A Race Of Strategy
It was a race of attrition and strategy, the Williams team seemingly
judging it to perfection. After the first lap there was very little
on-track passing, and it was all decided in the pits.
Schumacher managed to squander his hard earned pole position with a bad start, allowing Hill and Coulthard, who was on another demon start, to overtake. Salo was also on the move, rocketing up the field. Around the first corner, Alesi put his two left wheels onto the grass, but he collected it back together, losing time. Into Tamburello, Coulthard dived around Hill into the lead, and Villeneuve and Alesi went in side by side. Coming out, Alesi got a bit crossed up, and tagged Villeneuve's left rear with his wing, puncturing his tyre. This allowed Salo up to fourth, and the field spread out. The fun wasn't over for
Villeneuve though, as the tyre completely let go, sending him
into the gravel. He managed to escape, and crawled back to the
pits.
At the start of lap two, Coulthard was leading, with Hill 0.760s
backm with Schumacher a further 0.900s back, and Salo -3.547s.
Hill made a small mistake exiting the Variante Bassa, sliding
wide, and allowing Schumacher to slip-stream down the start/finish
straight. Hill moved to the right going into the Tamburello, and
Schumacher dived to the left. Hill didn't make an issue of it,
and let Schumacher past. Although it wasn't known at this stage,
Hill had a much heavier fuel load, and was on a wait and see strategy.
The gap between Hill and Schumacher quickly grew to 1.805s by
the end of lap 3, and Berger, now 4th ahead of Salo, was also
catching Hill, setting a fastest lap of 1:31.369. Coulthard at
the front looked reasonably comfortable, despite the Ferrari's
proximity. The gap between the McLaren and the Ferrari stayed
arounds 0.6s until the first round of pit-stops.
On lap 5, Villeneuve set about making amends from the back of
the pack, setting a fastest lap of 1:30.300. He was over a minute
behind the Forti of Badoer. The rest of the field was rather static
though, with Berger gradually reeling in Hill, and with Hakkinen
down in a miserable and unlucky 13th place. Interestingly,
the Ferrari and McLaren had equal top speeds through the speed
trap.
The fastest lap time continued to fall, Schumacher setting a 1:30.110
on lap 8, Coulthard a 1:30.046 on lap 9, and Schumacher again
a 1:29.897 on lap 11. By this time Hill had stopped his backwards
progress, and on lap 13 he set a new fastest lap, 1:29.815. Panis
was the first to pit on this lap, for fuel and tyres. Meanwhile,
Villeneuve was relentlessly pulling in Badoer, the gap down to
20s by lap 15, having set a fastest lap of 1:29.665 the previous
lap.
The front of the race though was still static. On lap 19, Hakkinen
had his first pit-stop (8.8s). Badoer, who had been in on lap
17 (9.1s), had to take a visit for the second time for a ten second
penalty for pit-lane speeding. This was the start of a rash of
penalties, the new limit of 80kph for this race instead of 120kph
causing all sorts of problems.
On lap 20, the first of the top-runners pitted, Alesi diving in.
His stop was a disastrously long 19.5s, as he had had to change
his steering wheel at the same time. Coulthard also came in, and
was stationary for 8.2s. The next lap and Schumacher set the fastest
lap, a 1:29.515, demonstrating that Coulthard had been holding
him up, even if he couldn't overtake him. On lap 22, Schumacher
was also in, being stationary for 9.5s. Despite the longer stop,
he still emerged ahead of Coulthard. The question now was when
would Hill stop? He continued circulating.
Alesi's day was gradually getting worse, and on lap 23 he was given a 10s penalty for pit-lane speeding. So was Pedro Lamy, and the alarm-buzzer in the pits was starting to get rather irritating. Meanwhile the order was Hill, Berger, Salo, Schumacher and Coulthard, who was gradually falling back. Herbert pitted, and took 8.4s. Salo was in lap 24, and re-emerged 6th. This wasn't to last for long though, as his engine failed in the Variante
Bassa, and he had to pull off.
Berger pitted on lap 25, taking 7.4s. Schumacher was thus back
up to second, although Hill was 18.5s ahead, and just to rub it
in, he set a fastest lap of 1:29.199 on lap 25. The order at the
start of lap 28 was Hill, Schumacher, Coulthard, Irvine, Berger
and Barrichello, although Irvine pitted this lap, and Hill extended
the gap to 22.1s.
Lap 30, and Hakkinen's torrid day continued, as he span out of
the Rivazza and 8th place. He drove out of the gravel at the exit
of the corner, and spun himself back in the correct direction.
It got a bit tight for space as other cars came around the corner,
but everyone missed each other, and the race continued.
It was on this lap that Hill finally pitted, almost at half distance.
He was stationary for 7.6s, nowhere near long enough to fully
top up the fuel tank - he would need a splash and dash later.
But he managed to get out 0.997s ahead of Schumacher, which appeared
to be the aim of the Williams strategy.
