2000 British F1 Grand Prix Race Report & Results

Event: British Grand Prix
Track: Silverstone Circuit

Weather: overcast, cool, dry with earlier showers

David COULTHARD won his 7th F1 World Championship race at the 2000 British F1 GP. The McLaren driver started from 4th on the grid and won at Silverstone after chasing down pole-sitter Rubens Barrichello in the pit-stop cycle. It was the 124th win for the McLaren F1 team and Silverstones first April Grand Prix.

Silverstone moves to April and pays the price

The British Grand Prix on 23 April 2000 was Formula 1's first, and only, April Silverstone. Bernie Ecclestone had rescheduled the race away from its traditional July slot in a calendar-swap with Nurburgring, and the fixture landed on a weekend when the Northamptonshire farms surrounding the circuit were saturated with three days of spring rain. Car parks turned to mud fields, thousands of ticket-holders were turned away or stuck at road blocks, and the pre-race story of the weekend was the traffic-management disaster rather than the racing.

On track, however, the biggest surprise was Ferrari's second surprise pole of the season. Rubens Barrichello, on his fourth outing in Ferrari red, took the first pole position of his career with a 1:25.703 lap that beat Heinz-Harald Frentzen by just 0.003 seconds. Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard qualified third and fourth for McLaren, with Michael Schumacher only fifth.

Barrichello leads for 30 laps before McLaren's pit-stop pounce

Barrichello made his second good start of the season and led the opening 30 laps with the sort of controlled defence that had eluded him at Interlagos. The Ferrari pit wall built a two-stop strategy around a mid-race stop, and the McLarens shadowed him with three-stop planning that Ron Dennis believed would give them the undercut advantage they needed. It worked. Coulthard emerged from a lightning second stop on lap 31 ahead of the Ferrari and immediately posted a series of laps that Barrichello could not match.

Barrichello held the lead again briefly (33-35) as the pit-stop cycles reshuffled, but by lap 42 Coulthard was back at the front and no team-mate was going to move him again. He led the final 19 laps unchallenged, kept Hakkinen at 1.5 seconds throughout the closing stint, and took his 7th Grand Prix victory. Hakkinen finished second on Mercedes power for the first McLaren podium of the season, and the winning margin was 1.477 seconds.

Schumacher gets Ferrari back on the podium, Button impresses

Michael Schumacher, who had qualified only fifth, took third at 19.917 seconds. It was Ferrari's only representation on the rostrum after Barrichello's Ferrari faded to seventh, damaged by a lock-up that flat-spotted his front tyres during the second McLaren pass. Ralf Schumacher's Williams-BMW took a solid fourth, and Jenson Button, the 20-year-old rookie, brought his sister Williams-BMW home fifth for four championship points from four races.

Jarno Trulli's Jordan-Mugen Honda picked up the final point in sixth. Fisichella, Salo and Wurz filled the top nine for Benetton, Sauber and Benetton respectively, with Jaguar again out of the points in what was becoming a habit for the rebranded Stewart operation.

Championship fallout: McLaren finally on the scoreboard

McLaren scored 16 points to Ferrari's six, closing the constructors' gap from 24 to 14 points and reminding everyone that the McLaren-Mercedes package was still the fastest car in the pit lane when it ran. Michael Schumacher retained the drivers' lead by 16 points over Coulthard, and Hakkinen moved up to third. Ferrari's three-race sweep to open the season had ended, and the paddock now looked forward to Barcelona expecting the first proper Ferrari-versus-McLaren fight of 2000.

Classification 2000 British F1 GP

Pos	#	Driver	Constructor	Car & Engine	Grid	Laps	Led	Time	Pts
1	2	DavidCoulthard	McLaren	McLaren MP4/15 Mercedes FO 110	4	60	21	1:28:50.108	10
2	1	MikaHäkkinen	McLaren	McLaren MP4/15 Mercedes FO 110	3	60		1:28:51.585+1.477s	6
3	3	MichaelSchumacher	Ferrari	Ferrari F2000Ferrari 049	5	60	3	1:29:10.025+19.917s	4
4	9	RalfSchumacher	Williams	Williams FW22BMW E41	7	60		1:29:31.420+41.312s	3
5	10	JensonButton	Williams	Williams FW22BMW E41	6	60		1:29:47.867+57.759s	2
6	6	JarnoTrulli	Jordan	Jordan EJ10Mugen-Honda MF301H	11	60		1:30:09.381+1:19.273	1
7	11	GiancarloFisichella	Benetton	Benetton B200Playlife FB02	12	59		+1 lap
8	17	MikaSalo	Sauber	Sauber C19Petronas SPE-04A	18	59		+1 lap
9	12	AlexanderWurz	Benetton	Benetton B200Playlife FB02	20	59		+1 lap
10	14	JeanAlesi	Prost	Prost AP03Peugeot A20	15	59		+1 lap
11	16	PedroDiniz	Sauber	Sauber C19Petronas SPE-04A	13	59		+1 lap
12	8	JohnnyHerbert	Jaguar	Jaguar R1Cosworth CR-2	14	59		+1 lap
13	7	EddieIrvine	Jaguar	Jaguar R1Cosworth CR-2	9	59		+1 lap
14	20	MarcGené	Minardi	Minardi M02Fondmetal RV10	21	59		+1 lap
15	21	GastónMazzacane	Minardi	Minardi M02Fondmetal RV10	22	59		+1 lap
16	22	JacquesVilleneuve	BAR	BAR 002Honda RA000E	10	56		+4 laps
17	5	Heinz-HaraldFrentzen	Jordan	Jordan EJ10Mugen-Honda MF301H	2	54	3	+6 laps
DNF	15	NickHeidfeld	Prost	Prost AP03Peugeot A20	17	51		Engine
DNF	23	RicardoZonta	BAR	BAR 002Honda RA000E	16	36		Spun off
DNF	4	RubensBarrichello	Ferrari	Ferrari F2000Ferrari 049	1	35	33	Hydraulics
DNF	18	Pedrode la Rosa	Arrows	Arrows A21Supertec FB02	19	26		Electrical
DNF	19	JosVerstappen	Arrows	Arrows A21Supertec FB02	8	20		Electrical

Fastest lap: 1:26.217 min. by Mika Hakkinen

About the author

Leopold

Leopold Pleijsier founded F1-Fansite.com in 2001 and has followed Formula 1 since the early 1980s. He writes about daily F1 news, race weekends, drivers and the sport’s history.

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