Belgian Grand Prix 1999
| Racing data | ||
|---|---|---|
| 12th of 16 races in the 1999 Formula 1 World Championship | ||
|
||
| Surname: | LVII Foster's Grand Prix de Belgique | |
| Date: | August 29, 1999 | |
| Place: | spa | |
| Course: | Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps | |
| Length: | 306.592 km in 44 laps of 6.968 km
|
|
| Weather: | slightly cloudy and warm | |
| Spectator: | ~ 90,000 | |
| Pole position | ||
| Driver: |
 Mika Hakkinen
|
 McLaren-Mercedes
|
| Time: | 1: 50.329 min | |
| Fastest lap | ||
| Driver: |
Mika Hakkinen
|
McLaren-Mercedes
|
| Time: | 1: 53.955 min (lap 23) | |
| Podium | ||
| First: |
David Coulthard
|
McLaren-Mercedes
|
| Second: |
Mika Hakkinen
|
McLaren-Mercedes
|
| Third: |
 Heinz-Harald Frentzen
|
 Jordan-Mugen-Honda
|
|
Leadership laps
|
||
The 1999 Belgian Grand Prix (officially LVII Foster's Grand Prix de Belgique ) took place on August 29th at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Spa and was the twelfth race of the 1999 Formula 1 World Championship . David Coulthard took first place ahead of Mika Häkkinen and Heinz-Harald Frentzen .
report
background
After the Hungarian Grand Prix , the teams put in test days at Silverstone, Mika Häkkinen was able to secure the best time on all three days. Ferrari tested in Mugello with Michael Schumacher, who had received approval from the doctors before the training. However, after around 20 laps, training had to be stopped due to ankle pain and Mika Salo had to drive another race for Ferrari.
Before the race, several teams confirmed their driver pairing for the next season, so Benetton kept the duo Fisichella-Wurz, Sauber signed Salo and extended Diniz's contract and Jordan signed Trulli to replace Damon Hill.
training
Friday training
David Coulthard set the fastest time with 1: 53.577 in front of his teammate Häkkinen, followed by Fisichella, Frentzen, Hill and Ralf Schumacher. The Ferrari drivers Salo and Irvine finished eighth and ninth. Villeneuve had an accident after the Kemmel straight when the right front wheel suspension broke while braking. He was able to get out unharmed. The slowest driver, Ricardo Zonta, was around four seconds behind the fastest time.
Saturday training
Heinz-Harald Frentzen set the fastest training time with 1: 51.047, ahead of Ralf Schumacher, Coulthard, Hill, Villeneuve, Irvine, Häkkinen in seventh and Salo in eighth. The slowest driver, Marc Gené, was around four seconds behind the best time.
Qualifying
The qualifying had to be interrupted twice with the red flag, both times the BAR cars were involved. Before qualifying, Villeneuve challenged his team-mate Zonta to drive around the Eau-Rouge corner at full throttle. Villeneuve was the first of the two to take on this risk, but in the middle of the bend the tail broke away, Villeneuve slid backwards into the tire wall to the right of the track and overturned. The meeting was suspended for twelve minutes, Villeneuve was able to get out unharmed. A little after the accident, Villeneuve made the following comments about his accident:
"It is pretty close to last year, I think the impact was smaller. But I rolled, so that was a bonus! "
“It's pretty much the same as last year, I think the impact was weaker. But I rolled over my head, that was a bonus! "
As soon as qualifying was released, Zonta tried it too. Its stern broke out earlier than Villeneuves, partially turned, dug into the gravel bed to the left of the track and overturned. While he was upside down, the car hit the boundary wall, overturned again and turned eight times on its own axis before the car came to a stop in the gravel bed to the right of the track. Zonta, like Villeneuve before, was also able to get out unharmed.
The team boss of BAR, Craig Pollock , commented on the two accidents in an interview as follows:
"It was a little bit ingracious. I am sitting up at the pit wall and I just thought 'It cannot be true, it has to be somebody elses car. It cannot be my car again! '. But the good thing about it is, both drivers are absolutely fine they got no bruises. And I am just thinking 'Jesus how strong this car have to be!'. The drivers were just going too fast for that particular corner, and thats what we pay them to do. Pay them to take the risks and push the cars to the limit, and sometimes they go over the limit. "
“It was a little crazy. I'm sitting here by the pit wall and I just thought, 'That can't be true, it has to be someone else's car. It can't be my car again! ' But the good thing is that both drivers are perfectly fine, they have no injuries. And I just think, 'Jesus, how strong must these wagons be!' The drivers were too fast for this particular corner, but that's what we pay them for. We pay them to take the risk and push the car to the limit, and sometimes they go over the limit. "
Mika Häkkinen secured pole position with 1: 50.329 in front of Coulthard, Frentzen, Hill, Ralf Schumacher and Irvine, Salo was only ninth, just 1.8 seconds behind the fastest time. The slowest driver, Pedro de la Rosa, was around four and a half seconds behind the fastest time.
Warm-up
Mika Häkkinen secured the fastest lap time with 1: 54.019 in front of Ralf Schumacher, Panis, Alesi, Hill, Irvine and Coulthard in seventh place. Salo, the second Ferrari driver, finished 13th, just under one and a half seconds behind the fastest time. The slowest driver, Ricardo Zonta, was around four and a half seconds behind the fastest time.
run
Toranosuke Takagi and Alessandro Zanardi switched to their respective replacement cars before the start of the race.
