The 2002 Monaco Grand Prix (formally the Grand Prix de Monaco 2002) was a Formula One motor race held on 26 May 2002 at the Circuit de Monaco in Monte Carlo. It was the seventh race of seventeen in the 2002 Formula One World Championship, and the 60th Monaco Grand Prix. McLaren's David Coulthard won the 78-lap race after starting from second position. Ferrari's Michael Schumacher finished in second and Williams's Ralf Schumacher was third.
Heading into the race, Michael Schumacher led the World Drivers' Championship and his team Ferrari led the World Constructors Championship. Williams's Juan Pablo Montoya secured pole position after setting the fastest lap time in the one-hour qualifying session. However, Coulthard made a faster start and took the lead in the race. Coulthard held the lead throughout the race, securing his 12th career win and his second in Monaco. Michael Schumacher pressed Coulthard in the final 26 laps of the Grand Prix, finishing second by 1.050 seconds.
Following the event, Michael Schumacher strengthened his World Drivers' Championship lead to 33 championship points. Ralf Schumacher's third-place finish put him tied for second in the championship standings with teammate Montoya, who retired from the race due to an engine failure. With ten races remaining in the season, Ferrari increased their World Constructors Championship advantage over Williams to 18 points.
Background
left|thumb|The [[Circuit de Monaco (pictured in 2018), where the Grand Prix was held]]
The 2002 Monaco Grand Prix was the 7th of the 17 rounds in the 2002 Formula One World Championship and the 60th edition of the event. It was held at the 19-turn Circuit de Monaco between La Condamine and Monte Carlo on 26 May. Going into the race, Ferrari's Michael Schumacher led the World Drivers' Championship with 54 championship points, ahead of Williams's Juan Pablo Montoya on 27 and his teammate Ralf Schumacher on 23. Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello was fourth with 12 championship points and McLaren's David Coulthard was fifth with 10 championship points. Ferrari led the World Constructors' Championship with 65 championship points, 16 ahead of Williams and 52 ahead of McLaren. Renault and Sauber had eight championship points each. the teams tested at various European racing circuits to prepare for the Monaco Grand Prix. The British American Racing (BAR), Jordan, Renault and Williams teams tested variously between 14 and 18 May at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Spain. Sauber tested for four days at a shortened configuration of the Circuit Paul Ricard in France, joined by Arrows, McLaren and Toyota for the final three days. Luciano Burti, Ferrari's test driver, tested for three days at the Circuito de Jerez in Spain, and BAR's test driver Anthony Davidson spent two days at Jerez. Ferrari spent four days at the Fiorano Circuit in Italy, and also two days at the Mugello Circuit in Italy. Minardi did not test during this period.
Many were upset when Barrichello was told by Ferrari to hand the win over to his teammate Michael Schumacher at the end of the previous round in Austria. Despite the controversy, Ferrari sporting director Jean Todt said the public would be eager to observe his team's next actions. said he intended to outpace Barrichello in Monaco and did not anticipate being jeered by the crowd. Coulthard finished fifth in the previous year's Monaco Grand Prix after stalling his car and being baulked by Arrows's Enrique Bernoldi. He said of his chances for the 2002 race, "I am of the mind that this may give us an opportunity to qualify better than I have done in previous races and be a genuine podium finisher." Although no team used the drastic measures seen the previous year, several teams made aerodynamic changes to their cars in an effort to generate as much downforce as possible on the constrained Monaco circuit. Ferrari fitted new front and rear wings while McLaren modified the MP4-17 car's lower bodywork. To increase downforce, other teams such as Arrows, Renault, Sauber, and Williams modified their cars' wings, while Toyota added a number of aerodynamic appendages to the TF102 car's sidewalls and engine cover. The first practice session was held Thursday morning on a damp track that eventually dried up. The circuit was cool and the weather was overcast. Michael Schumacher lapped fastest with a time of 1:21.094 he set 53 minutes in.
Later in the afternoon, the second practice session was still cool and overcast. Trulli set the day's fastest lap of 1:18.915 with ten minutes remaining, 0.446 seconds faster than Toyota's Allan McNish. After leaving the tunnel, Felipe Massa avoided hitting the wall and proceeded, despite spinning his Sauber car 360 degrees into the Nouvelle Chicane.|group="n" the third practice session on Saturday morning took place in warm and sunny weather. Barrichello led with a 1:18.385 lap set late in the session, 0.086 seconds faster than teammate Michael Schumacher. Montoya, Trulli, Button, Ralf Schumacher, Räikkönen, Coulthard, Frentzen and Fisichella rounded out the top ten. Trulli set a lap of 1:17.429 late in the session to go fastest. He was 0.077 seconds faster than Coulthard, followed by Montoya, Ralf Schumacher, the Ferrari pair of Barrichello and Michael Schumacher, Button, Fisichella and Massa positions three through ten. Jordan's Takuma Sato struck the inside kerb with his front-right wheel at the apex of Sainte Devote turn and crashed into the tyre barrier at the exit. Nearly identical to Sato's accident, Räikkönen's McLaren's front-left corner was removed at Sainte Devote corner. At the Swimming Pool complex entrance, a rear-left suspension failure propelled Irvine into the tyre barrier, damaging the Jaguar's rear. Soon after, Webber removed his left-front wheel in the same area. There was also heavy traffic observed around the circuit's narrow confines. During his last run in qualifying, Montoya had no traffic and lapped at 1:16.676, earning him the fifth pole position of his career, He felt that he could have improved on his final run but for traffic. He received medical treatment with eye drops. A cloud of oil smoke from Räikkönen's car in the tunnel warned him of what he mistook for an on-track incident, so he aborted his first run and finished third. Trulli, seventh, had most of his runs affected by traffic. His teammate Button in eighth was unhappy with his car's balance and made an error on his third run. The two Toyotas qualified in the top ten for the first time. Heavy traffic prevented Frentzen from managing a clear run and he qualified 12th.
