The Horse Praces At Last
Everyone had written off Schumacher. OK, he had qualified third, but Ferrari reliability recently hasn't been anything to write home about, particularly when the engine was run for performance, which is what the 4 mile Spa-Francorchamps circuit needs. However, Schumacher pulled something out of his magical bag and stuck it in the lead. And the God's smiled.
The first corner was frantic, the cars slowing from 150mph to 30mph to take La Source hairpin, concertinering the cars together. As Herbert turned in, Frentzen dived into the gap. Johnny had nowhere to go, and drove over Frentzen's front with his rear, flipping the car into the air, taking out both Sauber's and the Ligier of Panis as well. The rest made it through, and down the main straight it was Villeneuve from Schumacher, Hill and Coulthard. Hill again bogged his start, but at least he had the excuse of starting on the damp side of the track, the racing line being dry. Somewhere during this mess Barrichello made contact, and at the end of the lap pitted for a new nose.
On the long drag up to Les Combe, Coulthard got a tow from Hill, and outbraked him into the corner. Already the top six were pulling away from the rest, although the positions tended to stay the same. At the start of lap 3, the gaps were Schumacher -1.5s, Coulthard -2.4, Hill -3.7, Hakkinen -4.9, and Berger -5.6. The gap between Villeneuve and Schumacher yo-yo'ed as they took turns setting fastest lap, but Schumacher couldn't make a definite move, and both pulled away from the pursuing McLaren. Behind this Hill couldn't make a move either, his car suffering from bad understeer, and he gradually dropped back into the clutches of Hakkinen.
On lap 12, Verstappen pitted to have a sticking throttle checked, or portent of what was to come, spending one and a half minutes in the pits. He was sent out again, but one lap later had a huge accident, the throttle sticking at a fast part of the circuit, sending the car flying into the barriers, ripping off the car's left side in the process. Verstappen eventually got out looking extremely shaken, but suffering from nothing worse than a stiff neck. The safety car was scrambled while the debris was cleared.
Almost immediately Schumacher came into the pits, for what he claimed was a scheduled stop, but what was to be the pivotal point of the race. Alesi also pitted, and Hill went to do so, and started to head up the pit road. The Williams team hurriedly got back on the radio to tell him to stay out, and he had to thread his way back onto the circuit, rejoining behind Hakkinen. This mix up cost Hill any chance of victory.
The cars continued to circulate behind the safety car for three more laps, all the front runners bar the two McLaren's pitting, Hill included, the Williams driver having his front wing adjusted to remove the understeer (the Williams team now have an Indycar style adjustable front wing). At the restart the cars all piled into La Source together, mercifully avoiding any contact. Up they blasted towards Les Combe, and Villeneuve performed the classic out dragging and braking manouevre on Alesi. Villeneuve soon set off after Schumacher, but Hill had more pressing problems: he was down in 12th.
Berger, who was 8th behind Irvine, lost it at the bus stop chicane on lap 19, the proximity to the restart meaning that the cars were all bunched together, compounding the punishment for the error. This and some overtaking meant that Hill was now in 9th, and he was 2 seconds a lap quicker than 8th placed Brundle. However, once caught, passing becomes problematic due to the aerodynamic turbulence, and the power of the Peugeot engine didn't help either. Hill got closest on lap 22, and the consequent turbulence meant that Hill had a large twitch through Eau Rouge while at around 170mph. Hill decided to back off for a while and regroup.
Coulthard pitted on lap 22, and on lap 24 the positions were Hakkinen, Schumacher (-2.233s), Villeneuve (-3.566), Alesi (-7.148), Salo (-17.814 - having made good use of pit-stops under the safety car) and Irvine (-19.749), Hakkinen also pitting this lap. Hill was again edging closer to Brundle, and on lap 25 he slipped underneath at Les Combe. He quickly pulled out a gap, and when Irvine pitted later during the lap, moved up to sixth.
Things were settled at the front, Villeneuve only managing to inch up on Schumacher. Of more interest was Hill's pursuit of Hakkinen, both of them bearing down on the Tyrrell of Salo, the Finnish driver having by far the best race of the season. Hakkinen managed to pass on lap 29, but Hill had to wait a lap until lap 30, Irvine spinning out this lap with a smokey engine. Alesi, having pitted on lap 30, re-emerged between the two combatants, and this was to prove frustrating for Hill. At the top end, the Williams was much faster than the Benetton, but it still couldn't pass. Lap 34 and Hill pitted anyway, taking 6.7s.
Hill re-emerged in sixth, the win already looking a long lost cause, and with a rejuvinated Berger catching him quickly. Both of the drivers by now were circulating faster than any of the others, but they had little hope of catching the others. Their cause was aided though by another McLaren mechanical failure, Coulthard spinning out on lap 38 and damaging the car. Thus Hill moved to fifth and Berger to sixth, and despite both charging, there it stayed until flag fall.
