A cut-back circuit, a title already settled in France and a pole-to-flag win for Ferrari that split opinion among the drivers.
The 2002 German Grand Prix, held at the reconfigured Hockenheimring on 28 July 2002, was won by Michael Schumacher of Ferrari from pole. Juan Pablo Montoya finished second, 10.5 seconds behind. The race was the first on the new 4.574 km layout, and Schumacher's win took him to 106 championship points.
Michael Schumacher won the 2002 German Grand Prix from pole, the first race held on a Hockenheimring cut back from 6.8 km (4.2 mi) to 4.5 km (2.8 mi). The drivers were sharply divided about the new layout, and the championship had already been settled by Schumacher a week earlier in France.
Who won the 2002 German Grand Prix?
Michael Schumacher won the 67-lap race for Ferrari from pole position. Juan Pablo Montoya finished second for Williams, 10.5 seconds behind, and Ralf Schumacher took third. The victory was Schumacher's ninth of the season and his 62nd in Formula One.
Montoya was second when Ralf Schumacher made an unscheduled stop late in the race to repressurise the pneumatic valve-gear reservoir, after its air pressure had dropped. Ralf later passed Rubens Barrichello for third, and the Williams team finished the day with both cars in the points.
Schumacher won from pole on a circuit that split opinion, and the title had already been settled a week earlier.
Why was the Hockenheimring shortened?
The Hockenheimring was reduced from 6.8 km (4.2 mi) to 4.5 km (2.8 mi) to improve safety and spectator viewing. The race distance was raised from 45 to 67 laps to appeal to advertisers and television, and Bernie Ecclestone, who owned Formula One's commercial rights, pushed for the alterations. Hermann Tilke's company carried out the work.
The new layout was built around a long, curved straight called the Parabolika, which led into a new Spitzkehre hairpin. The demolished Senna chicane was replaced by a new right-hand turn that bypassed the former Clark and Ost chicanes. An extra run of turns then returned the cars to the old stadium complex.
How did drivers react to the new layout?
The changes split opinion. Michael Schumacher said the layout flowed well and offered overtaking chances, while his brother Ralf called it one of the best circuits he had driven. Norbert Haug of Mercedes believed it would improve the racing, and Jacques Villeneuve called it a typical modern circuit that was less interesting to drive.
Pedro de la Rosa said the track had become slippery and had lost so much of its character that the racing could have taken place anywhere. McLaren's Ron Dennis argued that the alterations had removed something special from the old circuit, and Sauber's Nick Heidfeld said he preferred the former layout.
Had the championship already been decided?
Schumacher had clinched the 2002 World Drivers' Championship at the previous race, the French Grand Prix, so Hockenheim was about the constructors' title and the order behind him. He had 96 points before the race, while Montoya was on 34, and a German win would have been a satisfying way to celebrate a record-tying fifth title.
Ferrari's technical director Ross Brawn said the team would help Rubens Barrichello chase wins and the runner-up spot. Schumacher had won the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim in 1995, and he wanted a second win on the same ground. Montoya said his Williams team arrived hoping to show a better package than it had shown in France.
Entries, the Arrows row and Fisichella's fitness
Eleven teams entered with two drivers each, with no changes from the season entry list. Arrows had failed to qualify for the French race after breaching the 107 per cent rule, and team owner Tom Walkinshaw was warned that the stewards could act under the rules on conduct prejudicial to the spirit of competition.
Giancarlo Fisichella had been judged unfit after a major accident in France, when the FIA medical delegate Sid Watkins cited the high deceleration he had suffered. Watkins examined him at Hockenheim and cleared him to race, so Fisichella started the German race.
How did the gap between races and the engines shape the weekend?
The week between the French and German races meant there was no in-season testing, and the new circuit design no longer demanded the very low aerodynamic load setups used until the 2001 season. Mercedes and Honda brought more powerful engines, and Williams added extra openings in the bodywork's rear section.
Teams therefore had to work out a new set-up quickly. Practice on Friday began in damp conditions after overnight rain, and the surface had relatively little grip, which made every change to the car a gamble on track temperature as well as on the layout.
What went wrong in Friday practice?
Several drivers ran wide or spun. Fisichella removed a bargeboard after colliding with a gravel trap at Agip corner and had his floor replaced, and in the first session Coulthard managed only six laps because of a split boot on a driveshaft joint. Renault's Jarno Trulli spun backwards braking for the Sachs turn and stuck in the gravel.
The second session was no kinder. Alex Yoong spun at turn two and beached on the kerb, ending his session early. Fisichella's engine failed at the Nordkurve corner with three minutes left, and oil and moisture at turn one caught out Massa, whose front wing was damaged on the kerbing. Panis's car stopped on the track with a suspected clutch failure, costing him 40 minutes of running. De la Rosa's car billowed smoke from the rear as an engine failure left him stranded leaving the hairpin, after nine laps.
Who was fastest in practice?
Barrichello set the fastest time of the first Friday session at 1:16.248. Michael Schumacher went quickest in the second Friday session at 1:16.086, 0.182 seconds ahead of Barrichello, and he topped the Saturday morning session at 1:15.337, 0.122 seconds clear of his teammate.
