Juan Pablo Montoya won his fourth and final race for the BMW Williams on this day in 2004 after celebrating from the second place on the grid in Brazil, on the track where he overtook Michael Schumacher in 2001 in his only third F1 appearance.
In the season in which Michael Schumacher and Ferrari trully dominated and won 12 of the first 13 races, Montoya executed a perfect farewell race and secured victory for his Williams team in Brazil, the first of the season and the first since the 2003 German Grand Prix where the winner was also Montoya.
Williams will be waiting next F1 victory for nearly eight years, until 2012 Spanish GP where Pastor Maldonado won from pole position after beating Fernando Alonso in Ferrari.
Barrichello took pole position (1:10.646), 0.204 seconds ahead of Montoya and 0.246 seconds ahead of Raikkonen. Barrichello retired from the last nine races in Brazil although he had a chance to win several times.
The race started in damp conditions and drivers started on intermediate tyres, but race turned out to be a straight fight between Montoya and Raikkonen, future team-mates in McLaren in 2005.
The winner was Montoya after a tense pitstop fight, and Raikkonen finished one second behind the winner while Barrichello was third, 24 seconds behind and secured first podium on his home race.
Montoya took the fastest lap of the race (1:11.473), 0.089 seconds faster than Raikkonen, and this remained the fastest ever lap ever in the Interlagos race.
“It’s just incredible! The first laps were difficult because I lost a few positions until the tyres had been warmed up, but then I had more grip than the others,” Montoya said.
“The race was decided with a good strategy, Sam Michael called me in the pits for dry tyres at the right time.”
“Later, they made another good decision and called me when Kimi was behind me. They managed to get me out on the track ahead of him by just over a second.”
“I saw him behind me and I knew I could not make the slightest mistake! It’s fantastic to have such a good end to these four years in Williams BMW. I want to thank Frank and everyone in the team.”
RACE RESULTS
| 1 | 3 | J.P.Montoya | Williams/BMW | 71 | 1:28:01.451 | |
| 2 | 6 | Kimi Räikkönen | McLaren/Mercedes | 71 | 1:28:02.473 | 1.022 |
| 3 | 2 | R.Barrichello | Ferrari | 71 | 1:28:25.550 | 24.099 |
| 4 | 8 | Fernando Alonso | Renault | 71 | 1:28:50.359 | 48.908 |
| 5 | 4 | Ralf Schumacher | Williams/BMW | 71 | 1:28:51.191 | 49.740 |
| 6 | 10 | Takuma Sato | BAR/Honda | 71 | 1:28:51.699 | 50.248 |
| 7 | 1 | M.Schumacher | Ferrari | 71 | 1:28:52.077 | 50.626 |
| 8 | 12 | Felipe Massa | Sauber/Petronas | 71 | 1:29:03.761 | 1:02.310 |
| 9 | 11 | G.Fisichella | Sauber/Petronas | 71 | 1:29:05.293 | 1:03.842 |
| 10 | 7 | J.Villeneuve | Renault | 70 | 1:28:04.721 | 1 lap |
| 11 | 5 | David Coulthard | McLaren/Mercedes | 70 | 1:28:18.905 | 1 lap |
| 12 | 16 | Jarno Trulli | Toyota | 70 | 1:28:32.201 | 1 lap |
| 13 | 17 | Ricardo Zonta | Toyota | 70 | 1:28:56.280 | 1 lap |
| 14 | 15 | Christian Klien | Jaguar/Cosworth | 69 | 1:28:12.131 | 2 laps |
| 15 | 19 | Timo Glock | Jordan/Ford | 69 | 1:29:03.524 | 2 laps |
| 16 | 21 | Z.Baumgartner | Minardi/Cosworth | 67 | 1:28:02.126 | 4 laps |
| 17 | 20 | Gianmaria Bruni | Minardi/Cosworth | 67 | 1:28:18.523 | 4 laps |
| (11) | 14 | Mark Webber | Jaguar/Cosworth | 23 | 30:08.368 | Collision |
| (17) | 18 | Nick Heidfeld | Jordan/Ford | 15 | 20:44.345 | Clutch |
| (8) | 9 | Jenson Button | BAR/Honda | 3 | 4:21.354 | Engine |
Fastest lap: Juan Pablo Montoya – 1:11.473 (lap 49)
DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP AFTER 18/18 RACES
| 1 | Michael Schumacher | 148 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | – | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 8 | 8 | – | 10 | 2 |
