Montoya took pole, Barrichello led the opening laps and Schumacher inherited the lead on lap 26 to win his sixth race of the year.
The 2002 Canadian Grand Prix, held at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on 9 June 2002, was won by Michael Schumacher of Ferrari from second on the grid. Coulthard finished second and Barrichello third. The win was Schumacher's sixth of the season and his 59th Formula One victory.
Michael Schumacher won the 2002 Canadian Grand Prix from second on the grid, taking his sixth win of the season and his 59th in Formula One. Juan Pablo Montoya had put his Williams on pole, but Rubens Barrichello led the opening laps, and Schumacher only took the lead on lap 26 when Barrichello made his first stop.
Who won the 2002 Canadian Grand Prix?
Schumacher won the 70-lap race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal for Ferrari. Coulthard finished second for McLaren, and Barrichello completed the podium for Ferrari in third. The win moved Schumacher 43 points clear of the drivers' table, with Ralf Schumacher and Montoya joint second.
The race was one of two North American rounds in 2002, and it was the 34th Canadian Grand Prix on the Formula One calendar. Schumacher's win was his sixth of the season.
Montoya took pole, but Schumacher's sixth win of 2002 came from second once the lead passed to Ferrari.
What had changed at the Montreal circuit?
After the 2001 race the FIA asked for the circuit to be shortened for safety reasons, and the race length rose from 69 to 70 laps. The pit lane was extended and straightened alongside the start-finish straight, and the pit exit moved outside the right-hand Virage Senna corner.
The L'Epingle hairpin was shortened by 60 m (200 ft), and the gravel traps between the first two corners and the hairpin were replaced with pavement so that drivers could recover if they ran off. The barrier at the exit of turn 13 moved 2 m (6.6 ft) rearward and became a tyre barrier, and the renovated areas received new asphalt to improve grip.
How did the championship stand going into Montreal?
Schumacher led the drivers' table with 60 points, while Ralf Schumacher and Montoya were joint second on 27 each. Coulthard was fourth on 20 and Barrichello fifth on 12, and Ferrari led the constructors' table with 72 points ahead of Williams on 54 and McLaren on 24.
Schumacher and Ferrari had won five of the seven races so far, the exceptions being Malaysia and Monaco. Coulthard had won Monaco, which Schumacher dismissed as a one-off because of the track's tight and bumpy nature, and he expressed confidence in Canada because of Ferrari's increased race pace. Schumacher's win and Barrichello's third place gave Ferrari two cars on the podium in Montreal. Norbert Haug of Mercedes warned that Montreal was unlikely to repeat Coulthard's Monaco result, since the track was unlikely to favour the McLaren MP4-17.
What did the teams test before the race?
Ten of the eleven teams tested at Silverstone from 28 to 30 May. Fisichella was fastest on the first day and Barrichello led the second and final days, while Minardi spent two days testing aerodynamic and downforce set-ups at Varano.
Luca Badoer tested car components on the Ferrari F2002 at Fiorano on 3 June, and BAR spent four days at Paul Ricard evaluating the 004's aerodynamic package. Teams had also brought new engines and parts to the event: BMW and Mercedes introduced more powerful units, and McLaren ran its new engine in qualifying.
Sauber debuted titanium lower wishbones at the front, BAR's Geoff Willis added two fins from the centre of the side to the front of the rear wheels, and Jaguar received a new V10 from Cosworth for practice and qualifying. Toyota gave Mika Salo a new TF102 chassis for the weekend.
How did the Friday practice sessions go?
Barrichello set the fastest first-session time of 1:16.930 in the final moments of the session, with Fisichella, Coulthard, Raikkonen, Frentzen, Panis, Massa, Montoya and de la Rosa in the top ten behind Schumacher. Schumacher ran wide at the final turn, broke his right-rear wheel rim and had to drive slowly back to the pit lane, while Bernoldi stopped his Arrows with a minor hydraulic fault.
Coulthard set the best time of the second session at 1:15.407, almost four-tenths of a second faster than Schumacher's pole lap from 2001. Trulli's Renault stopped on the track seven minutes into the session, which meant he missed the rest of Friday's running. Montoya, Michael Schumacher, Raikkonen, Ralf Schumacher, Salo, Panis, Barrichello, Villeneuve and Frentzen completed the second session's top ten.
What happened in the Saturday sessions?
Schumacher set the fastest time of the third session, 1:14.509, near the end of the session, and Barrichello, Raikkonen, Ralf Schumacher, Coulthard, Massa, Heidfeld, Villeneuve and Fisichella followed in the top ten. Sato spun at turn six and went onto the grass at turn eight, and Raikkonen lost the rear after turn four before he reversed to rejoin the track.
Schumacher was fastest in the final session at 1:13.395, 0.251 seconds ahead of Montoya. Barrichello crashed into the outside wall and removed his right-front wheel, but the Ferrari was repaired in less than two hours. Irvine's Jaguar stopped at the hairpin with a fuel pump failure at the end of practice.
