The 2002 Italian Grand Prix (formally the Gran Premio Vodafone d'Italia 2002) was a Formula One motor race that took place at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza near Monza, Lombardy, Italy before 60,000 spectators on 15 September 2002. It was the 15th round of the 2002 Formula One World Championship, the second Italian round of the year and the season's last race in Europe. Starting from fourth place, Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello won the 53-lap race His teammate Michael Schumacher finished in second with Jaguar's Eddie Irvine third.
Williams' Juan Pablo Montoya qualified on pole position after recording the quickest average qualifying lap speed in the one-hour session. Michael Schumacher started second, with Montoya's teammate Ralf Schumacher third and Barrichello fourth. At the start, Ralf Schumacher took the lead by cutting the Rettifilo chicane and was told by the stewards to give it back to Montoya, but he lost pressure in the engine's pneumatic valve system as he did so. Montoya briefly led, but the smoke from Ralf Schumacher's car and loss of momentum allowed Barrichello to take the lead at the start of lap five. Barrichello led for the bulk of the remaining laps, except for the first pit stop cycle, and won his third race of the season and fourth of his career. His teammate Michael Schumacher finished second, 0.255 seconds behind, while Irvine finished third, giving him and Jaguar their first podium since the 2001 Monaco Grand Prix.
The result saw Michael Schumacher eclipse his own record for most championship points scored in a single season, which he set in . Barrichello's victory moved him 17 championship points ahead of the third-placed Montoya in the World Drivers' Championship. In the World Constructors' Championship, Ferrari expanded their unassailable lead over Williams to 103 championship points, while McLaren secured third with two races remaining in the season.
Background
thumb|left|The [[Monza Circuit|Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, where the Grand Prix was held.]]
The 2002 Italian Grand Prix, contested at the , 11-turn Autodromo Nazionale di Monza at Monza, Lombardy, Italy on 15 September, was the 15th round of 17 in the 2002 Formula One World Championship. It was the 73rd Italian Grand Prix, the second of two events in Italy following the , and the season's final European race. Tyre suppliers Bridgestone and Michelin developed tyre specifications specifically for the Monza track, with a focus on heat resistance because tyres on the straights heated up faster than on other circuits. Michael Schumacher could break his own season points scoring record if he finished fifth or higher at Monza.
After the on 1 September, ten teams (except Arrows) tested for four days with their racing and test drivers at Monza from 3 to 6 September, testing vehicle components and gathering data for the upcoming race at the circuit. Michael Schumacher was fastest on the first day, ahead of British American Racing (BAR) test driver Anthony Davidson, in wet weather with sporadic dry spells. Williams' Ralf Schumacher lapped faster on the second day where the rain continued into the morning before stopping meaning the track dried up as the session progressed. The first full day of dry weather took place on the third day, with Jaguar's Pedro de la Rosa fastest. Rubens Barrichello was fastest on testing's final day. Williams' Juan Pablo Montoya caused a red flag when he lost control of his car at the Lesmo corners and collided with a barrier, removing the front wing. Ferrari test driver Luca Badoer spent three days testing Bridgestone tyres and racing setups at France's Circuit Paul Ricard. Badoer then shook down three F2002 cars and performed launch control starts at the Fiorano Circuit before the cars were transported to Monza.
Barrichello said he was looking forward to the event considering the previous year's race took place in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in the United States, adding, "It is a special place for me and I usually go well here so there is plenty to look forward to." Michael Schumacher said he would be able to celebrate both championships at Monza after being unable to do so the previous year due to the attacks in America. Montoya believed Williams could realistically finish third at Monza with the equipment they possessed. However, following testing, he revised his prediction to a race victory, "I think the best chance we've got this year to win a race is this next one."
thumb|right|upright|[[Alex Yoong (pictured in 2006) returned to his race seat at Minardi after sitting out the previous two races.]]
