San Marino Grand Prix Review

Nothing earth-shatteringly important happened in qualifying, except that we saw again just how evenly matched Schumacher and Mika Hakkinen are in terms of raw speed. Once again the midfield was tightly bunched. In Brazil it was 5th to 18th separated by just one second, and at Imola it was 5th down to 16th.

Talking points were an excellent qualifying effort from Ralf Schumacher, but a dismal reversal of form for Giancarlo Fisichella, who chose the wrong tyres and just never got his Benetton to work all weekend. Poor efforts by Nick Heidfeld and Johnny Herbert didn't help either of their somewhat struggling teams' causes, either.

First, the start. I still can't believe Jacques Villeneuve's getaway. It's one of the best I've seen for a very long time. If he had a longer straight and more space to work in, he would have been second at the first corner. As it was, his 5th place finish was secured there and then. I think David Coulthard, though, was way too soft at the Tamburello chicane, allowing Rubens Barrichello through. Given the rather recalcitrant nature of Barrichello's weekend, in hindsight the start meant that Coulthard could never hope for better than 3rd.

Few would consider this a key moment, but the mechanical glitch that saw Eddie Irvine drop back one or two spots early in the race eventually would cost him Jaguar's first points finish.

Pit work is also what eventually saved Coulthard's afternoon. It was a close run thing between him and Barrichello in the pits, but the McLaren mechanics had the edge, and the Scot got out in front. Good luck to him. While what Ross Brawn said after the race about the potential dangers of the situation were pertinent, what can you do about it? Have some gentlemen's agreement whereby you can't pass aggressively 'in the pits'? If so, you take out what is at present the best overtaking opportunity there is.

And so we come to THE pit stop. It was Hakkinen's misfortune that he lost a chunk of his lead just before he came in for the second time, when he claims his engine suddenly cut. I thought this was a bit spurious at first, but I guess it can make sense. However, I don't really buy the debris-induced aerodynamic disadvantage thing though ­ his speed at the end of the race showed any effect was neglible at best.

To review some other pointers in the race, Coulthard's speed at the end was a nice symbolic gesture that Rubens had been holding him up, but he is fast becoming an obvious number 2 to Hakkinen. Similarly Barrichello will be a clear number 2 to Schumacher (if he isn't already) unless he stops having weekends in hibernation like this one. I rate his efforts, all things considered, a mediocre 5 out of 10.

Now to the tail end of the grid. If Minardi can simply get their drivers to stop spinning, they could yet cause some trouble for the lower teams. Lowest of the low, though, are still Prost. Their Imola experience, bar a few decent laps by Alesi, indicates that they have a lot of work to do before they make any impression on the rest of the field.

I was impressed by Sauber's pace (which proved that Brazil was really only an aberration), while I am prepared to forgive Benetton, because it's the second year in a row that they've sucked at Imola, so maybe it's just their bogey track. Arrows, though, were disappointing after early-season promise.

So onward to Britain, at the wrong time of year. McLaren have some more catch-up work to do, and the fact that they will have had far more testing at Silverstone than Ferrari may give them a slight advantage. But if it's a wet race (and that could be approaching an even money bet), we may just see one Michael Schumacher take 4 out of 4.