1998 Argentine Grand Prix

 1998 Argentine Grand Prix

Racing data
3rd of 16 races in the 1998 Formula 1 World Championship
Surname:	XXI Gran Premio Marlboro Argentina
Date:	April 12, 1998
Place:	Buenos Aires
Course:	Autódromo Oscar Alfredo Gálvez
Length:	306.648 km in 72 laps of 4.259 km
Weather:	overcast and windy, later rain
Spectator:	~ 55,000
Pole position
Driver:	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes
Time:	1: 25.852 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Alexander Wurz	Benetton Playlife
Time:	1: 28.179 min (lap 39)
Podium
First:	Michael sSchumacher	Ferrari
Second:	Mika Hakkinen	McLaren-Mercedes
Third:	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari

The 1998 Argentine Grand Prix (officially XXI Gran Premio Marlboro Argentina ) took place on April 12 at the Autódromo Oscar Alfredo Gálvez in Buenos Aires and was the third race of the 1998 Formula 1 World Championship . Michael Schumacher took first place ahead of Mika Häkkinen and Eddie Irvine .

report

background

McLaren Racing announced that it has extended the deal with engine supplier Mercedes to 2002.

Goodyear brought new, improved tires to the race weekend.

training

Friday training

David Coulthard set the fastest time ahead of Michael Schumacher with 1: 28.130. Mika Häkkinen , Jacques Villeneuve , Eddie Irvine and Ralf Schumacher follow in the places behind.

All drivers were placed within seven seconds.

Saturday training

Michael Schumacher was the fastest in this session with 1: 27.737, ahead of Coulthard, Heinz-Harald Frentzen , Häkkinen and Damon Hill . Villeneuve was only able to take eighth place, two seconds behind.

All drivers were placed within six seconds.

Qualifying

The weather was cloudy, but still dry.

Coulthard took pole position for the race with 1: 25.852. Around four tenths behind, Michael Schumacher completes the front row. Behind are Häkkinen, Irvine, Ralf Schumacher and Frentzen.

All drivers were placed within five and a half seconds.

Warm-up

Jean Alesi set the fastest time of the session with 1: 47.594, ahead of Häkkinen and Michael Schumacher.

With the exception of Johnny Herbert , who had problems during the session and only achieved one classified time, 9: 19.807, all drivers were placed within six seconds.

run

Coulthard won the start and successfully defended his pole position, while Michael Schumacher was duped by Mika Häkkinen at the start. But after the start of the second lap, Schumacher was able to regain second place. The German quickly caught up with the leading Scotsman.

On lap four Coulthard missed the optimal braking point. As a result, Schumacher was able to slip past the previous leader. But in the heat of the moment the two touched. Schumacher was able to stay in front, but Coulthard spun off the track and came back into the race in sixth place. From now on it was a race between Schumacher and Häkkinen, which will decide in favor of the Ferraris due to the different strategy (Schumacher stopped twice, Häkkinen only once).

There was a lot of chaos in the back field: Johnny Herbert was eliminated on lap 46 after a collision with Damon Hill . Furious, he called Hill an amateur. When asked if he would have preferred to stay at home after the catastrophic weekend, he said that "he should have stayed away from all of South America because it has been a total disaster so far". In the end, he ironically added that the only thing that could go wrong now would be a plane crash flying home. Villeneuve also had to give up due to an accident, he collided with Coulthard on lap 52, who was having transmission problems at the time. Esteban Tuero fared differently , he had to pit unexpectedly on lap 63 because he only had three wheels left. Even then it got worse because the filler neck could not be attached correctly. When he was finally able to refuel, the front right wheel was still missing, which gave him around 45 seconds of standing time. Alesis' pit stop is also worth mentioning, as he tore off his right mirror. The reason was that a cable from the impact wrench was wrapped around the mirror and, although the pit crew did not give it permission to start, it simply drove off.

