2000 Italian Grand Prix - Report

Report

As the cars approached the recently redesigned first chicane on the first lap, Eddie Irvine's Jaguar collided with both Saubers, causing Irvine's car to stall and force his retirement from the race. A more significant accident was triggered at the second chicane when the Jordans of Jarno Trulli and Heinz-Harald Frentzen made heavy contact with each other and struck the cars of Rubens Barrichello and David Coulthard from behind. All four cars came to rest in the gravel runoff area. They were then joined by the Arrows of Pedro de la Rosa, who had struck the rear of Johnny Herbert's Jaguar with enough force to tear off the Jaguar's left rear wheel and send the Arrows into the air. As it entered the runoff area, de la Rosa's car clipped Coulthard's McLaren and landed immediately adjacent to Barrichello's Ferrari.

The five stranded drivers were able to climb from their cars without physical injury. Herbert's car avoided the gravel and he returned to the pits on the three remaining wheels. However, the right front wheel from Heinz-Harald Frentzen's Jordan had been propelled towards the armco barrier and struck 33 year old fire marshal Paolo Ghislimberti in the chest and head. Ghislimberti was given a heart massage at the scene, but later died, becoming the first death in Formula One since Ayrton Senna in the 1994 season. He was survived by his pregnant wife, who received financial assistance from an auction of the drivers' racing overalls.

The race stewards chose not to stop the race, but to lead the remaining cars behind the safety car. This upset many drivers, Coulthard among them, who said the race should have been stopped given the seriousness of the fire marshal's situation. The safety car period continued for eleven laps, with Michael Schumacher leading and Mika Häkkinen in second position. Both had been just ahead of the accident when it happened.

Schumacher and Häkkinen both used one-stop strategies, with Schumacher staying ahead of the Finn to the end of the race, winning the Italian Grand Prix for the third time in six years. It was his 41st career victory, putting him into a tie for the second highest number of career victories with the late Senna. Häkkinen took second, with Ralf Schumacher placing third. In the remaining points-scoring places, Jos Verstappen scored Arrows best result of the season with fourth place, 7.5 seconds behind Ralf Schumacher, Alexander Wurz scored his only points finish of the year in fifth place and Ricardo Zonta finished sixth for British American Racing.

During the televised post-race press conference, Schumacher broke into tears when asked if matching Senna's number of wins meant a lot to him. He did not answer further questions during the interviews as he tried to regain his composure, and has never spoken about the cause of the outburst. As a result of Ghislimberti's death, wheel tethers were introduced to stop flying tyres being a danger to the drivers, safety officials and fans. In 2004 a safety fence was placed at the variante della roggia.