentum than Michael Schumacher and steered right to pass him on the inside for the race lead at the first corner while coming close to the right-hand side kerb.[5][63] Michael Schumacher slowed to avoid a collision with Häkkinen and stopped himself retiring from the first lap of his third successive race.[63]

Coulthard withstood Ralf Schumacher's attempts to overtake him for third place on the inside through turns one and two.[49] Heading into the chicane, Villeneuve and De La Rosa collided and both cars sustained damage. Villeneuve made a pit stop for a new front wing assembly followed by De La Rosa for a new set of tyres since he sustained a left rear puncture.[62][63] At the first lap's conclusion, Häkkinen led from Michael Schumacher, Coulthard, Ralf Schumacher, Barrichello, and Frentzen.[64] Michael Schumacher was close behind Häkkinen but not enough to effect an overtake for the race lead.[5] Häkkinen began to pull away from Michael Schumacher,[62] increasing his lead to 3.5 seconds by the eighth lap.[64] Fisichella in seventh place was driving with a poor brake balance and ran wide onto the grass at the first turn on lap eight due to a lack of grip. This caused Button to slow slightly in order to avoid a collision.[62][63] Irvine used this incident to pass Button for seventh position on the short straight into the second corner. Fisichella fell to 14th place.[65] Fisichella ran wide into a gravel trap on lap 12 and he was passed by Herbert for 13th position. On lap 15, Fisichella made his first pit stop for repairs to his car's brakes and rejoined the Grand Prix in 19th position.[62] Alesi became the race's first retirement on that lap after a series of pit stops by mechanics to try and rectify a broken left-rear suspension that was worsened by a change in wheel alignment proved unsuccessful.[49][64]

Mika Häkkinen won the race from third position after passing Michael Schumacher and McLaren teammate David Coulthard.

Häkkinen's lead over Michael Schumacher was more than seven seconds by lap 19.[64] Coulthard was a further three seconds behind Michael Schumacher due to an incorrect tyre pressure setting and was pulling away from Ralf Schumacher.[5][64] Heidfeld became the race's second retirement when he stalled because of an decrease in the battery voltage after he made a pit stop after completing 22 laps.[49][66] Three laps later, Irvine made his first pit stop from seventh position and dropped to 11th.[62] Brawn asked Michael Schumacher to enter the pit lane at the conclusion of lap 27 for the first of two scheduled stops that took 7.3 seconds to complete.[58][63] He rejoined the race in fifth position,[62] behind his teammate Barrichello.[65] Michael Schumacher was allowed by his teammate Barrichello through to third the first corner on the 29th lap.[65] Barrichello entered the pit lane on the 30th lap and the stop took 6.7 seconds to finish.[63] He returned to the circuit in sixth, ahead of Ralf Schumacher.[64][65]

Race leader Häkkinen, whose drink battle failed around a third in the race,[33] took his pit stop on lap 31 for a new set of tyres and he rejoined the track behind his teammate Coulthard after being stationary for seven seconds.[63][61] Häkkinen regained the race lead after Coulthard had made his pit stop for fuel and tyres on the following lap for 6.9 seconds. Coulthard returned to the circuit in third position, behind Michael Schumacher and ahead of Schumacher's teammate Barrichello.[62][63] Häkkinen set the race's fastest lap, a 1:20.028 on lap 33, as he continued to increase his lead over Michael Schumacher.[62] Fisichella retired when his car became too difficult to drive due to bargeboard damage on the 36th lap.[59][66] Coulthard, who was on a new set of tyre compounds,[62] gradually began to close the gap to two seconds behind Michael Schumacher by lap 37 as the latter controlled his pace by being circumspect to preserve his tyres.[65][61]

Michael Schumacher increased the gap when Coulthard lost more than a second, the result of being held up by Genè on lap 47;[61] Genè would be issued a 10-second stop-go penalty for delaying Irvine's Jaguar.[62] Barrichello made his second pit stop on lap 48 as he had been short-fuelled and the stop lasted 8.7 seconds.[63][65] Michael Schumacher and Ralf Schumacher made their pit stops on lap 51.[63] Michael Schumacher was brought into the pit lane since slower cars were likely to impede Coulthard.[61] On the following lap, Coulthard responded by making his second pit stop that lasted 6.6 seconds and he rejoined the Grand Prix in third position,[63][65] close behind Michael Schumacher.[67] Häkkinen made his final pit stop on the 53rd lap and remained in the lead, having built a lead of 21 seconds over Michael Schumacher.[62][64] Frentzen became the last driver to make a scheduled pit stop on lap 56.[64] At the end of lap 57, with the scheduled pit stops completed, the top six in the running order was Häkkinen, Michael Schumacher, Coulthard, Barrichello, Ralf Schumacher, and Frentzen.[64] Herbert spun while battling Villeneuve for 13th position.[62]

