2001 Japanese Grand Prix
The 2001 Japanese Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held before 150,000 spectators on 14 October 2001, at the Suzuka Circuit in Suzuka, Mie, Japan. It was the 17th and final round of the 2001 Formula One World Championship. Ferrari's Michael Schumacher won the 53-lap race from pole position. Williams driver Juan Pablo Montoya finished in second and McLaren's David Coulthard was third.
World Drivers' Champion Michael Schumacher qualified on pole position by setting the fastest lap time in the one-hour qualifying session. Montoya started from second, alongside Schumacher. The Ferrari driver held off Montoya's attack to take the lead on the first lap, losing it only during the race leaders' two pit stops. Schumacher won the race, with Montoya 3.1 seconds behind. Coulthard finished third, having been let past by McLaren teammate Mika Häkkinen in the final five laps of the Grand Prix, with the latter competing in his final Formula One Grand Prix, having won 20 races and two World Drivers' Championships throughout his ten-year career.
Schumacher's victory was his ninth of the season, tying his own record from and and Nigel Mansell from. As a consequence of the race, Schumacher finished the year with a season-record 123 points scored in the World Drivers' Championship, breaking Alain Prost's all-time record for most career points scored. Coulthard finished the season as the runner-up, 56 points behind Schumacher. Ferrari finished 77 points ahead of McLaren in the World Constructors' Championship.
Background
The 2001 Japanese Grand Prix was the 17th and final Formula One race of the 2001 Formula One World Championship, held on 14 October 2001, at the Suzuka Circuit in Suzuka, Mie, Japan. Some news websites incorrectly reported that the event would be postponed due to the United States invasion of Afghanistan after the previous month's September 11 attacks in the United States but the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile issued a statement refuting the reports.Before the race, both the World Drivers' Championship and World Constructors' Championship were already won, with Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher having secured the World Drivers' Championship four races earlier in the and Ferrari took the World Constructors' Championship at the same event, with McLaren too many points behind to be able to catch them. In the battle for the runner-up spot, McLaren's David Coulthard led Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello by seven points. To gain second place in the championship, Barrichello had to win the Grand Prix and Coulthard finish fifth or below. Sauber were battling Jordan for fourth position in the World Constructors' Championship and were five points ahead, but an appeal against Jarno Trulli's disqualification from the preceding would have reduced their advantage by two points if successful.
Following the United States Grand Prix on 30 September, between 2 October and 6, most teams evaluated car components, aerodynamic packages, racing setups and tyres at various European racing circuits at several European racetracks in preparation for the Japanese Grand Prix. British American Racing, Sauber and Jordan each tested for three days at Italy's Mugello Circuit, while Benetton, Jaguar, McLaren and Williams were at Spain's Circuit de Catalunya for three days. Ferrari spent six days at the Italian Fiorano Circuit with test driver Luca Badoer and Michael Schumacher. The Arrows, Minardi and Prost teams did not test at the period, instead focussing on the development of their cars.
The press speculated whether Michael Schumacher would help his teammate Barrichello become the championship runner-up in Japan. Michael Schumacher commented he was "only interested in winning" but added there was a small possibility Ferrari could help Barrichello finish second. Barrichello had been asked twice to aid Michael Schumacher this season and wanted to secure second in the standings without his teammate's assistance, saying, "After the team won the championship with Michael it has been proved that with a little bit of help and a little bit more attention I can do the job. But at the end of the day I have to win the race and David has to finish fifth or lower, so it's a hard task." Coulthard stated that he came to Japan to win the Grand Prix and finish second in the championship.
There were eleven two-driver teams, each representing a different constructor, with no changes to the entry list from the previous race. This was the final Grand Prix for Jordan's Jean Alesi and McLaren's two-time World Champion Mika Häkkinen. It was also the last Grand Prix for the Prost squad, who went bankrupt and closed down the following off-season, and for the Benetton team as it was renamed as Renault in deference to the team's French owners for 2002. Several teams used experimental solutions to Japan to guide the development of their 2002 vehicles. Ferrari brought a lighter, more rigid F2001 chassis while McLaren introduced no particular innovations and Williams used a top-exit exhaust featured at the United States Grand Prix on both their racing cars. Honda supplied BAR and Jordan with a new V10 engine specification while Cosworth did the same for Jaguar. Renault provided Benetton with a new qualifying engine for the team's final race. Arrows installed the aerodynamic package used at the Hungarian Grand Prix on their A22 cars and Minardi installed new titanium gearboxes in both cars.