At the start Coulthard was able to take a seat in front of Häkkinen, but in the first corner the two drivers touched each other without seriously damaging their cars. Irvine got off to a good start and was able to make up two positions, Takagi and Zonta were left behind at the start. While Takagi had to give up, Zonta was able to resume the race with a significant deficit until he had to give up eleven laps before the end because of the transmission. After the first lap, Coulthard was leading ahead of Häkkinen, Frentzen, Irvine, Ralf Schumacher and Zanardi. Investigations were started against Häkkinen from the fifth lap, because he should have rolled up before the race was released and accordingly triggered an early start, but no penalty was pronounced.
On lap 20, Diniz flew off the Eau-Rouge corner because the car's suspension broke. The Brazilian spun twice and lay on the gravel bed to the right of the track in front of the wall. Despite the high speed, Diniz managed not to touch the tire wall.
David Coulthard kept the lead throughout the race and won the race ahead of Mika Häkkinen and Heinz-Harald Frentzen. Technical Director Adrian Newey accepted the trophy for the victorious designer McLaren .
After the race
After the trophy was handed over, Häkkinen refused to celebrate with the two remaining drivers on the podium.
Registration list
classification
Qualifying
run
| Item | driver | constructor | Round | Stops | time | begin | Fastest lap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
David Coulthard
|
McLaren-Mercedes
|
44 | 2 | 1: 25: 43.057 | 2 | 1: 54.088 |
| 2 |
Mika Hakkinen
|
McLaren-Mercedes
|
44 | 2 | + 10.469 | 1 | 1: 53.955 |
| 3 |
Heinz-Harald Frentzen
|
Jordan-Mugen-Honda
|
44 | 2 | + 33.433 | 3 | 1: 55.412 |
| 4th |
Eddie Irvine
|
 Ferrari
|
44 | 2 | + 44.948 | 6th | 1: 55.582 |
| 5 |
Ralf Schumacher
|
Williams-Supertec
|
44 | 1 | + 48.067 | 5 | 1: 55.964 |
| 6th |
Damon Hill
|
Jordan-Mugen-Honda
|
44 | 2 | + 54.916 | 4th | 1: 54,954 |
| 7th |
Mika Salo
|
Ferrari
|
44 | 2 | + 56.249 | 9 | 1: 55.299 |
| 8th |
Alessandro Zanardi
|
Williams-Supertec
|
44 | 2 | +1: 07.022 | 8th | 1: 55.786 |
| 9 |
 Jean Alesi
|
 Clean Petronas
|
44 | 2 | +1: 13.848 | 16 | 1: 56.016 |
| 10 |
 Rubens Barrichello
|
Stewart-Ford
|
44 | 2 | +1: 20.742 | 7th | 1: 56.131 |
| 11 |
Giancarlo Fisichella
|
Benetton Playlife
|
44 | 1 | +1: 32.195 | 13 | 1: 57.037 |
| 12 |
Jarno Trulli
|
Cheers Peugeot
|
44 | 2 | +1: 36.154 | 12 | 1: 56.367 |
| 13 |
Olivier Panis
|
Cheers Peugeot
|
44 | 2 | +1: 41.543 | 17th | 1: 56.681 |
| 14th |
 Alexander Wurz
|
Benetton Playlife
|
44 | 1 | +1: 57.745 | 15th | 1: 57.526 |
| 15th |
 Jacques Villeneuve
|
BAR-Supertec
|
43 | 1 | + 1 lap | 11 | 1: 57.619 |
| 16 |
 Marc Gené
|
Minardi-Ford
|
43 | 2 | + 1 lap | 21st | 1: 56.789 |
| - |
Pedro de la Rosa
|
Arrows
|
35 | 2 | DNF | 22nd | 1: 58.480 |
| - |
Luca Badoer
|
Minardi-Ford
|
33 | 2 | DNF | 20th | 1: 57.929 |
| - |
Ricardo Zonta
|
BAR-Supertec
|
33 | 1 | DNF | 14th | 1: 58.918 |
| - |
Johnny Herbert
|
Stewart-Ford
|
27 | 1 | DNF | 10 | 1: 57.094 |
| - |
Pedro Diniz
|
Clean Petronas
|
19th | 1 | DNF | 18th | 1: 58.179 |
| - |
 Toranosuke Takagi
|
Arrows
|
0 | - | DNF | 19th | - |
World Cup stands after the race
The first six of the race got 10, 6, 4, 3, 2 and 1 point (s) respectively.
Driver ranking
|
|
Constructors' championship
|
|
Individual evidence
- ↑ motorsportarchiv.de Overview Belgium 1999 ( Memento from March 23, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ motorsportarchiv.de Friday training Belgium 1999 ( Memento from November 1, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ motorsport-magazin.com Friday training Belgium 1999
- ↑ motorsport-magazin.com Saturday training Belgium 1999
- ↑ motorsport-magazin.com Qualifying Belgium 1999
- ↑ motorsport-magazin.com Warm-Up Belgium 1999
- ^ Motorsportarchiv.de Race Belgium 1999 ( Memento from November 1st, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Motorsport-magazin.com Race Belgium 1999
