2000 British Grand Prix

(pictured in 2008), where the race was held. Entries, tyres and championship standings The 2000 British Grand Prix, formally the LIII Foster's British Grand Prix, was the fourth of seventeen races in the 2000 Formula One World Championship. It was held on 23 April 2000 at the Silverstone Circuit in England, United Kingdom. It was the 51st time that the race had been part of the Formula One World Championship since the 1950 Grand Prix. Eleven two-driver teams competed, each representing a different constructor, with no changes to the season entry list. Tyre supplier Bridgestone brought the soft and medium dry compound tyres and the soft and hard wet-weather compounds. Going into the race, Ferrari's Michael Schumacher led the World Drivers' Championship with 30 championship points, followed by his teammate Rubens Barrichello on nine and Benetton's Giancarlo Fisichella on eight. McLaren's Mika Häkkinen and Williams' Ralf Schumacher were tied on six championship points. Ferrari led the World Constructors' Championship with 39 championship points, McLaren and Benetton were second and third with ten and eight championship points respectively and Jordan and Williams were tied for fourth with seven championship points. There was occasional rain during the period, making the track slippery. Ralf Schumacher was quickest on the second day. British American Racing (BAR) driver Jacques Villeneuve hit a fox at the back of the circuit, limiting his testing time. Michael Schumacher led on the third day. Ricardo Zonta, Villeneuve's teammate, crashed into a spectator enclosure at Stowe corner after his front-right suspension failed and suffered a cut to his right middle finger. Michael Schumacher was fastest on the final day. Scheduling issues The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA; Formula One's governing body) moved the event from mid-July to April, when average temperatures in Britain are lower, and the race took place on Easter Sunday 2000. and the could not be moved because that race's organisers had trouble finding marshals on a date close to the Rally Catalunya. The 's reinstatement, initially excluded from the calendar due to problems concerning the country's tobacco advertising laws, and the return of the were suggested as other reasons. A general consensus was a dispute with Silverstone's owners, the British Racing Drivers' Club, and FIA vice-president Bernie Ecclestone over which track would hold the race was the reason for the move. The race was moved back to July from the 2001 season and has been held in the British summer season ever since. Preview Michael Schumacher won the season's first three races while Häkkinen scored only six points due to his McLaren's unreliability. Despite his start to the season, Michael Schumacher declared he would not relax until he had won the championship and would not underestimate Häkkinen, "We have the momentum, but we know how quick and lively Formula One can be. Even though Mika is behind by 24 points, it is still very early in the championship." McLaren's David Coulthard said winning the race would mean more to him than the year before and he would focus on aiming to be as fast as possible, "To get my first win of the season, and to get it at Silverstone, would be just the business." A change allowing teams to use modified pit lane speed limiters was a major topic of discussion leading up to the event. The FIA permitted their use as long as they were "hard-coded" below , preventing teams from modifying them. The condition was imposed to prevent driver aids such as traction control and launch control from being secretly deployed, but limiters were still allowed to operate the rear light and fuel flap filler. Most drivers agreed that the change lower the risk of drivers being distracted while entering and leaving the pit lane. They did, however, voice fears that they would not drive safely at a slow speed, increasing the danger of hitting mechanics or other car. Following Zonta's crash, Michael Schumacher intervened, convincing the Silverstone authorities to enlarge the tyre wall at Stowe corner by one tyre in height and two in depth. Schumacher and FIA chief safety delegate Charlie Whiting ordered that the gravel trap around the area be smoothed to prevent cars becoming airborne. Some teams modified their cars for the event. Following Zonta's accident, BAR replaced the carbon elements of their 002 car's suspension with new steel ones. McLaren offered a revised front wing specification, as well as new screens behind the MP4/15's front wheels. whereas Prost qualified and raced with the most recent version of Peugeot's Evo 3 engine. ==Practice==

There were four practice sessions held before the Sunday race, two one-hour sessions on Friday 21 April and two 45-minute sessions on Saturday 22 April. The Friday practice sessions began on a dry track in cold weather, but after half an hour, it started to rain heavily. Jordan's Heinz-Harald Frentzen led the first session with a time of 1:27.683, almost half a second quicker than Jaguar's Eddie Irvine. Coulthard, Häkkinen, Trulli, Villeneuve. Barrichello, Benetton's Alexander Wurz, Fisichella and Minardi's Marc Gené (who lost engine air valve pressure, necessitating an engine change) rounded out the session's top ten fastest drivers. An electrical failure on Ralf Schumacher's car prevented him from setting a lap time and he stopped at the pit lane exit. Jaguar's Johnny Herbert was limited to three laps due to a loss of pneumatic valve pressure. In the second practice session, Frentzen remained fastest with his lap from the previous session; the circuit was too wet for him and others to improve. Clouds of spray reduced visibility, and cars aquaplaned on standing water. Conditions on the track ranged from nearly flooded to wet during the session, as drivers attempted to optimise their cars for a possible wet-weather qualifying session the next day, though no car damage was reported. Almost halfway through the session, necessitating a 14-minute red flag stoppage. Sporting personalities criticised the Friday practice sessions being held in wet weather. Coulthard believed that aquaplaning would become a serious issue and recommended that altering the wooden plank underneath the car could help alleviate the issue, "It's not comfortable for any of us, we all do it because we all want to win races but really to be going along the straight not knowing whether the car is going to stay in a straight line or not is very difficult." Three-time world champion Jackie Stewart blamed the FIA for damaging Formula One's image by holding the event in April. (pictured in 2004) spun into the gravel trap and was then hit by Eddie Irvine's Jaguar. The weather remained wet for the Saturday morning practice sessions, with a lot of water being lifted into the air from the track. Coulthard lapped fastest in the third session at 1:33.614; Häkkinen, Michael Schumacher, Ralf Schumacher, Barrichello, the Jordan duo of Frentzen and Trulli, Sauber's duo of Mika Salo and Pedro Diniz and Arrows' Jos Verstappen followed in the top ten. Several drivers went off the wet track during the session. Diniz spun off the track at Club corner, damaging his car's front suspension triangle and nose cone in a crash with the tyre barrier. Before the end of the session, Williams driver Jenson Button slid into the gravel trap at turn 14 after leaving Priory turn, and his stationary car stopped near the barrier. Button was then hit by Irvine's Jaguar while attempting to extricate himself from the gravel. The Williams car's front and back suspension were broken whilst the Jaguar's monocoque was punctured. Both drivers were unhurt. Fisichella set no lap times because of an engine oil leak caused by his team changing his engine. Some drivers lost control of their cars on the track. Villeneuve went off the track at Club corner, but narrowly avoided a collision with a tyre barrier and returned to the circuit. The engine of Prost's Jean Alesi failed halfway around the track, causing flames to emerge from the rear of his car on the way to the pit lane after 25 minutes of the session. ==Qualifying==

