1999 French Grand Prix
| Racing data | ||
|---|---|---|
| 7th of 16 races in the 1999 Formula 1 World Championship | ||
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| Surname: | LXXXV Mobil 1 Grand Prix de France | |
| Date: | June 27, 1999 | |
| Place: | Magny-Cours | |
| Course: | Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours | |
| Length: | 306 km in 72 laps of 4.25 km
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| Weather: | partial rain showers | |
| Spectator: | ~ 106,942 | |
| Pole position | ||
| Driver: |
 Rubens Barrichello
|
 Stewart-Ford
|
| Time: | 1: 38.441 min | |
| Fastest lap | ||
| Driver: |
David Coulthard
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McLaren-Mercedes
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| Time: | 1: 19.227 min (lap 8) | |
| Podium | ||
| First: |
 Heinz-Harald Frentzen
|
 Jordan-Mugen-Honda
|
| Second: |
 Mika Hakkinen
|
McLaren-Mercedes
|
| Third: |
Rubens Barrichello
|
Stewart-Ford
|
|
Leadership laps
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The 1999 French Grand Prix (officially LXXXV Mobil 1 Grand Prix de France ) took place on June 27 at the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours in Magny-Cours and was the seventh race of the 1999 Formula 1 World Championship . Heinz-Harald Frentzen took first place ahead of Mika Häkkinen and Rubens Barrichello .
report
background
Before this race weekend, all teams had two test days in Magny-Cours. On the first day Coulthard was the fastest driver, on the second day Irvine. Williams made changes to the suspension of their cars, Minardi tested new aerodynamic attachments with Gastón Mazzacane, and Arrows did tests at the Santa Pod Raceway .
On June 16, the first day of testing in Magny-Cours, 1996 Formula 1 World Champion Damon Hill announced his retirement from Formula 1 at the end of the season. Hill cited the personal achievements and the number of many test drives as reasons for his retirement.
training
Friday training
This session took place under dry conditions with heavy cloud cover. Michael Schumacher set the fastest time with 1: 17.912 in front of his team-mate Irvine, followed by Häkkinen, Coulthard, Zanardi and Frentzen. The slowest driver, Marc Gené, was around four seconds behind the best time.
Saturday training
Rubens Barrichello set the fastest training time with 1: 17.232 ahead of the McLarens with Coulthard ahead of Häkkinen. Behind them are Ralf Schumacher, Irvine and Michael Schumacher. The slowest driver, Marc Gené, was around three and a half seconds behind the fastest time.
Qualifying
Rubens Barrichello surprisingly took pole position in the rain for the second time in his career, ahead of Alesi and Panis. The favorites Michael Schumacher and Häkkinen took sixth and 14th place, Irvine and Coulthard took 17th and fourth place. Towards the end of the session, Coulthard lost control of his car on a new fast lap and got stuck in the gravel. The slowest driver, Toranosuke Takagi, was around ten seconds behind the best time. With Hill, Gené, Badoer, de la Rosa and Takagi, five drivers were above the 107 percent time limit and would therefore not be allowed to take part in the race. However, since the training took place in the rain and all of the drivers named had shown in the training that they were competitive and not dangerous, they were allowed to race. However, the starting order of the last five was changed so that the fastest training time determined the places. This meant that the Arrows started before the Minardis, even though the Minardis were faster in regular qualifying.
Warm-up
For the first time on this race weekend a McLaren was in the lead, David Coulthard set the fastest time in the rain with 1: 32.091 ahead of Irvine, Michael Schumacher, Frentzen, Ralf Schumacher and in seventh place Häkkinen. The slowest driver, Marc Gené, was around seven seconds behind the fastest lap.
run
The race started in dry conditions. At the start Barrichello was able to defend the lead while the runner-up Alesi did not get away optimally and held up the rear drivers. After the start, Panis fell behind Coulthard, who also passed Alesi on lap two, while Häkkinen was able to catch up five places. At the start of the third lap, Barrichello was less than half a second ahead of Coulthard, followed by Alesi, Frentzen, Michael Schumacher, Panis and, already in seventh place, Häkkinen. Alexander Wurz was also able to make up three positions and was in tenth place. On lap four Häkkinen was able to overtake Panis by sixth place before turn five, while Coulthard was able to take the lead one lap later, also in turn five. In lap eight, Häkkinen started an attack on Michael Schumacher, but the German can defend himself for the time being. The first raindrops in the north of the route were now visible. The next lap, however, Häkkinen can pass inside and stay in front, as Schumacher had to back off due to the yellow flags due to Diniz's parked car. Meanwhile, the leader Coulthard rolled out due to a defective alternator and Barrichello was again in front of Alesi. On lap 14, Häkkinen pulled off the same maneuver as before with Schumacher and was able to work his way up to third. Exactly on lap 18, Häkkinen tried to pass Alesi. Alesi's brakes locked, but Häkkinen also braked and both could not reach the apex, but the Finn was able to stay in front and went straight to the chase after Barrichello, who was leading by 4.5 seconds.
On lap 21 a thunderstorm hit the track and it started to rain, Irvine was the first driver to open the pit stops. However, the pit stop was thwarted because the team was not ready and even unintentionally installed dry tires instead of rain tires at the beginning. After the chaos and the right set of tires, Irvine was released back onto the track after 42.9 seconds of standing. Hill was the next rider to pit, but a rim broke after hitting a wall. It started to rain very hard, Fisichella turned and the leading vehicles drove to the pits closed. Lying in third place, Alesi turned into the gravel and got stuck, whereupon the safety car was sent out onto the track. Despite the safety cars, Villeneuve, Wurz, Gené and Zanardi spun, all four drivers were unable to continue. Michael Schumacher, however, had problems with the helmet visor.
