1998 Australian Grand Prix

 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

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

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	Mika Hakkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	1: 30.010	01
02	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	1: 30.053	02
03	Michael sSchumacher	Ferrari	1: 30.767	03
04th	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams Mecachrome	1: 30.919	04th
05	Johnny Herbert	Clean Petronas	1: 31.384	05
06th	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Williams Mecachrome	1: 31.397	06th
07th	Giancarlo Fisichella	Benetton Playlife	1: 31.733	07th
08th	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari	1: 31.767	08th
09	Ralf Schumacher	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	1: 32.392	09
10	Damon Hill	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	1: 32.399	10
11	Alexander Wurz	Benetton Playlife	1: 32.726	11
12	Jean Alesi	Clean Petronas	1: 33.240	12
13	Toranosuke Takagi	Tyrrell-Ford	1: 33.291	13
14th	Rubens Barrichello	Stewart-Ford	1: 33.383	14th
15th	Jarno Trulli	Cheers Peugeot	1: 33.739	15th
16	Mika Salo	Arrows	1: 33.927	16
17th	Esteban Tuero	Minardi-Ford	1: 34.646	17th
18th	Jan Magnussen	Stewart-Ford	1: 34.906	18th
19th	Ricardo Rosset	Tyrrell-Ford	1: 35.119	19th
20th	Pedro Diniz	Arrows	1: 35.140	20th
21st	Olivier Panis	Cheers Peugeot	1: 35.215	21st
22nd	Shinji Nakano	Minardi-Ford	1: 35.301	22nd
107 percent time : 1: 36.311 min (based on the best time of 1: 30.010 min)

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap
01	Mika Hakkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	58	3	1: 31: 45.996	01	1: 31.649
02	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	58	2	+ 0.702	02	1: 32.356
03	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Williams Mecachrome	57	1	+ 1 lap	06th	1: 33.554
04th	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari	57	1	+ 1 lap	08th	1: 33.790
05	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams Mecachrome	57	1	+ 1 lap	04th	1: 35.661
06th	Johnny Herbert	Clean Petronas	57	1	+ 1 lap	05	1: 35.624
07th	Alexander Wurz	Benetton Playlife	57	2	+ 1 lap	11	1: 34.738
08th	Damon Hill	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	57	2	+ 1 lap	10	1: 34.196
09	Olivier Panis	Cheers Peugeot	57	1	+ 1 lap	21st	1: 34.319
-	Giancarlo Fisichella	Benetton Playlife	43	2	DNF	07th	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	08th	1	DNF	22nd	1: 39.676
-	Michael sSchumacher	Ferrari	05	-	DNF	03	1: 35.774
-	Pedro Diniz	Arrows	02	-	DNF	20th	1: 39.916
-	Ralf Schumacher	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	01	-	DNF	09	1: 50.966
-	Jan Magnussen	Stewart-Ford	01	-	DNF	18th	1: 52.353
-	Toranosuke Takagi	Tyrrell-Ford	01	-	DNF	13	1: 53.124
-	Rubens Barrichello	Stewart-Ford	00	-	DNF	14th	-

World Cup stands after the race

Driver ranking

Item driver constructor Points 01  Mika Hakkinen McLaren-Mercedes 10 02  David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 6th 03  Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams Mecachrome 4th 04th  Eddie Irvine Ferrari 3 05  Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Renault 2 06th  Johnny Herbert Clean Petronas 1 -  Alexander Wurz Benetton Playlife 0 -  Damon Hill Jordan-Mugen-Honda 0 -  Olivier Panis Cheers Peugeot 0 -  Giancarlo Fisichella Benetton Playlife 0 -  Jean Alesi Clean Petronas 0

Item driver constructor Points -  Jarno Trulli Cheers Peugeot 0 -  Ricardo Rosset Tyrrell-Ford 0 -  Mika Salo Arrows 0 -  Esteban Tuero Minardi-Ford 0 -  Shinji Nakano Minardi-Ford 0 -  Michael sSchumacher Ferrari 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 16 02  Williams Mecachrome 6th 03  Ferrari 3 04th  Clean Petronas 1 -  Benetton Playlife 0 -  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 Australia 1998 ( Memento from August 10, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ motorsportarchiv.de Friday training Australia 1998 ( Memento from March 22, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
3. ↑ motorsportarchiv.de Saturday training Australia 1998 ( Memento from November 7, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
4. ↑ motorsportarchiv.de Qualifying Australia 1998 ( Memento from November 7, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
5. ↑ motorsportarchiv.de Warm-Up Australia 1998 ( Memento from October 31, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
6. ↑ motorsportarchiv.de Race Australia 1998 ( Memento from November 1, 2005 in the Internet Archive )