Speed bumps were added at the first and second chicanes for the event after it was discovered that a driver could gain time by going across the tight opening chicane or by using the flat run-off area adjacent to the apex of both chicanes and driving on without penalty unless they gained a place. Gaps were created between the speed bumps to allow drivers who had outbraked themselves to navigate between them. Alex Yoong retook his race seat at Minardi after Davidson replaced him in the previous two races due to Yoong not qualifying for three races earlier in the season. Arrows' financial troubles persisted as chairman Tom Walkinshaw attempted to negotiate the team's sale, which also owed money to four creditors. The team failed to present their cars by Thursday afternoon's preliminary scrutineering, missing the event. Sauber were the first team to test the HANS device at a Formula One race with drivers Nick Heidfeld and Felipe Massa. Teams focused on finding a setup with a very low aerodynamic load that would provide the least amount of downforce feasible without penalising the cars too much during the heavy braking that characterises the Monza track. Each team adopted rear wings with lower profiles, while others, such as Renault, presented new front wings. Ferrari introduced a new qualifying engine, but for the race on Sunday, the team used the original engine specification. Williams and BAR introduced revised engine specifications for qualifying.
Practice
Preceding the race were two one-hour practice sessions on Friday and two 45-minute sessions on Saturday. The first practice session on Friday morning was overcast, with the circuit damp in sections due to overnight rain, so some drivers chose intermediate tyres. The track eventually dried out, and lap times became faster. Michael Schumacher set the quickest time of 1:22.869, almost eight-tenths of a second faster than Montoya. Ralf Schumacher, De la Rosa, Trulli, Jaguar's Eddie Irvine, Massa, the McLaren duo of Coulthard and Kimi Räikkönen and BAR's Olivier Panis followed in the top ten. There were no major incidents during the session, Michael Schumacher lapped four-tenths of a second faster than in the first session, finishing first with a 1:22.433 lap, 0.225 seconds faster than his teammate Barrichello. Räikkönen, Irvine, Montoya, Toyota's Mika Salo, Ralf Schumacher, De la Rosa, Trulli and his teammate Jenson Button rounded out the top ten. Some drivers ran off the circuit during the session. Michael Schumacher was again quickest with a 1:22.110 lap, 0.025 seconds faster than Montoya. The McLaren duo of Coulthard and Räikkönen, Ralf Schumacher, the Jaguar pairing of Irvine and De la Rosa, Massa, McNish and BAR's Jacques Villeneuve completed the top ten. The session was halted midway through after Barrichello's car began to emit smoke due to an engine failure at the Curva Grande exit. Marshals moved the Ferrari off the circuit and into a safer area and cleaned oil laid on the asphalt track before practice could resume.
The final practice session took place later in the morning. Late in the session, Montoya set the quickest time of 1:21.319, which was 0.009 seconds inside Michael Schumacher's 2001 pole lap. More drivers spun their cars during the session. The Williams and Ferrari teams chose to experiment with tyre set-ups, employing hard compound tyres to try to improve race performance. On his third run. Montoya took his seventh pole position of the season and 10th of his career with a time of 1:20.264. Montoya gained significant time through the Lesmo turns, resulting in a quick second sector time. Michael Schumacher was second, 0.257 seconds behind after overdriving through the two Lesmo turns; he set a quick lap followed by one to cool the tyres and then another fast timed lap despite it taking multiple laps to generate heat into his tyres. Barrichello set his best time on his second run to qualify fourth, braking too late for the first chicane. With five minutes to go, Räikkönen put Jordan's Takuma Sato off the circuit and onto the grass while braking for the Variante della Roggia chicane after failing to notice him, forcing Sato to lose control of his car. sending both drivers into the gravel trap and Sato hit the tyre barrier. Both drivers were unhurt, but qualifying was stopped for seven minutes. Trulli improved on each of his runs and slipstreamed his teammate Button on the straights during his final run to finish 11th, but lost time at Parabolica corner. Jordan's Giancarlo Fisichella was 12th after executing a two-run strategy, although his second swift effort was hampered by the stoppage. McNish's crew employed a four-lap plan after realising Toyota could go quicker on the second run, but traffic on his second run kept him 13th. The stewards determined that Räikkönen was at fault for the collision and cancelled his fastest qualifying lap time. This demoted Räikkönen to sixth and promoted Irvine to fifth.