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Warm-up
On race morning, a half-hour warm-up session was held for teams to shake down their race and spare cars in partially cloudy and warm conditions. Frentzen lapped fastest with a time of 1:20.875 set in the session's final minute. He was followed by Michael Schumacher, Coulthard, Trulli, Räikkönen, Barrichello, Ralf Schumacher, Panis, Fisichella and Salo in positions two through ten. De la Rosa lost control of his Jaguar at the Swimming Pool chicane towards the end of the session but avoided damaging his car. Coulthard, on the outside of the grid, started faster than Montoya because he struggled to shift from first to second gear due to either dirt on the track causing the electronics to cut out or the BMW engine bogging down. Villeneuve was stationary on the grid owing to a clutch trouble, so the marshals moved his car into the pit lane. He rejoined the Grand Prix one lap down. Montoya attacked Coulthard for the lead, while Michael Schumacher battled Montoya for second, McNish became the race's first retirement but the safety car was not used. He radioed his team to inform them of the problem.
On lap 32, removing his front wing and damaging Räikkönen's rear. On lap 47, Montoya suddenly slowed on the start/finish straight, allowing his teammate Ralf Schumacher to take second. leading every lap for his second Monaco Grand Prix win and the 12th of his career. Michael Schumacher was unable to force Coulthard to make a mistake, finishing second, 1.050 seconds back. Ralf Schumacher finished third on the podium, his first racing finish in Monaco. Michael Schumacher praised McLaren and said he was aware of the prospect of overtaking Coulthard, and placing second would increase his championship advantage over Montoya, "I knew both and I kept on pushing because in Monaco, nothing is for certain and you really have to go until the last lap, last corner, and that's what I did. I was trying to get my opportunity but he drove a fine race and didn't give me any chance." McLaren CEO Ron Dennis was pleased for McLaren but acknowledged it would be difficult for the team for the remainder of the season. Michelin's Pierre Dupasquier said, "It's nice to stop Michael Schumacher from winning, although I'm not sure that it's possible to keep him off the podium altogether." Coulthard acknowledged that unless Michael Schumacher got injured in the forthcoming races and missed the remainder of the season, he would be unbeatable, adding, "What this win, though, has done is rekindle a lot of the drive and determination in the McLaren camp. We all know both the Ferraris and Williams can be beaten."
thumb|right|upright|[[Jarno Trulli (pictured in 2010) finished fourth but it was under threat because of a missing seal on an electronic control unit from his engine. The result later stood after a compliance inspection found no irregularity with the unit.]]
Trulli said scoring his first championship points of the season was a positive, but believed he could have finished on the podium if he had not been delayed by Heidfeld. Fisichella was delighted to finish fifth, saying, "I expected do well here as I am confident on this circuit, especially when the car is going well." Irvine congratulated his former team Jordan on finishing fifth while team owner Eddie Jordan remarked, "We're back in the land of the living now." Frentzen was pleased to score his and Arrows's second championship point of the season, "Scoring one point puts pressure on us to score more, but it is the right kind of pressure. This point will keep the momentum going." Williams technical director Patrick Head said his team would analyse how Montoya lost the lead at the start.
A post-race technical check revealed that a paper seal on an electronic control unit from Trulli's engine was missing, breaching the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile's (FIA) technical regulations and causing concern amongst FIA officials of system software tampering. Two days after the race, a follow-up compliance inspection was held at Renault's factory in Enstone, Oxfordshire. The FIA's technical team found no anomalies with the unit, finalising the race result. The result increased Michael Schumacher's World Drivers' Championship lead to 33 championship points. Ralf Schumacher and teammate Montoya were joint second with 27 championship points each, while Coulthard's victory moved him from fifth to fourth.
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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
| align="left"| 60
|-
| align="left"| 10px 1
| align="center"| 2
| Ralf Schumacher
| align="left"| 27
|-
| align="left"| 10px 1
| align="center"| 3
| Juan Pablo Montoya
| align="left"| 27
|-
| align="left"| 10px 1
| align="center"| 4
| David Coulthard
| align="left"| 20
|-
| align="left"| 10px 1
| align="center"| 5
| Rubens Barrichello
| align="left"| 12
|-
!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
| align="left"| 72
|-
| align="left"| 10px
| align="center"| 2
| Williams-BMW
| align="left"| 54
|-
| align="left"| 10px
| align="center"| 3
| McLaren-Mercedes
| align="left"| 24
|-
| align="left"| 10px
| align="center"| 4
| Renault
| align="left"| 11
|-
| align="left"| 10px
| align="center"| 5
| Sauber-Petronas
| align="left"| 8
|-
!colspan=4|Sources: