On 29 April 2001, Mika Hakkinen retired from the lead of System 1’s Spanish Grand Prix on the final lap.
The 2-time world champion was having a troublesome time in what would transpire to be his final season in F1. Hakkinen crashed out of the Australian GP attributable to a suspension failure when operating second, completed a lowly sixth in a mixed-weather Sepang race and stalled on the Interlagos grid attributable to a technical situation; he then took solely fourth in Imola after dropping behind Jordan’s Jarno Trulli from the entrance row of the grid.
4 rounds into the season, Hakkinen had simply 4 factors to his identify, with McLaren team-mate David Coulthard and Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher on 26.
Hakkinen certified on the entrance row once more at Barcelona, with Schumacher grabbing pole by 0.085s, and the race was a typical tactical battle amid tough overtaking in these days.
Michael Schumacher, Ferrari F2001, Mika Hakkinen, McLaren MP4/16 Mercedes, Rubens Barrichello, Ferrari F2001
Picture by: LAT Photos through Getty Photos
Hakkinen twice tried to overcut Schumacher, stopping 4 laps later on the finish of the primary stint, then seven laps later on the finish of the second stint; solely then did he emerge again in entrance, turning a 4.8s deficit on lap 42 right into a 3.6s benefit on lap 51.
“I had a really dangerous vibration and I assumed perhaps the tyre was delaminating,” Schumacher defined. “So I slowed down, particularly down the straight, as I used to be nervous a couple of blowout. We even talked about making a 3rd pitstop. Then the vibration didn’t get any worse and I realised it was protected to go on.”
Coming into the final lap, Hakkinen was all however sure to win, with Schumacher 43 seconds down. However that was when his MP4-16 suffered a clutch failure; Hakkinen slowed down early into the lap and coasted till the uphill run to Campsa nook, the place he stopped in a plume of smoke.
Mika Häkkinen, McLaren MP4-16 Mercedes
Picture by: Charles Coates / LAT Photos through Getty Photos
“I assumed, ‘Wow, I will win for the fourth time in Barcelona. If that occurs it is unimaginable’,” Hakkinen mentioned. This might even have been his fourth consecutive victory on the Catalan observe, which has solely ever been achieved by Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton – with the German’s feat courtesy of this very last-lap failure.
“Then on the final lap I mentioned, ‘Okay, now I perceive, it may’t be this good to be true’. It appears to be like like there was some drawback with the clutch, there was nothing that I might do to attempt to save the scenario. I attempted to make some changes within the automobile to attempt to scale back the issues that I used to be experiencing. Nevertheless it did not make any distinction.”
Hakkinen hitchhiked again to the pitlane on team-mate Coulthard’s automobile, with Schumacher embracing the Finn to supply his sympathy.
“I’ve to say I really feel very sorry for Mika,” Schumacher commiserated. “I used to be shocked after I noticed he had retired. This isn’t the way in which I wish to win, nevertheless it has occurred to me prior to now and this stuff occur in racing.”
Michael Schumacher, Ferrari, Mika Hakkinen, McLaren
Picture by: Pascal Rondeau – ALLSPORT – Getty Photos
Hakkinen gained simply one of many subsequent 9 races, and McLaren introduced on 14 September fellow countryman Kimi Raikkonen would exchange him for 2002, with the veteran formally taking a sabbatical – which, opposite to fashionable perception, he was an precise retirement from F1 in July 2002.
Following the announcement, Hakkinen bowed out of F1 in fashion, clinching one closing grand prix victory in Indianapolis.
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