1998 Japanese Grand Prix

 1998 Japanese Grand Prix

Racing data
16th of 16 races in the 1998 Formula 1 World Championship
Surname:	XXIV Fuji Television Japanese GrandPrix
Date:	November 1, 1998
Place:	Suzuka
Course:	Suzuka International Racing Course
Length:	299.064 km in 51 laps of 5.864 km
Planned:	310.792 km in 53 laps of 5.864 km
Weather:	cloudy and dry
Spectator:	~ 140,000
Pole position
Driver:	Michael sSchumacher	Ferrari
Time:	1: 36.293 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Michael sSchumacher	Ferrari
Time:	1: 40.190 min (lap 19)
Podium
First:	Mika Hakkinen	McLaren-Mercedes
Second:	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari
Third:	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes

The 1998 Japanese Grand Prix (officially XXIV Fuji Television Japanese GrandPrix ) took place on November 1st at the Suzuka International Racing Course in Suzuka and was the 16th race of the 1998 Formula 1 World Championship . Mika Häkkinen won the race ahead of Eddie Irvine and David Coulthard .

report

background

In the four-week break between the race weekends, many teams had tested their cars for the finale. Ferrari tested on its own test track in Mugello, McLaren, Benetton and Prost in Barcelona. In Silverstone, Arrows, Stewart, Jordan and the 1999 team BAR tested. Rosset was affected that weekend in Japan by an injury sustained at the amusement park adjacent to the racetrack. The 1998 Japanese Grand Prix was the final race for tire manufacturer Goodyear. As of 1999, the tires for all teams came from Bridgestone. During the training and qualifying sessions, Prost used a modified version of the previous emergency vehicle, the Prost AP01B .

training

Friday training

In contrast to the previous race weekends, Michael Schumacher achieved the fastest lap time of 1: 39.823 minutes, half a second ahead of his brother Ralf. Behind the Schumacher duo followed Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Eddie Irvine, Mika Häkkinen, eight tenths behind, and David Coulthard. All drivers were placed within about six and a half seconds.

Saturday training

As on the day before, Michael Schumacher was the fastest driver, followed by the McLaren team with David Coulthard in front of Mika Häkkinen, Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Jacques Villeneuve and Ralf Schumacher. The second Ferrari driver, Eddie Irvine, set the ninth fastest time, around two seconds behind. All drivers were placed within about four and a half seconds.

Qualifying

Michael Schumacher took pole position with a lead of a little less than two tenths of a second, ahead of Mika Häkkinen, followed by David Coulthard, Eddie Irvine, Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Jacques Villeneuve, more than a second behind. While trying to set a new fast lap, Häkkinen got off the track in the Degner corner. Ricardo Rosset failed by about two tenths of the 107 percent time limit. All qualified drivers were within about six seconds; Esteban Tuero beat the time limit by a little less than seven tenths.

Warm-up

With a time of 1: 40.431 minutes, Michael Schumacher set the fastest time in every official session, followed in the warm-up by David Coulthard, Mika Häkkinen, Ralf Schumacher, Eddie Irvine and Heinz-Harald Frentzen. Trulli had an accident with the new Prost AP01B, after which the car could not be used for the race. All drivers were placed within five and a half seconds.

run

The first start was canceled after Jarno Trulli's car could not start in 14th position. On the second attempt to start, Michael Schumacher's engine died in pole position. Therefore Schumacher had to start the race from the end of the field.

At the start, Häkkinen held the lead; behind him Irvine passed Coulthard. While Häkkinen was able to break away from Irvine, Michael Schumacher started a race to catch up. By the end of the first lap he had reached position twelve and by lap four place seven; In front of him lay the two former world champions Hill and Villeneuve. Both stopped Schumacher for several laps, which cost him around thirty seconds compared to the leader Häkkinen. On the 28th lap, Tuero drove into Takagi's rear in the last corner. Michael Schumacher drove right through the scattered parts of the accident, who then suffered a creeping tire damage. Three laps later it tore his right rear tire, which meant the failure for Schumacher and the win of the world title for Häkkinen. With the victory and third place for Coulthard in Japan, McLaren also won the constructors' championship.

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	Jos Verstappen
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	Michael sSchumacher	Ferrari	1: 36.293	01
02	Mika Hakkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	1: 36.471	02
03	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	1: 37.496	03
04th	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari	1: 38.197	04th
05	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Williams Mecachrome	1: 38.272	05
06th	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams Mecachrome	1: 38.448	06th
07th	Ralf Schumacher	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	1: 38.461	07th
08th	Damon Hill	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	1: 38.603	08th
09	Alexander Wurz	Benetton Playlife	1: 38.959	09
10	Giancarlo Fisichella	Benetton Playlife	1: 39.080	10
11	Johnny Herbert	Clean Petronas	1: 39.234	11
12	Jean Alesi	Clean Petronas	1: 39.448	12
13	Olivier Panis	Cheers Peugeot	1: 40.037	13
14th	Jarno Trulli	Cheers Peugeot	1: 40.111	14th
15th	Mika Salo	Arrows	1: 40.387	15th
16	Rubens Barrichello	Stewart-Ford	1: 40.502	16
17th	Toranosuke Takagi	Tyrrell-Ford	1: 40.619	17th
18th	Pedro Diniz	Arrows	1: 40.687	18th
19th	Jos Verstappen	Stewart-Ford	1: 40.943	19th
20th	Shinji Nakano	Minardi-Ford	1: 41.315	20th
21st	Esteban Tuero	Minardi-Ford	1: 42.358	21st
107 percent time : 1: 43.033 min (based on the best time of 1: 36.293 min)
DNQ	Ricardo Rosset	Tyrrell-Ford	1: 43.259	22nd

