1997 European Grand Prix

 1997 European Grand Prix

Racing data
17th of 17 races in the 1997 Formula 1 World Championship
Surname:	XLII European Grand Prix
Date:	October 26, 1997
Place:	Jerez de la Frontera
Course:	Circuito de Jerez
Length:	305.187 km in 69 laps of 4.423 km
Weather:	sunny
Spectator:	~ 60,000
Pole position
Driver:	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams-Renault
Time:	1: 21.072 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Williams-Renault
Time:	1: 23.135 min (lap 30)
Podium
First:	Mika Hakkinen	McLaren-Mercedes
Second:	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes
Third:	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams-Renault

The European Grand Prix 1997 (officially XLII European Grand Prix ) took place on 26 October at the Circuito de Jerez in Jerez de la Frontera instead and was the 17th and final race of the Formula 1 World Championship in 1997 . Mika Häkkinen took first place ahead of David Coulthard and Jacques Villeneuve .

At the end of the race, Jacques Villeneuve secured his only Formula 1 World Championship, followed by his team-mate Heinz-Harald Frentzen as vice world champion and third place went to David Coulthard and Jean Alesi . Michael Schumacher , the actual vice world champion, was deprived of all points as a result of an intentional accident.

report

background

The last race of the season also offered a final for the title fight, as there is only one point between the leader Michael Schumacher and Jacques Villeneuve. Villeneuve commented on the situation by giving the second drivers from both teams a key role. He also described Heinz-Harald Frentzen as a much better teammate than Eddie Irvine. Schumacher, on the other hand, only said briefly that he would like a duel with Villeneuve.

Instead of the race in Jerez, the plan was actually to hold the Portuguese Grand Prix in Estoril . But after the line operators had not implemented the requested and promised modernizations, Estoril was replaced by Jerez. Jerez was chosen because of the engine manufacturer Renault, which, after retiring from Formula 1 at the end of the season, wanted one last race in Europe.

Due to another injury during a test, Norberto Fontana had to replace Gianni Morbidelli .

After the Japanese Grand Prix that same year, many teams decided to test the new cars for the next season. Williams, Benetton, Sauber, Jordan and McLaren tested their new cars on the Silverstone Circuit . Ferrari stayed in Japan and tested an electronic differential, Arrows tested the rain tires with Bridgestone at Magny-Cours and Prost also tested new tires with Bridgestone in Barcelona as well as their new car for 1998.

training

Friday training

Olivier Panis surprisingly set the fastest time ahead of Damon Hill with 1: 22.735. Jacques Villeneuve took third place, Michael Schumacher only seventh.

All drivers were placed within about three seconds.

Saturday training

David Coulthard was the fastest ahead of his team-mate Mika Häkkinen . Villeneuve took sixth place, Schumacher far behind in 14th.

All drivers were placed within four seconds.

Qualifying

There was a novelty in qualifying: The first three starting positions were exactly the same speed with a time of 1: 21.072. Since Villeneuve set the time first, he was able to secure pole position, followed by Michael Schumacher and Heinz-Harald Frentzen.

All drivers were placed within three and a half seconds.

Warm-up

With 1: 23.016, Häkkinen was ahead of Berger, who contested his last Formula 1 Grand Prix here, and Panis. Villeneuve was fifth ahead of Schumacher for the fourth time, and the German was two places behind in seventh. Damon Hill almost finished this curiosity as he was about to set an even faster lap. But he was slowed down in the last corners by the yellow flag because of the broken Minardis of Ukyō Katayama and could not set a fast time.

All drivers were placed within three and a half seconds.

run

The place of the deliberate collision so that Michael Schumacher would keep the world championship

Before the race, a blue liquid dripped out of Villeneuve's car, but it shouldn't cause any problems on the car. Schumacher won the start and led the race for around 40 laps. Frentzen was also able to overtake Villeneuve, but through a team order and the good relationship between them, Frentzen let his team-mate overtake later.

On lap 48, the gap between Schumacher and Villeneuve was less than a second. During an attempt to break out in the Dry-Sac curve, Villeneuve was able to sit inside and tried to overtake Schumacher. But Schumacher recognized the seriousness of the situation and gave in more than Villeneuve, which resulted in a collision. Unlike in Adelaide in 1994 , Villeneuve was able to continue while Schumacher was eliminated. Later, due to this collision, Schumacher's championship points for the 1997 season were revoked.

Villeneuve was able to finish the race but got slower and slower. So the two McLarens passed and Berger was only about a tenth of a second behind the new world champion Villeneuve at the finish.

For Mika Häkkinen it was the first Formula 1 victory in his career after 95 races.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Danka Arrows Yamaha	1	Damon Hill	Arrows A18	Yamaha 3.0 V10	B.
	2	Pedro Diniz
Rothmans Williams Renault	3	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams FW19	Renault 3.0 V10	G
	4th	Heinz-Harald Frentzen
Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro	5	Michael sSchumacher	Ferrari F310B	Ferrari 3.0 V10	G
	6th	Eddie Irvine
Mild Seven Benetton Renault	7th	Jean Alesi	Benetton B197	Renault 3.0 V10	G
	8th	Gerhard Berger
West McLaren Mercedes	9	Mika Hakkinen	McLaren MP4 / 12	Mercedes-Benz 3.0 V10	G
	10	David Coulthard
B&H Total Jordan Peugeot	11	Ralf Schumacher	Jordan 197	Peugeot 3.0 V10	G
	12	Giancarlo Fisichella
Cheers Gauloises Peugeot	14th	Olivier Panis	Cheers JS45	Mugen-Honda 3.0 V10	B.
	15th	Shinji Nakano
Red Bull Sauber Petronas	16	Johnny Herbert	Clean C16	Petronas 3.0 V10	G
	17th	Norberto Fontana
Tyrrell	18th	Jos Verstappen	Tyrrell 025	Ford ED5 3.0 V8	G
	19th	Mika Salo
Minardi team	20th	Ukyō Katayama	Minardi M197	Hard 3.0 V8	B.
	21st	Tarso Marques
Stewart Ford	22nd	Rubens Barrichello	Stewart SF01	Ford Zetec-R 3.0 V10	B.
	23	Jan Magnussen

classification

Qualifying

Item	driver	constructor	time	begin
01	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams-Renault	1: 21.072	01
02	Michael sSchumacher	Ferrari	1: 21.072	02
03	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Williams-Renault	1: 21.072	03
04th	Damon Hill	Arrows-Yamaha	1: 21.130	04th
05	Mika Hakkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	1: 21.369	05
06th	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	1: 21.476	06th
07th	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari	1: 21.610	07th
08th	Gerhard Berger	Benetton Renault	1: 21.656	08th
09	Olivier Panis	Cheers to Mugen Honda	1: 21.735	09
10	Jean Alesi	Benetton Renault	1: 22.011	10
11	Jan Magnussen	Stewart-Ford	1: 22.167	11
12	Rubens Barrichello	Stewart-Ford	1: 22.222	12
13	Pedro Diniz	Arrows-Yamaha	1: 22.234	13
14th	Johnny Herbert	Clean Petronas	1: 22.263	14th
15th	Shinji Nakano	Cheers to Mugen Honda	1: 22.351	15th
16	Ralf Schumacher	Jordan-Peugeot	1: 22.740	16
17th	Giancarlo Fisichella	Jordan-Peugeot	1: 22.804	17th
18th	Norberto Fontana	Clean Petronas	1: 23.281	18th
19th	Ukyō Katayama	Minardi-Hart	1: 23.409	19th
20th	Tarso Marques	Minardi-Hart	1: 23.854	20th
21st	Mika Salo	Tyrrell-Ford	1: 24.222	21st
22nd	Jos Verstappen	Tyrrell-Ford	1: 24.301	22nd
107 percent time : 1: 26.747 min (based on the best time of 1: 21.072 min)

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap
01	Mika Hakkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	69	2	1: 38: 57.771	05	1: 24.072
02	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	69	2	+ 1.654	06th	1: 24.006
03	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams-Renault	69	2	+ 1.803	01	1: 23.906
04th	Gerhard Berger	Benetton Renault	69	2	+ 1.919	08th	1: 23.361
05	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari	69	2	+ 3.789	07th	1: 24.266
06th	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Williams-Renault	69	2	+ 4.537	03	1: 23.135
07th	Olivier Panis	Cheers to Mugen Honda	69	2	+1: 07.145	09	1: 23.941
08th	Johnny Herbert	Clean Petronas	69	2	+1: 12.961	14th	1: 25.159
09	Jan Magnussen	Stewart-Ford	69	2	+1: 17.487	11	1: 25.370
10	Shinji Nakano	Cheers to Mugen Honda	69	2	+1: 18.215	15th	1: 24.679
11	Giancarlo Fisichella	Jordan-Peugeot	68	2	+ 1 lap	17th	1: 25.434
12	Mika Salo	Tyrrell-Ford	68	3	+ 1 lap	21st	1: 25.237
13	Jean Alesi	Benetton Renault	68	3	+ 1 lap	10	1: 23.975
14th	Norberto Fontana	Clean Petronas	68	2	+ 1 lap	18th	1: 25.154
15th	Tarso Marques	Minardi-Hart	68	3	+ 1 lap	20th	1: 25.947
16	Jos Verstappen	Tyrrell-Ford	68	2	+ 1 lap	22nd	1: 26.369
17th	Ukyō Katayama	Minardi-Hart	68	2	+ 1 lap	19th	1: 26.215
-	Michael sSchumacher	Ferrari	47	2	DNF	02	1: 23.692
-	Damon Hill	Arrows-Yamaha	47	2	DNF	04th	1: 24.274
-	Ralf Schumacher	Jordan-Peugeot	44	2	DNF	16	1: 25.895
-	Rubens Barrichello	Stewart-Ford	30th	-	DNF	12	1: 26.169
-	Pedro Diniz	Arrows-Yamaha	11	-	DNF	13	1: 26.434

World Cup stands after the race

Driver ranking

Item driver constructor Points 01  Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Renault 81 02  Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams-Renault 42 03  Jean Alesi Benetton Renault 36 03  David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 36 05  Gerhard Berger Benetton Renault 27 05  Mika Hakkinen McLaren-Mercedes 27 07th  Eddie Irvine Ferrari 24 08th  Giancarlo Fisichella Jordan-Peugeot 20th 09  Olivier Panis Cheers to Mugen Honda 16 10  Johnny Herbert Clean Petronas 15th 11  Ralf Schumacher Jordan-Peugeot 13 12  Damon Hill Arrows-Yamaha 7th 13  Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 6th 14th  Alexander Wurz Benetton Renault 4th

Item driver constructor Points 15th  Jarno Trulli Cheers to Mugen Honda 3 16  Mika Salo Tyrrell-Ford 2 16  Shinji Nakano Cheers to Mugen Honda 2 16  Pedro Diniz Arrows-Yamaha 2 19th  Nicola Larini Clean Petronas 1 -  Jan Magnussen Stewart-Ford 0 -  Ukyō Katayama Minardi-Hart 0 -  Jos Verstappen Tyrrell-Ford 0 -  Gianni Morbidelli Clean Petronas 0 -  Norberto Fontana Clean Petronas 0 -  Tarso Marques Minardi-Hart 0 -  Vincenzo Sospiri Lola Ford 0 -  Ricardo Rosset Lola Ford 0 DSQ  Michael sSchumacher Ferrari 0 (78)

Remarks

1. ↑ Michael Schumacher's points were stripped after he caused a deliberate collision with Jacques Villeneuve.

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  Williams-Renault 123 02  Ferrari 102 03  Benetton Renault 67 04th  McLaren-Mercedes 63 05  Jordan-Peugeot 33 06th  Cheers to Mugen Honda 21st

Item constructor Points 07th  Clean Petronas 16 08th  Arrows-Yamaha 9 09  Stewart-Ford 6th 10  Tyrrell-Ford 2 -  Minardi-Hart 0 -  Lola Ford 0

Individual evidence

1. ↑ motorsportarchiv.de Overview Europe 1997 ( Memento from September 19, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
2. ^ Motorsportarchiv.de Friday training Europe 1997 ( Memento from March 23, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
3. ↑ motorsport-magazin.com Friday training Europe 1997
4. ↑ motorsport-magazin.com Saturday training Europe 1997
5. ↑ motorsport-magazin.com Qualifying Europe 1997
6. ↑ motorsport-magazin.com Warm-Up Europe 1997
7. ^ Motorsportarchiv.de Race Europe 1997 ( Memento from June 9, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
8. ↑ motorsport-magazin.com [Europe 1997]