Panis wins through chaos on merit

Bloody Hell - what a race! That sums it up neatly enough. As the field was decimated, Panis held on, but it wasn't a lucky win - Panis was one of the few people who managed overtaking maneuvers all day.

Before the race, drivers were making full use of the open pit-lane, going out, driving reasonably hard to assess the conditions before diving into the pits and out again to repeat the process. The track was drying slightly, but the clouds still looked ominous. The pit-lane was closed and the cars lined up, minus Montermini, Forti unable to repair his car from its acclimatization session shunt. The entire field bar Verstappen was on wets, Verstappen being on slicks. This seemed to be a gamble too far.

They all made it around the warm-up lap OK though, and the startline was crackling with tension. The lights went out and Hill rocketed away, out-dragging Schumacher to the first corner. The hordes then arrived, and Verstappen was tipped into the barrier at the apex. Fisichella didn't last much further, parking his car in the barrier opposite.

Hill was rapidly pulling away, followed by Schumacher, Alesi, Berger, Irvine (who passed Frentzen at the Mirabeau), Frentzen and Coulthard. Going into Portier, and Schumacher tried too hard. He went over the kerbs at the apex, and the back stepped out. Schumacher corrected, but the car went into snap oversteer, planting itself in the barrier, destroying the left front. This delayed the following pack, aiding Hill's cause.

Everyone missed the crashed Ferrari, but going into the Rascasse Barrichello lost it. He appeared to nudge the barrier on the straight, and he sailed into the corner backwards and out of the race.

End of lap one, and the positions were Hill, Alesi, Berger, Irvine, Frentzen and Coulthard. The positions were more settled, although Frentzen was all over Irvine. The pressure was telling, and Irvine almost lost it in the same place as Schumacher, as well as almost outbraking himself into the chicane. He stayed ahead though, and at the end of lap 2, Hill was leading by 6.108s from Alesi, Berger (@8.777s), Irvine (@13.520), Frentzen (@13.694) and Coulthard (@14.821). Hill looked serene, calmly extending his lead without a hint of problem. Already it looked like he had the race sewn up. Unlike Katayama, who stuffed it into the barriers at Tabac.

Lap 3, and Hill was 9.536s ahead, setting the first of a string of fastest laps. Villeneuve was pressing hard for sixth, and Frentzen was still all over Irvine. He had a look at the Ferrari into St Devote, but almost lost it under braking. A train of cars was forming behind, the Ferrari holding everyone up. Rosset then removed himself from the equation, hitting the barriers at Tabac.

Hill continued to pull away, and behind Coulthard the train of cars consisted of Villeneuve, Salo, Herbert, Hakkinen, Brundle and Panis, none of them more than about 0.5s apart from each other. Diniz wasn't that much further back, but he had a terminal spin at the chicane.

Lap 7, and Hill's gap was being extended more slowly as Alesi got up to speed, although it was still 14 seconds. More interesting was the Panis/Brundle battle, Panis diving everywhere, looking for a way past. Lap 8, and he managed it.

The track order was rather static, and passing was going to be a case of who made the first mistake. Villeneuve made on on lap 9 into the chicane, but the only result was that Villeneuve dropped back from Coulthard. Frentzen was still harrying Irvine, and when he went wide at Loews, Frentzen got alongside. Irvine held his line, and the positions stayed the same.

Berger was in trouble though, having lost five seconds to Alesi on the previous lap. He came into the pits, and the Benetton mechanics immediately plugged in the computer. It was soon detached, and Berger went to pull away, but stalled. Benetton called it a day, and Berger was out.

A dry line was appearing on the start/finish straight, and lap times were falling. This affected the cars in different ways. Coulthard (who had borrowed one of Schumacher's crash helmets due to misting problems with his own) was dropping back slightly from Irvine, while Panis was catching Hakkinen. Although no longer very wet, the track was still greasy, and Villeneuve and Irvine were both occasionally finding the limit as the back end stepped out under acceleration.

Frentzen just couldn't get past Irvine. The Ferrari pulled away down the straights (one it could get the power down), while the Sauber would catch in the corners and under initial acceleration.

The inevitable contact came on lap 18 at St Devote, when Frentzen went into the back of Irvine, damaging his front wing, the Ferrari apparently undamaged. Frentzen realised his problem, and kept out of the way as the rest of the field filed through. He came into the pits, changed his nose cone, but stayed on wets. He rejoined in 11th, and within a lap set a new fastest lap time.

