1997 Australian Grand Prix
| Racing data | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1st of 17 races in the 1997 Formula 1 World Championship | ||
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| Surname: | LXII Qantas Australian Grand Prix | |
| Date: | March 9, 1997 | |
| Place: | Melbourne | |
| Course: | Albert Park Circuit | |
| Length: | 307.516 km in 58 laps of 5.302 km
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| Weather: | dry, slightly cloudy | |
| Spectator: | ~ 107,000 | |
| Pole position | ||
| Driver: |
 Jacques Villeneuve
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 Williams-Renault
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| Time: | 1: 29.369 min | |
| Fastest lap | ||
| Driver: |
 Heinz-Harald Frentzen
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Williams-Renault
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| Time: | 1: 30.585 min (lap 36) | |
| Podium | ||
| First: |
David Coulthard
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McLaren-Mercedes
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| Second: |
Michael sSchumacher
|
 Ferrari
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| Third: |
 Mika Hakkinen
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McLaren-Mercedes
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Leadership laps
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The Australian Grand Prix 1997 (officially LXII Qantas Australian Grand Prix ) was held on 9 March at the Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne instead and was the first race of the Formula 1 World Championship in 1997 and only the second time at this circuit. The winner is David Coulthard ahead of Michael Schumacher and his team colleague Mika Häkkinen .
report
background
This season, the new team first appeared Stewart Grand Prix and MasterCard Lola that Footwork Arrows team went again as of now Arrows and Ligier was of Alain Prost bought and Prost Grand Prix renamed.
Bridgestone entered Formula 1 in 1997 as a tire manufacturer and supplied the Minardis, Arrows, Stewarts and Lolas with their tires.
The reigning designer world champion Williams replaced the world champion Damon Hill with the German Heinz-Harald Frentzen . Hill himself switched to Arrows, where Tom Walkinshaw offered the British a well-paid contract, which was paid for by sponsorship from his teammate Pedro Diniz .
Scuderia Ferrari , Benetton and McLaren kept their drivers from the previous season. The new Prost team kept Olivier Panis and also signed rookie Shinji Nakano , Sauber kept Johnny Herbert and replaced Frentzen who had left Williams with Nicola Larini and the Tyrrell team renewed Mika Salo's contract and brought in Jos Verstappen . The Jordans hired the former Minardi driver Giancarlo Fisichella and Michael Schumacher's brother : Ralf Schumacher .
The weak Minardis brought in Ukyo Katayama and the promising Jarno Trulli , the new Stewart team gave Rubens Barrichello (who was to stay with the team until the sale to Jaguar) and Jan Magnussen their vacant seats. The Lolas brought the paydriver Ricardo Rosset and the former Benetton test driver Vincenzo Sospiri .
During the winter tests in Jerez, Estoril and Barcelona, Gerhard Berger and the McLaren were able to convince the most. McLaren even beat her best time from Barcelona in 1996 with over five and a half seconds.
It was the first Formula 1 race for Ralf Schumacher , Shinji Nakano and Jarno Trulli . This would also have been the case for Vincenzo Sospiri , but he could not qualify for the race.
During the race weekend Michael Schumacher criticized the track as "not really special", whereupon locals described him as "overpaid prima donna", in German "overpaid prima donna".
training
Friday training
In the first free practice session, Michael Schumacher took first place with a time of 1: 32.496, around half a second ahead of Heinz-Harald Frentzen . Also worth mentioning are the bad times of the Lolas , Ukyo Katayama and Rubens Barrichello , who were all more than eight seconds behind the first. During the training session, Mika Häkkinen and Eddie Irvine collided because the Finn did not look in the rearview mirror. Meanwhile, David Coulthard had braking problems, so that his fastest time fell short of the expectations from the winter tests.
