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Sunday, April 29
Hakkinen's huge lead evaporates
Associated Press
BARCELONA, Spain – Michael Schumacher didn't feel much like
a winner, but wasn't about to give back the trophy he got after
Mika Hakkinen broke down Sunday on the final lap of the Spanish
Grand Prix.
"It's not the way you like to win a race, honestly,"
Schumacher said. "But sometimes it happens in racing. It's
happened to me and now it's happened to Mika."
|  | | Mika Hakkinen arrives in the pit area on top of his teammate David
Coulthard's car. |
Hakkinen was leading by more than 40 seconds over the Ferrari of
Schumacher, and seemed headed for his fourth straight victory in
the race when his McLaren quit midway through the 65th lap at the
2.938-mile Circuit de Catalunya.
"I'm very disappointed. Not so much sad as disappointed,"
Hakkinen said. "We don't know what went wrong. We think it might
have been the clutch or hydraulics, but the engineers still aren't
sure."
The victory was the third this year for Schumacher, the
three-time and defending Formula One champion who broke a tie with
Hakkinen's teammate, David Coulthard, to take the points lead.
Schumacher now has 36 points to 28 for Coulthard, who wound up
fifth in the race.
Hakkinen, a two-time series champion with only four points in
five races this year, earned the sympathy of longtime rival
Schumacher, who consoled him afterward.
"I'm sorry for him," Schumacher said. "He really had done
everything right. Seeing him retire in the last lap with five
corners or whatever to go from the end, it's shocking."
Schumacher, who earned his 36th career pole a day earlier, now
has 47 victories. Alain Prost is the F1 career leader with 51 wins.
Juan Pablo Montoya was second in his Williams, the first points
finish in the five-race F1 career of the former CART champion.
"It's really exciting," Montoya said. "The first four races
have been very hard for me, some competitive, some not so much.
Here, I wasn't expecting to be on the podium."
BAR's Jacques Villeneuve was third, followed by Jordan's Jarno
Trulli. Nick Heidfeld was sixth in a Sauber.
Coulthard recovered to pick up points after stalling on the
formation lap. He was forced to start from the back of the grid
after qualifying third. Coulthard bemoaned his own fate and that of
Hakkinen.
"The real winner today was Mika," Coulthard said. "I felt
sorry for him. It should have been a 1-2 for McLaren."
The race was the first since 1993 in which electronic traction
control was used. It also was the introduction of launch control
and fully automatic seven-speed gearboxes.
Schumacher covered the 190.97 miles in 1 hour 31, minutes 3.305
seconds at an average speed of 125.84 mph.
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