"Formula 1"

The Formula 1 World Championship race took place in China for the first time. On the newly opened, unknown track, Ferarri co-pilot Rubens Barrichello felt most confident, and he won the race. Seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher finished only twelfth.
The circuit on the outskirts of Shanghai was built in a year and a half and cost the Chinese $325 million. It opened just a few weeks ago. Formula 1 drivers saw the track for the first time on Thursday. Having driven along it on electric scooters, they were not unanimous in their assessments. The majority spoke with restraint: the track is unusual, but you can race on it. An expressive statement was made by Ralf Schumacher from Willams, who returned to the championship after a long break caused by injuries received in an accident. “Anything can happen on this track,” he said. “Here you can immediately see who is a real Formula 1 driver and who is not.” Meanwhile, it was precisely the Shanghai highway that did not submit to him. As, indeed, his older brother.
The Shanghai circuit, designed by Hermann Tilke, is truly extraordinary. From above it looks like the Chinese character “shan” (the first part of the city’s name), which means “up”, “height”. The route is also interesting. It has several features. It has, for example, two long straights on which you can accelerate at 300 km/h, and two turns that are unique in complexity, where you have to brake up to 70 km/h. There are three places where it is convenient to overtake.
There were, however, few overtakings yesterday. There were far more collisions, punctures and other incidents. And almost a third of them fell to seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher. This was clearly not his weekend. Even in qualifying, he was thrown to the sidelines, and in the end he took third place from the end. And he started from the pit lane altogether - the fact is that on Sunday morning his engine was changed and he was automatically moved to the last line of the starting field. But Michael Schumacher decided to take advantage of the right to start from the pits in order to be able to reconsider his tactics for the race. Let's say start it with a lot of fuel.
And already in the race, the world champion suffered a tire puncture, he spun around, and finally collided with Christian Klin from Jaguar. True, in the intervals between incidents, the German periodically showed the best lap time.
Schumacher Sr. reached the finish line (12th place), but for the first time in more than a year he was more than a lap behind the winner. But Ralf Schumacher was forced to end the race on the 38th lap, colliding with David Coultard from McLaren, who also retired a little later.
Rubens Barrichello won the race. This was his second consecutive championship victory and the ninth of his career. He won qualifying and confidently led the entire race. Having scored 10 points, the Brazilian thereby secured second place in the drivers' standings. Second place in Shanghai went to Jenson Button from BAR, who also secured his place on the third step of the podium at the end of the championship. The Briton got off to a bad start, but managed to beat several rivals, including Finn Kimi Raikkonen from McLaren, who finished third.
ALEXEY J-ZHUK

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 179/P dated September 27, 2004, p. 24

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Motorsport

Michael Schumacher dropped to twelfth place