Qualifying classification
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size:85%;"
|-
! scope="col" |
! scope="col" |
! scope="col" | Driver
! scope="col" | Constructor
! scope="col" | Lap
! scope="col" |
! scope="col" |
|-
! scope="row" | 1
| align="center"| 6
| data-sort-value="MON" | Juan Pablo Montoya
| Williams-BMW
| 1:20.264
| align="center"| —
| align="center" | 1
|-
! scope="row" | 2
| align="center"| 1
| data-sort-value="SCHM" | Michael Schumacher
| Ferrari
| 1:20.521
| +0.257
| align="center" | 2
|-
! scope="row" | 3
| align="center"| 5
| data-sort-value="SCHR" | Ralf Schumacher
| Williams-BMW
| 1:20.542
| +0.278
| align="center" | 3
|-
! scope="row" | 4
| align="center"| 2
| data-sort-value="BAR" | Rubens Barrichello
| Ferrari
| 1:20.705
| +0.442
| align="center" | 4
|-
! scope="row" | 5
| align="center"| 16
| data-sort-value="IRV" | Eddie Irvine
| Jaguar-Cosworth
| 1:21.606
| +1.342
| align="center" | 5
|-
! scope="row" | 6
| align="center"| 4
| data-sort-value="RAI" | Kimi Räikkönen
| McLaren-Mercedes
| 1:21.712
| +1.448
| align="center" | 6
|-
! scope="row" | 7
| align="center"| 3
| data-sort-value="COU" | David Coulthard
| McLaren-Mercedes
| 1:21.803
| +1.539
| align="center" | 7
|-
! scope="row" | 8
| align="center"| 17
| data-sort-value="DEL" | Pedro de la Rosa
| Jaguar-Cosworth
| 1:21.960
| +1.696
| align="center" | 8
|-
! scope="row" | 9
| align="center"| 11
| data-sort-value="VIL" | Jacques Villeneuve
| BAR-Honda
| 1:22.126
| +1.862
| align="center" | 9
|-
! scope="row" | 10
| align="center"| 24
| data-sort-value="SAL" | Mika Salo
| Toyota
| 1:22.318
| +2.054
| align="center" | 10
|-
! scope="row" | 11
| align="center"| 14
| data-sort-value="TRU" | Jarno Trulli
| Renault
| 1:22.383
| +2.119
| align="center" | 11
|-
! scope="row" | 12
| align="center"| 9
| data-sort-value="FIS" | Giancarlo Fisichella
| Jordan-Honda
| 1:22.515
| +2.251
| align="center" | 12
|-
! scope="row" | 13
| align="center"| 25
| data-sort-value="MCN" | Allan McNish
| Toyota
| 1:22.521
| +2.257
| align="center" | 13
|-
! scope="row" | 14
| align="center"| 8
| data-sort-value="MAS" | Felipe Massa
| Sauber-Petronas
| 1:22.565
| +2.301
| align="center" | 14
|-
! scope="row" | 15
| align="center"| 7
| data-sort-value="HEI" | Nick Heidfeld
| Sauber-Petronas
| 1:22.601
| +2.337
| align="center" | 15
|-
! scope="row" | 16
| align="center"| 12
| data-sort-value="PAN" | Olivier Panis
| BAR-Honda
| 1:22.645
| +2.381
| align="center" | 16
|-
! scope="row" | 17
| align="center"| 15
| data-sort-value="BUT" | Jenson Button
| Renault
| 1:22.714
| +2.450
| align="center" | 17
|-
! scope="row" | 18
| align="center"| 10
| data-sort-value="SAT" | Takuma Sato
| Jordan-Honda
| 1:23.166
| +2.902
| align="center" | 18
|-
! scope="row" | 19
| align="center"| 23
| data-sort-value="WEB" | Mark Webber
| Minardi-Asiatech
| 1:23.794
| +3.530
| align="center" | 19
|-
! scope="row" | 20
| align="center"| 22
| data-sort-value="YOO" | Alex Yoong
| Minardi-Asiatech
| 1:25.111
| +4.847
| align="center" | 20
|-class="sortbottom"
! colspan="7" |107% time: 1:25.882
|-
!colspan="7"|
|}
Notes
- – Kimi Räikkönen's fastest time (1:21.163) was cancelled following a collision with Takuma Sato during qualifying, this dropped him one place from fifth to sixth.
