It's red all over at the Brickyard

The F2002’s at the front begin to pull away from third placed Coulthard who has no answer to the Ferrari pace. Barrichello is hot on the heels of Schumacher as both pull out a decent lead with every passing lap. Battles are heating up all over the track though and some close racing is going on further down the grid in a very hot start to the race. Schumacher begins to up the pace and bangs in a series of fastest laps but still Barrichello hangs onto his tail and he too responds with a new lap record. As they come up against the tailenders Michael gets through the traffic better than Rubens and pulls out a bit of a lead. Eddie Irvine making it very tough for Barrichello as does McNish.

Ferrari’s strategy is revealed as Michael pulls into the pitlane for his first stop, so it seems a 2 stop race for Ferrari. Schumacher rejoins in second place ahead of Coulthard and Barrichello is in the next lap. And the running order is resumed as it was prior to the stops as the F2002’s remain in front but Coulthard is much closer. Great work in the pitlane by the mechanics as usual and now the race is on again between Michael and Rubens.

The gap between Michael and Rubens is closer than ever as they settle into their second stint of the race. Half distance and once again the battling Ferrari’s are caught up in the tail end traffic and this gives the chance to the 1 stopping Coulthard to close in Barrichello and it looks like Ferrari have a battle on their hands for the win this weekend. Coulthard pits on lap 42 giving the Ferrari’s a healthy lead but they have to stop once more so they will need to push all the way to their second stops.

Lap 48 and the Ferrari of Michael Schumacher is back in the pitlane for his second stop of the day and another good stop by the mechanics has him back well ahead of Coulthard. Barrichello once again stops the next lap and no problems in the pits for the Brazilian and the 1-2 running order of Schumacher ahead of Barrichello is once again resumed. Now is normally the time for team orders to kick in and the duo being asked to ease of and bring it home but with Coulthard pushing hard in third it looks unlikely that this order could be used today even if they wanted to. The second McLaren of Raikkonen is to retire thanks to a Mercedes blow up and once again the young Finn retires.

Ross Brawn is on his radio to both drivers and the pace up front begins to ease a little. Michael and Rubens were lapping in the 13’s but have now gone into the mid 14’s as the pace does drop to that of Coulthard who is still pushing and inching a little closer to the leading Ferrari’s with every lap. Coulthard continues to bring down the gap as Montoya pushes him from fourth and Brawn is back on the radio asking for the pace to be lifted once more and the lap times once again drop into the 13’s as they defend their lead. The closing laps of the race were reeled off with no drama but the finish was dramatic as Michael runs wide up on the oval Barrichello comes alongside and he takes the win by 0.010 of a second.

So another fantastic weekend for Ferrari and once again maximum points scored. Ferrari dominated the weekend and will be happy with the performance of both drivers and delighted with the 16 points. It was a battle between Michael and Rubens once more up to the second stops and this time it was an amazing end to the race with Michael willing or not handed the win to Rubens Barrichello. Some may say F1 is boring, but the Williams duo have gone a long way to make it very interesting with their in team fighting and collisions. Ferrari now head to Suzuka for the final round of the 2002 season and another 1-2 awaits the Prancing Horse.