September 10: Marshal killed at Monza

The tragic death of Paulo Ghislimberti, a 33-year-old fire marshal, cast a shadow over an otherwise joyous weekend for Schumacher, Ferrari and Italy in general. The dullness of the race was in stark contrast to a wild opening lap, which culminated in a huge accident at the Variante della Roggia chicane. Rubens Barrichello's Ferrari was attempting to outbrake Jarno Trulli's Jordan when he was touched from behind under braking by Trulli's team-mate Heinz-Harald Frentzen. Frentzen then hit Trulli and all three spun, collecting David Coulthard's third-placed McLaren.

Trulli's right-rear wheel was torn off in the melee and speared across the track, striking Ghislimberti a fatal blow to the head and chest. Fortunately, more injury was avoided when Pedro de la Rosa's Arrows, unsighted by all the dust and smoke the mayhem ahead had created, hit the back of both Ricardo Zonta and Johnny Herbert and somersaulted into the gravel trap, coming to rest on top of Barrichello's Ferrari. The Brazilian had wisely elected to stay tucked up, and head down, in his car.

The race was not stopped, although it was run under the Safety Car for 11 laps before racing was allowed to resume again. Even then, before the green flag, leader Schumacher decided to warm his brakes on the long straight before the Parabolica, causing a concertina effect which prompted Jenson Button to swerve off the track and clip the barrier, forcing him to retire.

Schumacher apologised for the Briton's demise: "I accelerated, braked, accelerated and braked. I think I made a mistake the way I did it because some drivers thought I was going to go flat out and some only saw it too late. I am sorry to see that someone suffered from that."

A remarkable day was completed when Schumacher broke down and cried in the press conference, surprising even Mika Hakkinen, ironically sat next to him, who had blubbed into his balaclava a year earlier after crashing out. This time, however, the outpouring of emotion was stimulated by Michael being reminded of equalling the late Ayrton Senna's record of Grand Prix victories.

The German had the closest view of anyone of Senna's death on that fateful day at Imola seven years ago. Once again, fate had dealt Formula 1 a cruel blow on Italian soil.



"It was inevitable, but it all just happened one corner later than expected. I was covering my inside from Trulli and then there was a concertina effect going into the chicane, with Heinz, I think, triggering it."

""I tried to overtake Barrichello, but he seemed to brake very early. I couldn't avoid him and I hit him, but at that point I also felt somebody hit me from behind."

"Chicanes are part of motorsport and it's up to drivers not to run into each other. They [F1 drivers] are supposed to be the best drivers in the world, yet amateur drivers manage to get through the chicanes at Monza in races every week. We have kept the question of chicanes under close scrutiny for some years now and we will look at the issues again."

"We're supposed to keep the same pace all the time when we're behind the safety car. But when Michael slowed, everybody spread out and I had nowhere to go. I think I avoided quite a big accident. I just missed a marshal who was standing at the side of the circuit."