The 2001 French Grand Prix (officially the Mobil 1 Grand Prix de France 2001) was a Formula One motor race held at the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours, Magny-Cours, Nièvre, Burgundy, France on 1 July 2001 before a crowd of 120,717 people. It was the 10th race of 17 in the 2001 Formula One World Championship and the 51st French Grand Prix as part of the series. Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher won the 72-lap race starting from second position. Ralf Schumacher finished second for the Williams team with Rubens Barrichello third in the other Ferrari.
Heading into the race, Michael Schumacher led the World Drivers' Championship by 24 championship points over Coulthard and Ferrari led McLaren in the World Constructors' Championship. Ralf Schumacher secured the first pole position of his career by setting the fastest lap time in the one-hour qualifying session. He led the opening 23 laps before he made his first pit stop and Michael Schumacher assumed the lead after the first round of pit stops. McLaren's David Coulthard served a ten-second stop-and-go penalty on lap 32 for an earlier transgression of speeding at the pit lane exit. Michael Schumacher pulled away from the slower car of Ralf Schumacher who baulked his teammate Juan Pablo Montoya, until his second pit stop on the 44th lap. Montoya led laps 46 to 50 before he ceded the lead to Michael Schumacher, who maintained it for the remainder of the race to achieve his sixth victory of the season and the 50th of his career.
The result enabled Michael Schumacher to increase his World Drivers' Championship lead over Coulthard in second to 31 championship points. Ralf Schumacher's second-place finish moved him past Barrichello for third. Although he retired from the event, Montoya kept fifth. Ferrari further extended their World Constructors' Championship advantage to 52 championship points over the McLaren team in second. Williams remained in third place with 43 championship points while Sauber broke its tie with Jordan to move into a clear fourth with seven rounds left in the season.
Background
The 2001 French Grand Prix was the 10th of 17 scheduled single seater races of the 2001 Formula One World Championship and the 51st running of the event as part of the series. It took place at the 15-turn Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours in the commune of Magny-Cours, Nièvre, Burgundy on 1 July 2001. The layout of the circuit provided a mixture of corners taken at low and high speeds with four long and short straights. It had a flat and smooth racing surface that had no single deformation around the track to disrupt the stability of the cars and the series' two tyre suppliers Bridgestone and Michelin brought soft compound tyres to maximise mechanical grip.
Before the race, Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher led the World Drivers' Championship with 68 championship points ahead of McLaren's David Coulthard (44 championship points) in second. Rubens Barrichello (26 championship points) in the second Ferrari was third and Williams driver Ralf Schumacher in fourth was one point behind in the battle for the position. The other Williams driver Juan Pablo Montoya completed the top five in the standings with 12 championship points. In the World Constructors' Championship Ferrari led with 94 championship points, with a 41-point gap over the second-placed McLaren. With 37 championship points, Williams were in third position and Sauber (15 championship points) and Jordan (13 championship points) contended for fourth place.
In preparation for the Grand Prix, the Ferrari team tested its chassis, the F2001, the only constructor to do so. The outfit conducted a six-hour and 45-minute shakedown session on 28 June at the Fiorano Circuit with their test driver, Luca Badoer, who drove to test the functionality of the car electrical system and also concentrated on launch control system practice starts. After an FIA World Motor Sport Council meeting in Paris on 27 June 2001, all of the 11 teams unanimously agreed that starting from this event, any driver who stalled his car on the grid for the formation lap would be barred from using the spare car. The rule was revised to state that any switch into the spare car could only be undertaken 15 seconds before the commencement of the formation lap and it would avoid any driver incurring a pit lane start.
Coulthard had won the 2000 French Grand Prix and spoke of his anticipation that McLaren would be within four-tenths of a second of Ferrari depending on the amount of tyre degradation, "So, in qualifying, again, unless the tyre that we have available to us works well on our car there, I don't think we have something in the set-up that we can change. It's probably something a bit more fundamental." He said that he did not want to be drawn into discussion over the Drivers' Championship and sought to extract his best performance over the rest of the season, " I concentrate on the future because you can't change the past. What we can influence is the future and we won't be affected by the situation that we are in." Michael Schumacher stated his acknowledgement that Coulthard was his main rival for the Drivers' Championship, and took a race-by-race approach, "The year is long and there are still eight races to go and I still have to calculate for David in particular. McLaren could still be very strong in Magny-Cours"
A total of 11 teams (each representing a different constructors) entered two drivers each for the event. Some teams made modifications to their cars for the race. The Renault engine manufacturer débuted a revised specification of its V10 power unit in the Benetton B201s of Giancarlo Fisichella and Jenson Button. This however did not increase the overall top speed of the cars and they remained slow throughout the race meeting. All of the primary teams did not bring any major aerodynamic improvements to the Magny-Cours track as the Prost outfit installed revised its suspension geometry and modified the bodywork of the AP04 chassis. The Sauber team mounted a new front wing on the C20 that featured an V-shaped wing to support it and the British American Racing (BAR) squad introduced a new rear suspension design that was developed by its partner Honda on Olivier Panis' 003 chassis.
Practice A total of four practice sessions preceded Sunday's race—two one-hour sessions on Thursday, and two 45-minute sessions on Saturday. Ambient and track conditions were hot and clear for the two practice sessions on Friday. In the first practice session, held on a slippery track on Friday morning, McLaren's Mika Häkkinen was fastest with a lap of 1:15.889, 0.155 seconds faster than Michael Schumacher in second. Coulthard and Barrichello were third and fourth, with the Williams of Ralf Schumacher and Montoya fifth and sixth. Jarno Trulli of the Jordan team, Panis, Heinz-Harald Frentzen and BAR driver Jacques Villeneuve rounded out the session's top ten drivers. Several drivers spun on the dusty track and into the gravel traps during the session. Ralf Schumacher's running ended early due to a water leak that was possibly caused by a damaged pipe in the car's sidepod from hitting debris off Kimi Räikkönen's Sauber. Around 15 minutes into the session, Eddie Irvine got his Jaguar stuck in a gravel trap on his first attempt at a fast lap.
Coulthard was quicker in the second practice session held later in the afternoon and recorded the day's fastest lap of 1:14.935 late in the session. Irvine had increased pace in his Jaguar and he went second and Villeneuve was third. Fourth was Häkkinen and the Williams pair of Ralf Schumacher and Montoya placed fifth and sixth. Michael Schumacher, Jaguar's Pedro de la Rosa, Trulli and Barrichello were in positions seven to ten. Jos Verstappen's engine failed in his Arrows A22 on the pit lane straight and he took over his teammate Enrique Bernoldi's Arrows car for the final 20 minutes of the session. An unstable rear caused Panis to spin into the gravel trap at the Adelaide hairpin early in the session. As Räikkönen exited the pit lane, the front wing on his car detached, causing him to oversteer through the gravel trap at Estoril corner at high speed and shattering the front wing.
It continued to be hot and clear for Saturday morning's two practice sessions. Michael Schumacher increased the performance of his car and was fastest in the third practice session with a lap of 1:13.729 he set late in the session. He was 0.406 seconds clear of Coulthard in second and third was Ralf Schumacher. Barrichello was fourth-fastest, ahead of Montoya and Trulli in fifth and sixth places. Frentzen, Panis, Villeneuve and Räikkönen followed in the top ten. No incidents were reported during the session although Häkkinen did not record a timed lap. Although he did not improve his lap time Michael Schumacher remained quickest in the fourth practice session, with Ralf Schumacher in second. The two McLarens were third and fourth – Coulthard ahead of Häkkinen – with Trulli improving to fifth and Barrichello fell to sixth. Montoya was seventh-fastest, Sauber's Nick Heidfeld placed eighth, Irvine came ninth and Räikkönen duplicated his third practice session result in tenth position.
Qualifying
Saturday's afternoon one hour qualifying session saw each driver was limited to twelve laps, with the grid order decided by their fastest laps. During this session, the 107% rule was in effect, which necessitated each driver to set a time within 107 per cent of the quickest lap to qualify for the race. Weather conditions for qualifying were hot and sunny. On his 26th birthday and in his 76th entry, Ralf Schumacher twice surpassed the qualifying track record held by Nigel Mansell, the 1992 World Champion, to claim the first pole position of his career and the Williams team's first since the 1997 European Grand Prix with a 1:12.989 lap that he set on his second timed run. His older brother Michael Schumacher was ten-thousandths of a second slower in second position, and was the early pace setter until Ralf Schumacher's pace. He was distracted by the Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn over the radio and was later baulked by Trulli on his third timed lap. Coulthard qualified third on his fourth timed run with three minutes left and spoke of his feeling he could have improved further as he ran over gravel scattered by Luciano Burti's Prost car at Lycee corner causing him to make a minor mistake. His teammate Häkkinen had minor engine vibrations and an error on his final timed lap put him fourth. Trulli and Frentzen took fifth and seventh for the Jordan team. Trulli set his best lap late in the session, and was pleased with the balance of his car and later apologised to Michael Schumacher for slowing the Ferrari driver while Frentzen was baulked by Panis. They were separated by Montoya's slower Williams who was pleased with how his car felt but was annoyed with Alesi who blocked Montoya during his last timed lap towards its conclusion. Montoya drove on the harder, slower tyre compound.