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German GP Results:
Eddie Irvine wins the German Grand Prix ahead of temmate Mika Salo and Heinz Harald Frentzen, Ralph Schumacher, David Coulthard and Olivier Panis make the top 6.
A surprising result which saw Hakkinen crash midway through the race and Coulthard damaging his front wing. Mika Salo letting Irvine pass handed the Irvine the win and the lead in the drivers championship.
Race Start
Mika Salo gets a superb start while Frentzen and Irvine don't. Mika Hakkinen leads followed by Mika Salo, David Coulthard. Frentzen, Barrichello and Irvine make the top 6.
Pedro Diniz and Jacques Villeneuve touch and both go out on the first corner.
Barrichello passes Frentzen and starts catching Coulthard who was catching Salo.
Barrichello retires with hydraulic problems on lap 7 while Fisichella retires on the following lap with suspension problems.
David Coulthard attempts to pass Mika Salo
but touches the rear wheel of Salo and loses a part of his front win, he
pits to replace the front wing and rejoins in 11th.
Race Order: Hakkinen, Salo, Frentzen,
Irvine, Ralph Schumacher and Wurz.
Irvine manages to pass Frentzen in the pits while Hakkinen pits and loses valuable time while his pit crew struggle with his refuelling pump. He rejoins in 4th behind Frentzen but manages to pass him very quickly. A few moments later his left rear tyre disintegrates throwing the McLaren in a few spins before crashing into the tyre barrier.
Salo lets Irvine through handing him the lead, race order: Irvine, Salo, Frentzen, Ralph Schumacher, Coulthard, Herbert.
The race finishes with Irvine ahead of Salo followed by Frentzen, Ralph Schumacher, David Coulthard and Olivier Panis.
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German GP Qualifying:
Mika Hakkinen grabs his 8th pole position of the year only 5 hundredth of a second ahead of a very impressive Heinz-Harald Frentzen. David Coulthard was 3rd while Mika Salo was 4th outqualifying Eddie Irvine in 5th. Rubens Barrichello made the top 6.
Olivier Panis was 7th in a strong performance from the Prost while Damon Hill was 8th more than 1 second slower than his teammate Frentzen. Jarno Trulli was 9th and he could have done better but suffered 2 blown engines during the qualifying session. Gian Carlo Fisichella was the 10 and the fastest of the Supertec's followed by Ralph Schumacher, Jacques Villeneuve Alex Wurz and Alex Zanaradi. Marc Gene' in the Minardi was certainly impressive by Minardi's standards in 15th while it was a nightmare session for the Sauber team with Diniz 16th and Jean Alesi 21st !!, it was also a very dissapointing session for Johnny Herbert who was way back in 17th almost 1.5 seconds slower than his teammate Barrichello.
Hakkinen on pole was expected but Frentzen in 2nd place certainly wasn't, he outqualified a McLaren and the 2 Ferrari's which are superior cars. It is clear that Frentzen is a top driver and being at Jordan made him tick. Damon Hill on the other hand was again dissapointing being more than a second slower than his teammate. Mika Salo showing Irvine the way in his second ever appearance for Ferrari is a sign that Salo is an excellent driver. Whether he will be able to impress during the race is yet to be seen.
So will Hakkinen extend his lead in the champioship tomorrow or will Irvine manage to pull out something special and challenge Hakkinen or will we see a new World Championship contender in Frentzen ?
Looking forward to the race, stay tuned !!
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German GP Friday Practice:
A surprise Jarno Trulli clocks the fastest time during Friday's practice sessions ahead of Eddie Irvine and Gian Carlo Fisichella. Coulthard, Barrichello and Panis make the top 6.
So were did the Prosts and the Benettons get the speed on a circuit which relies heavily on engine power ? The only answer I have is that certainly some teams are not showing the true potential of their cars until qualifying. When Marc Gene in the Minardi is in 11th less than 0.1 seconds slower than Hakkinen, this certainly does not reflect the real situation !!.
