1998 Australian Grand Prix
Racing data | ||
---|---|---|
1st of 16 races in the 1998 Formula 1 World Championship | ||
Surname: | LXIII Qantas Australian Grand Prix | |
Date: | March 8, 1998 | |
Place: | Melbourne | |
Course: | Albert Park Circuit | |
Length: | 307.574 km in 58 laps of 5.303 km
|
|
Weather: | sunny and hot | |
Spectator: | ~ 103,000 | |
Pole position | ||
Driver: | Mika Hakkinen | McLaren-Mercedes |
Time: | 1: 30.010 min | |
Fastest lap | ||
Driver: | Mika Hakkinen | McLaren-Mercedes |
Time: | 1: 31.649 min (lap 39) | |
Podium | ||
First: | Mika Hakkinen | McLaren-Mercedes |
Second: | David Coulthard | McLaren-Mercedes |
Third: | Heinz-Harald Frentzen |
Williams Mecachrome
|
Leadership laps
|
The Australian Grand Prix 1998 (officially LXIII Qantas Australian Grand Prix ) took place on 8 March at the Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne instead and was the first race of the Formula 1 World Championship in 1998 . Mika Häkkinen took first place ahead of David Coulthard and Heinz-Harald Frentzen .
report
background
At Williams, Ferrari, McLaren and Stewart nothing changed in the driver pairings. At Benetton, Gerhard Berger , who had meanwhile retired, was replaced by Alexander Wurz , who had already stood in for Berger three times in the previous season. Jean Alesi also left the team and was replaced by Giancarlo Fisichella , who had been under contract with Jordan the previous year. Alesi was signed to Sauber and Herbert was confirmed for another year.
Jordan brought Damon Hill, a former world champion, into the team, who, together with Ralf Schumacher, should provide points. Arrows replaced Hill with Mika Salo , Pedro Diniz 's contract was renewed and Diniz was promoted to first driver.
Tyrrell, now bought by British American Tobacco, was entering its final season. The former owner, Ken Tyrrell , still had a say in his former team, but withdrew after independent decisions (including Ricardo Rosset instead of the more constant Jos Verstappen , which Ken Tyrrell was not happy with) the new owner back. The test driver Toranosuke Takagi was promoted to regular driver due to his sponsors.
Prost kept Olivier Panis , but replaced Shinji Nakano , who in turn went to Minardi and replaced his compatriot Ukyo Katayama , with Jarno Trulli , who had already represented Panis after his serious injury the previous year. In addition to the Japanese, Minardi also brought Esteban Tuero into the team.
training
Friday training
The session took place partly under heavy rain. Michael Schumacher set the best time of 1: 33.826 by half a second ahead of Mika Häkkinen .
With the exception of Esteban Tuero , who was 42 seconds behind with 2: 16.609, all drivers were placed within five and a half seconds.
Saturday training
This time David Coulthard set the fastest time with 1: 30.456. Behind them are Jacques Villeneuve , Schumacher and Häkkinen. Tuero, who could hardly test the day before, placed 20th, five and a half seconds behind.
All drivers were placed within six seconds.
Qualifying
Häkkinen took pole position by four hundredths ahead of Coulthard, Schumacher and Villeneuve.
All drivers were placed within five and a half seconds, Tuero was able to improve again and was in 17th place in the end.
Warm-up
With Häkkinen, a McLaren was again in first place, followed by Coulthard, the Schumacher brothers and Damon Hill.
All drivers were placed within four and a half seconds. Tuero was able to improve again and ended up in twelfth place with his Minardi, ahead of Alesi, Wurz and Barrichello.
run
On the way to the starting grid, Pedro Diniz's car burned briefly at the rear, but was able to start the race without any further problems. But after only two laps he had to give up due to a gearbox failure. Jean Alesi also had problems as he could not leave his starting position, but before the officially last on the grid, Shinji Nakano , overtook him, he was able to shift into gear and drive off. This enabled Alesi to keep his twelfth place on the grid.
The McLarens and Schumacher got away best at the start, followed by Villeneuve and Fisichella. Schumacher chased Coulthard until the Ferrari engine gave up on lap six. Villeneuve, still pursued by Fisichella, inherited third place, which he held until the first series of pit stops. In the first two laps, five cars retired, including Rubens Barrichello , Toranosuke Takagi , Pedro Diniz and, through an accident, Ralf Schumacher and Jan Magnussen .
