M. Schumacher Wins at Monza - Italian GP (updated)

Michael Schumacher broke down in tears after scoring an emotional win in front of the sea of tifosi filling the Monza circuit, his sixth win of the season for Ferrari and the 41st of his career to equal that of the late, great Ayrton Senna.

His dominant victory over Mika Hakkinen now puts him just two points behind the Finn in their fight for the title and in Michael's own words, "Back on the road for victory."

After a multi-car pile-up eliminated his team-mate Rubens Barrichello and three of the other front-runners amongst others half way around the first lap, it was a two-horse race between the two championship leaders, which this time around saw Schumacher in command.

After ten laps behind the safety car following the first lap accident, Schumacher quickly pulled away to build up a 10 second cushion before his pit stop which let Hakkinen into a brief lead until his own stop. Schumacher took command again when the McLaren stopped and had no problem holding his lead as Hakkinen chased him to the flag to finish just under four seconds behind at the end of the 53-lap race. An adjustment to the McLaren?s differential at Hakkinen?s pit stop improved his car and helped him towards fastest lap of the race, but it was too late to save the race for the Finn.

Schumacher's emotional victory in front of the delighted tifosi was made all the more emotional after the race with the sad news that a track-side fire marshal had been killed after being hit by flying debris from the second chicane pile-up on the first lap.

In fact, there were two accidents of the first lap, the first not so serious as Eddie Irvine and Mika Salo collided under braking for the first chicane, Irvine retiring on the spot while Salo limped back to the pits to replace a punctured rear tyre. Salo?s team-mate Diniz was also forced to the pits to replace a damaged nose section after taking to the grass and driving through the marker boards in a bid to avoid being hit.

It was at the next chicane, with Schumacher leading the pack into the braking area that disaster struck. It appears that Rubens Barrichello braking took Heinz-Harald Frentzen by surprise forcing him to swerve to the right and hit his own teammate Jarno Trulli. The Jordan also hit the back of Barrichello?s car which went sideways in a chain reaction accident that also took off David Coulthard?s McLaren. Further down the field, Johnny Herbert braked his Jaguar hard and was hit from behind by Pedro de la Rosa's Arrows, which took off and rolled into the group of wrecked cars in the gravel trap.

Miraculously, none of the drivers in the high speed pile-up suffered anything worse than minor injuries, however, Paolo Gislimberti, a fire marshal on the other side of the track was killed when struck by a flying wheel.

When the racing resumed, after ten laps behind the safety car, there were just 14 cars left in the race with Jacques Villeneuve, Ralf Schumacher, Giancarlo Fisichella and Alexander Wurz chasing the leading pair. Jenson Button had been well placed in sixth place for the re-start, but got caught out when the field slowed behind Schumacher as he braked to warm-up his brakes. "I had to swerve to avoid the car in front and went onto the grass and clipped the barrier. I must have damaged the car because then it went straight on when I got to the Parabolica," explained a disappointed Button after crashing out of the race, Schumacher later apologizing for any problems that his actions had caused.

Villeneuve's strong hopes of his first podium for the BAR team also evaporated on lap 14 when he pulled off with an electronic problem, while a lap later we were down to just twelve cars when Nick Heidfeld spun his Prost at the second chicane. It had been a bad start for the Prost team, for Alesi ran his race at the back of the field a lap down when he stalled his car at the start.

Jos Verstappen and Ricardo Zonta made impressive progress through the field in the early laps of the race, but they were running a two stop race strategy which saw them fall back behind Ralf Schumacher's Williams by the flag, Ralf 52 seconds behind his brother at the end of the race and seven seconds clear of Verstappen who had him best finish yet for the Arrows team.

Alexander Wurz took fifth place and the only points for the Benetton team after Giancarlo Fisichella lost a lap in the pits with a clutch problem at his pit stop. He eventually finished 11th, a lap clear of Alesi, while the final point went to Zonta, the last driver on the same lap as the leaders and particularly impressive as he had ended up with a three-stop race after picking up a puncture on the debris of the first lap pile-up.

Salo and Diniz recovered to take seventh and eighth place for the Sauber team ahead of the two Minardis of Gene and Mazzacane.

PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTS The Italian Grand Prix Autodromo Nazionale di Monza; 53 laps; 305.810km Weather: Sunny Classified: Pos Driver Team 1. M.Schumacher Ferrari 1H27:31.638 2. Hakkinen McLaren Mercedes + 3.810 3. R.Schumacher Williams BMW + 52.432 4. Verstappen Arrows Supertec + 59.938 5. Wurz Benetton Playlife + 1:07.426 6. Zonta BAR Honda + 1:09.292 7. Salo Sauber Petronas + 1 Lap 8. Diniz Sauber Petronas + 1 Lap 9. Gene Minardi Fondmetal + 1 Lap 10. Mazzacane Minardi Fondmetal + 1 Lap 11. Fisichella Benetton Playlife + 1 Lap 12. Alesi Prost Peugeot + 2 Laps Fastest Lap: M. Hakkinen, 1:25.595, lap 50 Not Classified/Retirements: Driver Team On Lap Reason Heidfeld Prost Peugeot 15 - spun off Villeneuve BAR Honda 14 - electrical Button Williams BMW 10 - accident Herbert Jaguar Cosworth 1 - accident Coulthard McLaren Mercedes 0 - accident Trulli Jordan Mugen-Honda 0 - accident Barrichello Ferrari 0 - accident Frentzen Jordan Mugen-Honda 0 - accident de la Rosa Arrows Supertec 0 - accident Irvine Jaguar Cosworth 0 - accident World Championship Standings, Round 14: Drivers: Constructors: 1. Hakkinen 80 1. McLaren 131 2. M.Schumacher 78 2. Ferrari 127 3. Coulthard 61 3. Williams-BMW 34 4. Barrichello 49 4. Benetton-Playlife 20 5. R.Schumacher 24 5. Jordan-Mugen Honda 13 6. Fisichella 18 = BAR-Honda 13 7. Villeneuve 11 7. Arrows 7 8. Button 10 8. Sauber 6 9. Frentzen 7 9. Jaguar 3 10. Trulli 6 = Salo 6 12. Verstappen 5 13. Irvine 3 14. de la Rosa 2 = Zonta 2 = Wurz 2 All timing unofficial