Practice
A total of four practice sessions preceded Sunday's race, two one-hour sessions on Friday and two 45-minute sessions on Saturday. The first practice session took place on Friday morning in sunny weather. Michael Schumacher posted the quickest lap time of 1:37.443 44 minutes in, 0.355 seconds ahead of Häkkinen. They were ahead of Williams's Juan Pablo Montoya, Barrichello, Alesi, Coulthard, Montoya's teammate Ralf Schumacher, Prost's Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Jaguar's Pedro de la Rosa and Sauber's Nick Heidfeld. Some drivers went off the track during the session. With one minute left, Tomáš Enge lost control of his Prost car at an apex, going off the racing line and oversteering across the gravel trap at 130R corner. He struck the tyre barrier at high speed, removing his two right-hand side wheels. Enge complained of neck pain, but exited the car unaided as practice was red-flagged. He did not participate in the second practice session.The weather remained sunny for the afternoon's second session. On a light fuel load, Alesi set the day's fastest lap time of 1:35.454, 0.523 seconds faster than the second-placed Montoya. De La Rosa, Häkkinen, Frentzen, Jaguar's Eddie Irvine, Coulthard, Michael Schumacher, Ralf Schumacher and Barrichello followed in the top ten. Halfway through the session, Heidfeld was on his first quick lap on a new set of soft Bridgestone tyres when he lost control of his vehicle's front into the final right-hand corner in the S-Curve section and spun backwards into the inside tyre barrier at. His car stopped in the circuit's centre, and he suffered a minor headache and debris was littered across the track. Heidfeld was transported to the medical centre, and practice was stopped for ten minutes. Late in the session, Coulthard spun into the turn two gravel trap; his right-front brake assembly caught fire in the pit lane when a stretch of trap tape that had not been entirely ripped from a duct became entangled in the brake cooling duct and was ignited by the brake's heat.
The third practice session was held on Saturday morning in sunny conditions. Michael Schumacher was the first driver to lap under 1:35 all weekend, and he was also the fastest, lapping at 1:34.711 with eight minutes left. He was 0.332 seconds faster than Häkkinen, who was followed by Barrichello, Coulthard, the Williams combination of Ralf Schumacher and Montoya, Sauber's Kimi Räikkönen, Trulli, Benetton's Jenson Button and Frentzen in third to tenth. With three minutes left in the final session, Ralf Schumacher set the first sub-1:34 lap in Suzuka history, at 1:33.969. He outpaced teammate Montoya, Coulthard, Michael Schumacher, Button, Trulli, Heidfeld, Häkkinen, Barrichello, and BAR's Jacques Villeneuve in the next nine positions.
Qualifying
During Saturday's one-hour qualifying session, each driver was limited to twelve laps, with the starting positions determined by the drivers' fastest laps. The 107% rule was in force during this session, forcing each driver to stay within 107% of the quickest lap time in order to qualify for the race. Michael Schumacher improved his lap time in three of his four runs, and clinched his 11th pole position of the season and the 43rd of his career with a time of 1:32.484 on a new set of tyres. He broke Gerhard Berger's all-time lap record on the circuit, set in 1991. Montoya had a minor car balance issue on a low fuel load than Michael Schumacher, although he was faster in the track's faster sectors. He was seven-tenths of a second behind in second, having been unable to improve on his final run. Ralf Schumacher was 0.111 seconds slower than his teammate in third, but he was pleased that no one was blocking him to the end of qualifying. Barrichello was unable to eliminate the understeer in his Ferrari, preventing him from lapping faster, and qualified fourth. Häkkinen, fifth, had his car's ride height and tyre pressures adjusted but his understeer persisted. Giancarlo Fisichella took sixth after Renault's new engine was fitted in his Benetton car. Coulthard qualified in seventh. Trulli, eighth, was hampered somewhat by slower cars in the second sector during his quickest lap. Button achieved his best qualifying result of the season in ninth, citing excess oversteer on his team's setup. Heidfeld took 10th, having encountered slower cars on his final run and lost downforce.Alesi finished 11th in his final Formula One qualifying session, despite working with race engineer David Brown to unsuccessfully narrow the gap on teammate Trulli. Räikkönen learnt his car was overweight anda an understeer on his last run slowed him through the Esses, leaving him in 12th. Irvine trailed his teammate De La Rosa by half a second in engine power but qualified ahead of him in 13th. Villenueve, 14th, was pleased with his car's balance and made setup tweaks that did not produce the predicted results. Frentzen's first run placed him 15th, and he was unable to lap quicker due to understeer on the soft Michelin tyres. De La Rosa took 16th, with his best lap coming on his third attempt, after failing to find a suitable balance for his car's tyres. BAR's Olivier Panis reported that his car felt slightly better en route to 17th. Fernando Alonso extracted additional performance from his Minardi car and improved on each lap to qualify 18th. Enge drove the spare Prost AP04 car following his accident the day before, setting his fastest lap on his first run before being stopped by modifications and finishing 19th. The Arrows duo of Enrique Bernoldi and Jos Verstappen qualified 20th and 21st, respectively. Bernoldi had slower cars on his fastest lap, but Verstappen drove a car lacking in pace but had decent handling. Minardi's Alex Yoong completed the starting order in 22nd, expressing disappointment over not improving greatly on each of his runs and traffic possibly stopping him from lapping faster during his third run.