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Race: Schumacher one-two makes F1 history

Ralf and Michael Schumacher took the first sibling one-two finish in Formula 1 history after a crushing display of family dominance in the Canadian Grand Prix

Right from the start it always looked like Ralf might have the edge over his big brother. The Williams-BMW edged alongside Michael's Ferrari into the first corner but could not quite claim the advantage. Ralf then dropped back slightly in the opening laps as his hard compound Michelin tyres took time to build up pace.

Behind the family squabble for the lead, David Coulthard was fighting a losing battle from the moment the lights went out. A handling problem left him increasingly off the pace and he was rapidly passed by Rubens Barrichello.

The Brazilian was the man on the move in the early stages, cruising past Jarno Trulli on the opening lap before despatching Coulthard and closing in on Schumacher Junior for second. The Ferrari appeared to be on a lighter fuel load, but spun exiting the hairpin on lap five and dropped to 14th.

Barrichello then rapidly scythed through to 11th, on the tail of a fierce battle between Mika Hakkinen and Juan Pablo Montoya. The latter desperately needed a good result to silence his critics after a weekend of scuffles and slatings.



But it would all go horribly wrong on lap 20 when the Williams slid sideways out of turn four and hammered into the barrier. Barrichello was left with a choice of hitting Montoya's crumpled car or spinning into the opposite wall and chose the second option. Both drivers were out and the safety car was deployed for three laps while the mess was cleared away.

Before the incident Ralf had begun to close rapidly on brother Michael. The Ferrari driver got an excellent restart and opened up a 2.6s lead on the first lap of green flag racing, but that was as big as his advantage would get before his younger brother began to close in once more.

In the middle part of the race Michael and Ralf Schumacher were lapping as one, never more than a second apart and trading fastest laps. Ralf took a look down the inside into the final chicane on virtually every lap but seemed understandably hesitant to make a rash move on his championship-leading sibling.

Michael pitted from the lead on lap 46, finally giving Ralf a clear track. The Williams driver responded with a series of lap records, immediately lapping 0.6s quicker than he had been able to while stuck behind the Ferrari. He produced five of these searing laps before pitting, rejoining with a four-second lead over his brother and extending the gap to more than 20s by the end of the race.



It was a dismal day for Schumacher's championship rival Coulthard. His handling problems, related to a loose barge board, appeared to get worse as the race wore on and he was running a very distant fourth behind team-mate Hakkinen when he retired in a huge cloud of smoke in the closing stages.

Hakkinen would eventually take third, his first podium of the 2001 season, despite having spent the first half of the race dawdling along in the lower half of the top 10. He finally passed young countryman Kimi Raikkonen on lap 37 and then made the most of the McLaren-Mercedes' fuel economy to run until lap 48 before his first stop. Once in clear air, Hakkinen lapped on a par with the Schumacher brothers, but was too far behind to progress any higher than third.



Another highly impressive drive from Raikkonen saw the Sauber driver take fourth place, just holding off Jean Alesi. The Frenchman was overjoyed to take another points finish for Prost and performed some rather ragged 'doughnuts' on the slowing-down lap to celebrate.

Pedro de la Rosa took his first points for Jaguar in sixth, ahead of Jordan's substitute Ricardo Zonta.

Only nine cars finished the race and the carnage began early. Giancarlo Fisichella ran into the back of team-mate Jenson Button on the opening lap, having already ripped his front wing off on the rear of Enrique Bernoldi's Arrows. Nick Heidfeld and Eddie Irvine crashed thanks to an over-optimistic move from the Jaguar driver on lap two, while both BAR drivers took an early bath after mechanical problems.

Olivier Panis had been running a highly competitive fifth before a brake fault intervened, but Jacques Villeneuve had never got higher than tenth after a very slow start dropped him into the midfield. A clutch problem then saw him grind to a halt in front of his adoring fans in the grandstands opposite the pits.

The ever-unlucky Jarno Trulli was another who saw his hard work after a very competitive performance. Having pressured Coulthard all race, he finally moved up to fourth when the McLaren retired but would have technical problems of his own soon afterwards. The Jordan's departure moved Jos Verstappen into sixth. The Arrows driver again used a two-stop strategy to vault up the order in the early stages, and his approach looked set to pay off with another points finish before an apparent brake failure pitched Verstappen into the tyre wall just two laps from home.

For anyone other than the Schumacher family (and the rejuvenated Alesi), this was a fairly depressing day. A Schumacher one-two has been on the cards for several seasons now, but few would have bet on it being Ralf who led the way when it happened.

"Ralf is clearly getting better and better," said Sir Frank Williams after his team's second victory of the season. "It was a superb performance by him and the car is obviously very competitive too. He seemed to have plenty of straightline speed and I would say that one tyre was definitely better than the other today."

With Coulthard retiring for the first time in 2001, Michael Schumacher's second place gives him an 18-point lead in the championship as the halfway point of the season approaches.

For full race results, click here.

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