2004 United States Grand Prix

There was a pile-up at the start of the race in turn 1, which caused Christian Klien, Felipe Massa, Giorgio Pantano, and Gianmaria Bruni to crash out and retire from the race.

A few laps later, a rear tyre on Ralf Schumacher's Williams failed, pitching his car into a brick wall at speeds of up to 180mph, Schumacher suffered a fractured spine. Michael Schumacher reportedly said after the race that he considered retiring from the race to see to his brother. The Safety Car was deployed to clear up the wreckage left by the Williams car and so that the medical teams could get to Ralf.

The two Ferrari drivers led the entire race. Michael Schumacher finished first, Barrichello placed second and Takuma Sato collected his first podium finish of his career when placing third. The race also saw the first ever point scored by a Hungarian driver in Formula One, with Zsolt Baumgartner finishing eighth.

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Classification

Notes

• Lap Leaders: Rubens Barrichello 14 (1-5, 42-50) and Michael Schumacher 59 (6-41 and 51-73)
• First podium: Takuma Sato.
• First points: Zsolt Baumgartner.
• Juan Pablo Montoya was black-flagged for joining the race in his spare car, having elected to change to it later than the regulations allow.
• Juan Pablo Montoya started this race from the pit lane.
• Ralf Schumacher was involved in a serious accident and he was out of action for 6 races.
• This is also the first points finish for the Minardi team since the 2002 Australian Grand Prix, where Mark Webber finished 5th.