The team said no to a Barrichello win

By Greig Murray
September 29 2002

Michael Schumacher has said he has no problems with the way he lost the USGP to Rubens Barrichello. Schumacher had led from the start and looked on course for his 11th win before a photo finish declared Barrichello as the winner.

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Last lap switches seem to be a common thing at Ferrari this season, after Rubens Barrichello gave Michael Schumacher the win at the Austrian GP the same but in reverse has happened at the USGP. Michael Schumacher looked set to take his eleventh win of the season but on the last lap he ran up wide on the oval and Barrichello came alongside and took the win. Schumacher admits he tried for a dead heat but has no problems that Barrichello won. This was no team decision it was a driver decision.

"I did not feel pretty happy with what happened in Austria from my point of view but a decision was made at the time," said Schumacher. "But now I have equalised this and I can give Rubens something back. He deserved the win. I did ask the team before if I could let him win and they said no, they did not want this.”

"But there was no plan to do this, it just happened. I tried to go over the line side-by-side but couldn't. Neither of us knew who had won at the end, we had to wait until we got to a screen to find out.”

Ross Brawn confirmed after the race that the team had no input on this finish after they had let them race for the full distance. Brawn confirmed they did lessen the revs after the second stops but the team did not instruct then to slowdown at any point. Michael maybe wanted a close finish but did he really want Rubens to take the win?

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