The 2004 British Grand Prix (formally known as the 2004 Formula 1 Foster's British Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race that took place on 11 July 2004 at the Silverstone Circuit in Northamptonshire, England. It was the eleventh round of the 2004 FIA Formula One World Championship.
Kimi Räikkönen of McLaren scored his first pole position of the season, but finished second in the race behind championship leader Michael Schumacher of Ferrari, the German continuing his winning streak with five Grands Prix in a row, just like he did at the start of the year.
Background The race was preceded by a demonstration of contemporary Formula One cars on Regent Street in London, including former British Formula One World Champion Nigel Mansell driving the Jordan EJ14. The event attracted an estimated 500,000 spectators.
After the demonstration, Minardi's Sporting Director John Walton died of a heart attack. Minardi decided to withdraw its cars from the third practice session on Saturday morning.
Practice Four free practice sessions were held for the event. On Friday, the first session was topped by the Ferraris of Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher. The second session saw McLaren's Kimi Räikkönen on top, just five thousands ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella in the Sauber.
On Saturday, Räikkönen topped the third session as well, ahead of Jenson Button in the BAR. And both drivers repeated their feats in the fourth and final session.
Friday drivers The bottom 6 teams in the 2003 Constructors' Championship were entitled to run a third car in free practice on Friday. These drivers drove on Friday but did not compete in qualifying or the race.
Constructor Nat Driver BAR-Honda Anthony Davidson Sauber-Petronas - Jaguar-Cosworth Björn Wirdheim Toyota Ricardo Zonta Jordan-Ford Timo Glock Minardi-Cosworth Bas Leinders
Qualifying Qualifying on Saturday consisted of two sessions. In the first session, drivers went out one by one in the order in which they classified at the previous race. Each driver was allowed to set one lap time. The result determined the running order in the second session: the fastest driver in the first session was allowed to go last in the second session, which usually provided the benefit of a cleaner track. In the second session, drivers were again allowed to set one lap time, which determined the order on the grid for the race on Sunday, with the fastest driver scoring pole position.
On this particular weekend, the first qualifying session was unusual. Teams were expecting rain later that day, so they were deliberately going slow in the first session, aiming for an early slot in the second session. Michael Schumacher spun his car and Rubens Barrichello went wide at Vale corner. Other drivers simply and unsubtly lifted off in the final sector, cruising across the start-finish line at walking pace. Eventually, the rain never came.
Pos No Driver ConstructorQ1 Time Q2 Time Gap Grid 1 6 Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes1:21.639 1:18.233 — 1 2 2 Rubens Barrichello Ferrari1:24.817 1:18.305 +0.072 2 3 9 Jenson Button BAR-Honda1:18.872 1:18.580 +0.347 3 4 1 Michael Schumacher Ferrari1:30.293 1:18.710 +0.477 4 5 7 Jarno Trulli Renault1:21.496 1:18.715 +0.482 5 6 8 Fernando Alonso Renault1:21.923 1:18.811 +0.578 16 7 5 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes1:23.521 1:19.148 +0.915 6 8 3 Juan Pablo Montoya Williams-BMW1:34.386 1:19.378 +1.145 7 9 10 Takuma Sato BAR-Honda1:28.910 1:19.688 +1.455 8 10 14 Mark Webber Jaguar-Cosworth1:35.853 1:20.004 +1.771 9 11 12 Felipe Massa Sauber-Petronas1:19.317 1:20.202 +1.969 10 12 17 Olivier Panis Toyota1:19.697 1:20.335 +2.102 17 13 4 Marc Gené Williams-BMW1:34.981 1:20.335 +2.102 11 14 16 Cristiano da Matta Toyota1:22.507 1:20.545 +2.312 12 15 15 Christian Klien Jaguar-Cosworth1:38.648 1:21.559 +3.326 13 16 19 Giorgio Pantano Jordan-Ford1:21.350 1:22.458 +4.225 14 17 18 Nick Heidfeld Jordan-FordNo time 1:22.677 +4.444 15 18 20 Gianmaria Bruni Minardi-Cosworth1:22.529 1:23.437 +5.204 18 19 21 Zsolt Baumgartner Minardi-Cosworth1:23.116 1:24.117 +5.884 19 20 11 Giancarlo Fisichella Sauber-Petronas No time No time 20 Notes – Fernando Alonso, Gianmaria Bruni, Zsolt Baumgartner and Giancarlo Fisichella received a 10-place grid penalty for engine changes. – Olivier Panis received a 5-place grid penalty for impeding Felipe Massa. – Nick Heidfeld did not set a time in Q1 because he hoped for rain in Q2. – Giancarlo Fisichella did not set a time in either section to save fuel and tyres.
Race The race was held on 11 July 2004 and was run for 60 laps.
Race report
The race started off relatively calm with Kimi Räikkönen managing to hold on to the lead ahead of Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button. Räikkönen showed the best pace, while being able to hold out two more laps before pitting. But it was Michael Schumacher, starting in fourth, who set five consecutive fastest laps while the frontrunners stopped and he managed to open up a gap of more than 20 seconds to his rivals. When the German pitted and rejoined the race on lap 16, it turned out he had jumped ahead of all three drivers and merged into the lead of the race.
Räikkönen tried to put pressure on Schumacher but the McLaren had to pit again on lap 28, while the Ferrari could go on to lap 37. Meanwhile, Button had passed Barrichello in the first round of stops, but the Brazilian was back in front after the second round. Giancarlo Fisichella in the Sauber looked set for an impressive fifth place.
On lap 39, Jarno Trulli had a big crash coming out of Bridge corner. His rear suspension seemed to have failed and his car rolled over into the gravel. Trulli was unhurt but the tyre barrier needed repairing, so the safety car was deployed. This gave Räikkönen the chance to close all the way up to Schumacher, but after the restart, he was unable to match the leader's pace and he had to settle for second. Barrichello completed the podium. Fisichella lost out to Juan Pablo Montoya but scored a respectable sixth place at the finish.
Race classification Pos No Driver Constructor Tyre Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 1 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 60 1:24:42.700 4 10 2 6 Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes 60 +2.130 1 8 3 2 Rubens Barrichello Ferrari 60 +3.114 2 6 4 9 Jenson Button BAR-Honda 60 +10.683 3 5 5 3 Juan Pablo Montoya Williams-BMW 60 +12.173 7 4 6 11 Giancarlo Fisichella Sauber-Petronas 60 +12.888 20 3 7 5 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 60 +19.668 6 2 8 14 Mark Webber Jaguar-Cosworth 60 +23.701 9 1 9 12 Felipe Massa Sauber-Petronas 60 +24.023 10 10 8 Fernando Alonso Renault 60 +24.835 16 11 10 Takuma Sato BAR-Honda 60 +33.736 8 12 4 Marc Gené Williams-BMW 60 +34.303 11 13 16 Cristiano da Matta Toyota 59 +1 Lap 12 14 15 Christian Klien Jaguar-Cosworth 59 +1 Lap 13 15 18 Nick Heidfeld Jordan-Ford 59 +1 Lap 15 16 20 Gianmaria Bruni Minardi-Cosworth 56 +4 Laps 18 19 Giorgio Pantano Jordan-Ford 47 Spin 14 7 Jarno Trulli Renault 39 Suspension/Accident 5 21 Zsolt Baumgartner Minardi-Cosworth 29 Engine 19 17 Olivier Panis Toyota 16 Fire Extinguisher 17
Championship standings after the race Bold text and an asterisk indicates who still has a theoretical chance of becoming World Champion.
Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Michael Schumacher* 100 2 Rubens Barrichello* 74 3 Jenson Button* 53 4 Jarno Trulli* 46 5 Fernando Alonso* 33Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Ferrari* 174 2 Renault* 79 3 BAR-Honda* 67 4 Williams-BMW 41 5 McLaren-Mercedes 32Source:
Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
See also 2004 Silverstone F3000 round
References