Diniz stopped his car between turns nine and ten with an engine failure on lap 65.[59][64] Herbert fell behind Verstappen on lap 70 after spinning at the first corner in front of Verstappen.[59][65] He retired two laps later with gearbox problems.[65][66] Mazzacane pulled off the track on lap 73 with an engine failure after a visor became lodged inside a radiator and made water temperatures go too high.[59][66] Trulli managed to close up to Button and passed him for seventh at the first corner on lap 75.[59][63] Button lost eighth to Irvine one lap later.[62] Button suffered from a fractured engine exhaust or a throttle control issue reducing the amount of available horsepower and slowed him in the race's final laps.[47][68] Häkkinen slowed his pace to lap within the 1:24 minute range,[61][63] and finished first for his third victory of the season and the 17th of his career in a time of 1'45:33.869, at an average speed of 173.964 km/h (108.096 mph). Michael Schumacher finished second 7.9 seconds behind, ahead of Coulthard in third.[67][69] Barrichello in fourth lost 1.5 kg (3.3 lb) of weight and 3 L (0.66 imp gal; 0.79 US gal) of fluids in the hot conditions after running out of water by the 40th lap.[70] Ralf Schumacher took fifth place and Frentzen completed the points scorers in sixth. Trulli, Irvine, Button, Salo and Wurz filled the next five positions albeit one lap behind the race winner. Villeneuve, Verstappen, Zonta, Gené and De La Rosa were the final classified finishers.[67][69] There were six retirements during the Grand Prix.[33]

Race classification

Drivers who scored championship points are denoted in bold.

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	1	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	77	1:45:33.869	3	10
2	3	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	77	+ 7.917	1	6
3	2	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	77	+ 8.455	2	4
4	4	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	77	+ 44.157	5	3
5	9	Ralf Schumacher	Williams-BMW	77	+ 50.437	4	2
6	5	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	77	+ 1:08.099	6	1
7	6	Jarno Trulli	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	76	+ 1 Lap	12
8	7	Eddie Irvine	Jaguar-Cosworth	76	+ 1 Lap	10
9	10	Jenson Button	Williams-BMW	76	+ 1 Lap	8
10	17	Mika Salo	Sauber-Petronas	76	+ 1 Lap	9
11	12	Alexander Wurz	Benetton-Playlife	76	+ 1 Lap	11
12	22	Jacques Villeneuve	BAR-Honda	75	+ 2 Laps	16
13	19	Jos Verstappen	Arrows-Supertec	75	+ 2 Laps	20
14	23	Ricardo Zonta	BAR-Honda	75	+ 2 Laps	18
15	20	Marc Gené	Minardi-Fondmetal	74	+ 3 Laps	21
16	18	Pedro de la Rosa	Arrows-Supertec	73	+ 4 Laps	15
Ret	21	Gastón Mazzacane	Minardi-Fondmetal	68	Engine	22
Ret	8	Johnny Herbert	Jaguar-Cosworth	67	Gearbox	17
Ret	16	Pedro Diniz	Sauber-Petronas	62	Transmission/Engine	13
Ret	11	Giancarlo Fisichella	Benetton-Playlife	31	Brakes	7
Ret	15	Nick Heidfeld	Prost-Peugeot	22	Electrical	19
Ret	14	Jean Alesi	Prost-Peugeot	11	Suspension	14
Sources:[69][78]

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 1 Mika Häkkinen 64 1 2 Michael Schumacher 62 3 David Coulthard 58 4 Rubens Barrichello 49 5 Giancarlo Fisichella 18 Source:[79]

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 1 McLaren-Mercedes 112 1 2 Ferrari 111 3 Williams-BMW 24 4 Benetton-Playlife 18 1 5 Jordan-Mugen-Honda 12 Source:[79]

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