Coulthard takes brilliant win

Coulthard takes the plaudits after a cool drive

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McLaren driver David Coulthard has won the Austrian Grand Prix despite starting the race in seventh place on the grid.

The Scot put himself in the picture with a good start, and secured the lead thanks to out-performing the Ferrari drivers in the crucial pit-stop window.

Coulthard's victory means that he has closed the gap to Michael Schumacher in the world championship to four points.

Coulthard was in second place in a Ferrari sandwich as the pit stops started, with Rubens Barrichello in the lead and Michael Schumacher pushing them both hard in third.

Montoya and Schumacher had a tough battle early in the race

Schumacher stopped first on lap 46, with Barrichello following him in next time around. Coulthard did not stop until lap 50.

That was a crucial decision. Barrichello managed to stay ahead of Schumacher at the stops because the German ran wide on his out lap, but Coulthard, by staying out that bit longer, managed to leap-frog them both.

But even then the race was a long way from won. Coulthard came out of the pits with a three-second lead, but Barrichello closed right up to him by lap 57 as they negotiated traffic.

But once they got into clean air, Coulthard had enough to hold Barrichello back for the last 14 laps.

The Brazilian, in fact, was forced to let Schumacher past into second place on the very last corner by orders from the Ferrari team. The three crossed the line nose-to-tail.

Schumacher was forced to watch another race slip from his grasp.

Raikkonen stars

The world champion lost the lead at the start, and then dropped to sixth place following a contretemps with Juan Pablo Montoya on lap 16. Schumacher was heavily critical of the Colombian after the race.

The German fought brilliantly back up into contention but then had his problem at the stops.

Kimi Raikkonen finished a superb fourth for Sauber in only his sixth Grand Prix, with Olivier Panis fifth for BAR-Honda and Jos Verstappen's Arrows in sixth.

A protest by BAR against Raikkonen's position was rejected by race stewards, but Panis' team said they would appeal.

Schumacher (right) loses the lead to the Williams of Montoya (left) and Ralf Schumacher

BAR had complained that Raikkonen had overtaken illegally under a yellow warning flag.

Both Williams drivers dropped out with mechanical failure. Montoya on lap 42 with a hydraulics problem and Ralf Schumacher on lap 10 with a brake failure.

Montoya had taken the lead at the start, with Ralf slotting in behind him.

After Ralf's retirement, Montoya dropped back into the grasp of Schumacher and the two had their incident on lap 16 as the Michelin tyres on his Williams went off.

This is a characteristic of the Michelin - it goes off after a few laps for a period of about 10 laps, and then it comes back in again.

As Montoya did his best to hold off Schumacher, a train built behind the two cars, incorporating Barrichello, Verstappen, Coulthard and Raikkonen. All but Montoya use Bridgestone tyres.

Raikkonen was very impressive on his way to fourth place

By lap 16, Schumacher was all over the back of Montoya's car and he made a move to the outside on the run down to Turn Two.

Montoya was detemined to defend the lead, but he ran out of time to slow the car down.

The back of the car twitched and he ran wide, taking Schumacher with him. They rejoined with Schumacher in sixth and Montoya seventh.

Barrichello took the lead, followed by Verstappen, Coulthard, Raikkonen and Olivier Panis in the BAR-Honda.

But soon Schumacher began bearing down on them, setting a string of fastest laps.

Hakkinen blow

Verstappen was taken out of the equation with an early pit stop - he was on a lower fuel load than the rest, accounting for the Arrows' unlikely early pace. He did, though, go on to score Arrows's first point of the season.

Schumacher passed Panis on lap 24, Raikkonen on lap 27 and began homing in on Coulthard, who he was right behind by lap 36.

At the start, four cars were left stranded on the grid by a failure of their launch control systems.

Mika Hakkinen was one of them, dealing a potentially fatal blow to his world title chances.

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Result of Austrian Grand Prix at Spielberg, 13 May 2001, round six of 17 in the Formula One World Championship

1 David Coulthard (GB) McLaren One hour, 27 minutes and 45.927 seconds (average speed 130.5mph)
2 Michael Schumacher (Ger) Ferrari at 2.191 seconds
3 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Ferrari 2.528
4 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Sauber-Petronas 41.594
5 Olivier Panis (Fra) BAR-Honda 53.776
6 Jos Verstappen (Ned) Arrows-Asiatech one lap behind
7 Eddie Irvine (Gbr) Jaguar one lap
8 Jacques Villeneuve (Can) BAR-Honda one lap
9 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) Sauber-Petronas two laps
10 Jean Alesi (Fra) Prost-Acer two laps
11 Luciano Burti (Bra) Prost-Acer two laps

Not classified: Jenson Button (GB) Benetton 60 laps completed
Pedro de la Rosa (Spa) Jaguar 48 laps
Juan Pablo Montoya (Col) Williams 41 laps
Fernando Alonso (Spa) Minardi 38 laps
Tarso Marques (Bra) Minardi 25 laps
Enrique Bernoldi (Bra) Arrows 17 laps
Ralf Schumacher (Ger) Williams 10 laps
Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Benetton 3 laps
Mika Hakkinen (Fin) McLaren 1 lap
Heinz-Harald Frentzen (Ger) Jordan 0 laps Disqualified: Jarno Trulli (Italy) Jordan 14 laps (Black-flagged)
Fastest lap: Coulthard One minute and 10.843 seconds

Leading Formula One World Championship positions after six of 17 races

1 M Schumacher 42 points
2 Coulthard 38
3 Barrichello 18
4 Ralf Schumacher (Ger) Williams 12
5 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) Sauber 8
6 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Jordan 7
7 Juan Pablo Montoya (Col) Williams 6
8 Heinz-Harald Frentzen (Ger) Jordan 6
9 Panis 5
10 Jacques Villeneuve (Canada) BAR 4
Hakkinen 4
Raikkonen 4

Constructors:
1 Ferrari 60 points
2 McLaren 42
3 Williams 18
4 Jordan 13
5 Sauber 12
6 BAR 9