Of the worst performances, Hakkinen was down in 10th, Villeneuve 14th, Alesi 16th and Frentzen way back in 17th position.
Surely the grid tomorrow will not even be close to this order, stay tuned !!
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Michael Schumacher Update
Willi Weber, Michael Schumacher's manager indicates that Schumacher's recovery is not as fast as they would like it. He indicated that they are hoping that Schumacher will return for the Malaysian Grand Prix in October. This was in sharp contrast to the comments made by Luca di Montezemo - President of Ferrari - a few hours earlier that Michael Schumacher will be returning to Grand Prix racing at the Italian GP on the 12th of September and that he will be conducting tests at the same track between the 1st and 4th of September.
Ferrari have announced that a loose screw in the rear brake system might have caused the failure of the rear brakes in Schumacher's car which then led to his crash. Michael Schumacher appeared to have locked both front wheels just before going onto the gravel trap and hitting the tyre barrier.
Ferrari have announced that Mika Salo will drive for Ferrari in place on the injured Michael Schumacher at the Austrian Grand Prix.
Michael Schumacher has successfully undergone surgery to his right leg. It is expected that he will be out of action between 6 to 8 weeks depending on his recovery. This means that he will miss the next 3 races (Austria, Germany and Hungary) and possibly Belgium.
This injury will make it almost impossible for Michael Schumacher to challenge for the title unless Mika Hakkinen suffers problems in the next few races and different drivers win different races. Both cases are unlikely and therefore Michael's chances appear to be very slim which is very unfrotunate for the sport.
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German GP Preview:
Only a week after the Austrian GP, the Formula 1 circus moves to Germany with only 2 points separating Mika Hakkinen and Eddie Irvine. So will Hakkinen manage to extend his lead here or will Irvine continue his dream run?
All the predictions point to a McLaren 1-2 as the McLaren will be far superior on this fast circuit than the Ferrari so provided that the McLaren does not break down and we have not seen that in the last few races, expect a McLaren 1-2. A challenge from Coulthard is very unlikely as he will no doubt try to make up for his actions in Austria when he caused his teammate Hakkinen to spin.
Eddie Irvine and Mika Salo will struggle in Germany as the Ferrari does not seem to be competitive on fast tracks. It would not be surprising if Stewart's Rubens Barrichello or Jordan's Heinz-Harald Frenzen manage to outqualify the Ferrari's. In addition, it will become clearer how Ferrari are very much dependant on Michael Schumacher in the setup and development of the car and with his absence it is only a matter of time when we will see them struggle.
Ralph Schumacher in the Williams is the other German hope here and expect him to do well and possibly another podium finish. Alex Zanardi on the other hand will not perform. Both Benetton's will struggle on this type of track but the car is very reliable and if enough top runners drop out, Fisichella or Wurz could finish in the points.
Sauber and Prost have not scored results yet and will be fighting with the Benetton's for a top 10 finish. This brings us to BAR who have not scored a single point to date and Jacques Villeneuve has yet to finish a race. If BAR do manage to get the reliability sorted out, they will be scoring points and challenging Williams but that is a big if.
Minardi and Arrows will be at the back
of the field racing among themselves.
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Austrian GP Results:
Eddie Irvine wins his second race of the season ahead of David Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen. Heinz Harald Frentzen, Alexander Wurz and Pedro Diniz make the top 6.
It was a very exciting race with a lot of overtaking manouvers but the 2 stars of the race were Eddie Irvine who managed to beat the McLaren's after starting from 3rd place and losing a place at the start to Barrichello and Mika Hakkinen who touched with his teammate David Coulthard on teh second corner of the first lap, spun and rejoined the race in last position. He made his way back to 3rd place. Dissapointing performance from David Coulthard who not only almost took his teammate out of the race but manage to give up more than a 7 second lead to Eddie Irvine and let him pass through the pit stops.
The race started with a few dramas, one of which was the Coulthard - Hakkinen clash were Hakkinen was leading and Coulthard touches him on the inside of the second corner causing Hakkinen to spin and rejoin last. As a result of this Mika Salo starting from 7th place hits the back of Herbert's car causing damage to the rea wing of Herbert's car and damages his front nose cone. This incident damages any chances for Salo to perform and he ends up at the tail end after changing his nose cone but never made an impression.
Race order after 10 laps: Coulthard, Barrichello, Irvine, Frentzen, Villeneuve, Ralph Schumacher.
Hakkinen was slicing his way thorugh the field from last and was up to 10th by the then.
A few teams had 2 stop strategies including the Sauber team but the top teams have all opted for a 1 stop which started around lap 30. Irvine was the last to pit on lap 44 meaning that he had less fuel to put in the car to finish. This enabled him to pass Coulthard and Barrichello via the pit stops although it was David Coulthard who didn't appear to push that hard to be able to pass Irvine when he pits.
Eddie Irvine rejoined 1.9 seconds ahead of David Coulthard and both had to pass a few backmarkers including Mika Salo in the other Ferrari. towards the last few lap, Coulthard finally made a serious attempt to cath and pass Eddie Irvine but with no sucess and he had to accept second position and more importantly hand a crucial 10 points to rivals Ferrari by touching with Mika Hakkinen on the first lap of the race.
This result has really closed up the championship with Hakkinen now only leading by 2 points from Eddie Irvine and Michael Schumacher who is on 32 points.
The next race in Hokenhiem is only a week away and it will be very interesting to see how the Ferrari will shape against the McLaren on the fast track of Hokenhiem.
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Austrian GP Qualifying:
Mika Hakkinen grabs pole position for the Austrian Gp ahead of teammate David Coulthard and Eddie Irvine. Frentzen, Barrichello and Herbert make the top 6.
McLaren appear to be in a league of their own as Coulthard is only 0.2 seconds slower than Hakkinen while 3rd place Eddie Irvine is more than 1 second slower than Hakkinen. The rest of the field are fairly close with another second separating the top 13.
Mika Salo in his debut for Ferrari qualified 7th followed by Ralph Schumacher and Jacques Villeneuve. Local hero Alexander Wurz wrapped up the top 10.
If the McLaren's reliability holds, we could see them lapping the entire field. It will be interesting to see who will finish 3rd to 6th as it seems that Ferrari are slipping back with the loss of Michael Schumacher and they will be challenged by Jordan, Stewart and perhaps even the Williams team.
Minardi's practice times yesterday were a bit of a false alarm as they didn't fair that much better today as Badoer qualified 19th and Gene 22nd.
We cannot compare qualifying times with last year as last year's session was a wet session.
So will Coulthard really challenge Mika tomorrow, will we see Eddie Irvine proving himself as a worthy chamionship contender and how will Mika Salo do in his first race for Ferrari ? stay tuned for all the results tomorrow
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Austrian GP Friday Practice:
An impressive Damon Hill clocks the fastest time in today's practice sessions ahead of Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard. Ricardo Zonta in a BAR was a surprise 4th followed by Jean Alesi and Ralph Schumacher.
Pedro Diniz was 7th followed by Jacques Villeneuve in 8th. Ferrari's Eddie Irvine was 9th and Mika Salo was 16th. The Stewart's of Ruben Barrichello and Johnny Herbert were 10th and 11th. Heinz Harald Frentzen was way back in 15th place while Benetton coninue there disastorous run with Fisichella in 18th and Wurz on his home circuit in 20th.
One of the biggest surprises for this session was the Minardi pair of Badoer and Jene', who were 13th and 14th respectively. The Minardi team have introduced a new aerodynamic package for this race.
Less than 0.5 seconds separates the top 7 and less than a second separtes the top 13 position. If this trend continues in the qualifying session tomorrow then we are set for a close race indeed.
Comparing with the times here last year, most of the teams have clocked faster times, the most increase was by Damon Hill compared to his time last year he was around 1.2 seconds faster. It appears that all the cars have improved except for Benetton and Prost who appear to have taken a backward step.
We will wait and see how close the qualifying will be ??
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Austrian GP Preview:
Michael Schumacher will be out for a while, perhaps until the end of the season. His replacement will be Mika Salo who is a good driver but will find it hard at the start to adapt to the Ferrari.
Mika Hakkinen is the clear favourite and he will certainly win th race if his wheel does not fly off !!. Expect an interesting fight between Coulthard and Irvine for 2nd place although they might take each other out !!. The Williams with Ralph Schumacher appears to be competitive so he could do well but don't expect Zanardi to as well !!
Frentzen and Barrichello are 2 other candidates
for a podium or at least a top 6 finish. Damon Hill's repeat of good form
in Austria is unlikely.
Benetton's Fisichella and Wurz are struglling
with the car and Jacques Villenueve is yet to finish a race in the BAR
!!
The Prost and the Sauber have yet to show potential for finishing in the top 6 competitively. Panis, Trulli and Alesi are very good drivers but the machinery they've got isn't as good.
We shall wait and see how things are going
to shape up for the second half of the season.
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Mika Salo gets familiar with the Ferrari and tests for almost 100 laps. His best time was just 1 second off the fastest time set by Eddie Irvine at Fiorano this year.
Meanwhile Eddie Irvine set the fastest time in testing at Monza today although it was slightly slower than Frentzen's record time set yesterday. Only 4 teams were testing today inlcuding Stewart, Sauber and Benneton. All the other teams have returned to their headquarters in preparation for next week's Austrian GP.
Michael Schumacher's manager Willi Weber has indicated that Michael Schumacher could be out for 12-16 weeks and that we could only see him in a racing car during the last 2 races of the season. He indicated that Schumacher will concentrate on getting 100% fit for the 2000 season and rather than take risks and comeback this season.
Mika Hakkinen indicated that it will be interesting to see how speedy Michael's recovery will be. Speaking from his own experience when he crashed and went into a comma, he siad that a full comeback is very hard and especially when you have a broken leg as the legs are hard worked during a race. He mentioned several drivers who suffered broken legs and failed to make an impression when they came back including Olivier Panis and Johnny Herbert.
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Most teams continued testing at Monza. On the 3rd day of testing, Frentzen topped the times with a 1.24.407 making it the fastest lap on this track this season. It is speculated that he was on a qualifying setup. Hakkinen and Coultard were close behind followed by Ralph Schumacher and Jacques Villeneuve who's BAR showed better form today !!. It was a dissapointing session for Eddie Irvine who only managed 9th behind both the BARs and the Benettons. It could mean that the Ferrari is not very suitable to the high speed circuits such as Monza but this is all testing.
On the the second day of testing with both Mclaren's topped the times (Hakkinen and Coulthard) followed by Alesi, Irvine, Fisichella and Ralph Schumacher. Hakkinen's best time was 1.25.593 while the lap record for this year at this circuit was set by Ralph Schumacher who clocked a 1.24.540 on the 4th of June.
Mika Salo starts familiarising himself with the Ferrari at the Fiorano circuit. Today he did over a 100 laps with a bes time of 103.423. The lap record for this year at this circuit was set by Eddie Irvine who clocked a 1.01.219 on the 3rd of June.
Damon Hill annouces that he will continue racing with the Jordan team until the end of the season reversing the decision he made earlier about retiring after Silverstone. This was mainly due to a strong performance at the British GP.
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Michael Schumacher Update
Ferrari have announced that a loose screw in the rear brake system might have caused the failure of the rear brakes in Schumacher's car which then led to his crash. Michael Schumacher appeared to have locked both front wheels just before going onto the gravel trap and hitting the tyre barrier.
Ferrari have announced that Mika Salo will drive for Ferrari in place on the injured Michael Schumacher at the Austrian Grand Prix.
Michael Schumacher has successfully undergone surgery to his right leg. It is expected that he will be out of action between 6 to 8 weeks depending on his recovery. This means that he will miss the next 3 races (Austria, Germany and Hungary) and possibly Belgium.
This injury will make it almost impossible for Michael Schumacher to challenge for the title unless Mika Hakkinen suffers problems in the next few races and different drivers win different races. Both cases are unlikely and therefore Michael's chances appear to be very slim which is very unfrotunate for the sport.
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British Grand Prix - Race Results
David Coulthard wins the British Grand Prix ahead of Eddie Irvine and an impressive Ralph Schumacher. Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Damon Hill and Pedro Diniz make the top 6.
Race Start:
Michael Schumacher gets a bad start and loses 2 places to Coulthard and Irvine while Hakkinen leads. With 2 cars stalled on the left side of the grid, the race is stopped, during that time Michael Schumacher attempts to overtake Irvine but loses grip and goes straight into the tyre barrier. It was a massive head on shunt and Michael Schumacher was injured with a broken leg.
Race Restart:
Hakkinen gets a good start so does Irvine
who manages to pass Coulthard. Ralph Schumacher also gets a great start
and manages to get to 5th place. Top 6 positions: Hakkinen, Irvine, Coulthard,
Frentzen, Ralph Schumacher and Damon Hill.
Pedro de la Rosa stalls on the right hand
side of the track and the saftey car came in and spent 1 lap on the track.
When the saftey car exited the race order remained the same.
The race order for the top 6 remains the same until the first pit stops when Mika Hakkinen gets a problem with his left wheel which forces him to pit twice and lose valuable time which resulted in dropping him to 15th position. Meanwhile Coulthard takes the lead by passing Irvine in the pits followed by Ralph Schumacher, Frentzen, Hill and Barrichello.
A few laps later Hakkinen loses the left wheel but amazingly manages to bring the car into the pits, they fit a new wheel and he gets back but a lap down. Jacques Villeneuve's gearbox fails and he stops on the right hand side of the track forcing the saftey car yet again. When the saftey car goes out the race order was: Coulthard, Irvine Ralph Schumacher, Frentzen, Barrichello and Hill.
The race order remains the same apart from Barrichello getting into the pits and losing 5th position.
So with both Hakkinen and Michael Schumacher out of the race, Eddie Irvine is now equal 2nd with Michael Schumacher 8 points behind Hakkinen. Michael Schumacher will probably miss the next few races which means that Irvine will have to take the fight to Hakkinen in the next few races. And while it is sad that Michael Schumacher will miss a few races which probably means that his world championship hopes will be very slim, it will certainly be interesting to see how Irvine fights Hakkinen and Coulthard.
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British Grand Prix - Qualifying
Mika Hakkinen grabs his 6th pole position of the season ahead of Michael Schumacher and David Coulthard. Eddie Irvine, Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Damon Hill make the top 6.
Mika Hakkinen didn't appear to be threatened by anyone as he grabbed provsional pole position from his first run and kept it. Michael Schumacer is 0.419 slower while David Coulthard was 0.790 seconds slower than Hakkinen.
Eddie Irvine was 4th and didn't perform as expected as he struggled early in the session but managed to better his time towards the end of the session. The Jordan pair were 5th and 6th with a Frentzen ahead of Damon Hill who is participating in his last Grand Prix. Rubens Barrichello was 7th while Ralph Schumacher was the best of the Supertec runners in 8th followed by Jacques Villeneuve in 9th.
Benetton were dissapointing and even worse than expected with Fisichella and Wurz in 17th and 18th respectively.
It seems that McLaren have a clear edge over Ferrari on this kind of circuit despite the fact that Ferrari are using the new engine which helped them grab Pole position in Canada.
1 second seperates the top 4 drivers while 2 seconds separate the top 10. It will be an interesting race between Hakkinen and Michael Schumacher and it will be interesting to see how Damon Hill will do in his last race.
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British Grand Prix - Friday Practice
Mika Hakkinen sets the fastest time in today's practice sessions ahead of Ralph Schumacher and Eddie Irvine. David Coulthard, Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher make the top 6.
While the order is not as strange as the
French qualifying session 2 weeks ago, there are certainly a few surprises.
Ralph Schumacher in the Williams qualifying 2nd ahead of the 2 Ferrari's
and Coulthard's McLaren is certainly impressive given the fact that the
Supertec engine is underpowered. Michael Schumacher's 6th position is certainly
dissapointing especially that he is behind his teammate Eddie Irvine by
more than 0.25 seconds.
Beyond the top 6, there is Damon Hill
racing in his last Grand Prix in 7th and a surpirse Pedro Diniz is in 8th
place. Jacques Villeneuve is in 9th and Alex Zanardi in 10th position more
than a full second slower than his teammate Ralph Schumacher.
Heinz-Harald Frentzen winner of the last
Grand Prix only managed 14th while both Benetton drivers are struggling
as expected as the Benetton chasis appears to be more suited to slower
speed circuits !!
Johnny Herbert was also dissapointing
running 18th while his teammate Rubens Barrichello was 5th. Finally Luca
Badoer in a Minardi who is usually 21st or 22nd was 17th ahead of his teammate,
a Stewart and a Prost !!
Surely this will not be how the grid will be formed tomorrow but one thing is for sure that the cars are closer on this circuit with 1 second separating the top 9. It will certainly be an interesting qualifying session.
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British Grand Prix Preview
It will be very hard for the British GP to match the excitement of the French GP but who knows ??
Once again, Mika Hakkinen and Michael Schumacher are both favourites, Schumacher won last year in the wet and in controversy. Hakkinen led most of the way until he spun in the wet and lost valuable time. The circuit does appear to suit McLaren better but last week's testing showed both Ferrari and McLaren close with Michael Schumacher topping the times on 2 of the 4 days. Providing reliability holds on both cars, it will be hard to pick the winner but Hakkinen should have an edge.
David Coulthard again retired in France and if not officially, he must have conceded that his championship hopes are over so expect Coulthard to start providing support for Hakkinen. This could mean a second, third or fourth place !!
Eddie Irvine has to support Michael Schumacher so he will certainly finish behind him unless Schumacher fails or gets into major problems. A second, third or fourth place are all possible.
Heinz-Harald Frentzen won the last race but it will be very hard to imaging that he'll win again ahead of the Ferrari's and the McLaren's . Expect a strong showing from him. Damon Hill will be driving his last race of his career so expect him to also be hot and perhaps doing something special.
Rubens Barrichello's grabbed pole position in France in wet conditions and he has set the fastest time on one of the 4 testing days last week. He could challenge the top teams but he will most probably finish behind them in the points.
Gian Carlo Fisichella and Alexander Wurz at Benetton will struggle at this circuit as they have appeared to struggle on faster circuits. the car is very reliable and if a lot of drivers at the front drop, expect either to finish in the points although it seems that Fisichella has the edge over Wurz.
Jacques Villeneuve in the BAR is also driving a car that appears to behave the exact opposite to the Benetton. Expect a strong qualifying session and if reliability holds, he will finish in the points (5th or 6th).
Other drivers with a potential to do well are Ralph Schumacher, Jean Alesi and Jarno Ttrulli. They had good test times last week.
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Michael Schumacher, Mika Hakkinen and Rubens Barrichello clocked the fastest times at Silverstone over the last 4 days. It appears that the McLarens are still dominant, Ferrari appeared to have closed the gap although they tested with the new more powerful engine. No decision has been made yet on using those engines for the race. Stewart have done some improvements and are lloking good. Jordan was also up there with Frentzen and Hill posting good times. Of the Supertec runners, once again Jacques Villeneuve, Ralph Schumacher and Gian Carlo Fisichella were the fastest Supertec runners.
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French Grand Prix - Race Results
Heinz-Harald Frentzen wins his second ever race ahead of Mika Hakkinen and Rubens Barrichello in what would be considered to be one of the most exciting races we have seen this decade. With dry and wet conditions and so many overtaking manouvers under both wet and dry conditions and several drivers taking the lead. In addition to the crucial pit stop strategies which won the race for Frentzen and Jordan.
Race Start:
Barrichello makes a good start as well as Alesi, Coulthard manages to pass Panis and Frentzen and Michael Schumacher retain their positions. Mika Hakkinen starting from 14th manages to get up to 10th place in the first lap and starts closing up on the leaders.
Coulthard manages to pass Alesi and Barrichello and starts pulling a lead over Barrichello. nfortunately for Coulthard, he retires a few laps later with mechanical problems.
Mika Hakkinen meanwhile drives superbly and manages to move all the way up to 2nd place behind Barrichello overtaking both Prosts, Michael Schumacher, Frentzen and Alesi.
Race order: Barrichello, Hakkinen, Alesi, Frentzen, Michael Schumacher, Panis
Then it rains heavily and everyone pits for wet tyres, several cars spin out and the saftey car comes in. It stays for a few laps and on lap 35 the saftey car goes out with Barrichello leading Hakkinen then Frentzen then Michael Schumacher. Michael Schumacher manages to pass Frentzen but Hakkinen attempting to pass Barrichello spins and drops back to 7th place.
Schumacher manages to catch and pass Barrichello and starts increasing his lead. A few laps later he slows down and the gap to Barrichello goes down to less than a second. Schumacher pits and changes his steering wheel costing him a long pit stop and rejoins in 6th position. He does not improve his lap times and it seems that he had an intermittent problem with his gear selector.
With Barrichello again in the lead and Frentzen behind, Hakkinen makes a charge and catches and passes Frentzen and then passes Barrichello and regains the lead.
Race order: Hakkinen, Barrichello, Frentzen, Michael Schumacher, Ralph Schumacher and Eddie Irvine
With less than 10 laps to go both Hakkinen and Barrichello pit for tyre change giving the lead back to Frentzen who does not make a second stop. Michael Schumacher struggling with his car finally gives way to a charging Ralph Schumacher and lets him through. Eddie Irvine on the other hand clearly faster than Michael Schumacher stays behind as he is not allowed to pass (contractually that is !!)
With a few laps to go, Frentzen appeared to increase the gap on Hakkinen. Barrichello was third ahead of Ralph Schumacher and the 2 Ferrari's.
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French Grand Prix - Qualifying
Rubens Barrichello grabs his second ever
Pole position under wet conditions for the French GP ahead of Jean Alesi
and Olivier Panis. These three drivers are considered "rain masters".
Only Barrichello and Alesi clocked under
the 1:40, in fact Barrichello was almost 2 seconds faster than 3rd placed
driver, Olivier Panis !!
David Coulthard, Heinz-Harald Frentzen
and Michael Schumacher make the top 6.
The qualifying session was a full wet session with no interruptions. Barrichello, Alesi and Panis took a gamble and did a few laps very early into the session and the gamble worked in their favour as no one else managed a better time. Almost all other drivers came out with less than 30 minutes to go as it became clear that the rain will not ease.
The grid looks very scrambled and it will be a very interesting race with the fast cars stuck behind the slower ones, that is assuming a dry race tomorrow.
Hakkinen had a bad qualifying session only managing 14th on his last lap, Irvine was 17th and Hill was 18th. It is interesting that even though wet weather puts more emphasis on driver skills than car performance, both the Minardi's and the Arrows were the last 4 cars all outside the 107% rule.
In fact only 17 drivers managed to clock a time that is within 107% of Barrichello's time, the last being Eddie Irvine in 17th place. All drivers clocking a time over 107% of the pole time are not allowed to race however considering the extreme wet conditions, it is expected that all drivers will be allowed to race tomorrow.
Tomorrow's race will be one to remember
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French Grand Prix - Friday Practice
Michael Schumacher sets the fastest time in today's practice sessions ahead of Eddie Irvine and Mika Hakkinen. David Coulthard, Alex Zanardi and Heinz-Harald Frentzen make the top 6.
Michael Schumacher was the only driver to clock a time under 1:18 despite the fact that neither him nor Eddie Irvine actually participated in the first session to save tyres. Both McLarens did very few laps on the first session as well as the teams have adequate data following last week's testing here in France.
The times of today will not tell us much about how the grid will look after qualifying. One of the top 4 ( Schumacher, Irvine, Hakkinen and Coulthard) will certainly be on pole but it is really hard to pick who will be ?, the other 3 will take the next 3 places and from then on it will be very hard to predict.
Zanardi is certainly a surprise up there in 5th but we don't really know how much fuel he has. Alesi was strong in 7th place while both BAR's were dissapointing with Villeneuve in 14th and Zonta in 19th. Prost didn't do any better with Trulli and Panis in 15th and 16th despite the home advantage they have.
Comparing the times with last year at France, all drivers clocked slower times but closest to the mark was Barrichello who clocked a time .2 seconds slower than last year and Michael Schumacher who clocked a time .5 seconds slower than last year. Hakkinen on the other hand clocked a time that was more than 1.5 seconds slower than his time last year !!
We will have to just wait and see what happens tomorrow ??
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French Grand Prix Preview
While Mika Hakkinen leads the series, it appears that Ferrari are starting to match the McLarens. In Canada, we have seen the first Pole position for Michael Schumacher and Ferrari this season, they achieved it using a new engine that will only be used for qualifying at least until Germany so another pole position for Michael is a big possibility at France and with the data coming back from testing last week at Magny-Cours, it seems that Eddie Irvine could well secure that pole position.
Eddie Irvine was more than a second faster than anyone else during testing at Magny-Cours, closest to him was Coulthard but Michael Schumacher and Mika Hakkinen were not even close !!.
It is really hard to predict what the teams do during these testing sessions, usually 1 car will be testing new parts and the other will be looking for a good race and qualifying setup, even then a slight change in weather conditions makes a lot of difference.
So what is the verdict;
Mika Hakkinen and Michael Schumacher are both favourites, Schumacher won here last year after an aborted start, Irvine held Hakkinen enough to give Schumacher the win. This time, Schumacher could well be on pole but the McLaren will probably be faster in race trim and the pits could decide the result.
David Coulthard must now start realising that his championship hopes are really very slim and that he needs to start helping Hakkinen as Irvine helps Schumacher. He could finish second or third unless he tries some hopeless overtaking manouveres which could cost him valuable points.
Eddie Irvine is on fire and once again he will be wanting to prove how good he is. He could grab pole and stay in the lead until he gets a call to let Schumacher pass. He too could finish second or third.
Heinz-Harald Frentzen after a spectacular crash in Canada it is doubtful that he will impress in France but he might and a points finish is a possibility. Damon Hill on the other side could do better as he has announced his retirement at the end of the season so the pressure is off !!.
Rubens Barrichello's should do better than in Canada, the pace of the Stewart is still a bit off the McLarens and the Ferraris but it is probably the best of the rest provided it is reliable. A strong result is very possible.
Gian Carlo Fisichella and Alexander Wurz are both good but they drive an unpredictable car, but it is very reliable. If a lot of drivers at the front drop, expect either to finish in the points although it seems that Fisichella has the edge over Wurz.
Jacques Villeneuve in the BAR is also driving an unpredictable car, in Canada they qualified terribly but they could bounce back in France. Expect Villeneuve to finally finish the race in the BAR and if that happens it will probably be in the points.
Other drivers with a potential to do well are Ralph Schumacher and Jean Alesi, both had good test times last week.
Stay tuned for all the times and results here.