2004 British Grand Prix

2004 British Grand Prix
Race 11 of 18 in the 2004 Formula One World Championship
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Silverstone Circuit in its 2004 configuration
Silverstone Circuit in its 2004 configuration
Race details
Date 11 July 2004
Official name 2004 Formula 1 Foster's British Grand Prix[1]
Location Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone, Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire, England
Course Permanent Road Facility
Course length 5.141 km (3.194 miles)
Distance 60 laps, 308.355 km (191.603 miles)
Weather Cloudy, Air: 17 °C (63 °F), Track 27 °C (81 °F)[2]
Pole position
Driver
McLaren-Mercedes
Time 1:18.233
Fastest lap
Driver Germany Michael Schumacher Ferrari
Time 1:18.739 on lap 14
Podium
First
Ferrari
Second
McLaren-Mercedes
Third
Ferrari
Lap leaders

The 2004 British Grand Prix (formally known as the 2004 Formula 1 Foster's British Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race that took place on 11 July 2004 at the Silverstone Circuit in Northamptonshire, England. It was the eleventh round of the 2004 FIA Formula One World Championship.

Kimi Räikkönen of McLaren scored his first pole position of the season, but finished second in the race behind championship leader Michael Schumacher of Ferrari, the German continuing his winning streak with five Grands Prix in a row, just like he did at the start of the year.

Background

The race was preceded by a demonstration of contemporary Formula One cars on Regent Street[3][4] in London, including former British Formula One World Champion Nigel Mansell driving the Jordan EJ14.[5] The event attracted an estimated 500,000 spectators.[6]

After the demonstration, Minardi's Sporting Director John Walton died of a heart attack. Minardi decided to withdraw its cars from the third practice session on Saturday morning.[7]

Practice

Four free practice sessions were held for the event. On Friday, the first session was topped by the Ferraris of Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher. The second session saw McLaren's Kimi Räikkönen on top, just five thousands ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella in the Sauber.[8][9]

On Saturday, Räikkönen topped the third session as well, ahead of Jenson Button in the BAR.[7] And both drivers repeated their feats in the fourth and final session.[10]

Friday drivers

The bottom 6 teams in the 2003 Constructors' Championship were entitled to run a third car in free practice on Friday. These drivers drove on Friday but did not compete in qualifying or the race.

Constructor Nat Driver
BAR-Honda United Kingdom Anthony Davidson
Sauber-Petronas -
Jaguar-Cosworth Sweden Björn Wirdheim
Toyota Brazil Ricardo Zonta
Jordan-Ford Germany Timo Glock
Minardi-Cosworth Belgium Bas Leinders

Qualifying

Qualifying on Saturday consisted of two sessions. In the first session, drivers went out one by one in the order in which they classified at the previous race. Each driver was allowed to set one lap time. The result determined the running order in the second session: the fastest driver in the first session was allowed to go last in the second session, which usually provided the benefit of a cleaner track. In the second session, drivers were again allowed to set one lap time, which determined the order on the grid for the race on Sunday, with the fastest driver scoring pole position.[11]

On this particular weekend, the first qualifying session was unusual. Teams were expecting rain later that day, so they were deliberately going slow in the first session, aiming for an early slot in the second session. Michael Schumacher spun his car and Rubens Barrichello went wide at Vale corner. Other drivers simply and unsubtly lifted off in the final sector, cruising across the start-finish line at walking pace. Eventually, the rain never came.[8][12]

Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Time Q2 Time Gap Grid
1 6 Finland Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes 1:21.639 1:18.233 — 1
2 2 Brazil Rubens Barrichello Ferrari 1:24.817 1:18.305 +0.072 2
3 9 United Kingdom Jenson Button BAR-Honda 1:18.872 1:18.580 +0.347 3
4 1 Germany Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:30.293 1:18.710 +0.477 4
5 7 Italy Jarno Trulli Renault 1:21.496 1:18.715 +0.482 5
6 8 Spain Fernando Alonso Renault 1:21.923 1:18.811 +0.578 161
7 5 United Kingdom David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 1:23.521 1:19.148 +0.915 6
8 3 Colombia Juan Pablo Montoya Williams-BMW 1:34.386 1:19.378 +1.145 7
9 10 Japan Takuma Sato BAR-Honda 1:28.910 1:19.688 +1.455 8
10 14 Australia Mark Webber Jaguar-Cosworth 1:35.853 1:20.004 +1.771 9
11 12 Brazil Felipe Massa Sauber-Petronas 1:19.317 1:20.202 +1.969 10
12 17 France Olivier Panis Toyota 1:19.697 1:20.335 +2.102 172
13 4 Spain Marc Gené Williams-BMW 1:34.981 1:20.335 +2.102 11
14 16 Brazil Cristiano da Matta Toyota 1:22.507 1:20.545 +2.312 12
15 15 Austria Christian Klien Jaguar-Cosworth 1:38.648 1:21.559 +3.326 13
16 19 Italy Giorgio Pantano Jordan-Ford 1:21.350 1:22.458 +4.225 14
17 18 Germany Nick Heidfeld Jordan-Ford No time3 1:22.677 +4.444 15
18 20 Italy Gianmaria Bruni Minardi-Cosworth 1:22.529 1:23.437 +5.204 181
19 21 Hungary Zsolt Baumgartner Minardi-Cosworth 1:23.116 1:24.117 +5.884 191
20 11 Italy Giancarlo Fisichella Sauber-Petronas No time4 No time4 201
Source:[13]
Notes

Race

The race was held on 11 July 2004 and was run for 60 laps.[16]

Race report

Jarno Trulli lost control at Bridge Corner and crashed heavily.

