Race and classic pictures

No April Fools prank by Montoya on Schumacher

Although the Formula 1 season is typically well underway by this point of the year, the sport has usually been unwilling to risk venturing out on April Fool's Day.

One exception to that rule was the Brazilian Grand Prix in 2001.

It was the third race of that year's world championship, and Michael Schumacher already had a ten point lead in the standings over his Ferrari team mate Rubens Barrichello and McLaren's David Coulthard when they rolled in Interlagos.

It was an all-Schumacher front row for the start of the race. Michael was on pole with brother Ralf alongside him for Williams. But when the race got underway there was an immediate safety car after Mika Hakkinen had stalled on the grid.

The restart saw a daring Juan Pablo Montoya back a bold move on Michael Schumacher for the lead at Turn 1.

It was only the third race of the Colombian's F1 career at Williams but he had no inhibitions about going wheel-to-wheel with Schumacher.

Montoya led for half the race, only to be denied victory when Arrows' Jos Verstappen clumsily piled into the back of his car on lap 38.

That should have teed up Michael for the win, but the weather then mixed things up. Wet conditions from rain and thunderstorms led to him spinning twice, and Coulthard went on to take victory instead. Schumacher settled for second with Nick Heidfeld joining them on the podium for Sauber.

It hadn't been a good day for local hero Rubens Barrichello, who suffered car trouble on his way to the grid. This was in the days when 'T' cars were allowed, so he jumped into the spare car and started the race. Unfortunately he lasted just two laps before ignominiously rear-ending Ralf Schumacher.

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.