1998 Belgian Grand Prix
| Racing data | ||
|---|---|---|
| 13th of 16 races in the 1998 Formula 1 World Championship | ||
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| Surname: | LVI Foster's Belgian Grand Prix | |
| Date: | August 30, 1998 | |
| Place: | spa | |
| Course: | Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps | |
| Length: | 306.592 km in 44 laps of 6.968 km
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| Weather: | heavy rain and cold | |
| Spectator: | ~ 100,000 | |
| Pole position | ||
| Driver: |
 Mika Hakkinen
|
 McLaren-Mercedes
|
| Time: | 1: 48.682 min | |
| Fastest lap | ||
| Driver: |
 Michael sSchumacher
|
 Ferrari
|
| Time: | 2: 03.766 min (lap 9) | |
| Podium | ||
| First: |
Damon Hill
|
 Jordan-Mugen-Honda
|
| Second: |
Ralf Schumacher
|
Jordan-Mugen-Honda
|
| Third: |
 Jean Alesi
|
 Clean Petronas
|
|
Leadership laps
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The Belgian Grand Prix in 1998 (officially LVI Foster's Belgian Grand Prix ) took place on 30 August at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Spa place and was the 13th race of the Formula 1 World Championship in 1998 . Damon Hill won the race ahead of Ralf Schumacher and Jean Alesi .
report
background
After the race in Hungary and before the race weekend in Belgium, all teams, with the exception of Tyrrell, tested their cars on different tracks. McLaren, Williams, Arrows and Stewart tested at Silverstone; the fastest time was set by the Williams test driver Juan Pablo Montoya . Ferrari, Jordan and again McLaren tested in Monza. McLaren achieved the fastest lap time with David Coulthard. Ferrari, Sauber and Minardi tested their cars on the in-house test track run by Ferrari, Fiorano. Benetton and Prost separately tested their racing cars in private test sessions in Magny-Cours and Barcelona.
training
Friday training
While trying to get another fast lap, Mika Häkkinen caused an accident. Before that he had achieved the second fastest time, beaten by eleven hundredths of a second by Michael Schumacher, who was the fastest driver of the day with 1: 51.895 minutes. Followed by David Coulthard, Damon Hill, Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Jacques Villeneuve. Villeneuve finished sixth in practice despite having a serious accident on the Eau Rouge corner. Villeneuve drove through a series of bends at full throttle, lost control of the car breaking out at its rear when he turned left towards the Kemmel Straight, and hit the tire wall backwards at around 290 km / h. The session was suspended for 25 minutes to recover the car and repair the impact site. Villeneuve was able to get out of the car unharmed and on his own. Later, during an interview on the track, he described this accident as his "worst accident in Formula 1 so far". All drivers were placed within six and a half seconds.
Saturday training
This time Häkkinen was fastest in the session and left his team-mate Coulthard behind with 1: 50.319 minutes. Coulthard was followed by Damon Hill, Jacques Villeneuve, Eddie Irvine and Michael Schumacher in sixth place. Villeneuve had to contest the training session with the replacement car because the chassis of the car that had crashed the day before was too badly damaged to be ready for use in time. Mika Salo reached 16th place, although, like Villeneuve the day before, he had a bad accident on the Eau-Rouge corner. Unlike Villeneuve, his car understeered shortly before Raidillon and drove into the lane. Salo was rushed to a hospital, but he had not suffered any injuries and was allowed to start qualifying. All drivers were placed within six and a half seconds.
Qualifying
Mika Häkkinen achieved his ninth pole position of the season with a time of 1: 48.682 minutes. In second place was his team mate David Coulthard, who was only beaten by almost two tenths. With a gap of one second, Damon Hill came in third on the grid, followed by Michael Schumacher, Eddie Irvine and Jacques Villeneuve. Michael Schumacher's fastest time was denied because the stewards did not slow down enough when passing a yellow flag. However, the penalty did not change his position, as his fastest lap was also only enough for fourth place. All drivers were placed within seven seconds, Esteban Tuero was around eight tenths above the 107 percent time limit.
Warm-up
The warm-up session started with light rain. Michael Schumacher was the fastest driver with a time of 2: 07.839 minutes, followed with a gap of eight tenths of his team mate Eddie Irvine. Mika Häkkinen, Giancarlo Fisichella, Ralf Schumacher and Damon Hill followed. All drivers were placed within 18 seconds.
run
In contrast to the rainy races in Belgium in previous years, it was decided to start the race normally without a safety car at the scheduled time.
First start
Häkkinen maintained the lead, followed by Villeneuve, Michael Schumacher, Giancarlo Fisichella and David Coulthard, who got off to a bad start. After the first corner, La Source, all drivers sprinted towards Eau Rouge. At the level of the old pit lane, Coulthard's car turned sharply right, drove almost head-on into the wall, was thrown back onto the track and triggered a chain reaction. Wurz's Benetton turned because it had come into contact with Irvine, Herbert also turned it around by emergency braking and Trulli pushed into the front of Wurz. The Prost then slid to the left, where it drove into the stern of Verstappen. In addition to Takagi and Panis, Rosset, Diniz and Salo also got into the chaos at full throttle. Barrichello was pushed into the crowd by Diniz and Panis by Takagi, Salo drove at full throttle into the wreckage of Irvine and Coulthard. Rosset was the last to dash blind through the spray into the crowd.
The only drivers who were able to escape the chaos behind Coulthard unscathed were the two Jordans with Hill and Ralf Schumacher and Esteban Tuero in the Minardi. Coulthard had narrowly missed Hill, while Ralf Schumacher could still avoid the grass before he would have been hit by Irvine's wreck. Jos Verstappen was also affected, who saved his car in the pits but had to give up there because of the severe damage.
The race was then canceled with the red flag in order to bring the vehicles safely off the track. Since it was canceled within the first two laps, the first start was declared invalid and a new start over the full race distance was scheduled. Irvine and Barrichello had suffered minor injuries, which is why Barrichello did not take part in the second start. Furthermore, Mika Salo, Ricardo Rosset and Olivier Panis could not take part either because their teammates got the replacement car.
Second start
The race was restarted an hour after the devastating accident at the start. Hill overtook Häkkinen before the first corner, who had to fend off Michael Schumacher. In La Source, Häkkinen turned and stood opposite on the road. While trying to start again, he was hit by Johnny Herbert during an evasive maneuver. During the race, Häkkinen claimed to have been hit by Michael Schumacher and then turned, but Ferrari denied that. Also on the first lap, Wurz and Coulthard collided, which brought Coulthard to last place and meant Rennaus for Wurz. After the renewed chaos, the safety car was sent out on the track to ensure order and enable the vehicles to be recovered safely.
At the beginning of the third lap, the race was released again, with Hill in front of Michael Schumacher. After a long chase, Schumacher overtook his opponent in the last corner before the start-finish, the bus-stop chicane, and took the lead on lap nine. Irvine in third position now caught up with Hill, but he tore off his front wing when he braked himself after the Kemmel Straight and had to swerve over the grass. The following pit stop caused Irvine to drop from third to eleventh position. When Michael Schumacher pitted for the first time on lap 16, Villeneuve took the lead for a short time until he spun and the engine stalled. Schumacher regained the lead, his lead on Second Hill was almost 40 seconds.
When Schumacher approached McLaren's second driver, David Coulthard, to lap, Ferrari team boss Jean Todt visited the McLaren command post and made sure that Coulthard let the leader go safely. However, Coulthard did not immediately make room to lap, whereupon Schumacher pointed with his fist in the direction of Coulthard. After the ninth bend, Coulthard finally planned to let Schumacher by by reducing the speed considerably and driving to the right delimitation lane to make room. Schumacher, whose view was severely restricted by the spray that was blown up, was surprised by the maneuver and could no longer evade. At the last moment he tried to pull sharply to the left, but his right front wheel hit the rear wing of the McLaren and tore off together with the suspension. Both drivers, Schumacher in a Ferrari on three wheels and Coulthard without a rear wing, made their way back to the pit lane and parked their cars there. Schumacher threw his steering wheel out of the car in the garage and got out quickly. In the pit lane itself, he ran towards the McLaren garage to confront Coulthard. Both drivers were separated by the team responsible before there could have been fights. After the confrontation, Schumacher went directly to the stewarts to lodge a complaint, but the stewarts postponed a final decision.
Due to the failure of Schumacher, Hill now led the race ahead of Ralf Schumacher. After two laps the same thing happened in front of the bus stop chicane between Nakano and Fisichella. Nakano wanted to let Fisichella go, but Fisichella overlooked the Minardi and drove into its stern. The Benetton slid across the pit wall, but just missed it and stopped a few meters from the start and finish. There Fisichella was able to get out unharmed while his engine went up in flames. Because of the renewed accident, the safety car was sent out a second time and Hill used the situation to stop in the pits a second and final time.
Due to the high number of failures, there were only six cars left on the track, which meant that every driver who crossed the finish line would score championship points. McLaren and Minardi then sent their slightly damaged cars back on track after being repaired, hoping to score points if they failed again. After the race was approved, Damon Hill was in the lead ahead of Ralf Schumacher and Jean Alesi. Ralf Schumacher was forbidden to attack Damon Hill by stable order in order not to jeopardize the first victory and the double victory for Jordan in general. In the following laps, the leading trio shrank to a few seconds until Alesi gave up further overtaking attempts on the last lap.
After the race
Michael Schumacher and David Coulthard had a private meeting a week after the racing accident that lasted one and a half hours and dealt with the accident. The meeting ended with a handshake and a plan to advocate clearer guidelines for lapping slower drivers so that something like this shouldn't happen again. Schumacher later said that "it is clear that he [Coulthard] didn't do anything wrong at Spa," even though Coulthard admitted his mistake in 2003.
Registration list
classification
Qualifying
run
| Item | driver | constructor | Round | Stops | time | begin | Fastest lap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Damon Hill
|
Jordan-Mugen-Honda
|
44 | 2 | 1: 43: 47,407 | 3 | 2: 05.630 |
| 2 |
Ralf Schumacher
|
Jordan-Mugen-Honda
|
44 | 2 | + 0.932 | 8th | 2: 08.399 |
| 3 |
Jean Alesi
|
Clean Petronas
|
44 | 2 | + 7.240 | 10 | 2: 07.597 |
| 4th |
Heinz-Harald Frentzen
|
Williams Mecachrome
|
44 | 2 | + 32.243 | 9 | 2: 06.284 |
| 5 |
 Pedro Diniz
|
Arrows
|
44 | 2 | + 51.682 | 16 | 2: 11.331 |
| 6th |
Jarno Trulli
|
Cheers Peugeot
|
42 | 1 | + 2 rounds | 13 | 2: 11.701 |
| 7th |
David Coulthard
|
McLaren-Mercedes
|
39 | 1 | + 5 rounds | 2 | 2: 10.950 |
| 8th |
 Shinji Nakano
|
Minardi-Ford
|
39 | 2 | + 5 rounds | 21st | 2: 13.230 |
| - |
Giancarlo Fisichella
|
Benetton Playlife
|
26th | 2 | DNF | 7th | 2: 09.528 |
| - |
Michael sSchumacher
|
Ferrari
|
25th | 1 | DNF | 4th | 2: 03.766 |
| - |
Eddie Irvine
|
Ferrari
|
25th | 1 | DNF | 5 | 2: 06.561 |
| - |
 Esteban Tuero
|
Minardi-Ford
|
17th | 1 | DNF | 22nd | 2: 19.996 |
| - |
 Jacques Villeneuve
|
Williams Mecachrome
|
16 | 2 | DNF | 6th | 2: 07.825 |
| - |
Toranosuke Takagi
|
Tyrrell-Ford
|
8th | - | DNF | 19th | 2: 12.327 |
| - |
 Jos Verstappen
|
Stewart-Ford
|
8th | - | DNF | 17th | 2: 12.425 |
| - |
Mika Hakkinen
|
McLaren-Mercedes
|
0 | - | DNF | 1 | - |
| - |
 Alexander Wurz
|
Benetton Playlife
|
0 | - | DNF | 11 | - |
| - |
Johnny Herbert
|
Clean Petronas
|
0 | - | DNF | 12 | - |
| - |
Rubens Barrichello
|
Stewart-Ford
|
- | - | DNS | 14th | - |
| - |
Olivier Panis
|
Cheers Peugeot
|
- | - | DNS | 15th | - |
| - |
Mika Salo
|
Arrows
|
- | - | DNS | 18th | - |
| - |
Ricardo Rosset
|
Tyrrell-Ford
|
- | - | DNS | 20th | - |
World Cup stands after the race
Driver ranking
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Constructors' championship
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Individual evidence
- ^ Motorsportarchiv.de Friday training Belgium 1998 ( Memento from April 26, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ motorsport-magazin.com Friday training Belgium 1998
- ↑ motorsportarchiv.de Saturday training Belgium 1998 ( Memento from May 11, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ motorsport-magazin.com Saturday training Belgium 1998
- ^ Motorsportarchiv.de Qualifying Belgium 1998 ( Memento from May 11, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ motorsport-magazin.com Qualifying Belgium 1998
- ^ Motorsportarchiv.de Warm-Up Belgium 1998 ( Memento from May 11, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ motorsport-magazin.com Warm-Up Belgium 1998
- ^ Motorsportarchiv.de Race Belgium 1998 ( Memento from November 1, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Motorsport-magazin.com Race Belgium 1998