Saturday training
In the second free practice session on Saturday, Jacques Villeneuve won with a time of 1: 28.594. The runner-up and at the same time his team-mate Frentzen were one and a half seconds behind the Canadian. With a time of 1: 33.693 during this practice, Pedro Diniz was able to qualify for the race, although he was above the 107 percent rule in qualifying. The two Lolas were the only ones who were over 1: 40,000, Vincenzo Sospiri was 16 seconds behind Villeneuve with 1: 44.286.
Qualifying
Jacques Villeneuve took his fourth pole position ahead of team-mate Heinz-Harald Frentzen , who was around two seconds slower. World champion Damon Hill had big problems due to an oil leak and the very poor cornering of the car and was just able to qualify within the 107% time of Villeneuve. Hill later said of his car that “the Arrows is as unpredictable as a woman. If you want him to go straight, he zigzags. In the corners: understeer and oversteer almost simultaneously, so that I have to brace myself against it with my shoulder ”.
It is worth mentioning that only six drivers are within three seconds of pole time, as the session was interrupted by a serious accident between Gerhard Berger and Nicola Larini , who collided on the straight after the Clark curve. With only two minutes and 13 seconds left, many drivers had to try a one-lap attempt. Berger later said, "I thought Larini passed outside, but [he] came inside". Berger was uninjured, Larini's shoulder was slightly injured, but he was able to continue the race weekend.
Both Lola cars were more than eleven seconds slower than Villeneuve and were therefore well above the 107% rule. Theoretically, Pedro Diniz should not have qualified because of this either, but since he completed a time in free practice that was within the regulation, he was still allowed to start.
Warm-up
Jacques Villeneuve was able to set the fastest time with 1: 31.235 in front of his team mate. Worth mentioning is the slow time of Jarno Trulli's Minardi-Harts with 1: 40.623.
run
Damon Hill remained in the lead-up lap. The reason was that the sensor for the accelerator pedal was not working correctly and was sending incorrect values.
After the start, Eddie Irvine misjudged himself in the first corner and crashed into Jacques Villeneuve and Johnny Herbert , who threw all three out of the race. Frentzen tried to extend his lead quickly as he drove a two-stop race while his pursuers were pounding on a stop.
On the second lap, Jos Verstappen spun out of the race when he tried to overtake Ukyo Katayama . Both Jordans also retired early, Giancarlo Fisichella also spun out of the race and Ralf Schumacher suffered from transmission problems. Pedro Diniz had to stop on lap 16 with problems with the car. After about three minutes in the pit lane, he was able to resume the race.
Frentzen, who was now 18 seconds ahead of his first pursuer, stopped on lap 18. After the stop he was in third place. But he could only marginally reduce the lead of the others, as he was held up by drivers who had to be lapped. On lap 24, Mika Salo had to go to the pits due to electrical problems, where they tried to get the car going again for five minutes. They succeeded, but only 19 laps later Salo had to park his Tyrrell for good. During half-time, Coulthard and Schumacher stopped, so Frentzen was able to take the lead again. Meanwhile, Jean Alesi dropped out when he ran out of fuel. Curiously, the team wanted to get Alesi into the pits five laps beforehand, but Alesi overlooked the signals from the pits to change tires and to make matters worse, the pit radio between the team and the driver was disturbed.
Frentzen stopped for the last time on lap 40, his lead was 23 seconds. In theory, his lead could have been enough for him to take the lead, but a sticking right rear tire held up Frentzen for a long time. When the disastrous pit stop was over, which lasted around ten seconds longer than planned, he was back in third place.
Frentzen tried to catch up on Schumacher, but when Schumacher had to make an unscheduled pit stop shortly before the end (he had to refuel due to a defective tank system), Frentzen inherited his position. But the Mönchengladbach-based driver wasn't able to look forward to second place for long, as a lot of brake dust came off and had to give up three laps later because his left front brake disc exploded.
Coulthard was able to successfully cross the finish line in first place, which was his second career win. It was also the first McLaren victory since Ayrton Senna in the race in Australia 1993 .