Lap 20, and the positions were Hill, Alesi (-21.156s), Irvine, Coulthard, Villeneuve, Salo, Herbert, Panis, Hakkinen, Brundle, Frentzen and Badoer, the rest of the field out. Things were settling down, although the cars were close from fourth down to tenth, the cars nose to tail but unable to pass.

Lap 27 and the first of the scheduled pit stops occured, Frentzen diving in for slicks. Hill did likewise, and lap times plummeted by a full ten seconds for Frentzen. Panis and Irvine also came in. The end result was that Panis managed to get up to fourth due to superior pit work. During Villeneuve's stop, a flap was removed from the rear wing.

Lap 31, and Brundle lost it into Casino Square, repeating Alesi's feat from the practice session. He hit a barrier, braking his suspension. He tried to spin turn it around, but the car ended up stranded at the apex. The car was soon removed.

Panis was flying, lapping faster than anyone - he was five seconds faster than Hill on lap 33. Lap 34, and Panis had caught Irvine. He was desperate to get past, diving from side to side coming into the corners. Irvine just drove a defensive line. Lap 36, and Panis managed it, outbraking Irvine into Loews. He drew alongside, and Irvine couldn't turn in. He went straight on, and just managed to stop before the barrier, stalling in the process. The slope here is considerable though, and pointing it down hill he managed to get it bump-started. He came back into the pits, changed his nose cone and had his seatbelt adjusted. After having the car restarted due to a stall, he rejoined a lap down in tenth, but not last. That honour went to Badoer.

Lap 39, and Panis was 21.4s behind Alesi, and coming up to lap Irvine. We awaited with interest.... Irvine did the honourable things and pulled over, letting Panis through. Panis was 1.7s per lap faster than race leader Hill. He had it all to do again on lap 41 though, as he spun but kept his place and kept it going. The same lap and fate played a trump card. Damon Hill, by now 28s ahead of Alesi, was calmly leading when his engine let go at the tunnel exit. Hill went up the escape road and parked his car. His frustration was plain to see as he stepped out of the car, both hands on his helmet.

Lap 42, and the positions were Alesi, Panis (@31.927s), Coulthard (@32.243), Herbert (@40.435), Villeneuve (@41,146), Salo (@41.68s), Hakkinen, Frentzen, Irvine and Badoer. Fourth to eighth places were nose to tail, but the passing problem remained. Panis, meanwhile, couldn't catch Alesi easily, despite setting fastest laps, and Coulthard was comfortable ahead of Herbert. Things looked settled until on lap 54, Alesi pitted for fuel and tyres, emerging 14.4s ahead of Panis. Alesi then pushed to stay ahead, fish-tailing under acceleration, while Panis scented victory. Then, after setting a fastest lap on lap 59, to everyone's amazement Alesi pitted again. Off came both rear wheels, and the disks inspected. Alesi rejoined in 7th, but pitted permanently the next time around, the suspension crying enough.

Coulthard, seeing victory ahead, did his best to catch Panis, the gap falling from 4.9s on lap 61 to 2.562s on lap 64. Lap 65, and Badoer held Panis up at the Rascasse, the gap falling to 1.5s. The gap grew to 2.8s on the next lap, and from there on in never fell below 2.3s.

The drama wasn't over though. On lap 67, a train of cars headed by Herbert (Villeneuve, Hakkinen, Salo and Frentzen) cam up to lap the Forti of Badoer. Coming up to the Mirabeau, Badoer moved over to let Herbert through. Villeneuve went to follow him through, but Badoer truned back in, squeezing Villeneuve into the wall, taking both drivers out. In the ensuing confusion, Salo dived past Hakkinen, who was momentarily trapped behind Badoer.

Just to make things worse, on lap 70 it began to lightly rain. This was enough to unsettle the Ferrari of Irvine. Lap 71, and Irvine lost it into Portier, but missed the barrier, unlike Schumacher. He spun himself back in the correct direction, but couldn't get on the power before Salo flew round the corner and up his backside. Hakkinen did likewise to Salo a few tenths of a second later, and all three cars were out. There were only four left running.

Panis's heart must have been in his mouth, and luckily for him the rain eased - he just had to keep going until flag fall. Also luckily for him he wouldn't have to complete the full number of laps. The damp conditions had slowed lap times so much that the two hour limit would be reached before the 200 mile one. The rain got slightly heavier on lap 74, but presented no problems. It held off until the prize giving, whereupon the heavens opened. Not that Panis cared. he had the first Ligier win for fifteen years, and the first French one for three.