2004 German Grand Prix

2004 German Grand Prix
Race 12 of 18 in the 2004 Formula One World Championship ←  Previous race Next race  →
Race details
Date	25 July 2004
Official name	Formula 1 Grosser Mobil 1 Preis von Deutschland 2004
Location	Hockenheimring Hockenheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	4.574 km (2.842 miles)
Distance	66 laps, 301.884 km (187.582 miles)
Scheduled distance	67 laps, 306.458 km (190.424 miles)
Weather	Sunny
Pole position
Driver	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Time	1:13.306
Fastest lap
Driver	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes
Time	1:13.780 on lap 10 (lap record) [N 1]
Podium
First	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Second	Jenson Button	BAR-Honda
Third	Fernando Alonso	Renault
Lap leaders

The 2004 German Grand Prix (officially known as the Formula 1 Grosser Mobil 1 Preis von Deutschland 2004) ^[1] was a Formula One motor race that took place on 25 July 2004 at the Hockenheimring in Germany. It was the twelfth round of the 2004 FIA Formula One World Championship.

Michael Schumacher of Scuderia Ferrari took pole position for the race and went on to take the race win ahead of Jenson Button of BAR and Fernando Alonso of Renault. This was the final Grand Prix for Brazilian driver Cristiano da Matta, and the final time Williams used the 'Walrus nose' on its FW26 racing car.

Background

The Hockenheimring in Hockenheim, Germany hosted a Formula One Grand Prix for the 28th time in the circuit's history, across the weekend of 23-25 July. The Grand Prix was the twelfth round of the 2004 Formula One World Championship and the 52th running of the German Grand Prix as a round of the Formula One World Championship. ^[2]

Championship standings before the race

Going into the weekend, Michael Schumacher led the Drivers' Championship with 100 points, built up of 10 victories in 11 races. He was 26 points ahead of his teammate Rubens Barrichello in second, and 47 ahead of Jenson Button in third. ^[3] Ferrari, with 174 points, led the Constructors' Championship from Renault and BAR-Honda, who were second and third with 79 and 67 points, respectively. ^[3]

Driver changes

In the previous two races, Marc Gené had stepped in for Williams driver Ralf Schumacher. Schumacher was still recovering from his back injury at the United States Grand Prix and Gené did not provide the necessary results, so the team decided to promote their other test driver, Antônio Pizzonia, into the race seat. ^[4]

Practice

Four free practice sessions were held for the event. ^[5] The first session on Friday was topped by BAR's third driver Anthony Davidson, followed by Michael Schumacher in the Ferrari and Kimi Räikkönen for McLaren. ^[6] The latter two reached the top of the standings in the second session. ^[7]

On Saturday, Schumacher again set the quickest time in the third practice session, ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya for Williams and teammate Rubens Barrichello. ^[8] Montoya was second again in the fourth and final session, this time headed by BAR's Jenson Button. ^[9]

Friday drivers

The bottom 6 teams in the 2003 Constructors' Championship were entitled to run a third car in free practice on Friday. These drivers drove on Friday but did not compete in qualifying or the race.

Constructor	Nat	Driver
BAR-Honda		Anthony Davidson
Sauber-Petronas		-
Jaguar-Cosworth		Björn Wirdheim
Toyota		Ricardo Zonta
Jordan-Ford		Timo Glock
Minardi-Cosworth		Bas Leinders

Qualifying

Qualifying on Saturday consisted of two sessions. In the first session, drivers went out one by one in the order in which they classified at the previous race. Each driver was allowed to set one lap time. The result determined the running order in the second session: the fastest driver in the first session was allowed to go last in the second session, which usually provided the benefit of a cleaner track. In the second session, drivers were again allowed to set one lap time, which determined the order on the grid for the race on Sunday, with the fastest driver scoring pole position. ^[10]

Michael Schumacher scored his sixth pole position of the season, ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya and Jenson Button, to make his 100th start from the front row. ^[11] Button was demoted 10 places on the grid for replacing the engine after Friday's second practice, so Kimi Räikkönen moved up to the third slot. Toyota brought a new car, the TF104B, but were still working on perfecting their aerodynamic set-up, as demonstrated by their tenth and fifteenth positions. Antônio Pizzonia's first qualifying in a Williams was met with mixed reviews: his time in the first qualifying session would have put him second on the grid, but when it mattered in the second session, he failed to reach higher than eleventh place. ^[12]

