1997 French Grand Prix

 1997 French Grand Prix

Racing data
8th of 17 races in the 1997 Formula 1 World Championship
Surname:	LXXXIII French Grand Prix
Date:	June 29, 1997
Place:	Magny-Cours
Course:	Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours
Length:	306 km in 72 laps of 4.25 km
Weather:	dry, later rain
Spectator:	~ 75,000
Pole position
Driver:	Michael sSchumacher	Ferrari
Time:	1: 14.548 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Michael sSchumacher	Ferrari
Time:	1: 17.910 min (lap 37)
Podium
First:	Michael sSchumacher	Ferrari
Second:	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Williams-Renault
Third:	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari

The French Grand Prix in 1997 (officially LXXXIII French Grand Prix ) took place on 29 June at the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours in Magny-Cours instead and was the eighth race of the Formula 1 World Championship in 1997 . Michael Schumacher took first place ahead of Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Eddie Irvine .

report

background

There were a number of driver changes this weekend:

• Gianni Morbidelli broke his arm during test drives and had to be replaced by substitute driver Norberto Fontana .
• Olivier Panis broke both legs in the previous race and was replaced by Jarno Trulli . Trulli, however, was previously under contract with Minardi.
• Since Trulli left the team at short notice, substitute Tarso Marques had to step in. When Panis recovered, Trulli was left without a team because Minardi continued to trust Marques.

It has been officially planned for a long time: Renault will withdraw from Formula 1 as an engine manufacturer at the end of the season. This decision affects Williams and Benetton, as they are the only ones who purchase the engines from the French and would thus be without an engine supplier for the next year.

training

Friday training

Michael Schumacher set the fastest time with 1: 18.339 from Giancarlo Fisichella , who was almost a second and a half behind.

It is worth mentioning the slow time of Jan Magnussen , who only managed 1: 34.357. He is 16 seconds on the first and even three seconds on the penultimate, Alexander Wurz , who flew off the track after his fastest lap and had to end the training unintentionally.

Saturday training

This time the Williams struck back and set the fastest time with Jacques Villeneuve , around three seconds faster than Schumacher's best time the day before. This time Magnussen was also able to set a time within the 107 percent rule.

All drivers were within four and a half seconds.

Qualifying

Michael Schumacher was able to secure the fastest time by two tenths ahead of his compatriot Heinz-Harald Frentzen . Ralf Schumacher only had to be satisfied with third place by six thousandths .

It is surprising that the paydriver Pedro Diniz beat his team-mate and the reigning world champion Damon Hill by two tenths.

All drivers were within four seconds.

Warm-up

Eddie Irvine surprisingly set the fastest time, one second ahead of his team mate Michael Schumacher.

All drivers were within six and a half seconds.

run

Michael Schumacher was able to win the start and led the race from Frentzen, Damon Hill had a miserable start and also lost his front wing in the process.

The race was unspectacular, but towards the end of the race a storm was brewing, which led many drivers to switch to rain tires. Michael Schumacher kept his dry tires, but turned several times. But since he was leading far ahead of his neighbors, he could easily keep the lead.

When Coulthard flew off on the last lap, Michael Schumacher had his brother Ralf lap back to get the now vacant sixth place and thus the last point, since otherwise he could drive one lap less and thus not overtake the no longer driving Coulthard.

Villeneuve was able to catch up with Irvine in the last two corners. The Canadian tried desperately to overtake the Northern Irishman, but spun in the process. Jean Alesi caught up and tried to overtake Villeneuve in the last corner, but Villeneuve was able to save his fourth place to the finish line. After the race, a disqualification of Villeneuve was considered, as he drove over the pit line after his spin and thus shortened part of the route.

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	Alexander Wurz
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	Jarno Trulli	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	Michael sSchumacher	Ferrari	1: 14.548	01
02	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Williams-Renault	1: 14.749	02
03	Ralf Schumacher	Jordan-Peugeot	1: 14.755	03
04th	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams-Renault	1: 14,800	04th
05	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari	1: 14.860	05
06th	Jarno Trulli	Cheers to Mugen Honda	1: 14,957	06th
07th	Alexander Wurz	Benetton Renault	1: 14.986	07th
08th	Jean Alesi	Benetton Renault	1: 15.228	08th
09	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	1: 15.270	09
10	Mika Hakkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	1: 15.339	10
11	Giancarlo Fisichella	Jordan-Peugeot	1: 15.453	11
12	Shinji Nakano	Cheers to Mugen Honda	1: 15.857	12
13	Rubens Barrichello	Stewart-Ford	1: 15.876	13
14th	Johnny Herbert	Clean Petronas	1: 16.018	14th
15th	Jan Magnussen	Stewart-Ford	1: 16.149	15th
16	Pedro Diniz	Arrows-Yamaha	1: 16.536	16
17th	Damon Hill	Arrows-Yamaha	1: 16.729	17th
18th	Jos Verstappen	Tyrrell-Ford	1: 16.941	18th
19th	Mika Salo	Tyrrell-Ford	1: 17.256	19th
20th	Norberto Fontana	Clean Petronas	1: 17.538	20th
21st	Ukyo Katayama	Minardi-Hart	1: 17.563	21st
22nd	Tarso Marques	Minardi-Hart	1: 18.280	22nd
107 percent time : 1: 19.766 min (based on the best time of 1: 14.548 min)