Lap 32, and Hill was leading Schumacher by 0.823s. Coulthard was
third (@10.009 from Hill), Berger fourth (@15.026), Barrichello
5th (@25.051) and Irvine 6th (@30.370). Hakkinen was down in 12th,
and Alesi in 14th. Fisichella's engine decided that this moment
was a good time to let go, and he pulled to the trackside, laying
oil as he went. But Hill's tyres were now up to temperature, and
he started to pull away from Schumacher. Herbert by contrast went
into the pits and called it a day, electrical gremlins at work
somewhere. To cap Sauber's day, Frentzen was also out, after problems
with the left rear of the car.
The front of the field was again static, but excitement occured
on lap 38, when Brundle flew into the gravel at Aqua Minerale,
when 0.8s ahead of Alesi, who was in turn 0.582s ahead of Villeneuve.
Lap 40 and Schumacher was in the pits (11.7s). This effectively
settled the race.
Verstappen also pitted, but somehow contrived to leave his pit
early. He left the pits with part of the fuel rig still attached,
and bowled over a mechanic in the process. Their mechanic was
not seriously injured, and Verstappen went out.
Lap 42, and Coulthard pitted, taking 9.1s. But he stalled it when
trying to leave. They got it re-started, but it was to no avail,
as within three laps he pulled over to the side of the circuit
with hydraulic failure.
Lap 46, and Hill was 30 seconds ahead of Schumacher, who was having
problems lapping Hakkinen, who in turn was paying more attention
to his fight with Diniz than what was going on behind. Hakkinen
eventually passed Diniz, but it took five laps for Schumacher
to pass them both. Hakkinen and Diniz both received 10s penalties
for blocking. Just to emphasise who was in control, Hill set a
new fastest lap of 1:28.931. One lap later and Hill was in the
pits, stationary for 8.3s. Meanwhile, Schumacher was now being
held up by Alesi. On overall lap times, the Ferrari was the faster
of the two cars, but the Ferrari just couldn't get close enough
on the straights. Hill re-emerged from the pits 24.257s ahead
of Schumacher.
Schumacher was getting decidedly irritated, pointing his hand
at Alesi, trying to emphasize to the officials and the TV his
problem. Lap 54 and the problem solved itself. Alesi slid wide
onto the grass at Aqua Minerale, and Schumacher slipped past.
>From then on it was a steady run to the flag. Hill was taking
it easy, allowing Schumacher to gently erode his lead. Berger
was third, 25.315s behind Schumacher, with Irvine fourth, 12.810s
behind Berger, and Barrichello a further 6.830s back. The race
seemed to be decided.
On lap 56, Panis pulled off with a blown engine, and on lap 59 Villeneuve came crawling into the pits and retirement, something seriously amiss with the car. It was all getting slightly tedious, but the race still had some drama left. On the last lap, Hakkinen pulled off the circuit, the engine dead. Then at the Rivazza, Schumacher's right-front locked solid, refusing to rotate, the brake having cried enough. Somehow Schumacher kept control and kept going, the tyre miraculously not bursting. The Ferrari soon pulled off after passing the finishing line. Hill meanwhile had been taking the final lap so easily he
could almost have walked it faster. With the Minardi of Lamy ahead,
Hill decided that there was no need to risk anything, and followed
it all the way around the final lap, the Minardi pulling away
slightly at the end. Could this be the first time this year that
a Minardi has lapped faster and extended a gap to a Williams?
Results
| DRIVER | |||
| D.Hill | |||
| M.Schumacher | |||
| G.Berger | |||
| E.Irvine | |||
| R.Barrichello | |||
| J.Alesi | |||
| P.Diniz | |||
| M.Hakkinen | |||
| P.Lamy | |||
| L.Badoer | |||
| J.Villeneuve | |||
| Not Classified | |||
| O.Panis | |||
| U.Katayama | |||
| D.Coulthard | |||
| R.Rosset | |||
| J.Verstappen | |||
| M.Brundle | |||
| H.Frentzen | |||
| G.Fisichella | |||
| J.Herbert | |||
| M.Salo |
Fastest lap:
D.Hill, 1:28.931, 198.032kph
Drivers Championship:
| DRIVER | ||
| D.Hill | ||
| J.Villeneuve | ||
| M.Schumacher | ||
| J.Alesi | ||
| E.Irvine | ||
| G.Berger | ||
| R.Barrichello | ||
| M.Hakkinen | ||
| D.Coulthard | ||
| M.Salo | ||
| O.Panis | ||
| J.Verstappen | ||
| M.Brundle |
Constructors Championship:
| CONSTRUCTOR | ||
| Williams Renault | ||
| Ferrari | ||
| Benetton Renault | ||
| McLaren Mercedes | ||
| Jordan Peugeot | ||
| Tyrrell Yamaha | ||
| Ligier Mugen | ||
| Footwork Hart |