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1 Time	Q2 Time	Gap	Grid
1	1	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	1:14.042	1:13.306		1
2	3	Juan Pablo Montoya	Williams-BMW	1:13.391	1:13.668	+0.362	2
3	9	Jenson Button	BAR-Honda	1:13.535	1:13.674	+0.368	13 1
4	6	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:13.842	1:13.690	+0.384	3
5	5	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	1:13.640	1:13.821	+0.515	4
6	8	Fernando Alonso	Renault	1:13.582	1:13.874	+0.568	5
7	7	Jarno Trulli	Renault	1:13.737	1:14.134	+0.828	6
8	2	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	1:14.111	1:14.278	+0.972	7
9	10	Takuma Sato	BAR-Honda	1:14.465	1:14.287	+0.981	8
10	17	Olivier Panis	Toyota	1:13.641	1:14.368	+1.062	9
11	4	Antônio Pizzonia	Williams-BMW	1:13.422	1:14.556	+1.250	10
12	14	Mark Webber	Jaguar-Cosworth	1:15.093	1:14.802	+1.496	11
13	15	Christian Klien	Jaguar-Cosworth	1:15.090	1:15.011	+1.705	12
14	11	Giancarlo Fisichella	Sauber-Petronas	1:13.914	1:15.395	+2.089	14
15	16	Cristiano da Matta	Toyota	1:15.119	1:15.454	+2.148	15
16	12	Felipe Massa	Sauber-Petronas	1:13.899	1:15.616	+2.310	16
17	19	Giorgio Pantano	Jordan-Ford	1:16.167	1:16.192	+2.886	17
18	18	Nick Heidfeld	Jordan-Ford	1:16.538	1:16.310	+3.004	18
19	20	Gianmaria Bruni	Minardi-Cosworth	1:17.283	1:18.055	+4.749	19
20	21	Zsolt Baumgartner	Minardi-Cosworth	1:17.515	1:18.400	+5.094	20
Source: [13]

Notes

• ^1 – Jenson Button received a 10-place grid penalty for an engine change. ^[14]

Race

The race was held on 25 July 2004 and was due to run for 67 laps, but when Olivier Panis stalled his engine on the grid and the first start had to be aborted, the race was shortened to 66 laps. ^[15]

Race report

Kimi Räikkönen's accident on lap 13

Fans celebrating on track during the podium ceremony

At the start, Michael Schumacher held the lead, but second-starting Juan Pablo Montoya dropped down to eighth place. Meanwhile, Fernando Alonso shot up from fifth to second, which meant Kimi Räikkönen went on where he started, in third position. When the field arrived at the hairpin for the first time, Rubens Barrichello tried to pass David Coulthard for fifth place, but left his braking too late, locked his rear wheels and crashed into the back of the McLaren. The Scot continued without losing time, but the Brazilian lost his front wing and was forced to pit, dropping to the back of the field. Alonso was passed by Räikkönen at the hairpin on lap 2, while Montoya began his recovery by overtaking Mark Webber into the same corner mere moments later. ^[12]

Schumacher had opened a gap of three seconds to Räikkönen, but the Finn drew closer to the leader during the first round of pit stops. On lap 13, however, the rear wing collapsed on his McLaren as he was about to turn into the high-speed first corner. His car spun and slammed into the tyre barrier, but the driver escaped unhurt. It was Räikkönen seventh retirement of the season and left Schumacher in the lead with more than ten seconds over Alonso. ^[12]

Montoya had climbed up to fourth position, but his tyres degraded faster than those around him and on lap 21, he went off track and was passed by Jenson Button. The Colombian triggered the secound round of pit stops anded rejoined in a distant fifth place. Schumacher and Alonso kept their positions, while Coulthard fell back behind Button and the latter continued his surge during the third round of pit stops by rejoining right behind Alonso and then passing the Renault driver on lap 51. Button was even faster than Schumacher but the championship leader had enough of a lead to cruise to the finish and take another dominant victory. ^[12]

Antônio Pizzonia finished seventh and scored two points on his first outing for Williams. ^[12]