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap
01	Michael sSchumacher	Ferrari	72	2	1: 38: 50.492	01	1: 17.910
02	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Williams-Renault	72	2	+ 23,537	02	1: 18.136
03	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari	72	3	+1: 14.801	05	1: 19.029
04th	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams-Renault	72	3	+1: 21.784	04th	1: 18.649
05	Jean Alesi	Benetton Renault	72	3	+1: 22.735	08th	1: 19.055
06th	Ralf Schumacher	Jordan-Peugeot	72	3	+1: 29.871	03	1: 19.225
07th	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	71	2	DNF	09	1: 19.317
08th	Johnny Herbert	Clean Petronas	71	2	+ 1 lap	14th	1: 20.845
09	Giancarlo Fisichella	Jordan-Peugeot	71	2	+ 1 lap	11	1: 19.225
10	Jarno Trulli	Cheers to Mugen Honda	70	2	+ 2 rounds	06th	1: 19.417
11	Ukyo Katayama	Minardi-Hart	70	3	+ 2 rounds	21st	1: 20.534
12	Damon Hill	Arrows-Yamaha	69	2	+ 3 rounds	17th	1: 20.434
-	Mika Salo	Tyrrell-Ford	61	2	DNF	19th	1: 20.385
-	Alexander Wurz	Benetton Renault	60	2	DNF	07th	1: 18.684
-	Pedro Diniz	Arrows-Yamaha	58	2	DNF	16	1: 20.557
-	Norberto Fontana	Clean Petronas	40	3	DNF	20th	1: 19.849
-	Rubens Barrichello	Stewart-Ford	36	1	DNF	13	1: 18.781
-	Jan Magnussen	Stewart-Ford	33	1	DNF	15th	1: 19.912
-	Mika Hakkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	18th	-	DNF	10	1: 20.153
-	Jos Verstappen	Tyrrell-Ford	15th	-	DNF	18th	1: 22.034
-	Shinji Nakano	Cheers to Mugen Honda	07th	-	DNF	12	1: 20.662
-	Tarso Marques	Minardi-Hart	05	-	DNF	22nd	1: 22.325

World Cup stands after the race

Driver ranking

Item driver constructor Points 01  Michael sSchumacher Ferrari 47 02  Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Renault 33 03  Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams-Renault 19th 04th  Eddie Irvine Ferrari 18th 05  Olivier Panis Cheers to Mugen Honda 15th 05  Jean Alesi Benetton Renault 15th 07th  David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 11 08th  Gerhard Berger Benetton Renault 10 08th  Mika Hakkinen McLaren-Mercedes 10 10  Giancarlo Fisichella Jordan-Peugeot 8th 11  Johnny Herbert Clean Petronas 7th 12  Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 6th 13  Ralf Schumacher Jordan-Peugeot 5 14th  Mika Salo Tyrrell-Ford 2

Item driver constructor Points 15th  Nicola Larini Clean Petronas 1 15th  Shinji Nakano Cheers to Mugen Honda 1 -  Alexander Wurz Benetton Renault 0 -  Jarno Trulli Cheers to Mugen Honda 0 -  Pedro Diniz Arrows-Yamaha 0 -  Jan Magnussen Stewart-Ford 0 -  Ukyō Katayama Minardi-Hart 0 -  Jos Verstappen Tyrrell-Ford 0 -  Damon Hill Arrows-Yamaha 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

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  Ferrari 65 02  Williams-Renault 52 03  Benetton Renault 25th 04th  McLaren-Mercedes 21st 05  Cheers to Mugen Honda 16 06th  Jordan-Peugeot 13

Item constructor Points 07th  Clean Petronas 8th 08th  Stewart-Ford 6th 09  Tyrrell-Ford 2 -  Minardi-Hart 0 -  Arrows-Yamaha 0 -  Lola Ford 0

Individual evidence

1. ↑ motorsportarchiv.de Overview France 1997 ( Memento from August 10, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
2. ^ Motorsportarchiv.de Friday training France 1997 ( Memento from March 23, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
3. ↑ motorsport-magazin.com Friday training France 1997
4. ↑ motorsport-magazin.com Saturday training France 1997
5. ↑ motorsport-magazin.com Qualifying France 1997
6. ↑ motorsport-magazin.com Warm-Up France 1997
7. ^ Motorsportarchiv.de Race France 1997 ( Memento from March 23, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
8. ^ Motorsport-magazin.com Race France 1997