The 2000 San Marino Grand Prix (formally the 20 Gran Premio Warsteiner di San Marino) was a Formula One motor race held at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola, Emilia-Romagna, Italy on 9 April 2000. It was the third race of the 2000 Formula One World Championship and the season's first European event. Ferrari's Michael Schumacher won the 62-lap race after starting in second. McLaren's Mika Häkkinen finished second, while teammate David Coulthard finished third.
Before the race, Schumacher led the World Drivers' Championship while Ferrari led the World Constructors' Championship. Häkkinen qualified on pole position after recording the quickest lap time in the one-hour qualifying session. He led the first 44 laps before Michael Schumacher overtook him during the second round of pit stops, through a strategy devised by Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn that allowed Schumacher to run four laps longer than Häkkinen and overtook him for the race lead. Schumacher held off Häkkinen for the final 18 laps to win his third successive race and 38th overall, by 1.1 seconds.
Schumacher's victory extended his World Drivers' Championship lead to 21 championship points over Ferrari teammate Rubens Barrichello and 22 championship points over Benetton's Giancarlo Fisichella. In the World Constructors' Championship, McLaren scored their first championship points of the season, moving into second place with 10 championship points, 29 championship points behind Ferrari with 14 races remaining.
Background
thumb|right|The [[Imola Circuit|Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari (pictured in 2010), where the race was held]]
The 2000 San Marino Grand Prix was the event's 20th running, the third of seventeen races in the 2000 Formula One World Championship and the season's first of eleven races in Europe. It was held over 62 laps on 9 April 2000 at the 17-turn, anti-clockwise Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola, Emilia-Romagna, Italy, outside of San Marino, which lacked international standard racing tracks. The Grand Prix featured eleven teams of two drivers (each representing a different constructor), with no changes to the season entry list. Sole tyre supplier Bridgestone brought the soft and medium dry and wet-weather compound tyres to the race.
Before the race, Ferrari's Michael Schumacher led the World Drivers' Championship with 20 championship points, followed by Benetton's Giancarlo Fisichella with 8 championship points, and Schumacher's teammate Rubens Barrichello and Williams' Ralf Schumacher with 6 apiece. Ferrari led the World Constructors' Championship with 26 championship points, while Benetton was second with 8 championship points. Jordan in third and Williams in fourth had scored 7 championship points each. Arrows, Benetton, British American Racing (BAR), Jaguar, Jordan, McLaren, Prost and Williams tested at the Silverstone Circuit in England in mixed weather conditions from 28 to 30 March 2000. Benetton also spent a day at Santa Pod Raceway's dragstrip, where their drivers tested a new clutch and practiced starts to determine how durable the clutch was. Ferrari's test driver, Luca Badoer, examined mechanical components on an F399 chassis for use in the F1-2000 car and performed standing starts for four days at Ferrari's private Fiorano Circuit. Michael Schumacher also spent three days testing car aerodynamics and setup on the track, The Minardi team did not test, instead focusing on chassis construction and establishing a research and development department. Despite the strong start to the season, Michael Schumacher said, "Twenty points from two races is ideal, but I want to ask everybody to stay quiet. The championship has only just started and it would be wrong to believe that we've won it already. It's a long season." However, improvements to his Ferrari meant he saw another victory at Imola. Coulthard felt confident in catching Ferrari and wanted to demonstrate McLaren had the fastest car, saying, "They have not won the championship yet and we are not going to give it to them. We are going to fight hard all the way. We can turn things around and that is what we are going to do." Häkkinen said that his season had started slowly but he wanted to do well at Imola.
Some teams modified their cars for the Grand Prix, focusing on braking systems to cope with the Imola circuit's demands. Ferrari used lightweight brake discs just for Saturday morning practice sessions, while Michael Schumacher drove with a new engine for qualifying only and a new rear wing specification.
Practice
The race was preceded by four practice sessions, two one-hour sessions on Friday and two 45-minute sessions on Saturday. Conditions were damp and overcast at the start of the first practice due to overnight rain, but the track dried and the skies cleared, allowing lap times to gradually improve. Michael Schumacher set the session's fastest time of 1:27.270, almost a second faster than the 1999 pole lap. Coulthard, Jaguar's Eddie Irvine, Häkkinen, Jordan's Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Ralf Schumacher, Fisichella, Sauber's Pedro Diniz, Arrows's Pedro de la Rosa and Barrichello completed the top ten. prompting the waving of yellow flags.
thumb|right|upright|[[Marc Gené (pictured in 2007) had a heavy accident during the final practice session and had to drive his teammate Gastón Mazzacane's car for qualifying.]]
It remained dry and clear for the second practice session. Michael Schumacher set the fastest lap of the day, 1:26.944, ahead of his teammate Barrichello. The top ten included Coulthard, Jordan's Frenzen and Jarno Trulli, Häkkinen, Jaguar's Johnny Herbert, Fisichella, Ralf Schumacher, and De la Rosa. Jenson Button's Williams car suffered an engine failure on the start/finish straight late in the session,
The first Saturday morning practice session was chilly and bright. The dry track allowed teams to finish setting up their cars for qualifying later that afternoon. Michael Schumacher led with a time of 1:25.085, followed by the McLaren duo of Häkkinen and Coulthard, Frentzen, Barrichello, Trulli, Sauber's Mika Salo, Herbert, Ralf Schumacher, and Villeneuve. Prost's Nick Heidfeld ran into the gravel trap at the Tamburello chicane but returned to the track surface.
