21st July 2002:  FIA Formula 1 World Championship, French Grand Prix ( Magny Cours ), Round 11

race
 

Michael Schumacher claimed his fifth world championship title, to equal Juan Manuel Fangio's long standing record, with a slightly lucky win at Magny Cours. Schumacher was clearly overcome at the end hugging team boss Jean Todt and becoming quite emotional in the post race press conference. After a race dominated by pit stop errors, Kimi Raikkonen seemed on course for his maiden grand prix victory, but then he ran wide on oil dumped by Allan McNish's Toyota four laps from the finish, allowing Michael Schumacher to dive through to take the win and with it end the mathematical possibilities for the title. Team mate Rubens Barrichello suffered his usual bad luck, his car being left stuck on the jacks as the field set off on the formation lap. Juan Pablo Montoya made a clean getaway from pole, Michael Schumacher trailing him until the first round of pit stops where the Ferrari driver took the lead. However it was short lived, exiting the pit lane he had crossed a white line and the Ferrari driver was then hauled in for a drive through penalty. The same fate was also to befall brother Ralf and David Coulthard during the race. With slow pitstops for both Williams drivers, McLaren took the challenge to the penalised Schumacher. But with Raikkonen misjudging the hairpin, Schumacher was able to capitalise and add another record to the books. There was some controversy with the manoever as the yellow flags were out for McNish's engine failure, but it was always to be Schumacher's day. Coulthard trailed in third, half a minute down, followed by the two Williams drivers, while Jenson Button, released by Renault this week, claimed the final point with sixth. A greatly improved performance came from the Jaguar team, Eddie Irvine running seventh before his rear wing detached itself, launching him into a terminal spin. Mark Webber brought the Minardi home in 8th place, one lap down and two places ahead of team mate Alex Yoong.

Juan Pablo Montoya took his fifth consecutive pole position at Magny Cours, fending off the challenge from the Ferrari pair of Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello who lined up behind him. Barrichello had initially led the timesheets, but Montoya was quickly into his stride, becoming the first driver to dip below the 1m13s barrier. Barrichello retook pole with Montoya then snatching it away before Michael Schumacher waded in with a 1m12s. This set up a tense final few minutes. Barrichello jumped first, moving up to second spot. Then Montoya set a new fastest time of 1:11.985 which was good enough for pole, as Michael Schumacher crossing the line within seconds of the Colombian was fractions off with a 1:12.008. The McLarens lined up next, with Ralf Schumacher's Williams sandwiched between them, while Jenson Button put in a seasons best qualification position, next up in seventh. Eddie Irvine meanwhile put the much improved revised Jaguar onto the fifth row. Oddest performance of the session came from the cash strapped Arrows team. Both drivers came out, ran a couple of slow laps and then headed for their garage, not to reappear. Most likely explaination for this was that in turning up they would avoid a £335,000 non appearance fine.