You are here: Home / @The Apex / Racing / FIA Formula One World Championship / 2003 Season / Michael Masters Montreal Wins The 2003 Canadian Grand Prix

Michael Masters Montreal Wins The 2003 Canadian Grand Prix

Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello gave the Ferrari team one of the best performances of the year on Sunday afternoon in Montreal to bring a win and 14 World Championship points to the Italian team. Michael Schumacher is now leading the Driver World Championship and Ferrari leads McLaren in the Constructor Championship. The day also marked the first occasion that Shell-powered machines won in Formula One, World Superbikes and in MotoGP on the same day.

The weather forecasters earned their money today as the predicted dry afternoon in Montreal came true. Michael Schumacher managed to reverse some of the predictions however by winning the race in some style, beating the much-fancied Williams duo of Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya to the top step of the podium.

The success today is undeniably due to three factors, Michael and Ruben driving, the superb work from the Ferrari pit crew and the fuel efficiency of the Shell fuel said Mike Copson of Shell Global SolutionsRubens drove really well to recover from an unfortunate start and Michaes laps were perfect. The work from the guys in the pit crew reflects just how much practice they put in and we are proud of the fact that the Ferraris were on leading race pace and were amongst the last to stop. One of the main factors in designing a fuel is to give the car power as well as a useable efficiency and I think with the 14 points we are taking home from Canada we can say that we have done exactly that

Today is a very special day for Shell said Juan Carlos Perez, Shels Global Sponsorship ManagerMichaes win here in Montreal is not only significant for the Formula One World Championship, he is actually the third man to win a World Championship race with Shell technology behind him today. Loris Capirossi won todas MotoGP race in Barcelona on his Shell-Advance powered Ducati desmosedici and Neill Hodgson won both races at Silverstone in the World Superbike Championship also with Shell Advance on a Ducati 999R. Using motorsport gives us the best opportunity to test ourselves and our products. If we can win in the hardest testing ground of them all, then we can be confident that our products are more than capable of protecting road-going cars and bikes. I think we showed today that we are capable of meeting that challenge

Although the drag down to the first corner was fairly clean, there was some of the contact we have come to associate with Canada. Ferrari driver Rubens Barrichello touched the Renault of Fernando Alonso and did enough damage to merit an early trip to the pits for the Brazilian for a new nose. At the front of the grid, the front row Williams led away with a hard charging Michael Schumacher holding his third place. Championship leader Kimi Raikkonen began his race from the pit lane having spun on his qualifying lap yesterday.

Michael Schumacher was soon up to second place however when Juan Pablo Montoya spun on Lap two coming out of the last chicane. The Columbian rejoined the race in fifth place.

Ralf led his brother until the first round of stops in fact The two were lapping at a similar pace, although the Williams cars had to pit first. Ralf dived into the pits on lap 19, one lap later than his team mate. Meanwhile, Michael Schumacher made the most of the empty track ahead of him to put in a stunning in-lap. The lap would become the most important lap of the race as with the slick Ferrari pit crew servicing his car very quickly, Schumacher Senior exited the pits ahead of his brother to lead the race all the way to the flag.

Alonso led the race briefly before he too pitted and with some changes in the lower orders of the race, the top eight remained more or less unchanged until the second round of pit stops. Again, the Ferrari managed to stay on track longer than the Williams cars before it came into the pits for a top up of Shell fuel, and again, the superior combination of Michael Schumacher, the Ferrari pit crew and the Shell fues efficiency saw the No.1 Ferrari exit the pit lane ahead of his brother.

Meanwhile, Barrichello was suffering. The early collision had not only cost his F2003-GA a new nose, his left bargeboard was also working loose. In fact he had to fend of Raikkones charge for the last ten laps without the crucial wing as it broke loose under breaking for the Casino hairpin.

By the end of the race, Michael was leading his brother. Montoya close behind and was being rapidly caught by Alonso. The four cars came across line nose to tail as Michael Schumacher claimed his 68th victory and his 49th win for Shell and for Ferrari. Alonso was behind in fourth place. Barrichello recovered from his incident at the start to finish a magnificent fifth behind another good drive from Kimi Raikkonen. In seventh place was Jaguas Mark Webber and Olivier Panis finished in the last points scoring position for Toyota.

The teams now have to make the long journey back to Europe for the two back to back races of the year, the European Grand Prix and the French Grand Prix. In the Ferrari camp, the atmosphere will be high; Michael Schumacher leads the Driver World Championship again by three points and Barrichello recovered to bring the Ferrari team a 9 point lead over rivals McLaren.

Michael Schumacher is now within grasp of the magical figure of 1000 World Championship points and only one win away from his 50th win with Ferrari.