Motor Sport Italian Grand PrixThree years ago, Michael Schumacher, staring down the barrel of championship defeat to Mika Hakkinen as the 2000 season raced towards its end, came to Monza with the weight of the world on his shoulders.
With a fifth fruitless season at Ferrari in prospect, the Italian media hounding Ferrari and the tifosi shrieking in fury, Schumacher climbed into his Ferrari knowing the next 53 laps would make or break his year.
On that Sunday afternoon he walked away from the Milanese circuit with a victory, 10 points and a challenge reinvigorated to the degree that he won the remaining three races of the season to claim Ferrari's first drivers' crown in 21 years.
Yesterday, at the same circuit and under similar pressure, Schumacher began a similar resuscitation, winning for the first time in six races and opening a three-point gap to his closest challenger, Juan Pablo Montoya, who could only follow in second.
Schumacher had injected the first breath of life into his faltering challenge for a record sixth title on Saturday, edging out Montoya for pole position, and as the season's last and tightest quarter got underway yesterday, it quickly became a race decided in a few key moments.
At the start, Schumacher erred on entry into the first chicane, which allowed Montoya to get a run on the champion as the pair entered the Variante della Roggia. The Colombian pulled alongside and for a second threatened, but Schumacher fended off the assault, though he admitted it had been touch and go.
"It was tight into the first chicane," Schumacher said. "I had a lock-up and almost didn't make it. I had to choose to either cut it or do it badly and I chose to do it badly, which gave Juan a chance. We had a pretty good battle, tight but fair, which is what I think people want to see."
With the challenger's first assault dismissed, Schumacher set about establishing a safety net, rocketing through his first stint and fuel stop on lap 15 and keeping the Williams at bay.
But after Montoya had made his first visit to the pits a lap later, the Colombian suddenly found the pace to chase down the champion, squeezing a nearly-three-second gap to just over one as the pair raced towards their second and final stops. This time it was Montoya's turn to come in first, attempting to give himself space to eat into the one-second deficit. But crucially it failed again, Schumacher stopping two laps later and emerging marginally ahead, though he thought at first Montoya had stolen the lead.
But the Williams in front was that of Marc Gene, the test driver standing in for Ralf Schumacher, who had withdrawn on Saturday, still feeling the effects of his massive accident in testing at the circuit 10 days previously.
And once Gene had pitted to resume in sixth, which would become fifth when McLaren's David Coulthard retired eight laps from the finish, normal order was restored and Schumacher again led from his arch-rival.
But Montoya was again closing, the gap narrowed to just under a second, and in the closing third of the race it looked as if the Williams driver might destroy Schumacher's Monza dream. But 15 laps from home Montoya suddenly fell foul of traffic, getting lodged behind the Sauber of Heinz-Harald Frentzen and then the Jordan of Zsolt Baumgartner, events which, he claimed, destroyed his chances.
"I lost about a year behind Frentzen," he said. "I'm going down the straight and there's about 10 blue flags waving - it looked like a parade. He just wouldn't move. Then I came to the Jordan guy - what's his name, Baum-something? - the new guy, I don't know his second name. He just stood on the brakes to let me past. I nearly ran into him. Crazy!"
Behind Frentzen, Montoya lost nine tenths and then more behind Baumgartner to, within two laps, find one second turned to four and from there the Colombian decided to settle for second and eight points, ahead of Rubens Barrichello's Ferrari.
Which left Schumacher to crow over the victory, his first since Canada in June. "This is one of the greatest days of my career," he said. "It's certainly a relief considering what had happened. We always knew there could be difficult times and we always we knew would could come back, but knowing it and doing it are two different things. Today we did it."
Meanwhile, the Jordan cars finished for the first time in six races, since the European Grand Prix, with Giancarlo Fisichella scraping into the top 10 and Baumgartner finishing 11th.
1 M Schumacher (Ger) Ferrari Ferrari ... 1hr 14mins 19.838secs
2 J Montoya (Col) Williams BMW ... 1:14:25.132
3 R Barrichello (Bra) Ferrari Ferrari ... 1:14:31.673
4 K Raikkonen (Fin) McLaren Mercedes ... 1:14:32.672
5 M Gene (Spa) Williams BMW ... 1:14:47.729
6 J Villeneuve (Can) BAR Honda ... at 1 lap
7 M Webber (Aus) Jaguar Jaguar ... at 1 lap
8 F Alonso (Spa) Renault Renault ... at 1 lap
9 N Heidfeld (Ger) Sauber Petronas ... at 1 lap
10 G Fisichella (Ita) Jordan Cosworth ... at 1 lap
11 Z Baumgartner (Hun) Jordan Cosworth ... at 2 laps
12 N Kiesa (Den) Minardi Cosworth ... at 2 laps
RETIRED:
13 H-H Frentzen (Ger) Sauber Petronas 50 laps; 14 D Coulthard (Br) McLaren Mercedes 45 laps; 15 O Panis (Fra) Toyota Toyota 35 laps; 16 J Verstappen (Ned) Minardi Cosworth 27 laps; 17 J Button (Br) BAR Honda 24 laps; 18 C Da Matta (Bra) Toyota Toyota 3 laps; 19 J Wilson (Br) Jaguar Jaguar 2 laps; 20 J Trulli (Ita) Renault Renault 0 laps.
DRIVERS' CHAMPIONSHIP: 1 M Schumacher 82pts; 2 Montoya 79; 3 Raikkonen 75; 4 R Schumacher (Ger) Williams BMW 58; 5 Barrichello 55; 6 Alonso 55; 7 Coulthard 45; 8 Trulli 24; 9 Webber 17; 10 Button 12; 11 Fisichella 10; 12 Da Matta 8; 13 Frentzen 7; 14 Panis 6; 15 Villeneuve 6; 16 Gene 4; 17 Heidfeld 2; 18 R Firman (Br) Jordan Cosworth 1.
MANUFACTURERS' CHAMPIONSHIP: 1 Williams BMW 141; 2 Ferrari 137; 3 McLaren Mercedes 120; 4 Renault 79; 5 BAR Honda 18; 6 Jaguar 17; 7 Toyota 14; 8 Jordan Cosworth 11; 9 Sauber Petronas 9.