Warm-up
On race morning, a half-hour warm-up session was held in warm, sunny weather. Ralf Schumacher led with a lap time of 1:24.480, followed by Barrichello, Montoya, Michael Schumacher, Räikkönen, Panis, Massa, Coulthard, Salo and Heidfeld in positions two to ten. There were no major incidents during the session. the air temperature was from and the asphalt temperature was between . Because the crew noticed a fuel pressure supply issue in Ralf Schumacher's race car, he swapped to the spare Williams car. Trulli did not launch on the dummy grid because he struggled to choose first gear for the formation lap due to a gear selection fault, although he avoided running personnel from other teams when he did. This required him to start the race from the rear of the grid. Montoya made a slow start and steered to the right to block Michael Schumacher from overtaking him in an effort to keep the race lead. Michael Schumacher was hampered by the two Williams cars and had to slow down beside his teammate Barrichello. At the end of the first lap, Ralf Schumacher led Montoya by half-a-second, followed by Barrichello, Michael Schumacher, Räikkönen and Irvine.
thumb|left|upright|[[Rubens Barrichello took his third victory of the season and the fourth of his car by 0.255 seconds over teammate Michael Schumacher.]]
On lap five, in an attempt to catch Barrichello, Two laps later, Salo went wide at the second Lesmo turn, allowing Panis to pass him for seventh. On lap eight, Barrichello began to extend his advantage over teammate Michael Schumacher, who went wide at the Lesmo turns. Michael Schumacher finished in second, 0.255 seconds behind. Despite being ordered not to use launch control for fear of issues, Renault recorded their first double-points finish of the season. In his first points score for four races, Button finished fifth after Renault issued a team order telling him to let Trulli pass so he could close in on Irvine after the pit stop cycle. his second championship points score of the season. Michael Schumacher commented on finishing in second, "I did enjoy it because this was the ideal result we dreamed of. I didn't want to go that far and wish myself such a result because we've had so much luck this year and so many good results that I thought whatever comes is going to be fine but this is obviously a dream result." Jaguar team principal Niki Lauda praised Irvine's performance in the Grand Prix, "He did a perfect job, didn't make any mistakes, and it was a great weekend for the team. We have all been working for a long time to achieve this." Trulli said that he had believed he had "lost everything at the start" when first gear failed to engage at the start of the formation lap but added that finishing in fourth was "pretty unexpected!" His teammate Button commented that finishing fifth was a "pretty unexpected result" and that Renault placing fourth and fifth reminded him of the 2001 German Grand Prix, when the team's predecessor Benetton scored a double points finish on an unsuitable circuit.
thumb|right|upright|[[Felipe Massa (pictured in 2007) was the first driver to be imposed a ten-place grid penalty after being deemed by the stewards to be the cause of a collision between himself and Jaguar driver Pedro de la Rosa.]]
The race stewards summoned Massa and De la Rosa following their collision with each other. They reviewed video footage and spoke to both drivers. Massa was deemed at fault, and in accordance with the new regulations that season, became the first driver to receive a ten-place grid penalty for the following . Massa said De la Rosa was so slow entering the Ascari chicane that he drove to the circuit's centre and was passed as far as he was concerned. Sauber team owner Peter Sauber argued Massa's penalty was harsh but said the team had accepted it. Räikkönen stated that he could have finished third but that his engine problem was beyond his control.
Michael Schumacher's second-place finish meant he had scored 128 championship points in the World Drivers' Championship, breaking his own record of scoring the most championship points in a single season of 123 points set in .
|}
Notes
- – Jarno Trulli started the race from the back of the grid after gear selection issues on the formation lap.
|}
;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*
| align="left"| 189
|-
| align="left"| 10px
| align="center"| 2
| Williams-BMW
| align="left"| 86
|-
| align="left"| 10px
| align="center"| 3
| McLaren-Mercedes
| align="left"| 57
|-
| align="left"| 10px
| align="center"| 4
| Renault
| align="left"| 20
|-
| align="left"| 10px
| align="center"| 5
| Sauber-Petronas
| align="left"| 11
|-
!colspan=4|Sources: