2001 Belgian Grand Prix

Championship standings

Both championships are settled. In the fight for second place in the Drivers’ Championship, Coulthard is five points ahead of Barrichello and two ahead of Ralf Schumacher. In the Constructors’, McLaren leads Williams for second by thirteen points.

Previous race

At the Hungaroring, Schumacher won from Barrichello after holding the lead from the start. The victory clinched both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships for Schumacher and Ferrari. The win equalled Alain Prost’s all-time record of 51 race victories. Coulthard finished third.

Milestones

Schumacher can break Prost’s all-time wins record of 51 victories at Spa. He said of the remaining season: “For me the season has just started.”

Practice

Friday was wet. Coulthard lost control at Les Fagnes corner at 160 km/h in FP1, hitting a barrier head-on and tearing his right-front wheel from its tethers; he missed FP2 while his car was repaired. Schumacher hit the rear of de la Rosa’s Jaguar in FP2 going down to Eau Rouge in poor spray visibility, breaking his front wing and puncturing de la Rosa’s left-rear tyre. Montoya also crashed into a tyre wall at Les Combes. Button hit an armco barrier at the Bus Stop chicane pit exit, damaging a track rod.

FP3 on Saturday morning was cancelled due to fog, rain and low clouds grounding the emergency medical helicopters in Liège. A single replacement 45-minute session was held when conditions cleared, without practice starts to avoid a delay to qualifying coverage. Montoya led that session with Ralf Schumacher second.