2004 European Grand Prix

The 2004 European Grand Prix (officially the 2004 Formula 1 Allianz Grand Prix of Europe) was a Formula One motor race held on 30 May 2004 at the Nürburgring. It was Race 7 of 18 in the 2004 FIA Formula One World Championship.

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.

Report

Background

Michael Schumacher in the drivers' championship with twelve points ahead of Rubens Barrichello and with 18 points ahead of Jenson Button. In the constructors' championship, Ferrari led Renault with 36 points and BAR-Honda with 48 points.

Earlier in the week, Williams announced important changes to its technical organization chart. After 26 years, in fact, Patrick Head left the position of technical director, being replaced by Sam Michael, previously responsible for track operations. The replacement was also due to growing tensions between the English team and the BMW engine engineer, dissatisfied with the negative results in the first part of the season.

Qualifying

Michael Schumacher dominated qualifying and obtained his fifth pole position of the season with an advantage of more than six tenths over the second best time, set by Sato. Sato broke the overall lap record with a time of 1:27.691 in the first qualifying session, and also took his first front row start.

Race

At the start, Michael Schumacher retained the lead, behind the German driver Trulli overtook Sato, who, however, gave the place back to his rival in the first corner. Further back, Montoya was too late when braking for the corner: the Colombian ended up ramming his teammate Ralf Schumacher, who in turn hit da Matta's Toyota. The latter and the German driver had to abandon the race, while Montoya returned to the pits with a damaged front wing and rejoined the race in last place.

A few corners after the start, Sato braked and Trulli took the opportunity to take second place. However, the Japanese didn't give up and continued to have a heated duel with Trulli, in which he ultimately got the upper hand and Trulli lost places. At the end of the first lap, Michael Schumacher crossed the finish line ahead of Räikkönen, Alonso, Sato, Barrichello, Button and Trulli. The German Ferrari driver was significantly faster than Räikkönen, on whom he gained almost two seconds per lap. The Finn acted as a blocker against the chasing group, which was significantly faster, but could not overtake him and thus fell significantly behind Michael Schumacher.

Michael Schumacher opened the first series of pit stops on the 8th lap. A lap later, Räikkönen also refueled, and shortly after leaving the pits he parked his McLaren at the side of the track with a broken engine. In the following laps, all drivers made their first stop, with the exception of Barrichello, Coulthard and Fisichella, who started with a two-stop strategy. The Brazilian then led for a few laps before refueling on lap 16. The last driver to make his first stop was Fisichella on lap 24. Michael Schumacher continued to lead the race ahead of Sato, Barrichello, Button, Trulli, Alonso and Webber. Further back, Montoya struggled to recover from the first lap accident, while Coulthard retired after having to retire with engine failure like his teammate.

The second set of stops allowed Barrichello to overtake Sato; Behind the Japanese were Button, Trulli, Alonso and Webber. Virtually nothing happened until lap 42, when Alonso opened the third and final series of pit stops. Barrichello overtook Sato again, but the Japanese driver, who had less fuel on board, attacked him on lap 46. Sato's action was unsuccessful and in the end the two came into contact: the BAR driver damaged his front wing, while Barrichello's car suffered no significant damage. Sato returned to the pits to change the nose, but shortly afterwards his car's gearbox gave up. Button moved up to third place. There were no further notable events and Michael Schumacher won the sixth of seven races since the start of the season; Behind him were Barrichello, Button, Trulli, Alonso, Fisichella, Webber and Montoya.

Schumacher and Barrichello left the champagne unsprayed after the death of former Fiat chairman Umberto Agnelli, who had died of lymphatic cancer aged 69 on 27 May.

Classification

Qualifying

;Notes
* – Mark Webber initially set a lap time of (1:30.797), but received a one-second time penalty for ignoring yellow flags in practice.
* – Zsolt Baumgartner, David Coulthard, Giancarlo Fisichella and Gianmaria Bruni received a 10-place grid penalty for engine changes.
* – Gianmaria Bruni had his time set (1:34.022) canceled for leaving the pits with the red light on.

Race

Championship standings after the race

;Drivers' Championship standings

;Constructors' Championship standings

*Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

See also

* 2004 Nürburgring F3000 round

References

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European Grand Prix
European Grand Prix
European Grand Prix
European Grand Prix