Sunday 29th September 2002

Rubens Barrichello won the US Grand Prix by 0.011 seconds from Michael Schumacher after a staged Ferrari finish backfired. The pair had dominated the race and then came around the banked final corner side-by-side in a show of Ferrari dominance at Indianapolis. However, Schumacher, who had led the race throughout, dropped back fractionally too far and handed Barrichello the win. After the race it was widely believed that he intended to let Barrichello win all along, in order to repay his team-mate for moving over on the final lap of the Austrian Grand Prix the same year. The theory was denied by Ferrari, but reading between the lines it was backed up by the drivers’ comments. “To win, it was very, very, very good,” Barrichello said after the race. “I got to the last corner, I didn’t know what to do and nothing has been said. Michael was just very kind to, you know, let us finish equally. I guess I pointed a little bit in front, but, you know, what can we say?” Schumacher added: “The end of the race was not planned. We tried to cross the line together but failed by a tiny bit and in fact we did not know who had won until we got out of the cars. I just felt Rubens deserved to win this race.”