Registration list
classification
Qualifying
- Remarks
- ↑ Pedro Diniz was still allowed to take part in the race because a time in free practice was well below the 107 percent time.
run
| Item | driver | constructor | Round | Stops | time | begin | Fastest lap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
David Coulthard
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McLaren-Mercedes
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58 | 1 | 1: 30: 28.718 | 4th | 1: 31.412 |
| 2 |
Michael sSchumacher
|
Ferrari
|
58 | 2 | + 20.046 | 3 | 1: 31.067 |
| 3 |
Mika Hakkinen
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McLaren-Mercedes
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58 | 1 | + 22.177 | 6th | 1: 31.509 |
| 4th |
 Gerhard Berger
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Benetton Renault
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58 | 1 | + 22.841 | 10 | 1: 31.624 |
| 5 |
 Olivier Panis
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Cheers to Mugen Honda
|
58 | 2 | +1: 00.308 | 9 | 1: 31.762 |
| 6th |
Nicola Larini
|
 Clean Petronas
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58 | 1 | +1: 36.040 | 13 | 1: 32.784 |
| 7th |
 Shinji Nakano
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Cheers to Mugen Honda
|
56 | 1 | + 2 rounds | 16 | 1: 34.171 |
| 8th |
Heinz-Harald Frentzen
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Williams-Renault
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55 | 2 | + 3 rounds | 2 | 1: 30.585 |
| 9 |
Jarno Trulli
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Minardi-Hart
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55 | 2 | + 3 rounds | 17th | 1: 35.959 |
| 10 |
 Pedro Diniz
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Arrows-Yamaha
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54 | 2 | + 4 rounds | 22nd | 1: 34.465 |
| - |
Rubens Barrichello
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Stewart-Ford
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49 | 2 | DNF | 11 | 1: 33.386 |
| - |
Mika Salo
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Tyrrell-Ford
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42 | 2 | DNF | 18th | 1: 34.194 |
| - |
 Jan Magnussen
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Stewart-Ford
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36 | 2 | DNF | 19th | 1: 35.257 |
| - |
Jean Alesi
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Benetton Renault
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34 | - | DNF | 8th | 1: 31.976 |
| - |
Ukyo Katayama
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Minardi-Hart
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32 | 1 | DNF | 15th | 1: 34.918 |
| - |
Giancarlo Fisichella
|
 Jordan-Peugeot
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14th | - | DNF | 14th | 1: 34.147 |
| - |
 Jos Verstappen
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Tyrrell-Ford
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2 | - | DNF | 21st | 1: 37.038 |
| - |
Ralf Schumacher
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Jordan-Peugeot
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1 | - | DNF | 12 | 1: 48.323 |
| - |
Jacques Villeneuve
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Williams-Renault
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0 | - | DNF | 1 | - |
| - |
Eddie Irvine
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Ferrari
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0 | - | DNF | 5 | - |
| - |
Johnny Herbert
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Clean Petronas
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0 | - | DNF | 7th | - |
| - |
Damon Hill
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Arrows-Yamaha
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- | - | DNS | 20th | - |
| - |
Vincenzo Sospiri 1
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Lola Ford
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- | - | DNQ | - | - |
| - |
Ricardo Rosset 1
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Lola Ford
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- | - | DNQ | - | - |
1 Both of the Lola cars failed due to the 107% rule.
World Cup stands after the race
Driver ranking
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Constructors' championship
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Individual evidence
- ↑ motorsportarchiv.de Overview Australia 1997 ( Memento from May 23, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ a b c Heinz Prüller: Grand Prix Story 1997 , Orac, p. 21ff.
- ↑ motorsportarchiv.de Statistics Australia 1997 ( Memento from March 23, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ motorsportarchiv.de Friday training Australia 1997 ( Memento from June 22, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ motorsportarchiv.de Saturday training Australia 1997 ( Memento from June 22, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ motorsportarchiv.de Qualifying Australia 1997 ( Memento from April 14, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ motorsportarchiv.de Warm-Up Australia 1997 ( Memento from April 15, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ motorsportarchiv.de Race Australia 1997 ( Memento from June 22, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