With around six laps to go, the race could have turned around as it started raining, but the only sufferer was Esteban Tuero , who spun off the track and was eliminated. Schumacher was able to bring his lead over time and win ahead of Häkkinen, Irvine and Alexander Wurz , who set the fastest lap on lap 39.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Winfield Williams	1	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams FW20	Mecachrome 3.0 V10	G
	2	Heinz-Harald Frentzen
Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro	3	Michael sSchumacher	Ferrari F300	Ferrari 3.0 V10	G
	4th	Eddie Irvine
Mild Seven Benetton Playlife	5	Giancarlo Fisichella	Benetton B198	Playlife 3.0 V10	B.
	6th	Alexander Wurz
West McLaren Mercedes	7th	David Coulthard	McLaren MP4 / 13	Mercedes-Benz 3.0 V10	B.
	8th	Mika Hakkinen
Benson & Hedges Jordan	9	Damon Hill	Jordan 197	Mugen-Honda 3.0 V10	G
	10	Ralf Schumacher
Gauloises cheers Peugeot	11	Olivier Panis	Cheers AP01	Peugeot 3.0 V10	B.
	12	Jarno Trulli
Red Bull Sauber Petronas	14th	Jean Alesi	Clean C17	Petronas 3.0 V10	G
	15th	Johnny Herbert
Danka Zepter Arrows	16	Pedro Diniz	Arrows A19	Arrows 3.0 V10	B.
	17th	Mika Salo
Stewart Ford	18th	Rubens Barrichello	Stewart SF2	Ford Zetec-R 3.0 V10	B.
	19th	Jan Magnussen
Tyrrell	20th	Ricardo Rosset	Tyrrell 026	Ford Zetec-R / 97 3.0 V10	G
	21st	Toranosuke Takagi
Fondmetal Minardi team	22nd	Shinji Nakano	Minardi M198	Ford Zetec-R / 97 3.0 V10	B.
	23	Esteban Tuero

classification

Qualifying

Item	driver	constructor	time	begin
01	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	1: 25.852	01
02	Michael sSchumacher	Ferrari	1: 26.251	02
03	Mika Hakkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	1: 26.632	03
04th	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari	1: 26.780	04th
05	Ralf Schumacher	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	1: 26.827	05
06th	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Williams Mecachrome	1: 26.876	06th
07th	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams Mecachrome	1: 26.941	07th
08th	Alexander Wurz	Benetton Playlife	1: 27.196	08th
09	Damon Hill	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	1: 27.483	09
10	Giancarlo Fisichella	Benetton Playlife	1: 27.836	10
11	Jean Alesi	Clean Petronas	1: 27.839	11
12	Johnny Herbert	Clean Petronas	1: 28.016	12
13	Toranosuke Takagi	Tyrrell-Ford	1: 28.811	13
14th	Rubens Barrichello	Stewart-Ford	1: 29.249	14th
15th	Olivier Panis	Cheers Peugeot	1: 29.320	15th
16	Jarno Trulli	Cheers Peugeot	1: 29.352	16
17th	Mika Salo	Arrows	1: 29.617	17th
18th	Pedro Diniz	Arrows	1: 30.022	18th
19th	Shinji Nakano	Minardi-Ford	1: 30.054	19th
20th	Esteban Tuero	Minardi-Ford	1: 30.158	20th
21st	Ricardo Rosset	Tyrrell-Ford	1: 30.437	21st
22nd	Jan Magnussen	Stewart-Ford	1: 31.178	22nd
107 percent time : 1: 31.862 min (based on the best time of 1: 25.852 min)