| 2 | Rubens Barrichello | 114 | 8 | 5 | 8 | 3 | 8 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 6 | 6 | – | 8 | 6 | 10 | 10 | – | 6 |
| 3 | Jenson Button | 85 | 3 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 1 | 8 | 6 | 6 | – | 4 | 5 | 8 | 4 | – | 6 | 8 | 6 | – |
| 4 | Fernando Alonso | 59 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 5 | – | 4 | – | – | 8 | – | 6 | 6 | – | – | 5 | 4 | 5 |
| 5 | Juan Pablo Montoya | 58 | 4 | 8 | – | 6 | – | 5 | 1 | – | – | 1 | 4 | 4 | 5 | – | 4 | 4 | 2 | 10 |
| 6 | Jarno Trulli | 46 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 5 | – | 5 | 5 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | |
| 7 | Kimi Räikkönen | 45 | – | – | – | 1 | – | – | – | 4 | 3 | 2 | 8 | – | – | 10 | – | 6 | 3 | 8 |
| 8 | Takuma Sato | 34 | – | – | 4 | – | 4 | – | – | – | 6 | – | – | 1 | 3 | – | 5 | 3 | 5 | 3 |
| 9 | Ralf Schumacher | 24 | 5 | – | 2 | 2 | 3 | – | – | – | – | – | 8 | 4 | ||||||
| 10 | David Coulthard | 24 | 1 | 3 | – | – | – | – | – | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 5 | – | 2 | 3 | – | – | – |
| 11 | Giancarlo Fisichella | 22 | – | – | – | – | 2 | – | 3 | 5 | – | – | 3 | – | 1 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | – |
| 12 | Felipe Massa | 12 | – | 1 | – | – | – | 4 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 5 | – | 1 | – | 1 |
| 13 | Mark Webber | 7 | – | – | 1 | – | – | – | 2 | – | – | – | 1 | 3 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| 14 | Olivier Panis | 6 | – | – | – | – | – | 1 | – | – | 4 | – | – | – | – | 1 | – | – | – | |
| 15 | Antônio Pizzonia | 6 | 2 | 2 | – | 2 | ||||||||||||||
| 16 | Christian Klien | 3 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 3 | – | – | – | – |
| 17 | Cristiano da Matta | 3 | – | – | – | – | – | 3 | – | – | – | – | – | – | ||||||
| 18 | Nick Heidfeld | 3 | – | – | – | – | – | 2 | – | 1 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| 19 | Timo Glock | 2 | – | – | – | – | – | – | 2 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | |
| 20 | Zsolt Baumgartner | 1 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 1 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| 21 | Jacques Villeneuve | 0 | – | – | – | |||||||||||||||
| 22 | Ricardo Zonta | 0 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | ||
| 23 | Marc Gené | 0 | – | – | ||||||||||||||||
| 24 | Giorgio Pantano | 0 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
CONSTRUCTORS’ CHAMPIONSHIP
| 1 | Ferrari | 262 | 18 | 15 | 18 | 13 | 18 | 6 | 18 | 18 | 18 | 16 | 16 | 10 | 18 | 14 | 18 | 10 | 10 | 8 |
| 2 | BAR/Honda | 119 | 3 | 6 | 10 | 8 | 5 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 9 | 7 | – | 11 | 11 | 11 | 3 |
| 3 | Renault | 105 | 8 | 6 | 8 | 9 | 11 | 10 | 9 | – | 5 | 13 | – | 6 | 6 | – | – | 5 | 4 | 5 |
| 4 | Williams/BMW | 88 | 9 | 8 | 2 | 8 | 3 | 5 | 1 | – | – | 1 | 4 | 6 | 7 | – | 6 | 4 | 10 | 14 |
| 5 | McLaren/Mercedes | 69 | 1 | 3 | – | 1 | – | – | – | 7 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 5 | – | 12 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 8 |
| 6 | Sauber/Petronas | 34 | – | 1 | – | – | 2 | 4 | 3 | 5 | – | – | 3 | – | 1 | 9 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 |
| 7 | Jaguar/Cosworth | 10 | – | – | 1 | – | – | – | 2 | – | – | – | 1 | 3 | – | 3 | – | – | – | – |
| 8 | Toyota | 9 | – | – | – | – | – | 4 | – | – | 4 | – | – | – | – | 1 | – | – | – | – |
| 9 | Jordan/Ford | 5 | – | – | – | – | – | 2 | – | 3 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| 10 | Minardi/Cosworth | 1 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 1 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
