How Sweet It Is for Rubens Barrichello.

European Grand Prix StartStart: Montoya made an electric get away leading the field away only to be out-brakes by Ralf Schumacher into the first corner. As the field scrambled around the tight new first corner, Rubens Barrichello was flying on a light fuel load barrelling his way past both BMS Williams into the second corner. At the end of most exciting first laps of all time, Barrichello took the lead away from Ralf Schumacher followed by Michael Schumacher who overtook Montoya who had fallen to fourth position from pole. Both McLarens of Coulthard and Raikkonen completed the top six positions. Before the first lap was completed Michael Schumacher took the second position from his brother Ralf.

Lap 5: Rubens Barrichello was leading Michael Schumacher by over two seconds, and the gap to the Williams cars was a huge eight seconds greater. Both Ferraris were lapping between two to three second faster than the Williams dynamic duo.

Lap 16: Kimi Raikkonen locked up into the first turn allowing Jenson Button to sneak past on the inside to claim sixth place. Meanwhile the leading Ferraris had a 28 second lead advantage over the Williams car of Ralf Schumacher.

Lap 23: Michael Schumacher spun out but regained control. The whole ordeal cost him 10 seconds.

Lap 24: Michael Schumacher pits his first stop and emerges ahead of his brother Ralf and Montoya.

Lap 25: Barrichello does his first of two pit stops as Michael Schumacher puts the pedal to the metal only to be caught in traffic which helps Barrichello keep his lead and rejoins the race again. Meanwhile Coulthard was putting on the pressure on Montoya for fourth position, the Scot getting a decent run on the Colombian into the first corner at the start of lap 27.

European Grand Prix, Montoya and Coulthard out of race.Lap 27: Coulthard out-braked Montoya around the outside of turn one but the Williams driver did not want to yied and lost control of his car outbraking himself into the corner, tapping the front right wheel of Coulthard's car with the rear left of his Williams. Both drivers retired from the race and collected no points. This is the third consecutive retirement for Montoya.

Lap 30: Ralf Schumacher made his only pit stop of the race while Michael Schumacher started to close down the gap to just 4 second with Barrichello who was still leading the race.

Lap 35: Raikkonen made his pit stop for fuel and tyres. He rejoined the race in third behind the two Ferraris and ahead of Jenson Button, Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli.

Lap 42: Michael Schumacher pits his last stop and rejoins in second position.

European Grand Prix, Barrichello WinsLap 44: Barrichello pits for his last stop and rejoins as the race leader with just two seconds ahead of his team mate.

Lap 55: Speculation mounted whether Ferrari would enforce team orders like they did in Austria. However the pair backed off and cruised home to a one-two finish.

Finish: Ferrari claimed another victory with Barrichello taking only his secodn career victory ahead of team mate Michael Schumacher. This is his first win of the season and second career victory. The win was in Germany at the German Grand Prix back in 2000. Raikkonen claimed the third position and Ralf Schumacher took the fourth place finish. Jenson Button claimed the fifth place and Filipe Massa took the sixth place for the Sauber team.

Next race: British Grand Prix.

Track Profile

Race Event
23/06/2002

Lap Distance
2.831 miles / 4.568 km

Race Distance
190.079 miles / 306.027 km

Number of Laps
60

2002 Winner
R. Barrichello/Ferrari

Current Lap Record
J. Montoya (Williams/BMW)
Time : 1m18.354s (2001)

Fastest Lap
M. Schumacher/Ferrari(2002)
Time : 1:32.226

F1 Three Stars

Rubens Barrichello

Michael Schumacher

Kimi Raikkonen