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap
01	Michael sSchumacher	Ferrari	72	2	1: 48: 36.175	02	1: 28.272
02	Mika Hakkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	72	1	+ 22.898	03	1: 28.261
03	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari	72	2	+ 57.745	04th	1: 28.933
04th	Alexander Wurz	Benetton Playlife	72	1	+1: 08.134	08th	1: 28.179
05	Jean Alesi	Clean Petronas	72	2	+1: 18.286	11	1: 29,000
06th	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	72	1	+1: 19.751	01	1: 28.468
07th	Giancarlo Fisichella	Benetton Playlife	72	1	+1: 28.437	10	1: 28.507
08th	Damon Hill	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	71	2	+ 1 lap	09	1: 29.310
09	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Williams Mecachrome	71	2	+ 1 lap	06th	1: 29.592
10	Rubens Barrichello	Stewart-Ford	70	2	+ 2 rounds	14th	1: 30.408
11	Jarno Trulli	Cheers Peugeot	70	1	+ 2 rounds	16	1: 30.876
12	Toranosuke Takagi	Tyrrell-Ford	70	1	+ 2 rounds	13	1: 31.057
13	Shinji Nakano	Minardi-Ford	69	1	+ 3 rounds	19th	1: 31.168
14th	Ricardo Rosset	Tyrrell-Ford	68	1	+ 4 rounds	21st	1: 33.091
15th	Olivier Panis	Cheers Peugeot	65	1	DNF	15th	1: 29,201
-	Esteban Tuero	Minardi-Ford	63	1	DNF	20th	1: 30.992
-	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams Mecachrome	52	1	DNF	07th	1: 29.694
-	Johnny Herbert	Clean Petronas	46	1	DNF	12	1: 29.857
-	Ralf Schumacher	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	22nd	1	DNF	05	1: 31.541
-	Mika Salo	Arrows	18th	-	DNF	17th	1: 32.519
-	Jan Magnussen	Stewart-Ford	17th	-	DNF	22nd	1: 32.808
-	Pedro Diniz	Arrows	13	-	DNF	18th	1: 33.350

World Cup stands after the race

Driver ranking

Item driver constructor Points 01  Mika Hakkinen McLaren-Mercedes 26th 02  Michael sSchumacher Ferrari 14th 03  David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 13 04th  Eddie Irvine Ferrari 7th 05  Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams Mecachrome 6th 05  Alexander Wurz Benetton Playlife 6th 07th  Jean Alesi Clean Petronas 2 07th  Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Renault 2 09  Johnny Herbert Clean Petronas 1 09  Giancarlo Fisichella Benetton Playlife 1 -  Damon Hill Jordan-Mugen-Honda 0

Item driver constructor Points -  Olivier Panis Cheers Peugeot 0 -  Jarno Trulli Cheers Peugeot 0 -  Ricardo Rosset Tyrrell-Ford 0 -  Mika Salo Arrows 0 -  Esteban Tuero Minardi-Ford 0 -  Shinji Nakano Minardi-Ford 0 -  Pedro Diniz Arrows 0 -  Ralf Schumacher Jordan-Mugen-Honda 0 -  Jan Magnussen Stewart-Ford 0 -  Toranosuke Takagi Tyrrell-Ford 0 -  Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 0

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  McLaren-Mercedes 39 02  Ferrari 21st 03  Williams Mecachrome 8th 04th  Benetton Playlife 7th 05  Clean Petronas 3 -  Jordan-Mugen-Honda 0

Item constructor Points -  Tyrrell-Ford 0 -  Stewart-Ford 0 -  Cheers Peugeot 0 -  Arrows 0 -  Minardi-Ford 0

Individual evidence

1. ↑ motorsportarchiv.de Overview Argentina 1998 ( Memento from December 3, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ motorsportarchiv.de Friday training Argentina 1998 ( Memento from September 2, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
3. ↑ motorsportarchiv.de Saturday training Argentina 1998 ( Memento from May 11, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
4. ↑ motorsportarchiv.de Qualifying Argentina 1998 ( Memento from May 11, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
5. ↑ motorsportarchiv.de Warm-Up Argentina 1998 ( Memento from May 11, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
6. ↑ motorsportarchiv.de Race Argentina 1998 ( Memento from September 2, 2008 in the Internet Archive )