2000 San Marino Grand Prix

Championship standings

Schumacher leads with 20 points after back-to-back wins, while the McLarens remain on zero — two races in and Häkkinen and Coulthard have not scored a single point. Fisichella is second with 8, Barrichello and Ralf Schumacher tied third with 6.

Previous race

At Interlagos, Schumacher won from Barrichello. Häkkinen led but retired with a gearbox problem; he said afterwards “nothing can describe how I feel” — McLaren had been quick all weekend and left Brazil without points. Button scored his first championship point in sixth, the youngest driver to do so at the time; Button himself said he felt no great joy at the news, because he “wanted to earn any success through driving skills, not someone else’s misfortune,” a reference to Coulthard’s post-race exclusion moving him up.

Between-race developments

In the days after Brazil, five top-six finishers — including Coulthard, Barrichello, and Ralf Schumacher — were excluded from the results for running an illegally thin wooden floor plank. On appeal, Schumacher and Barrichello were reinstated. Coulthard’s exclusion stood, costing him six points from the second-place finish he held on the road.

Milestones

This is the 20th running of the San Marino Grand Prix and the first European round of the season.

Weather

Overcast, mild, dry, 16 °C.

Practice

Overnight rain leaves the track damp for the first session, but it dries and lap times improve throughout. Schumacher sets the fastest time of 1:27.270 — almost a second quicker than the 1999 pole lap. Conditions remain dry and clear for the second session; Schumacher again fastest, ahead of Barrichello. Villeneuve’s BAR suffers a failed fuel pipeline that drops oil across the track, causing difficulties for several drivers. Button’s Williams has a late engine failure on the start/finish straight.

In the third session, Schumacher leads at 1:25.085. Heidfeld runs into the gravel at the Tamburello chicane; Ralf Schumacher goes across a gravel trap with a brake problem, damaging his front wing. In the final session Häkkinen takes the fastest time, 0.112 seconds ahead of Schumacher. Gené heavily damages the front of his Minardi against the tyre wall at Piratella with ten minutes remaining; he is unhurt but must use Mazzacane’s car for qualifying. Villeneuve spins into the Aqua Minerale gravel trap on new tyres, ending his session early.