(pictured in 1999) took the third pole position of his career in the qualifying session. The stewards permitted qualifying to proceed as planned despite the weather conditions. Drivers entered the circuit on scrubbed wet-weather tyres early in the session, hoping to set quick laps if rain fell, With a time of 1:25.703, Barrichello secured his third career pole position and first for Ferrari. It was also his best qualifying performance of the season. He lost a lap for slowing to allow Barrichello to past on the latter's pole lap. Coulthard was the highest-placed British driver in fourth, Michael Schumacher, who changed his car only to make more errors, qualified fifth and missed his final lap by 0.1 seconds due to Trulli causing a yellow flag, Verstappen briefly claimed pole position in the last seconds of qualifying before spinning off and taking eighth, Irvine finished ninth after Jaguar put three laps of fuel in his car, costing him two-tenths of a second. The Minardi team sent both drivers out late in the session after working on their cars' setups and Gené and Gastón Mazzacane (who lost six-tenths of a second encountering traffic on his final run) took 21st and 22nd places. Qualifying classification ==Warm-up==

The rain had stopped by Sunday morning, The McLaren drivers were faster than in qualifying, with Coulthard setting the quickest time of 1:26.800. Häkkinen finished fourth in the other McLaren, two-tenths of a second behind Coulthard. De la Rosa and Ralf Schumacher split them in second and third, respectively. Following one slow lap, Häkkinen's race car had a pneumatic engine valve sensor failure, forcing him to drive the spare McLaren until the problem was addressed. His team successfully installed a new cover. ==Race==

(pictured in 2005) finished the Grand Prix in third position. The 60-lap race, which began at 13:00 local time on 23 April 2000, The weather improved after the warm-up session, and it was dry, cold and sunny before the race; conditions were expected to remain consistent throughout the race, with a 40% chance of rain. A majority of the leading drivers planned for a single pit stop, meaning drivers had to overtake on the circuit and to drive without aerodynamic turbulence affecting them to either undercut or overcuit others. When the five red lights went out to start the race, Coulthard overtook both his teammate Häkkinen and Michael Schumacher as they duelled. Barrichello began to maintain a one-second advantage over Frentzen. Villeneuve oversteered through the Maggots, Becketts, and Chapel turns, and Ralf Schumacher slipstreamed past him on the inside entering Stowe corner on the Hangar Straight for sixth by braking later on lap two. Two laps later, Wurz gained another position by passing Zonta for 15th. Frentzen and Ralf Schumacher were the next two drivers to make pit stops on lap 24, returning to the track in seventh and eighth, respectively, despite the latter's team having difficulty attaching his right-rear wheel to his car due to a loose wheel nut. Coulthard immediately began to pull away from Barrichello. He elected to enter the pit lane on lap 35, ahead of Villeneuve. Coulthard felt the problem but was not alerted of its seriousness by his race engineer Pat Fry over radio. He also believed that his victory made him confident about posing a challenge for the Drivers' Championship saying "my best years are still ahead of me." Häkkinen said his start to the race was the sort that most affected the race result, adding that his car was imbalanced, "To find a good balance in the car you must first get a good run in the morning. I was lacking that, so I was unable to get the best balance in the car." Barrichello expressed disappointment at losing the opportunity to win his first Grand Prix due to his retirement, adding that his clutch and throttle troubles allowed Coulthard to pass him. FIA president Max Mosley and Ecclestone received significant criticism for moving the race to April from July. Mosley said Formula One's governing body would move the event back to July if they could, refuting the suggestion that disagreements between Silverstone and Ecclestone forced the race to be held in April, "We have not gone looking for problems. Everyone thinks that we want to upset Silverstone but we don't." Michael Schumacher continued to the World Drivers' Championship with 34 championship points following the race. Coulthard's victory moved him from eighth to second place with 14 championship points. Häkkinen's second-place finish moved him up from fourth to third and put him on 12 championship points. Barrichello's retirement dropped him from second to fourth, while Ralf Schumacher remained in fifth. Ferrari maintained its World Constructors' Championship lead with 43 championship points, while McLaren closed to within 17 championship points. Williams went from fifth to third, while Benetton and Jordan dropped to fourth and fifth, respectively, with 13 races remaining in the season. Race classification == Championship standings after the race ==

;Drivers' Championship standings ;Constructors' Championship standings • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. ==Notes==