The race started off relatively calm with Kimi Räikkönen managing to hold on to the lead ahead of Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button. Räikkönen showed the best pace, while being able to hold out two more laps before pitting. But it was Michael Schumacher, starting in fourth, who set five consecutive fastest laps while the frontrunners stopped and he managed to open up a gap of more than 20 seconds to his rivals. When the German pitted and rejoined the race on lap 16, it turned out he had jumped ahead of all three drivers and merged into the lead of the race.[8]

Räikkönen tried to put pressure on Schumacher but the McLaren had to pit again on lap 28, while the Ferrari could go on to lap 37. Meanwhile, Button had passed Barrichello in the first round of stops, but the Brazilian was back in front after the second round. Giancarlo Fisichella in the Sauber looked set for an impressive fifth place.[8]

On lap 39, Jarno Trulli had a big crash coming out of Bridge corner. His rear suspension seemed to have failed and his car rolled over into the gravel. Trulli was unhurt but the tyre barrier needed repairing, so the safety car was deployed. This gave Räikkönen the chance to close all the way up to Schumacher, but after the restart, he was unable to match the leader's pace and he had to settle for second. Barrichello completed the podium. Fisichella lost out to Juan Pablo Montoya but scored a respectable sixth place at the finish.[8]

Race classification

Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 1 Germany Michael Schumacher Ferrari 60 1:24:42.700 4 10
2 6 Finland Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes 60 +2.130 1 8
3 2 Brazil Rubens Barrichello Ferrari 60 +3.114 2 6
4 9 United Kingdom Jenson Button BAR-Honda 60 +10.683 3 5
5 3 Colombia Juan Pablo Montoya Williams-BMW 60 +12.173 7 4
6 11 Italy Giancarlo Fisichella Sauber-Petronas 60 +12.888 20 3
7 5 United Kingdom David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 60 +19.668 6 2
8 14 Australia Mark Webber Jaguar-Cosworth 60 +23.701 9 1
9 12 Brazil Felipe Massa Sauber-Petronas 60 +24.023 10  
10 8 Spain Fernando Alonso Renault 60 +24.835 16  
11 10 Japan Takuma Sato BAR-Honda 60 +33.736 8  
12 4 Spain Marc Gené Williams-BMW 60 +34.303 11  
13 16 Brazil Cristiano da Matta Toyota 59 +1 Lap 12  
14 15 Austria Christian Klien Jaguar-Cosworth 59 +1 Lap 13  
15 18 Germany Nick Heidfeld Jordan-Ford 59 +1 Lap 15  
16 20 Italy Gianmaria Bruni Minardi-Cosworth 56 +4 Laps 18  
Ret 19 Italy Giorgio Pantano Jordan-Ford 47 Spin 14  
Ret 7 Italy Jarno Trulli Renault 39 Suspension/Accident 5  
Ret 21 Hungary Zsolt Baumgartner Minardi-Cosworth 29 Engine 19  
Ret 17 France Olivier Panis Toyota 16 Fire Extinguisher 17  
Source:[17]

Championship standings after the race

  • Bold text and an asterisk indicates who still has a theoretical chance of becoming World Champion.
  • Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

See also

References

  1. ^ "2004 FORMULA 1 Foster's British Grand Prix - Race". Formula1.com. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
  2. ^ F1 Racing. August 2004.
  3. ^ "Formula 1 comes to Regent Street". Evening Standard. 23 June 2004.
  4. ^ "F1 drivers burn rubber on London Streets". The Guardian. 7 July 2004.
  5. ^ "London event a success". www.motorsport.com. Motorsport.com. 7 July 2004.
  6. ^ "London GP 'could happen'". www.bbc.co.uk. BBC. 6 July 2004.
  7. ^ a b "Practice 3: Raikkonen still top". Autosport. 10 July 2004. Retrieved 30 July 2025.
  8. ^ a b c d e Elizalde, Pablo (7 April 2004). "2004 British Grand Prix Review". ATLASF1.com. Spain. Retrieved 25 July 2025.
  9. ^ "FORMULA 1 ™ MOBIL 1 GRAND PRIX DE FRANCE 2004 - PRACTICE 1". formula1.com. Retrieved 24 July 2025.
  10. ^ "Practice 4: Kimi again". Autosport. 10 July 2004. Retrieved 30 July 2025.
  11. ^ "Deciding the grid - A history of F1 qualifying formats". formula1.com. Retrieved 25 July 2025.
  12. ^ "Qualifying Report - 3-2-1 lift-off!". grandprix.com. Retrieved 25 July 2025.
  13. ^ "2004 British Grand Prix – Saturday Qualifying Results". Formula1.com. Formula1.com Limited. Archived from the original on 30 September 2013. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  14. ^ a b "British Grand Prix Starting Grid". AtlasF1. 11 July 2004. Retrieved 30 July 2025.
  15. ^ a b "British Grand Prix Review". AtlasF1. 11 July 2004. Retrieved 30 July 2025.
  16. ^ "2004 British Grand Prix". Motor Sport. Retrieved 30 July 2025.
  17. ^ "2004 British Grand Prix – Race Results". Formula1.com. Formula1.com Limited. Archived from the original on 16 November 2014. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  18. ^ a b "Britain 2004 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 14 March 2019.

52°04′43″N 1°01′01″W / 52.07861°N 1.01694°W / 52.07861; -1.01694

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