2004 European GP – Schumacher dominates in his 200th F1 race

On this day in 2004 Michael Schumacher secured his 76th victory and sixth in the first seven races of the 2004 F1 season in his 200th appearance in Formula 1 while second places Rubens Barrichello completed the fourth 1-2 for Ferrari in 2004.

After Trulli interrupted Schumacher’s winning streak at the start of the season, Germans returned to his old habits on his home race at Nurburgring and secured a convincing pole position with six tenths advantage ahead of Sato in BAR Honda, which was the first front row start in his F1 career.

Schumacher had a very light fuel load and kept the lead at the start, but entered the pits already in the eighth round which clearly indicated that he was on the three stop strategy. Sato was also on the same strategy, but he had more fuel and pitted in lap 12.

Raikkonen started well from the fourth place behind Schumacher, Sato and Trulli and was second at the end of the first lap, which was a good thing for Schumacher because he held Alonso, who was third behind Schumacher and Raikkonen. After an exceptionally short first stint from eight laps, Schumacher had more than 17 seconds ahead of Raikkonen and returned in sixth place after his first pitstop.

Michael-Schumacher-Ferrari-F2004-European-GP-Nurburgring-2-Photo-Ferrari

Raikkonen has already retired in lap 9 due to the Mercedes engine failure that had a new piston specification for that race while his team-mate Coulthard also retired in the lap 25, also due to the engine.

Barrichello was only seventh in qualifying with heavier car (fifth at the end of the first lap), but he was on a two stop strategy (pitted in laps 15 and 38), while Schumacher pitted in the laps 8, 28 and 44.

Schumacher has easily won with 17.989 seconds ahead of Barrichello and Button in BAR Honda who beat Monaco GP winner Trulli in Renault for more than half a minute.

Sato retired in lap 47 due to a Honda engine failure after leading for two laps for the first time in his F1 career.

STARTING GRID

1	1	M.Schumacher	Ferrari	1:28.351	–
2	10	Takuma Sato	BAR/Honda	1:28.986	0.635
3	7	Jarno Trulli	Renault	1:29.135	0.784
4	6	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren/Mercedes	1:29.137	0.786
5	9	Jenson Button	BAR/Honda	1:29.245	0.894
6	8	Fernando Alonso	Renault	1:29.313	0.962
7	2	R.Barrichello	Ferrari	1:29.353	1.002
8	3	J.P.Montoya	Williams/BMW	1:29.354	1.003
9	4	Ralf Schumacher	Williams/BMW	1:29.459	1.108
10	17	Olivier Panis	Toyota	1:29.697	1.346
11	16	C.da Matta	Toyota	1:29.706	1.355
12	15	Christian Klien	Jaguar/Cosworth	1:31.431	3.080
13	18	Nick Heidfeld	Jordan/Ford	1:31.604	3.253
14	14	Mark Webber	Jaguar/Cosworth	1:31.797	3.446
15	19	Giorgio Pantano	Jordan/Ford	1:31.979	3.628
16	12	Felipe Massa	Sauber/Petronas	1:31.982	3.631
17	21	Z.Baumgartner	Minardi/Cosworth	1:34.398	6.047
18	11	G.Fisichella	Sauber/Petronas	–	–
19	20	Gianmaria Bruni	Minardi/Cosworth	–	–
20	5	David Coulthard	McLaren/Mercedes	–	–

RACE RESULTS

European-GP-F1-2004-Nurburgring-podium-Schumacher-Barrichello-Button-Photo-Ferrari

1	1	M.Schumacher	Ferrari	60	1:32:35.101
2	2	R.Barrichello	Ferrari	60	1:32:53.090	17.989
3	9	Jenson Button	BAR/Honda	60	1:32:57.634	22.533
4	7	Jarno Trulli	Renault	60	1:33:28.774	53.673
5	8	Fernando Alonso	Renault	60	1:33:36.088	1:00.987
6	11	G.Fisichella	Sauber/Petronas	60	1:33:48.549	1:13.448
7	14	Mark Webber	Jaguar/Cosworth	60	1:33:51.307	1:16.206
8	3	J.P.Montoya	Williams/BMW	59	1:32:46.774	1 lap
9	12	Felipe Massa	Sauber/Petronas	59	1:33:16.843	1 lap
10	18	Nick Heidfeld	Jordan/Ford	59	1:33:17.176	1 lap
11	17	Olivier Panis	Toyota	59	1:33:43.733	1 lap
12	15	Christian Klien	Jaguar/Cosworth	59	1:34:16.086	1 lap
13	19	Giorgio Pantano	Jordan/Ford	58	1:33:06.003	2 laps
14	20	Gianmaria Bruni	Minardi/Cosworth	57	1:33:28.380	3 laps
15	21	Z.Baumgartner	Minardi/Cosworth	57	1:33:50.760	3 laps

(5)	10	Takuma Sato	BAR/Honda	47	1:13:27.792	Engine
(7)	5	David Coulthard	McLaren/Mercedes	25	39:26.125	Engine
(5)	6	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren/Mercedes	9	13:57.943	Engine
	4	Ralf Schumacher	Williams/BMW	0		Collision
	16	C.da Matta	Toyota	0		Collision

Fastest lap: Michael Schumacher – 1:29.468 (lap 7)

DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP AFTER 7/18 RACES

1	Michael Schumacher	60	10	10	10	10	10	–	10
2	Rubens Barrichello	46	8	5	8	3	8	6	8
3	Jenson Button	38	3	6	6	8	1	8	6
4	Jarno Trulli	36	2	4	5	4	6	10	5
5	Fernando Alonso	25	6	2	3	5	5	–	4
6	Juan Pablo Montoya	24	4	8	–	6	–	5	1
7	Ralf Schumacher	12	5	–	2	2	3	–	–
8	Takuma Sato	8	–	–	4	–	4	–	–
9	Felipe Massa	5	–	1	–	–	–	4	–
10	Giancarlo Fisichella	5	–	–	–	–	2	–	3
11	David Coulthard	4	1	3	–	–	–	–	–
12	Cristiano da Matta	3	–	–	–	–	–	3	–
13	Mark Webber	3	–	–	1	–	–	–	2
14	Nick Heidfeld	2	–	–	–	–	–	2	–
15	Olivier Panis	1	–	–	–	–	–	1	–
16	Kimi Räikkönen	1	–	–	–	1	–	–	–
17	Zsolt Baumgartner	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
18	Christian Klien	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
19	Giorgio Pantano	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
20	Gianmaria Bruni	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–

CONSTRUCTORS’ CHAMPIONSHIP

1	Ferrari	106	18	15	18	13	18	6	18
2	Renault	61	8	6	8	9	11	10	9
3	BAR/Honda	46	3	6	10	8	5	8	6
4	Williams/BMW	36	9	8	2	8	3	5	1
5	Sauber/Petronas	10	–	1	–	–	2	4	3
6	McLaren/Mercedes	5	1	3	–	1	–	–	–
7	Toyota	4	–	–	–	–	–	4	–
8	Jaguar/Cosworth	3	–	–	1	–	–	–	2
9	Jordan/Ford	2	–	–	–	–	–	2	–
10	Minardi/Cosworth	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–