- Michael Schumacher gave the new F2002 a debut victory after a closely fought race with brother Ralf's Williams. Rubens Barichello was an early retirement in the older car.

race

Michael Schumacher started the day off by setting fastest time in morning warm up, over 1/2 second clear in the new F2002.

At the lights Montoya powered away from Michael Schumacher but ran wide into turn one, allowing Michael to squeeze past as they headed into turn two. As they swept into the next bend, Montoya ran into the back of the Ferrari, removing his front wing in the process and heading for the pits.

Meanwhile Rubens Barichello on a lighter fuel load quickly passed the both the Renaults and then the McLarens, closing up by lap 8 on Ralf Schumacher's Williams. He swiftly passed him and on coming up to the other Ferrari, his team mate let him through to allow Rubens to take the lead of his home Grand Prix.

After setting fastest lap on lap 16, and stretching his lead, Barichello's Brazilian Grand Prix jinx struck again with hydraulic failure on his Ferrari, seeing him record his seventh consecutive retirement in his home Grand Prix.

Meanwhile the Minardis were having a quiet run at the rear of the field, Alex Yoong spinning his car on lap 17, prior to coming in for his first scheduled pitstop of the afternoon.

The early advantage of the Bridgestone-shod Ferrari of Michael Schumacher had levelled off by lap 20, with Michael maintaining a steady eight second gap to second place Ralf Schumacher.

By lap 30 Montoya, after his lengthy pitstop for repairs, had carved his way up the field and had passed Pedro de la Rosa's Jaguar for 9th place. Meanwhile the gap between the two Schumacher brothers had eased down slightly and was now a steady 5 1/2 seconds.

With the gap unmoving between the top two, Ferrari changed Michael Schumacher's two stop pit strategy for a one stopper, and as his load emptied Michael stretched the gap up to 8 seconds before he pitted on lap 39. A long stop of 12.6 seconds which included the removal of debris from the air intakes saw him rejoin 22 seconds back in second place.

Ralf, always on a one stop schedule, was unable to capitalise on his extra laps with a light fuel load and Michael was comfortably able to regain his lead after the Williams driver pitted with a faster stop of 9.4 seconds. However Ralf was much quicker than his brother on new tyres, closing up and harrying him all the way to the flag, but was unable to put any attempted passing move together.

Coulthard came home a very distant third. over 50 seconds back, to gain the final podium position, Jenson Button was 4th in the Renault, while the recovering Juan Pablo Montoya was fifth ahead of Mika Salo's Toyota. Twelve cars were running at the finish.

race result:
1st Michael Schumacher ( Ferrari F2002 ) 1:31.43.663 ave speed 200.098 km/h
2nd Ralf Schumacher ( Williams-BMW ) +0.588
11th Mark Webber ( Minardi PS02 ) +3 laps
13th Alex Yoong ( Minardi PS02 ) +4 laps

championship positions ( after 3 races ):
drivers:
1st Michael Schumacher 24pts, 2nd Ralf Schumacher 16pts, 3rd Juan Palo Montoya 14pts, =8th Mark Webber 2pts
constructors:
1st Williams-BMW 30pts, 2nd Ferrari 24pts

After all the speculation, Ferrari finally turned up with one of the new F2002 chassis for Michael Schumacher to use in Sao Paolo. Rubens Barichello would continue to use last years F2001 and with only one new car, the spare was also a F2001.

After practice was complete the decision to use the new car seemed justified with Michael Schumacher lining up on the front row next to Juan-Pablo Montoya with Rubens Barichello after struggling all session, winding up down on the fourth row of the grid.

Ralf Schumacher ( Williams-BMW ) had set the early practice pace, until his team mate Montoya pipped him with a 1:13.114. Michael Schumacher, in the unfamiliar new car, set a 1:13.241 to push Ralf off the front row, but missed pole by a tenth of a second. Ralf took third slot eventually less than 1/10th second back from his brother with a time of 1:13.328, followed by the McLaren-Mercedes' of David Coulthard and Kimi Raikkonen.

qualifying:
2nd Michael Schumacher ( Ferrari F2002 ) 1:13.241
8th Rubens Barichello ( Ferrari F2001 ) 1:13.935
20th Mark Webber ( Minardi PS02 ) 1:15.340
22nd Alex Yoong ( Minardi PS02 ) 1:16.728