The race was released again on lap 35, there were no shifts in position in the front positions and Barrichello thus continued to lead ahead of Häkkinen, Frentzen, Michael Schumacher, Panis and Trulli. On lap 38, Häkkinen attempted a late attack in turn five, but he could not pass Barrichello and touched the curb, whereupon Häkkinen spun and fell back to seventh place. In the next lap, Michael Schumacher was able to take second place, also in turn five, from Frentzen. Now the Ferrari driver started the hunt for Barrichello and was able to maintain the lead for eight laps on lap 43 when Schumacher had problems with the electrics. On lap 54 Michael Schumacher changed the steering wheel as well as the tires and fell far behind. Meanwhile, Häkkinen took second place from Frentzen and took the lead on lap 57. With six laps to go, Häkkinen and Barrichello both had to make their second pit stop, while Heinz-Harald Frentzen's only pit stop was enough to finish the race and thus won the race ahead of Häkkinen and Barrichello. The trophy for Heinz-Harald Frentzen was presented by Michael Douglas . Team boss Eddie Jordan accepted the trophy for the victorious designer Jordan from Gérard Sauton , Vice President of Mobil 1 France .
After the race
Toranosuke Takagi was subsequently disqualified from the final result because he used tires that were intended for his team-mate Pedro de la Rosa. In a press release, Damon Hill hinted that this or the race at Silverstone could be his last Formula 1 race.
Registration list
classification
Qualifying
- Remarks
- ↑ a b c d e The five drivers outside the 107 percent time limit were all allowed to take part in the race, as their training times were considered “competitive”. However, the starting order was changed so that the fastest training time of the respective drivers decided on the order.
run
| Item | driver | constructor | Round | Stops | time | begin | Fastest lap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Heinz-Harald Frentzen
|
Jordan-Mugen-Honda
|
72 | 1 | 1: 58: 24.343 | 5 | 1: 20.994 |
| 2 |
Mika Hakkinen
|
McLaren-Mercedes
|
72 | 2 | + 11.092 | 14th | 1: 19.758 |
| 3 |
Rubens Barrichello
|
Stewart-Ford
|
72 | 2 | + 43.432 | 1 | 1: 20.878 |
| 4th |
Ralf Schumacher
|
Williams-Supertec
|
72 | 2 | + 45.475 | 16 | 1: 20.313 |
| 5 |
Michael sSchumacher
|
 Ferrari
|
72 | 2 | + 47.881 | 6th | 1: 21.014 |
| 6th |
Eddie Irvine
|
Ferrari
|
72 | 2 | + 48.901 | 17th | 1: 20.328 |
| 7th |
Jarno Trulli
|
 Cheers Peugeot
|
72 | 2 | + 57.771 | 8th | 1: 21.330 |
| 8th |
Olivier Panis
|
Cheers Peugeot
|
72 | 2 | + 58.531 | 3 | 1: 21.403 |
| 9 |
Ricardo Zonta
|
BAR-Supertec
|
72 | 2 | +1: 28.764 | 10 | 1: 20.881 |
| 10 |
Luca Badoer
|
Minardi-Ford
|
71 | 2 | + 1 lap | 21st | 1: 22,900 |
| 11 |
 Pedro de la Rosa
|
Arrows
|
71 | 2 | + 1 lap | 19th | 1: 22.535 |
| - |
Giancarlo Fisichella
|
Benetton Playlife
|
42 | 1 | DNF | 7th | 1: 21.423 |
| - |
Damon Hill
|
Jordan-Mugen-Honda
|
31 | 2 | DNF | 18th | 1: 22.021 |
| - |
Alessandro Zanardi
|
Williams-Supertec
|
26th | 1 | DNF | 15th | 1: 21.983 |
| - |
 Jacques Villeneuve
|
BAR-Supertec
|
25th | 2 | DNF | 12 | 1: 21.461 |
| - |
 Alexander Wurz
|
Benetton Playlife
|
25th | 1 | DNF | 13 | 1: 21.409 |
| - |
Marc Gené
|
Minardi-Ford
|
25th | 1 | DNF | 22nd | 1: 22.844 |
| - |
Jean Alesi
|
 Clean Petronas
|
24 | 1 | DNF | 2 | 1: 20.848 |
| - |
David Coulthard
|
McLaren-Mercedes
|
9 | - | DNF | 4th | 1: 19.227 |
| - |
Pedro Diniz
|
Clean Petronas
|
6th | - | DNF | 11 | 1: 22.629 |
| - |
Johnny Herbert
|
Stewart-Ford
|
4th | - | DNF | 9 | 1: 25.608 |
| DSQ |
 Toranosuke Takagi
|
Arrows
|
71 | 2 | DSQ (+ 1 lap) | 20th | 1: 22.664 |
- Remarks
- ↑ Toranosuke Takagi was disqualified because he was using tires that were reserved for Pedro de la Rosa.
World Cup stands after the race
The first six of the race got 10, 6, 4, 3, 2 and 1 point (s) respectively.
Driver ranking
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Constructors' championship
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Individual evidence
- ↑ motorsportarchiv.de Overview France 1999 ( Memento from May 22, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ motorsportarchiv.de Friday training France 1999 ( Memento from May 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ motorsport-magazin.com Friday training France 1999
- ↑ motorsport-magazin.com Saturday training France 1999
- ↑ motorsport-magazin.com Qualifying France 1999
- ↑ motorsport-magazin.com Warm-Up France 1999
- ^ Motorsportarchiv.de Race France 1999 ( Memento from May 19, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ motorsport-magazin.com Race France 1999