Race classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	1	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	66	1:23:54.848	1	10
2	9	Jenson Button	BAR-Honda	66	+ 8.388	13	8
3	8	Fernando Alonso	Renault	66	+ 16.351	5	6
4	5	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	66	+ 19.231	4	5
5	3	Juan Pablo Montoya	Williams-BMW	66	+ 23.055	2	4
6	14	Mark Webber	Jaguar-Cosworth	66	+ 41.108	11	3
7	4	Antônio Pizzonia	Williams-BMW	66	+ 41.956	10	2
8	10	Takuma Sato	BAR-Honda	66	+ 46.842	8	1
9	11	Giancarlo Fisichella	Sauber-Petronas	66	+ 1:07.102	14
10	15	Christian Klien	Jaguar-Cosworth	66	+ 1:08.578	12
11	7	Jarno Trulli	Renault	66	+ 1:10.258	6
12	2	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	66	+ 1:13.252	7
13	12	Felipe Massa	Sauber-Petronas	65	+ 1 Lap	16
14	17	Olivier Panis	Toyota	65	+ 1 Lap	PL
15	19	Giorgio Pantano	Jordan-Ford	63	+ 3 Laps	17
16	21	Zsolt Baumgartner	Minardi-Cosworth	62	+ 4 Laps	20
17	20	Gianmaria Bruni	Minardi-Cosworth	62	+ 4 Laps	19
Ret	18	Nick Heidfeld	Jordan-Ford	42	Handling	18
Ret	16	Cristiano da Matta	Toyota	38	Puncture	15
Ret	6	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	13	Rear Wing/Accident	3
Source: [16]

• Panis started the race from the pitlane. ^[12]

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Michael Schumacher 110 2 Rubens Barrichello 74 3 Jenson Button 61 4 Jarno Trulli 46 5 Fernando Alonso 39 Source: [17]

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Ferrari 184 2 Renault 85 3 BAR-Honda 76 4 Williams-BMW 47 5 McLaren-Mercedes 37 Source: [17]

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

See also

• 2004 Hockenheimring F3000 round

Footnotes

1. Although Michael Schumacher set a lap time of 1:13.306 in qualifying, Kimi Räikkönen's time of 1:13.780 is recognised as the lap record as it was set under race conditions.

References

1. "FORMULA 1 Grosser Mobil 1 Preis von Deutschland 2004 - Race" . Retrieved 2 January 2021.
2. "Grands Prix Germany". StatsF1. Retrieved 30 July 2025.
3. Jones, Bruce (2005). "Final Results 2004". The Official ITV Sport Guide: Grand Prix 2005 . London, England: Carlton Books. pp. 102–103. ISBN   1-84442-578-9 – via Internet Archive.
4. "JPM: "Gene was unlucky."". CRASH.net. 31 March 2022 [22 July 2004]. Retrieved 28 July 2025.
5. "FORMULA 1™ GROSSER MOBIL 1 PREIS VON DEUTSCHLAND 2004 - PRACTICE 1". formula1.com. Retrieved 28 July 2025.
6. "Practice 1: Little Ant sets pace". Autosport . 23 July 2004. Retrieved 30 July 2025.
7. "Practice 2: Schu tops Kimi". Autosport . 23 July 2004. Retrieved 30 July 2025.
8. "Practice 3: Schu in charge". Autosport . 24 July 2004. Retrieved 30 July 2025.
9. "Practice 4: Button goes fastest". Autosport . 24 July 2004. Retrieved 30 July 2025.
10. "Deciding the grid - A history of F1 qualifying formats". formula1.com. Retrieved 25 July 2025.
11. Petric, Darjan (25 July 2022). "2004 German GP – 50th race for Schumacher without mechanical failure". MaxF1.net. Retrieved 28 July 2025.
12. Elizalde, Pablo (28 July 2004). "2004 German Grand Prix Review". AtlasF1.com. Spain. Retrieved 28 July 2025.
13. "2004 German Grand Prix - Saturday Qualifying Results". Formula1.com. Formula1.com Limited. Archived from the original on 30 October 2013. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
14. "German Grand Prix Starting Grid". AtlasF1 . 25 July 2004. Retrieved 30 July 2025.
15. "Schumacher wins, Button stars". Formula1.com. 25 July 2004. Archived from the original on 27 July 2004. Retrieved 30 July 2025.
16. "2004 German Grand Prix - Race Results". Formula1.com. Formula1.com Limited. Archived from the original on 16 November 2014. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
17. "Germany 2004 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 18 March 2019.

External links

Previous race: 2004 British Grand Prix	FIA Formula One World Championship 2004 season	Next race: 2004 Hungarian Grand Prix
Previous race: 2003 German Grand Prix	German Grand Prix	Next race: 2005 German Grand Prix

49°19′40″N8°33′57″E / 49.32778°N 8.56583°E / 49.32778; 8.56583