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap
01	Mika Hakkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	51	2	1: 27: 22.535	02	1: 40.426
02	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari	51	3	+ 6.491	04th	1: 40.870
03	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	51	2	+ 27.662	03	1: 40.905
04th	Damon Hill	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	51	2	+1: 13.491	08th	1: 42.275
05	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Williams Mecachrome	51	2	+1: 13.857	05	1: 42.331
06th	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams Mecachrome	51	2	+1: 15.867	06th	1: 42.273
07th	Jean Alesi	Clean Petronas	51	2	+1: 36.053	12	1: 42.357
08th	Giancarlo Fisichella	Benetton Playlife	51	2	+1: 41.302	10	1: 42.336
09	Alexander Wurz	Benetton Playlife	50	2	+ 1 lap	09	1: 43.447
10	Johnny Herbert	Clean Petronas	50	2	+ 1 lap	11	1: 42.858
11	Olivier Panis	Cheers Peugeot	50	2	+ 1 lap	13	1: 43.073
12	Jarno Trulli	Cheers Peugeot	48	2	DNF	14th	1: 43.164
-	Shinji Nakano	Minardi-Ford	40	2	DNF	20th	1: 44.158
-	Michael sSchumacher	Ferrari	31	1	DNF	01	1: 40.190
-	Toranosuke Takagi	Tyrrell-Ford	28	2	DNF	17th	1: 45.673
-	Esteban Tuero	Minardi-Ford	28	1	DNF	21st	1: 45.792
-	Rubens Barrichello	Stewart-Ford	25th	2	DNF	16	1: 44.947
-	Jos Verstappen	Stewart-Ford	21st	1	DNF	19th	1: 45.840
-	Mika Salo	Arrows	14th	-	DNF	15th	1: 45.304
-	Ralf Schumacher	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	13	-	DNF	07th	1: 42.965
-	Pedro Diniz	Arrows	02	-	DNF	18th	-
-	Ricardo Rosset	Tyrrell-Ford	-	-	DNQ	-	-

World Cup stands after the race

Driver ranking

Item driver constructor Points 01  Mika Hakkinen McLaren-Mercedes 100 02  Michael sSchumacher Ferrari 86 03  David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 56 04th  Eddie Irvine Ferrari 47 05  Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Renault 21st 06th  Damon Hill Jordan-Mugen-Honda 20th 07th  Alexander Wurz Benetton Playlife 17th 07th  Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams Mecachrome 17th 09  Giancarlo Fisichella Benetton Playlife 16 10  Ralf Schumacher Jordan-Mugen-Honda 14th 11  Jean Alesi Clean Petronas 9 12  Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 4th

Item driver constructor Points 13  Mika Salo Arrows 3 13  Pedro Diniz Arrows 3 15th  Johnny Herbert Clean Petronas 1 15th  Jan Magnussen Stewart-Ford 1 15th  Jarno Trulli Cheers Peugeot 1 -  Olivier Panis Cheers Peugeot 0 -  Ricardo Rosset Tyrrell-Ford 0 -  Esteban Tuero Minardi-Ford 0 -  Shinji Nakano Minardi-Ford 0 -  Toranosuke Takagi Tyrrell-Ford 0 -  Jos Verstappen Stewart-Ford 0

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  McLaren-Mercedes 156 02  Ferrari 133 03  Williams Mecachrome 38 04th  Jordan-Mugen-Honda 34 05  Benetton Playlife 33 06th  Clean Petronas 10

Item constructor Points 07th  Arrows 6th 08th  Stewart-Ford 5 09  Cheers Peugeot 1 -  Tyrrell-Ford 0 -  Minardi-Ford 0

Individual evidence

1. ^ Motorsportarchiv.de Friday training Japan 1998 ( Memento from April 27, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ motorsport-magazin.com Friday training Japan 1998
3. ↑ motorsportarchiv.de Saturday training Japan 1998 ( Memento from May 11, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
4. ↑ motorsport-magazin.com Saturday training Japan 1998
5. ↑ motorsport-magazin.com Qualifying Japan 1998
6. ↑ motorsportarchiv.de Warm-Up Japan 1998 ( Memento from May 11, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
7. ↑ motorsport-magazin.com Warm-Up Japan 1998
8. ^ Motorsportarchiv.de Race Japan 1998 ( Memento from October 31, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
9. ↑ motorsport-magazin.com Race Japan 1998