Qualifying highlights
| Position | Driver | Qualifying note |
|---|---|---|
| Pole | Juan Pablo Montoya | 1:12.836, his third pole of the season and sixth of his career |
| Second | Michael Schumacher | 0.182 seconds slower, aborted his final run as rain fell |
| Third | Rubens Barrichello | Lost the rear at turn four on a wet lap |
| Fourth | Ralf Schumacher | Drove the spare Williams set-up |
| Fifth | Kimi Raikkonen | Consistent running in the faster McLaren |
| Sixth | Giancarlo Fisichella | His best result of the season at that point |
| Seventh | Nick Heidfeld | Made a slight set-up change that did not help |
| Eighth | David Coulthard | Hampered by oil from Sato's car, spun at the final turn |
| Ninth | Jacques Villeneuve | His best qualifying result of 2002 so far |
| Tenth | Jarno Trulli | Damaged his Renault's right-rear suspension against a wall |
How did the rain change qualifying?
Qualifying was held under cloud that kept the temperatures down. With four minutes left, rain began to fall and stopped drivers from improving. Montoya's lap of 1:12.836 earned pole, three seconds faster than the 2001 pole lap and the only time under 1:13 in the session. In all, 21 of the 22 qualifiers beat Schumacher's 2001 pole lap record.
Schumacher qualified second, 0.182 seconds slower, after briefly holding pole until Montoya's second run. He abandoned his last lap once the rain had dampened the surface, and Barrichello then qualified third in his repaired Ferrari after losing the rear at turn four on his last run on the wet circuit.
Ralf Schumacher drove the spare Williams set-up, because Montoya's race car had developed a pneumatic engine valve gear leak. Raikkonen was the faster McLaren in fifth, and Fisichella's sixth place was his best result of the season at that point.
Who had trouble in qualifying?
Sato's engine failed on his second run and left oil on the circuit between turns three and four, creating smoke and fog that reduced visibility. He abandoned his car, returned to the pit lane and drove Fisichella's spare Jordan set-up, qualifying 15th.
Villeneuve's rear wheels locked after a gearbox failure as he left the pit lane for his final lap, and he ran onto the grass. Panis qualified 11th with a shifting fault that made the car uncomfortable under heavy braking, and Massa, 12th, had an oil radiator leak and differential settings that were wrong, and his first run had no traction control. Frentzen's car leaked water after his first run from a leaking radiator, and the rebuild cost him time when oil and rain appeared. Yoong stopped on track at the start of his final run because of a gearbox issue, and he finished 22nd, with Webber 21st on the grid.
Button, for Renault, ended up 13th after four runs without a tow from another car. Irvine set six laps in the spare Jaguar after missing most of qualifying with a gearbox hydraulic pump problem, and he finished 14th. De la Rosa, 16th, could not improve in the wet conditions.
Bernoldi, 17th, was the fastest Arrows driver for the first time in 2002, while Salo was the best Toyota in 18th. Salo had to abandon two runs because of yellow flags and oil from Sato's car.
What happened in the warm-up?
The half-hour warm-up ran in mild, partly cloudy weather, and the surface was still slippery after the previous day's heavy rain. Schumacher set the pace at 1:16.780, ahead of Barrichello and Ralf Schumacher, with Coulthard, Bernoldi, Trulli, De la Rosa, Panis, Montoya and Massa following in the top ten.
Eight minutes from the end, Schumacher's engine let go in the spare Ferrari, which coasted to a halt at the entry to turn 15 with smoke pouring from it. Frentzen drifted onto the grass at turn six, damaging a bargeboard, and then struggled with the rear under braking for the hairpin.
How did the race start?
Montoya cut across the circuit in front of Schumacher at the start to keep the lead into the first turn. Schumacher then allowed Barrichello to pass him for second, as part of a planned strategy that suited Barrichello's lighter fuel load and his own heavier load, and the rest of the field settled behind them.
Sato had overtaken Villeneuve on lap nine but let him pass again, believing he had cut the chicane during the move.
No driver crashed in the first two turns. Coulthard passed Heidfeld and Fisichella to take sixth, and Button overtook Villeneuve for tenth. At the end of the first lap Barrichello outaccelerated Montoya down the straight and took the lead on the inside into the first turn.
What happened in the middle of the race?
McNish and de la Rosa collided on the back straight, sending de la Rosa into the wall near the pit lane entry, and he rejoined a lap down after repairs. Barrichello set five fastest laps in the first 14, gradually extending his lead over Montoya.
Villeneuve's engine overheated after an oil pressure drop, and he retired on lap ten. Marshals could not move his car safely because its rear wheels were locked, so the safety car was deployed on lap 14 to allow a tow truck to remove it. That erased Barrichello's 4.3-second lead and bunched the field up.
How did Schumacher take the lead?
Schumacher took the lead for the first time when Barrichello made his first scheduled stop on lap 26, and Schumacher then pitted 12 laps later. Montoya retook the lead and held it until his second stop on lap 51, when he handed the lead back to Schumacher, who kept it to the flag.
Montoya's second stop on lap 51 handed Schumacher the lead for good, and Coulthard and Barrichello finished second and third behind him.
What did the Montreal win mean for the title?
The win gave Schumacher his sixth victory of 2002 and his 59th in Formula One. It also gave him a 43-point lead in the drivers' table over Ralf Schumacher and Montoya, who were joint second.
Ferrari extended its constructors' lead to 32 points over Williams, with McLaren a further 21 points behind. Nine races remained in the season.