2001 European Grand Prix

The 2001 European Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Nürburgring on June 24, 2001.

After an exciting qualifying session, it was Michael Schumacher in the Ferrari who grabbed pole position from brother Ralf Schumacher and Juan-Pablo Montoya in the Williams-BMWs. This proved to be an important step in winning the grand prix. At the start of the race, Ralf appeared to gain a better start than his brother, but Michael quickly moved across and literally forced Ralf to lift off the throttle, or hit the wall. M Schumacher thus safely held the advantage going into the first corner.

In the early stages, Michael was slowly pulling away, but as the laps passed it became evident that the Michelin-shod Williams-BMWs of Ralf Schumacher and Montoya were starting to show greater speed than the Bridgestone-shod Ferrari. For the rest of the first stint Ralf continued to press his brother, but Michael refused to buckle under the immense pressure. Ralf was now clearly being held up and teammate Montoya was now closing on both of them. Critically for Michael, he and his brother both pitted in at the end of lap 28, thus allowing him to stay in front. Montoya pitted a lap later. After the pitstops, however, the Ferrari showed an improvement in laptimes and was able to comfortably maintain a slender lead. His race was to become even easier when Ralf received a stop-go penalty for illegally crossing the white line that separates the pit exit and racing line (there for safety reasons). Michael Schumacher now comfortably lead over Montoya.

From then on, it was a fairly easy race for the German, who romped to an important victory in the context of the championship.