The 2000 Italian Grand Prix (formally the LXXI Gran Premio Campari d'Italia) was a Formula One motor race held on 10 September 2000, at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza near Monza, Lombardy, Italy, in front of an estimated 110,000 to 120,000 people. It was the 14th round of the 2000 Formula One World Championship and the season's final event in Europe. Ferrari's Michael Schumacher won the 53-lap race from pole position. McLaren's Mika Häkkinen took second and Williams' Ralf Schumacher was third.
Before the race, Häkkinen led the World Drivers' Championship and McLaren led the World Constructors' Championship. Michael Schumacher maintained the lead and held off Häkkinen's attempts to pass him going into the first corner. A incident involving four cars further around the lap necessitated the safety car's deployment and fire marshal Paolo Gislimberti was struck by a flying wheel from Heinz-Harald Frentzen's car. When the safety car was withdrawn at the end of lap eleven, Michael Schumacher began to pull away from Häkkinen and maintained the lead until his pit stop on the 39th lap. When Häkkinen made his pit stop three laps later, Michael Schumacher regained the lead, which he held to earn his sixth victory of the season and the 41st of his career, tying him with Ayrton Senna; Häkkinen came in second 3.8 seconds later.
As a result of the race results, Schumacher cut Häkkinen's World Drivers' Championship lead to two points, with David Coulthard another 17 points back. Rubens Barrichello, who was involved in the first-lap accident, was mathematically ruled out of winning the championship. McLaren's eight-point lead entering the Grand Prix was down to four with three races remaining in the season. Gislimberti died later in hospital, prompting a review of Formula One safety standards.
Background
On 10 September 2000, the clockwise Autodromo Nazionale di Monza near Monza in Lombardy, Italy, hosted the 13th round of 17th in the 2000 Formula One World Championship. It was the season's final European race. The event featured eleven teams (each representing a different constructor), each with two drivers with no changes to the season entry list. Control tyre supplier Bridgestone brought the hardest available compounds to the race, the medium and hard dry compounds. Because the Monza Circuit saw high average lap times, every team installed low incidence ailerons and the wings observed at the .
McLaren's Mika Häkkinen led the World Drivers' Championship with 74 points going into the race, followed by Ferrari's Michael Schumacher on 68 points and Häkkinen's teammate David Coulthard on 61 points. Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello was fourth with 49 points and Williams' Ralf Schumacher was fifth with 20 points. McLaren led the World Constructors' Championship with 125 points, followed by Ferrari and Williams with 117 and 30 points, respectively, while Benetton were fourth with 18 points and Jordan were fifth with 13 points.
At the previous race in Belgium, the gap between Häkkinen (who won three of the preceding four races) and Michael Schumacher had grown to six points. Häkkinen began from pole position and led until the 13th lap, when he lost control of his car at Stavelot corner. He later lapped quicker than Michael Schumacher and passed him while both were lapping BAR driver Ricardo Zonta with four laps remaining to win the race. The overtake was hailed as "the best ever manoeuvre in grand prix racing" by the international press and many Formula One individuals. Michael Schumacher remained confident about his title chances: "With only six points between Mika and I and four more races to go, I am still optimistic about our chances. One win or a retirement before the end of the season can change the whole picture either way."