It wasn't quite such an easy run for Villeneuve though. His engine started to make odd noises during the final few laps, so he abandoned his pursuit of Schumacher and settled for second. And there he stayed, the German picking up his second win of the season, despite a bent steering arm picked up when thumping the kerbs following Hakkinen. The rejuvination is too late to do something about the Championship, but it was enough to make the normally dour looking Jean Todt, manager of Ferrari, look the picture of contentment. With the Italian GP at Monza being next, he will be looking for more.
Villeneuve is now four points closer to Hill, and there are three more races remaining. A Hill victory, and he has near enough sewn the championship up. As it is, he only has to finish second to Villeneuve at each race to win. Hill is still the favourite, but it is getting much more exciting.
Result: hrs mins secs 1 M Schumacher Ger Ferrari 1:28:15.125, 209.442kph 2 J Villeneuve Can Williams @ 5.602 3 M Hakkinen Fin McLaren @ 15.710 4 J Alesi Fr Benetton @ 19.125 5 D Hill GB Williams @ 29.179 6 G Berger Aut Benetton @ 29.896 7 M Salo Fin Tyrrell @ 1:00.754 8 U Katayama Jpn Tyrrell @ 1:40.227 9 R Rosset Brz Footwork @ 1 lap 10 P Lamy Por Minardi @ 1 lap Retirements: lap 1 O Panis Fr Ligier lap 1 HH Frentzen Ger Sauber lap 1 J Herbert GB Sauber (all three collided at first bend) lap 12 J Verstappen Hol Footwork (crashed into track wall) lap 21 P Diniz Br Ligier lap 29 E Irvine GB Ferrari (9th retirement in 13 starts) lap 29 R Barrichello Brz Jordan lap 35 M Brundle GB Jordan lap 38 D Coulthard GB McLaren (engine while in 5th place) DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIP: 1 D Hill GB Williams 81 pts 2 J Villeneuve Can Williams 68 3 M Schumacher Ger Ferrari 39 4 J Alesi Fr Benetton 38 5 M Hakkinen Fin McLaren 23 6 D Coulthard GB McLaren 18 7 G Berger Aut Benetton 17 8 O Panis Fr Ligier 13 9 R Barrichello Brz Jordan 12 10 E Irvine GB Ferrari 9 11 H Frentzen Ger Sauber 6 12 M Salo Fin Tyrrell 5 13 J Herbert GB Sauber 4 14 M Brundle GB Jordan 3 15 J Verstappen Hol Footwork 1 = P Diniz Brz Ligier 1 CONSTRUCTORS CHAMPIONSHIP: 1 Williams-Renault 149 points 2 Benetton-Renault 55 = Ferrari 48 4 McLaren-Mercedes 41 5 Jordan-Peugeot 15 6 Ligier-Mugen Honda 14 7 Sauber 10 8 Tyrrell-Yamaha 5 9 Footwork-Hart 1 Fastest Laps 2 Villeneuve 1:55.976 3 Schumacher 1:55.151 4 Hakkinen 1:54.990 5 Villeneuve 1:54.821 6 Schumacher 1:54.691 8 Villeneuve 1:54.410 23 Hakkinen 1:54.198 27 Schumacher 1:54.164 28 Villeneuve 1:53.928 35 Berger 1:53.890 36 Hill 1:53.457, Berger 1:53.354 41 Berger 1:53.263 42 Berger 1:53.067 Top 6 Lap Chart Lap/Pos 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 6 5 1 8 4 7 1 6 1 8 5 7 4 2 6 1 7 5 8 4 3 6 1 7 5 8 4 4 6 1 7 5 8 4 5 6 1 7 5 8 4 6 6 1 7 5 8 4 7 6 1 7 5 8 4 8 6 1 7 5 8 4 9 6 1 7 5 8 4 10 6 1 7 5 8 4 11 6 1 7 5 8 4 12 6 1 7 5 8 4 13 6 1 7 5 8 4 14 6 7 8 5 4 1 15 7 8 5 1 6 3 16 7 8 1 6 3 19 17 7 8 1 6 3 19 18 7 8 1 6 3 19 19 7 8 1 6 3 19 20 7 8 1 6 3 19 21 7 8 1 6 3 19 22 8 1 6 3 19 2 23 8 1 6 2 19 2 24 1 6 3 19 2 8 25 1 6 3 19 8 5 26 1 6 3 19 8 5 27 1 6 3 19 8 5 28 1 6 3 19 8 5 29 1 6 3 8 19 5 30 6 1 8 3 5 19 31 6 1 8 3 5 7 32 1 6 8 3 5 7 33 1 6 8 3 5 7 34 1 6 8 3 5 7 35 1 6 8 3 7 5 36 1 6 8 3 7 5 37 1 6 8 3 7 5 38 1 6 8 3 7 5 39 1 6 8 3 5 4 40 1 6 8 3 5 4 41 1 6 8 3 5 4 42 1 6 8 3 5 4 43 1 6 8 3 5 4 44 1 6 8 3 5 4