The final practice session took place in warmer weather. Häkkinen set the fastest time of 1:24.973, 0.112 seconds faster than Michael Schumacher, who went sideways at the Variante Alta turn. They were ahead of Coulthard, Trulli, Frentzen, Barrichello, Salo, Villeneuve, Irvine and Diniz in positions three through ten. Grip was low on the circuit, with cars using both soft and medium tyre compounds. Häkkinen claimed his third pole position of the season and the 24th of his career with a lap time of 1:24.714. Häkkinen was slower than provisional pole sitter Michael Schumacher in the first two sectors on his fastest lap set late in qualifying, Michael Schumacher, who was second by 0.091 seconds, veered wide leaving the left-hand Rivazza corner after unintentionally pressing the speed limiter button into the turn on his final run, losing four-tenths of a second. Frentzen took sixth, followed by Irvine in seventh, who on the soft compound tyres made two driver errors and slowed for yellow flags. Villeneuve took ninth on soft compound tyres after race engineer Jock Clear improved his car's balance during qualifying, after losing four tenths of a second owing to yellow flags. Button, 18th, used the medium compound tyres for the final 15 minutes. Heidfeld completed the starting order in 22nd,
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Warm-up
Sunday morning's 30-minute warm-up session took place in overcast and cool weather. As teams tested their cars and drivers reported any difficulties with them prior to the race, around one-third of participants used medium compound tyres. ahead of teammate Coulthard, the Ferrari duo of Michael Schumacher and Barrichello, the Jordan pair of Frentzen and Trulli, Fisichella, Gené, Irvine and Alesi. The weather conditions for the race's start were cool and overcast, with a 60% probability of rain. Heidfeld's engine stalled and he was left stranded on the starting grid during the formation lap. His team attempted to repair the problem on the grid, Michael Schumacher had a poor start due to excessive wheelspin in his rear tyres. He aggressively prevented Coulthard from overtaking him on the inside, leading the pack behind him to bunch up. Coulthard had to brake into Tamburello corner, and Barrichello got alongside him, taking third place on the outside. According to Autosport, Barrichello appeared hesitant to overtake his teammate Michael Schumacher, thus he slowed early into the turn, allowing Schumacher to maintain second and preventing Coulthard from passing. followed by Barrichello, Coulthard, Villeneuve, and Trulli, the latter having passed Irvine and his teammate Frentzen as the field exited the Tamburello chicane and drove onto the straight between the Tamburello and Villeneuve corners.
On lap six, Button's engine made odd noises and failed nearing the Villeneuve chicane, forcing him to retire in the gravel. Gené noticed Button ahead of him and drove into the gravel trap after slipping on Button's oil on the circuit. Irvine continued driving at full speed without entering the pit lane. He rejoined the track in seventh owing to a temporary gearbox trouble while in first gear. who was put on a longer second stint by Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn, allowing him to gain an advantage over Häkkinen during the second round of pit stops and to also create a lead over Häkkinen after his pit stop.
Häkkinen led Michael Schumacher by a second by lap 41. On the same lap, Michael Schumacher had to brake hard to avoid hitting the rear of Diniz's car in the right-hand Acque Minerali curve when Diniz allowed Michael Schumacher to pass, Häkkinen was 1.1 seconds behind in second, and his team Coulthard was 50 seconds behind in third. Häkkinen was disappointed to lose the victory through strategy, although he noted that running over debris on the track and his engine cutting out were also contributing factors, adding, "For this reason I can say that I am extremely disappointed about the work I have been able to do this weekend, and for the work the mechanics did. Until then, everybody had done the right thing." Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo praised Michael Schumacher's work and commended Brawn for devising the race-winning strategy, He added "I know where we have been and I know what we have done and this was an emotional day for the fans, we have two great drivers and the car gave a perfect performance." Mercedes-Benz's motorsport director Norbert Haug said McLaren's drivers had "made the best out of their situation". Villeneuve commended his team's work during his first pit stop, which helped him move ahead of Ralf Schumacher and that "the race showed that we can be competitive and maybe be the best of the rest after Ferrari and McLaren." Salo stated that he was pleased to score a point for finishing sixth and that Sauber performed similarly to their performance in Australia.
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Championship standings after the race
;Drivers' Championship standings
{|class="wikitable" style="font-size: 85%;"
! scope="col" |
! scope="col" |
! scope="col" | Driver
! scope="col" | Points
|-
|align="left"| 10px
|align="center"| 1
| Michael Schumacher
| 30
|-
|align="left"| 10px 1
|align="center"| 2
| Rubens Barrichello
| 9
|-
|align="left"| 10px 1
|align="center"| 3
| Giancarlo Fisichella
| 8
|-
|align="left"| 10px 13
|align="center"| 4
| Mika Häkkinen
| 6
|-
|align="left"| 10px 1
|align="center"| 5
| Ralf Schumacher
| 6
|-
!colspan=4|Sources:
|}
;Constructors' Championship standings
{|class="wikitable" style="font-size: 85%;"
|-
! scope="col" |
! scope="col" |
! scope="col" | Constructor
! scope="col" | Points
|-
|align="left"| 10px
|align="center"| 1
| Ferrari
| 39
|-
|align="left"| 10px 7
|align="center"| 2
| McLaren-Mercedes
| 10
|-
|align="left"| 10px 1
|align="center"| 3
| Benetton-Playlife
| 8
|-
|align="left"| 10px 1
|align="center"| 4
| Jordan-Mugen-Honda
| 7
|-
|align="left"| 10px 1
|align="center"| 5
| Williams-BMW
| 7
|-
!colspan=4|Sources: