1998 Spanish Grand Prix

 1998 Spanish Grand Prix

Racing data
5th of 16 races in the 1998 Formula 1 World Championship
Surname:	XL Gran Premio Marlboro de España
Date:	May 10, 1998
Place:	Montmeló
Course:	Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya
Length:	307.32 km in 65 laps of 4.728 km
Weather:	sunny and warm
Spectator:	~ 65,000
Pole position
Driver:	Mika Hakkinen	McLaren-Mercedes
Time:	1: 20.262 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Mika Hakkinen	McLaren-Mercedes
Time:	1: 24.275 min (lap 25)
Podium
First:	Mika Hakkinen	McLaren-Mercedes
Second:	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes
Third:	Michael sSchumacher	Ferrari

The 1998 Spanish Grand Prix (officially XL Gran Premio Marlboro de España ) took place on May 10th at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Montmeló and was the fifth race of the 1998 Formula 1 World Championship . Mika Häkkinen took first place ahead of David Coulthard and Michael Schumacher .

report

background

Ford brings an improved engine and Stewart an improved chassis for this race weekend, but only Barrichello can use both.

training

Friday training

With 1: 22.147, Häkkinen was around eight tenths faster than his second-placed team-mate Coulthard. Behind them are Herbert, Irvine, Michael Schumacher and Heinz-Harald Frentzen.

All drivers were placed within four and a half seconds.

Saturday training

Once again, Häkkinen was the fastest of the session ahead of Coulthard. This is followed by Fisichella, Wurz and Irvine.

All drivers were placed within five seconds.

Qualifying

For the third time, Häkkinen is on pole position in front of his teammate, who was eight tenths behind. Michael Schumacher follows in third place, around one and a half seconds behind, as do Fisichella, Wurz and Irvine.

All drivers were placed within five and a half seconds. Ricardo Rosset was unable to qualify for the race due to the 107 percent rule. It was only six hundredths over the allotted time, in the free practice sessions it only achieved times that were more than four or five seconds behind the daily best. This is the smallest distance so far that a driver could not qualify. Only Damon Hill was able to undercut this in qualifying for the 1999 French Grand Prix when he was only allowed to start by three thousandths. But he was still allowed to race due to an exception or previous training performance.

Warm-up

Driver parade

For the fourth time, Häkkinen was fastest, again eight tenths faster than his team-mate Coulthard. Fisichella, Panis and Schumacher follow behind.

All drivers were within five seconds, Rosset was not allowed to compete in the session because he was not qualified for the race.

run

Formation lap

Toranosuke Takagi on his way to 21st and last place on the grid as his teammate Ricardo Rosset could not qualify

The race was unspectacular and was dominated by both McLarens. Arrows driver Pedro Diniz had to start out of the pits because his car broke down due to a battery failure. At the start, the McLarens got off well and were able to extend their lead, while Michael Schumacher got off badly and fell back to fifth, directly behind his team-mates Irvine and Fisichella. Nothing will change in these positions until the first series of pit stops. On the first lap, Alesi and Frentzen collided with each other, but both were able to continue the race.

The unbelievable happened on lap 22, when the engines of both Arrows drivers went up while overtaking each other at the start-finish line. For this season, the Arrows team is purchasing an Arrows 3.0 V10 engine, which was developed and built by Hart Racing Engines , a company owned by team boss Tom Walkinshaw .

Irvine and Fisichella pitted at the same time. Irvine purposely blocked Fisichella to give Schumacher a head start. But after the pit stop, the constellation remained the same. On lap 28, Fisichella tried to pass Irvine on the outside, but failed: Fisichella hits Irvine and spins and Irvine off the track, where both got stuck in the gravel. After the race, an angry Fisichella said that after he got out he asked Irvine if he was an idiot . After the race, Fisichella was fined $ 7,500

This accident meant that the second Benetton driver, Alexander Wurz, inherited fourth place and Schumacher drove up to third place without a fight. Both were able to hold their positions until the end of the race.

Häkkinen was consistently faster than his team-mate Coulthard, who drove an exactly identical car to the Finn. In the last lap, Frentzen improved from eleventh to eighth. However , he inherited eighth place because the marshals mistakenly showed the Jarno Trulli driving in front of him the blue flag. The reason for the error was that the marshals assumed that a Ferrari was approaching the Prost driver. After the end, Trulli said he was very upset that he had to give up this great fight because of their (marshals, note) blindness .

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	Jan Magnussen
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	Mika Hakkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	1: 20.262	01
02	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	1: 20.996	02
03	Michael sSchumacher	Ferrari	1: 21.785	03
04th	Giancarlo Fisichella	Benetton Playlife	1: 21.894	04th
05	Alexander Wurz	Benetton Playlife	1: 21.965	05
06th	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari	1: 22.350	06th
07th	Johnny Herbert	Clean Petronas	1: 22.794	07th
08th	Damon Hill	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	1: 22.835	08th
09	Rubens Barrichello	Stewart-Ford	1: 22.860	09
10	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams Mecachrome	1: 22.885	10
11	Ralf Schumacher	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	1: 22.927	11
12	Olivier Panis	Cheers Peugeot	1: 22.963	12
13	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Williams Mecachrome	1: 23.197	13
14th	Jean Alesi	Clean Petronas	1: 23.327	14th
15th	Pedro Diniz	Arrows	1: 23.704	15th
16	Jarno Trulli	Cheers Peugeot	1: 23.748	16
17th	Mika Salo	Arrows	1: 23.887	17th
18th	Jan Magnussen	Stewart-Ford	1: 24.112	18th
19th	Esteban Tuero	Minardi-Ford	1: 24.265	19th
20th	Shinji Nakano	Minardi-Ford	1: 24.538	20th
21st	Toranosuke Takagi	Tyrrell-Ford	1: 24.722	21st
107 percent time : 1: 25,880 min (based on the best time of 1: 20.262 min)
DNQ	Ricardo Rosset	Tyrrell-Ford	1: 25.946	-

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap
01	Mika Hakkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	65	2	1: 33: 37.621	01	1: 24.275
02	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	65	2	+ 9.439	02	1: 24.778
03	Michael sSchumacher	Ferrari	65	3	+ 47.095	03	1: 24.625
04th	Alexander Wurz	Benetton Playlife	65	2	+1: 02.538	05	1: 25.343
05	Rubens Barrichello	Stewart-Ford	64	2	+ 1 lap	09	1: 26.532
06th	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams Mecachrome	64	2	+ 1 lap	10	1: 26.407
07th	Johnny Herbert	Clean Petronas	64	2	+ 1 lap	07th	1: 26.354
08th	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Williams Mecachrome	63	3	+ 2 rounds	13	1: 26.011
09	Jarno Trulli	Cheers Peugeot	63	2	+ 2 rounds	16	1: 26.394
10	Jean Alesi	Clean Petronas	63	2	+ 2 rounds	14th	1: 25.668
11	Ralf Schumacher	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	63	2	+ 2 rounds	11	1: 26.533
12	Jan Magnussen	Stewart-Ford	63	2	+ 2 rounds	18th	1: 27.203
13	Toranosuke Takagi	Tyrrell-Ford	63	2	+ 2 rounds	21st	1: 28.066
14th	Shinji Nakano	Minardi-Ford	63	2	+ 2 rounds	20th	1: 27.767
15th	Esteban Tuero	Minardi-Ford	63	3	+ 2 rounds	19th	1: 27.601
16	Olivier Panis	Cheers Peugeot	60	2	DNF	12	1: 26.502
-	Damon Hill	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	46	2	DNF	08th	1: 26.501
-	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari	28	1	DNF	06th	1: 25.778
-	Giancarlo Fisichella	Benetton Playlife	28	1	DNF	04th	1: 25.851
-	Mika Salo	Arrows	21st	-	DNF	17th	1: 27.767
-	Pedro Diniz	Arrows	20th	-	DNF	15th	1: 27.638
-	Ricardo Rosset	Tyrrell-Ford	0-	-	DNQ	0-	-

World Cup stands after the race

Driver ranking

Item driver constructor Points 01  Mika Hakkinen McLaren-Mercedes 36 02  David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 29 03  Michael sSchumacher Ferrari 24 04th  Eddie Irvine Ferrari 11 05  Alexander Wurz Benetton Playlife 9 06th  Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams Mecachrome 8th 07th  Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Renault 6th 08th  Jean Alesi Clean Petronas 3 09  Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 2 10  Johnny Herbert Clean Petronas 1 10  Giancarlo Fisichella Benetton Playlife 1

Item driver constructor Points -  Damon Hill Jordan-Mugen-Honda 0 -  Olivier Panis Cheers Peugeot 0 -  Jarno Trulli Cheers Peugeot 0 -  Ricardo Rosset Tyrrell-Ford 0 -  Mika Salo Arrows 0 -  Esteban Tuero Minardi-Ford 0 -  Shinji Nakano Minardi-Ford 0 -  Pedro Diniz Arrows 0 -  Ralf Schumacher Jordan-Mugen-Honda 0 -  Jan Magnussen Stewart-Ford 0 -  Toranosuke Takagi Tyrrell-Ford 0

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  McLaren-Mercedes 65 02  Ferrari 35 03  Williams Mecachrome 14th 04th  Benetton Playlife 10 05  Clean Petronas 4th 06th  Stewart-Ford 2

Item constructor Points -  Jordan-Mugen-Honda 0 -  Tyrrell-Ford 0 -  Cheers Peugeot 0 -  Arrows 0 -  Minardi-Ford 0

Individual evidence

1. ↑ motorsportarchiv.de Overview Spain 1998 ( Memento from December 3, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ ^{a b} atlasf2.autosport.com Häkkinen increases Championship lead (Spanish GP)
3. ↑ motorsportarchiv.de Friday training Spain 1998 ( Memento from September 2, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
4. ↑ motorsport-magazin.com Friday training Spain 1998
5. ↑ motorsportarchiv.de Saturday training Spain 1998 ( Memento from October 29, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
6. ↑ motorsport-magazin.com Saturday training Spain 1998
7. ^ Motorsportarchiv.de Qualifying Spain 1998 ( Memento from November 1, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
8. ↑ motorsport-magazin.com Qualifying Spain 1998
9. ↑ motorsportarchiv.de Warm-Up Spain 1998 ( Memento from November 7, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
10. ↑ motorsport-magazin.com Warm-Up Spain 1998
11. ^ Motorsportarchiv.de Race Spain 1998 ( Memento from October 31, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
12. ↑ motorsport-magazin.com Race Spain 1998

Web links

Commons : Spanish Grand Prix 1998  - collection of images, videos and audio files