2001 United States Grand Prix
| Race details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 16 of 17 in the 2001 Formula One season | |||
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| Date | September 30, 2001 | ||
| Official name | XXX SAP United States Grand Prix | ||
| Location |
Indianapolis Motor Speedway Indianapolis, Indiana |
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| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||
| Course length | 4.195 km (2.606 mi) | ||
| Distance | 73 laps, 306.235 km (190.238 mi) | ||
| Weather | Sunny, cool, Air: 19–21 °C (66–70 °F), Track 27 °C (81 °F) | ||
| Attendance | 175,000 | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Ferrari | ||
| Time | 1:11.708 | ||
| Fastest lap | |||
| Driver |
 Juan Pablo Montoya
|
Williams-BMW | |
| Time | 1:14.448 on lap 36 | ||
| Podium | |||
| First | McLaren-Mercedes | ||
| Second | Ferrari | ||
| Third | McLaren-Mercedes | ||
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The 2001 United States Grand Prix (formally the XXX SAP United States Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on September 30, 2001 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Indiana in the United States. The 73-lap race was the sixteenth and penultimate round of the 2001 Formula One season and was won by Mika Häkkinen. It was the first international sport/race event held in the United States after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Adding to the victory was the fact that the win also occurred two days after Häkkinen's 33rd birthday. It was Häkkinen's final victory and the last race to be covered by British commentator Murray Walker.
Finland's Mika Häkkinen overcame some early race-day adversity and won the second United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis by 11 seconds over newly crowned World Champion and pole-sitter Michael Schumacher before a season-high crowd estimated at 175,000. "This Grand Prix is definitely one of my important victories," Häkkinen said. "Because I rate Monaco, Silverstone and Indianapolis, I think, as the Grands Prix a Grand Prix driver wants to win. It's something special. So this is something I'm never going to forget." It was the twentieth win of Häkkinen's career, and the last before fulfilling his stated plan to take a year off from racing, which wound up being retirement at the end of the season.
After waging a tremendous qualifying battle with Schumacher on Saturday and securing a front-row starting position, Häkkinen dug himself a hole on a cool but sunny race day: first, he slid off the track into the guardrail at the end of the infield straight in the morning warm-up, damaging his McLaren's suspension and requiring a heroic job by his crew to get the car ready to race. Three hours later, he learned that his failure to wait for the green light to begin the warm-up session had caused his best qualifying lap to be taken away, dropping him from second to fourth position on the grid.
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