2004 United States Grand Prix: Schumacher Wins Through Michelin Crashes

Michael Schumacher won the 2004 United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis, his eighth victory of the season, after Rubens Barrichello led from pole and then gave up the lead on the restart. Two serious accidents, both caused by Michelin tyre failures, dominated the race. They foreshadowed the 2005 event, at which every Michelin-shod car withdrew over safety concerns.

What was the 2004 United States Grand Prix?

The race was round nine of 18 in the 2004 FIA Formula One World Championship, run on 20 June around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indiana. It was the last United States Grand Prix to feature a US-owned team until Haas debuted in 2016.

The race began with Barrichello on pole and Michael Schumacher second on the grid. Montoya's Williams failed to start on the formation lap, and he had to run to the pits for the spare car, which meant he started from the pit lane.

Two Michelin tyre failures in the opening laps foreshadowed the 2005 race, where every Michelin-shod car would withdraw.

How did the season look before Indianapolis?

Schumacher had won all but one of the eight races before Indianapolis, which left him with 70 of a possible 80 points. The exception was Monaco, where he crashed with Juan Pablo Montoya. Barrichello, his Ferrari teammate, was 16 points behind after six podiums and two other points finishes.

In the constructors' table Ferrari had 124 points, more than double second-placed Renault, which had also won the Monaco Grand Prix through Jarno Trulli. BAR was third, but its cars suffered reliability problems. Takuma Sato had suffered five engine failures in eight races, three of them in the three preceding Grands Prix.

Williams and Toyota had been disqualified from the Canadian Grand Prix for illegal brake ducts. In Williams' case the fault was a manufacturing error that had given no aerodynamic or cooling gain.

How did practice and qualifying set the grid?

Barrichello was the quickest driver in the first three practice sessions, with times of 1:11.354, 1:10.365 and 1:10.911. Four sessions were held, two 60-minute sessions on Friday and two 45-minute sessions on Saturday, and the bottom six teams from the 2003 standings were allowed a third car on Friday.

In the second Saturday session Button beat Michael Schumacher by 0.143 seconds, with Sato third and Barrichello fourth. Ferrari's Bridgestone tyres grained on the long runs, leaving balls of rubber on the surface and reducing grip.

Qualifying had two parts. The first, pre-qualifying, ran in the reverse order of the Canadian result, and the second repeated the process with fuel loads fixed for the race. Barrichello took pole ahead of Michael Schumacher, giving Ferrari an all-Ferrari front row. BAR locked out the second row, with Sato ahead of Button, and Williams locked out the third, with Montoya fifth and Ralf Schumacher sixth.

Trulli started last after a gearbox failure stopped him setting a time. Before the race Todt had said Barrichello was free to race Schumacher, pointing back to Austria in 2002.

How did the race start and open up?

Barrichello led into the first corner, with Michael Schumacher keeping second. Alonso started ninth, went around the outside of Raikkonen and then took third from Sato at the second turn. Button dropped from fourth to sixth, and Ralf Schumacher fell to seventh.

A start-line accident then brought out the safety car. Christian Klien's car ploughed into the back of Da Matta after a gear selection problem, speared across the track and hit Pantano's Jordan and Massa's Sauber. Heidfeld squeezed Bruni's Minardi onto the kerb, and that damage ended the Minardi's race. The safety car stayed out until the end of lap five.

Schumacher got past Barrichello for the lead as the safety car returned to the pits, and Trulli had moved up to 11th after a crash at turn two had taken out several cars ahead of him.

What went wrong with the Michelin tyres?

On lap nine Alonso's right-rear tyre deflated under braking at the end of the main straight. His Renault went nose-first into the barriers, and the front of the car was destroyed. Double yellow flags were shown, so drivers could not overtake in the zone.

At the end of lap ten Ralf Schumacher's Williams suffered a tyre failure at turn thirteen, the only banked corner in Formula One at the time. The car hit the wall at a ninety-degree angle and skidded several hundred metres. Ralf sat motionless for two minutes, unable to speak to his team because the radio had been smashed.

Ralf Schumacher suffered spinal fractures and a concussion. He was unable to race again until the 2004 Chinese Grand Prix, three months later. Both accidents were caused by tyre failures on Michelin tyres, and they set the scene for the 2005 United States Grand Prix, where all Michelin-shod cars withdrew.

How did the pit stops change the order?

Most drivers pitted early under the safety car. Michael Schumacher and Barrichello both stopped, but Barrichello had to queue behind his teammate and struggled to get going after the stop, which cost him track position to Raikkonen. Coulthard ran over debris from Alonso's car as he left the pits.

Michael Schumacher then led Sato, Button and Montoya, none of whom had stopped. The safety car pulled in at the end of lap nineteen. Button stopped on lap 24 with a messy arrival, and Sato made a clean stop on the following lap and rejoined in eleventh.

Button retired at the end of lap 27 with a gearbox issue. Raikkonen made his second stop at the end of lap 29, and an electronics problem forced a further stop on lap 34 that lasted fifteen seconds. Montoya made his first stop at the end of lap 35.

How close did Barrichello come to winning?

Michael Schumacher led Barrichello by thirteen seconds at lap 38, and Trulli lost a piece of his car on the same lap. Schumacher pitted at the end of lap 42 with a gap of fifteen seconds to his teammate, and his 10.3-second stop let Barrichello take the lead. Barrichello then pushed hard to close in.

Barrichello stopped for fuel on lap 51, and by then the gap had been cut to about two seconds. On lap 52 he went up the inside at turn four, but Schumacher cut across the front of him. The two cars nearly touched, and Barrichello was then told to stay behind, in spite of Todt's earlier statements.

Sato later passed Trulli on lap 61 for third place. Sato had made his second and final stop on lap 45, and Fisichella retired with eight laps to go with a hydraulics problem.

Why was Montoya disqualified?

Montoya made his stop at the end of lap 56 and was disqualified as he left the pit lane because he had changed cars too late on the grid, after the formation lap had started. It was his second consecutive disqualification, and he was frustrated to lose points for the second race running for a reason beyond his control.

Montoya said the car's pace had been positive and that Williams could push on for the rest of the season.

What did the result mean for the season?

Michael Schumacher's eighth win of 2004 extended his lead in the drivers' table. Barrichello finished second, and Sato became only the second Japanese driver to finish on a podium, after Aguri Suzuki. The podium was Sato's only one in Formula One.

Trulli finished fourth, Panis fifth, Raikkonen sixth and Coulthard seventh. Zsolt Baumgartner took eighth, becoming the first Hungarian driver to score a point in a Formula One race.

Race results at a glance