In the Saturday morning session Button's gearbox selection fault left him in neutral midway through the first corner, and Barrichello spun rear-first across the gravel at the final turn. The final session was cloudy, and there were fewer spins as drivers became more aware of the track limits. Michael Schumacher finished it at 1:14.487, almost a second clear of the field, with Ralf Schumacher 0.667 seconds behind.
On race morning a half-hour warm-up was held in hot, humid and sunny weather, so teams could check their race and spare cars. Only Michael Schumacher managed a lap in the 1:16 range, at 1:16.726, with Barrichello, Fisichella, Panis, Sato, Heidfeld, Coulthard, Ralf Schumacher, Raikkonen and Montoya making up the top ten.
Qualifying top ten
| Grid | Driver | Qualifying note |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Schumacher | Pole at 1:14.389, fourth of the season and 47th of his career |
| 2 | Ralf Schumacher | 0.181 seconds behind pole |
| 3 | Rubens Barrichello | Set-up changes between runs; mounted a kerb on his third lap |
| 4 | Juan Pablo Montoya | Ended a five-race pole streak; understeer at the Agip turn |
| 5 | Kimi Raikkonen | Led early on and finished fifth |
| 6 | Giancarlo Fisichella | Matched Jordan's season-best qualifying result |
| 7 | Olivier Panis | His best start of the season |
| 8 | Jarno Trulli | Mechanics altered his chassis between runs |
| 9 | David Coulthard | Oversteer on his third run |
| Tenth | Nick Heidfeld | Took tenth on his last run in the spare Sauber set-up |
How did the qualifying hour play out?
Michael Schumacher's second run ended after he took too much kerb at turn one, and he drove onto the run-off area and aborted the lap. His pole came on his next effort, a lap of 1:14.389 set in the last seconds of the session, which ended Montoya's run of five consecutive poles. Ralf Schumacher was 0.181 seconds slower in second.
Barrichello made setup changes for his third and fourth runs, which cost a little time after he mounted a kerb and ran wide. Montoya had understeer through the Agip turn, locked his front tyres at the hairpin on his final run, and was fourth. Raikkonen led early on in the first two sectors but ended fifth, while Fisichella's sixth place was Jordan's best of the season so far.
Villeneuve was 11th after a poor final run, when a late move by Coulthard forced him to lose front aerodynamics, run wide and spin in avoidance. Sato spent part of the session changing the set-up that had oversteer at the start, and finished 12th. Button's engine problem forced him to an earlier specification, and minor errors on his last run left him 13th.
Massa had grip problems, understeer on the acceleration out of slow corners, and a handling balance that deteriorated as the track heated. Frentzen said his car was not as quick as it should have been in 15th. Irvine improved with each run to take 16th, and McNish qualified ahead of teammate Salo for the first time that season in 17th.
Why did Alex Yoong miss the race?
Minardi's Alex Yoong failed to qualify inside the 107 per cent limit, the third time that season he had been unable to do so. Team owner Paul Stoddart asked for Yoong to be allowed into the race, but the stewards refused because no exceptional circumstances applied. Twenty-one drivers started the race.
Yoong had spun at turn two during Friday's second session and improved on his last run, but he still could not get inside 107 per cent. His teammate Mark Webber qualified 21st, and the final order was set without Yoong. The stewards' decision left the race with one fewer car than the entry list had promised.
How did the race start?
Michael Schumacher made a clean start from pole. Barrichello had found a gearbox upshift fault during the reconnaissance laps, so he switched to the spare Ferrari and exited the pit lane shortly before the lights went out, starting from third. Ralf Schumacher was second, and Montoya was squeezed by Barrichello's braking into the first corner.
Raikkonen passed Montoya for fourth into the hairpin. Frentzen stalled on the grid and was pushed into the pit lane by Arrows mechanics, and he rejoined two laps down after his engine was restarted. Webber was stuck on the grid with a launch control fault before he got moving. Track temperatures of 38 to 47 C (100 to 117 F) made tyre wear a major worry, Alan Henry of The Guardian wrote, because the hot surface threatened to punish every team's rubber.
How did Schumacher win from pole?
Schumacher led for most of the 67 laps, apart from two rounds of pit stops, and he finished 10.5 seconds ahead of Montoya. Pole gave him the lead from the start, and he kept it through the pit stops.
Montoya's second place came when Ralf Schumacher made his late unscheduled stop, and Ralf finished third after passing Barrichello. The Williams drivers therefore remained in contention for the constructors' table, but Ferrari held its lead.
What did the result mean for the championships?
Schumacher's win took him to 106 championship points, an unassailable lead in the drivers' table. Montoya stayed second, Ralf Schumacher moved ahead of Barrichello for third, and Ferrari extended its constructors' lead over Williams to 56 points with five races left in the season.
The result also closed a season in which Schumacher had won a championship before the German round. The Hockenheim race was therefore less about the title than about whether the new layout could carry a Grand Prix, a question the drivers had answered in very different ways.