MONACO, 24 May 2004 — Italian Jarno Trulli led from start to finish to claim his first ever Formula One victory and end world champion Michael Schumacher’s winning run in a thrilling and action-packed Monaco Grand Prix here yesterday.
Trulli, who started from pole for the first time in his 117-race career, played it cool while his teammate Fernando Alonso and Schumacher crashed out behind him in a series of incidents in the famous Monte Carlo tunnel.
Schumacher had won five races from five this season but his hopes of breaking Nigel Mansell’s record season-starting victory run were ended by his first retirement in the 19 races since last year’s Brazilian Grand Prix.
The race was run under the safety car twice, first after Italian Giancarlo Fisichella rolled his Sauber having been blinded by smoke from Takuma Sato’s retiring BAR and secondly when Spaniard Alonso collided with the barriers.
Schumacher crashed out while cruising at the head of the field during the second safety car period when his brakes locked and he collided with Juan Pablo Montoya’s Williams as the Colombian tried to swerve out of the way.
But Trulli left the carnage behind him to control a frantic final part of the race to keep the battling Briton Jenson Button behind him in second as Rubens Barrichello saved face for Ferrari with his fourth podium of the season.
Colombian Montoya, despite starting from ninth place and colliding with Schumacher during the race, stayed on track to claim a satisfying fourth for Williams.
Brazilian Felipe Massa was fifth for Sauber, equaling his best ever finish, while compatriot Cristiano da Matta equaled his best finish with sixth for Toyota despite a drive-through penalty for ignoring blue flags.
German Nick Heidfeld gave Jordan a much-needed boost with their first points finish of the season and Olivier Panis claimed the final point in the Toyota, as Hungarian Zsolt Baumgartner, of Minardi, completed the nine finishers.
Ralf Schumacher, who started 12th, had looked set to secure the final point but he was forced to retire just three laps from the end when he pulled his Williams into the pits.
The first start was aborted after former winner Panis failed to line up correctly on his grid spot in 13th place and stalled his Toyota. He was pushed back to the pits when the field set off for the second warm-up lap.
The race was shortened because of the incident by one lap to 77 laps and Trulli got away well to stay in front as Alonso claimed second when he flew past Button’s BAR from third on the grid. Button held onto third and his Japanese team-mate Sato made a flying start, gently tapping the wheel of Michael Schumacher on the way through, to claim fourth place as Schumacher dropped behind Raikkonen into sixth.
Jaguar’s Christian Klien became the first retirement when he crashed into the barriers at Loews hairpin after losing his front wing fighting in the middle of the pack in the first-lap melee.
Sato appeared to be holding the field up behind him and on the third lap his engine gave way as he headed into the swimming pool complex, leaving a trail of smoke as he parked up on the exit.
Blinded by the haze, the field tiptoed through but as David Coulthard slowed, Fisichella hit the back of the Scot’s McLaren and rolled his car into the barrier on the inside of the complex.
