2002 Monaco Grand Prix: Coulthard Holds Off Schumacher on the Streets of Monte Carlo

The 2002 Monaco Grand Prix ended with David Coulthard winning on the streets of Monte Carlo from second on the grid. He held off Michael Schumacher over the final 26 laps, while Juan Pablo Montoya's pole position was undone at the start and only 12 of the 22 starters reached the flag.

Where did the championship stand before Monaco?

Michael Schumacher led the drivers' championship with 54 points, ahead of Montoya on 27 and Ralf Schumacher on 23. Rubens Barrichello was fourth on 12 and Coulthard fifth on 10. Ferrari led the constructors' table with 65 points, 16 ahead of Williams and 52 ahead of McLaren, while Renault and Sauber had eight points each.

Many fans were upset that Barrichello had been told to hand the Austrian win to his team-mate at the previous round. Michael Schumacher, who had won five of the six races before Monaco, said he intended to outpace Barrichello at Monaco and did not expect to be jeered by the crowd. Coulthard had finished fifth at Monaco the year before, after stalling on the grid and being baulked by Bernoldi, and he said he hoped to be a genuine podium finisher this time.

Coulthard's second Monaco win, a Michael Schumacher chase to the flag and only 12 of 22 starters left running at the end.

How did the teams prepare for Monaco?

After the Austrian Grand Prix on 12 May, the teams went to European circuits. BAR, Jordan, Renault and Williams tested between 14 and 18 May at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo, while Sauber spent four days at a shortened layout of the Paul Ricard circuit. McLaren, Arrows and Toyota joined Sauber there for the final three days, and Ferrari spent four days at Fiorano and two at Mugello.

No team used the drastic measures seen the year before, but several changed their cars to generate as much downforce as possible on the constrained circuit. Ferrari fitted new front and rear wings, McLaren modified the lower bodywork of its MP4-17 and brought five cars, and Toyota added aerodynamic appendages to the sidewalls and engine cover of its TF102. Minardi's drivers ran power steering, and Asiatech prepared a revised V10 with more low-rev power.

What did practice show?

Michael Schumacher was fastest in the first Thursday session at 1:21.094, and Trulli was fastest in the afternoon with 1:18.915, 0.446 seconds ahead of McNish. Barrichello set the pace in the third session on Saturday at 1:18.385, and Trulli finished the weekend's running with a 1:17.429 in the final session, 0.077 seconds ahead of Coulthard.

Thursday was marked by a series of incidents. De la Rosa understeered at the exit of the Swimming Pool chicane, and Raikkonen spun backwards into the barrier at La Rascasse, leaving a monocoque beyond repair. Massa spun 360 degrees into the Nouvelle chicane, and Yoong damaged the front-right of his Minardi at La Rascasse. Bernoldi's engine failed and laid oil up to the Casino Square turn, and Irvine hit that oil and crashed into the wall at Massenet.

Saturday brought more of the same. Sato struck the inside kerb at Sainte Devote and crashed into the tyre barrier, Raikkonen's car lost its front-left corner at the same turn, and Irvine's rear-left suspension failed at the Swimming Pool. Webber removed a left-front wheel in the same area, and Button damaged his Renault against the tyre barrier at Mirabeau.

How was pole position decided?

Montoya took pole with 1:16.676, the only driver to lap in the 1:16 bracket, and his fifth pole of his career. Coulthard was second, 0.392 seconds behind, and he felt he could have improved on his final run had there been no traffic.

Michael Schumacher got a bit of grit in his left eye on his second run, and he was treated with eye drops before taking third. Raikkonen aborted his first run after a cloud of oil smoke from his own car in the tunnel, and he started sixth after using Coulthard's spare McLaren, because his race car had an issue with its oil system. Ralf Schumacher was fourth, delayed by Frentzen on his last lap, and Barrichello fifth after complaining that Coulthard had impeded him at the chicane.

Trulli was seventh, Button eighth and Salo ninth, and McNish qualified tenth after hitting a guard rail early on. Fisichella was the fastest Honda-powered driver in 11th, Frentzen 12th and Massa 13th. Villeneuve took 14th, Bernoldi 15th, Sato 16th and Heidfeld 17th. Panis was 18th, and Webber 19th after hydraulic problems, in a Minardi rebuilt after an accident two days before. De la Rosa and Irvine took 20th and 21st, and Yoong was 22nd after he crashed into the wall five minutes into qualifying.

What happened in the warm-up?

The half-hour warm-up was held in partly cloudy and warm conditions. Frentzen set the fastest time of 1:20.875 in the final minute, with Michael Schumacher, Coulthard, Trulli, Raikkonen and Barrichello completing the top six. De la Rosa lost control at the Swimming Pool chicane near the end of the session, but he avoided damage to the car.

How did the start change the race?

Coulthard got away faster than Montoya, who struggled to move from first into second, and he took the lead into Sainte Devote. Coulthard then kept Montoya from moving across to defend at Sainte Devote. Behind them, Michael Schumacher was third and Ralf Schumacher fourth, while Trulli's launch control moved him from seventh to fifth.

Button jumped the start when his Renault slipped on the clutch and he had to back off, which disrupted his launch control. He braked as soon as he realised his error and fell to 17th, and a drive-through penalty followed on lap six. Villeneuve's clutch failed on the grid, so the marshals pushed his car into the pit lane, and he rejoined one lap down. After the first lap Coulthard led Montoya by 1.1 seconds.

How did the middle of the race play out?

Montoya went after Coulthard for the lead, and Michael Schumacher fought Montoya for second place. Montoya could not get alongside on the inside because of the tight confines, and Coulthard began pulling away from lap 10 as his Michelin tyres performed well. Yoong ran wide at the hairpin, which promoted Button to 20th.

McNish retired on lap 16 after he misjudged his braking into Sainte Devote, struck the inside kerb and hit the outside tyre barrier. The safety car was not used. Sato passed Salo for ninth on lap 21, and Fisichella followed him through on the same lap. Sato then tried to let his team-mate pass on team orders, lost control on the dirty part of the track in the tunnel and crashed into the outside barrier. Fisichella braked hard to avoid him, and Sato was unhurt.

Bernoldi was racing Massa for 10th when Massa locked his tyres and hit the back of Bernoldi's car at Sainte Devote. Neither driver retired, but Massa made a stop for a new nose cone and received a drive-through penalty for the collision. The same lap saw smoke from Coulthard's left-hand exhaust bank. A stuck valve in the oil system was pumping too much oil, and Mercedes engineers used the McLaren team's pit-to-car telemetry to adjust the pump, which solved the problem. Yoong hit the wall after running over debris at the Casino Square corner and retired on lap 32.

What happened in the second half of the race?

Barrichello collided with Raikkonen's McLaren on lap 40 when braking into the chicane. The Ferrari rode over the McLaren, and Raikkonen's rear end was damaged enough to end his race. Barrichello received a new rear wing and rejoined.

Michael Schumacher made his first stop on lap 44. That 8.5-second stop left him fourth, just behind Ralf Schumacher, and the stewards also gave Barrichello a ten-second stop-and-go penalty for the collision, plus a drive-through for speeding in the pit lane. Montoya's engine lost power on lap 47, and he stopped near La Rascasse with flames at the back of the car. Villeneuve retired on lap 48 with an engine failure.

Michael Schumacher then set the fastest lap of the race at that point and closed on Coulthard, whose tyres looked badly worn. Ralf Schumacher changed to new tyres on lap 50 and kept third. Coulthard pitted at the end of lap 51, with a stop of 6.9 seconds, and rejoined in the lead two seconds ahead of Michael Schumacher. Button and Panis collided at Sainte Devote on lap 53, and both cars were craned off before the leaders arrived.

Ralf Schumacher slowed on lap 65 because of a delamination in the left-rear tyre, and his 6.1-second stop kept him third. On the next lap Massa's rear brakes failed on the approach to Sainte Devote and he hit the tyre barrier head-on, but he was unhurt. Five laps later Salo's front wheel bearing failed because of a brake problem, and he spun into the outside wall, again without injury. Marshals removed the car quickly, so no safety car was needed.

Top ten classification

Why did Coulthard's win matter?

The win was Coulthard's 12th in Formula One and his second at Monaco. He led every lap over the final 26, holding off Michael Schumacher, who pressed him hard but could not find a way past on the circuit. The result moved Coulthard from fifth to fourth in the drivers' table, and it left Michael Schumacher's lead at 33 points.

Ralf Schumacher and Montoya were level on 27 points each in second place in the drivers' standings. Ferrari kept the constructors' lead on 72 points, with Williams second and McLaren third, and ten races remained in the season.

How did the drivers and team bosses react?

Coulthard called the win unbelievable and said it had been a difficult start to the season, with his hopes pinned on Monaco. Michael Schumacher praised McLaren and said Monaco required pushing until the last corner. Ralf Schumacher was glad to see the flag at Monaco for the first time, though his car had not been quick enough.

McLaren's technical director Adrian Newey called the win a happy surprise, saying Monaco was the race where the team felt its car suited the track best. Ron Dennis said the team would find the rest of the season difficult, while Frentzen said the result made the championship more exciting. Michelin's Pierre Dupasquier said it was good to stop Michael Schumacher winning, though he was not sure Schumacher could be kept off the podium altogether.

Trulli said his first points of the season were a positive, but he felt he could have finished on the podium had he not been delayed by Heidfeld. Fisichella was delighted with fifth. Williams' technical director Patrick Head said the team would look closely at how Montoya had lost the lead at the start.

A post-race check found that a paper seal was missing from an electronic control unit in Trulli's engine, which broke the FIA technical regulations and raised concern about software tampering. Two days after the race, a follow-up inspection at Renault's factory in Enstone found no anomalies, and the result stood.