The 2004 Italian Grand Prix Trivia Quiz

Answer: 1922

The circuit was opened in 1922 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Milan Automobile Club, and was constructed on land within the Villa Reale royal park near the town of Monza. Over 3,500 workers were employed on its construction, which was completed in only 110 days. The first race was held on September 3rd, and was won by Pietro Bordini driving a Fiat 501.

Answer: False

The first ever Grand Prix race was the "Grand Prix de l'Automobile Club de France", which was held at Le Mans in 1906. The term "Grand Prix" was used in later years for a variety of motor races until the FIA in 1950 restricted its use to races counting towards the Formula One world championship.

Answer: False

Monza had hosted more Grand Prix races than any other Formula One circuit, only missing one year between 1950 and 2004. The 1980 Italian Grand Prix was held at Imola, and was won by Nelson Piquet driving a Brabham. The 1950 Formula One world champion was the Italian Giuseppe Farina driving an Alfa Romeo, so Italians can rightly claim to be world leaders in Formula One racing.

Answer: Rubens Barrichello

The line up of the first six places on the starting grid for the 2004 Italian Grand Prix was - 1. Rubens Barrichello, 2. Juan Pablo Montoya, 3. Michael Schumacher, 4. Fernando Alonso, 5. Takuma Sato, 6. Jenson Button. Of these only Alonso failed to complete the race, spinning into the gravel during the 41st lap.

Answer: Damp track and sunny.

The weather conditions at the start of the race made the choice of tyres very difficult, and some teams got the decision wrong. Rain all morning had made the track surface very wet, but just before the start of the race the sun came out and it was starting to dry off. Ferrari chose intermediate tyres for Barrichello, and dry weather tyres for Schumacher.

As a result of this, Schumacher's Ferrari suffered a bad spin at the second chicane due to the still wet surface and a slight touch with Jenson Button's BAR-Honda. Fortunately Schumacher was able to recover, and went on to take second place in the race.

In order to change from 'intermediates' to 'drys' David Coulthard decided during the formation lap to surrender his 10th position on the grid and start the race from the pit lane.

Answer: Autodromo Nationale di Monza

Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari was the venue of the 2004 San Marino Grand Prix at Imola. Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace was the venue of the 2004 Brazil Grand Prix. Although the Monza Grand Prix circuit was originally constructed in the Villa Reale royal park, Circuit di Villa Reale was never its name.

Answer: Brazil

Brazil had four drivers competing - Rubens Barrichello, Antonio Pizzonia, Ricardo Zonta and Felipe Massa. There were two British drivers - David Coulthard and Jenson Button. Germany also had two drivers - Michael Schumacher and Nick Heidfeld. The only French driver was Olivier Panis.
Italy also had four competing drivers.

Answer: There was only one Italian driver in the 2004 Italian Grand Prix.

There were four Italian drivers in the 2004 Italian Grand Prix - Giancarlo Fisichello driving for Sauber, Jarno Trulli driving for Renault, Giorgio Pantano driving for Jordan, and Gianmaria Bruni for Minardi. Fisichello and Trulli finished the race in eighth and tenth positions respectively. Pantano and Bruni failed to finish.

Answer: Takuma Sato of Japan

In the 2004 race Sato finished a respectable fourth, but he did not compete at Monza in 2003. Webber, Heidfeld and Panis finished the 2004 race in ninth, fourteenth and last positions respectively. In 2003 they came in seventh, ninth and fifteenth respectively.

Answer: True

After his spin at the second chicane in lap one, Schumacher dropped right back. As the track dried his intermediate tyres gradually began to have a positive effect and he slowly made his way through the other cars, finally getting into second place. He made no attempt to overtake his team mate, Rubens Barrichello, and Ferrari had another first/second finish. Schumacher said afterwards "I never thought I could go from almost last to second - Rubens deserves this win as he drove a great race".

Answer: His car was engulfed in fire during a pit stop.

During his scheduled lap 30 pit stop some fuel was spilt as the fuel nozzle was withdrawn, and hit one of the car's hot spots. It immediately erupted into a spectacular fireball engulfing both car and driver. The Minardi pit crew reacted very swiftly and extinguished the fire, but Bruni had ingested smoke and fire retardant fumes.

He got out of the car but could not breathe for nearly a minute. After receiving medical attention from the team doctor, he was found to be OK but had to retire from the race.

Answer: Fastest ever Formula One lap

Montoya's fastest ever Formula One lap was achieved during pre-qualifying on Saturday 11th September. His average speed during this lap was 162.949 mph (262.242 kph). Rubens Barrichello broke the highest qualifying lap speed for the Monza circuit achieving 161.836 mph (260.395 kph).

The Monza lap record was previously held by Montoya when he achieved 161.352 mph (259.827 kph) during qualifying in 2002.

Answer: Felipe Massa

Massa finished twelfth in the 2004 Italian Grand Prix. Alonso retired after completing forty laps, Raikkonen after thirteen laps, and Pantano after thirty-three laps.

Answer: BAR-Honda

After the 2004 Italian Grand Prix the top six places for the Constructor's championship were Ferrari - 234 points, BAR-Honda - 94 points, Renault - 91 points, Williams-BMW - 60 points, McLaren-Mercedes - 52 points and Sauber-Petronas - 29 points. Jenson Button's third place on the podium had allowed BAR to move ahead of Renault.

Answer: True

Barrichello's last Grand Prix win had been at the 2003 Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka. His Ferrari team mate, Michael Schumacher had already achieved twelve Grand Prix wins in the 2004 season, and paid tribute to Barrichello saying "he drove a great race". Barrichello had made a good start from pole position on intermediate tyres, but had to pit very early to change to 'drys' as the track dried out.

He soon caught up and in the 36th lap took the lead from Michael Schumacher while Michael was making his final pit stop. Monza was the first Grand Prix circuit at which Barrichello had won twice, having also taken the winner's trophy there in 2002.