After the pit stops, Villeneuve fell behind his team-mates Frentzen and Fisichella. Fisichella was able to overtake Frentzen and was initially third, but then had to retire due to a material failure. On lap 36, Häkkinen surprisingly pitted again. The trigger was a wrongly interpreted radio message, which had been sent by an unknown person, as Ron Dennis explained in an interview in 2007. As a result, Häkkinen lost his first place to Coulthard.
Shortly before the end of the race, Coulthard Häkkinen let past first place, which was not based on a direct team instruction, but on a personal agreement between the two. This unofficial agreement stipulated that the driver who left the first corner first could win the race.
After the race, Australian Grand Prix Corporation Chairman Ron Walker made an official complaint to the FIA about the conduct of the McLaren team.
Registration list
classification
Qualifying
run
Item | driver | constructor | Round | Stops | time | begin | Fastest lap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Mika Hakkinen | McLaren-Mercedes | 58 | 3 | 1: 31: 45.996 | 1 | 1: 31.649 |
2 | David Coulthard | McLaren-Mercedes | 58 | 2 | + 0.702 | 2 | 1: 32.356 |
3 | Heinz-Harald Frentzen | Williams Mecachrome | 57 | 1 | + 1 lap | 6th | 1: 33.554 |
4th | Eddie Irvine | Ferrari | 57 | 1 | + 1 lap | 8th | 1: 33.790 |
5 | Jacques Villeneuve | Williams Mecachrome | 57 | 1 | + 1 lap | 4th | 1: 35.661 |
6th | Johnny Herbert | Clean Petronas | 57 | 1 | + 1 lap | 5 | 1: 35.624 |
7th | Alexander Wurz | Benetton Playlife | 57 | 2 | + 1 lap | 11 | 1: 34.738 |
8th | Damon Hill | Jordan-Mugen-Honda | 57 | 2 | + 1 lap | 10 | 1: 34.196 |
9 | Olivier Panis | Cheers Peugeot | 57 | 1 | + 1 lap | 21st | 1: 34.319 |
- | Giancarlo Fisichella | Benetton Playlife | 43 | 2 | DNF | 7th | 1: 34.319 |
- | Jean Alesi | Clean Petronas | 41 | 1 | DNF | 12 | 1: 34.878 |
- | Jarno Trulli | Cheers Peugeot | 26th | - | DNF | 11 | 1: 34.885 |
- | Ricardo Rosset | Tyrrell-Ford | 25th | 1 | DNF | 19th | 1: 38.116 |
- | Mika Salo | Arrows | 23 | 1 | DNF | 16 | 1: 36.032 |
- | Esteban Tuero | Minardi-Ford | 22nd | 2 | DNF | 17th | 1: 36.475 |
- | Shinji Nakano | Minardi-Ford | 8th | 1 | DNF | 22nd | 1: 39.676 |
- | Michael sSchumacher | Ferrari | 5 | - | DNF | 3 | 1: 35.774 |
- | Pedro Diniz | Arrows | 2 | - | DNF | 20th | 1: 39.916 |
- | Ralf Schumacher | Jordan-Mugen-Honda | 1 | - | DNF | 9 | 1: 50.966 |
- | Jan Magnussen | Stewart-Ford | 1 | - | DNF | 18th | 1: 52.353 |
- | Toranosuke Takagi | Tyrrell-Ford | 1 | - | DNF | 13 | 1: 53.124 |
- | Rubens Barrichello | Stewart-Ford | 0 | - | DNF | 14th | - |
World Cup stands after the race
Driver ranking
|
|
Constructors' championship
|
|
Individual evidence
- ↑ motorsportarchiv.de Overview Australia 1998 ( Memento from August 10, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ motorsportarchiv.de Friday training Australia 1998 ( Memento from March 22, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ motorsportarchiv.de Saturday training Australia 1998 ( Memento from November 7, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ motorsportarchiv.de Qualifying Australia 1998 ( Memento from November 7, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ motorsportarchiv.de Warm-Up Australia 1998 ( Memento from October 31, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ motorsportarchiv.de Race Australia 1998 ( Memento from November 1, 2005 in the Internet Archive )