1997 Japanese Grand Prix

1997 Japanese Grand Prix
Race 16 of 17 in the 1997 Formula One World Championship ←  Previous race Next race  →
Race details
Date	12 October 1997
Official name	XXIII Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix
Location	Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka, Mie, Japan
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	5.860 km (3.641 [1] miles)
Distance	53 laps, 310.596 [2] km (192.995 miles)
Weather	Sunny [3]
Attendance	317,000 [4]
Pole position
Driver	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams-Renault
Time	1:36.071 [5]
Fastest lap
Driver	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Williams-Renault
Time	1:38.942 on lap 48 [6]
Podium
First	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Second	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Williams-Renault
Third	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari
Lap leaders

The 1997 Japanese Grand Prix (officially known as the XXIII Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 12 October 1997 at the Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka. It was the 16th and penultimate race of the 1997 Formula One season. ^[3] The 53-lap race was won by Michael Schumacher for the Ferrari team after starting from second position. Heinz-Harald Frentzen finished second in a Williams, and Eddie Irvine third in the other Ferrari. ^[7] Irvine led much of the race before moving over to assist Schumacher's championship battle by blocking Drivers' Championship leader Jacques Villeneuve.

Villeneuve started on pole position in a Williams car. Before the race, it emerged that Villeneuve had been put to the back of the grid, for having ignored waved yellow flags on two consecutive laps during a practice session for the race. Williams appealed and Villeneuve started from the pole. He drove a conservative race to finish 5th, gaining two points. After the race, Williams withdrew their appeal, meaning he lost the two points he originally earned. ^{[8] [9]} Schumacher's win put him in front of Villeneuve in the championship on 78 points, with Villeneuve on 77 points. ^[3] However, as a result of Frentzen finishing second, Williams clinched the Constructors' Championship as Ferrari could not pass their points total with only one race remaining. ^[10] This race was the last for Gianni Morbidelli.

Report

Practice and qualifying

For each race in the 1997 Formula One season there were four practice sessions; two sessions on Friday and two sessions on Saturday morning. The practice sessions on Friday lasted an hour and the practice sessions on Saturday lasted 45 minutes. ^[11]

"I clearly saw the yellow flag. If they had been waved in a corner, I would have slowed down. But on a straight it was not necessary."

Jacques Villeneuve, commenting on not slowing down under a yellow flag zone during the first Saturday practice session. ^[5]

In the first practice session on Saturday morning, an incident occurred 30 minutes into the session. Jos Verstappen in a Tyrrell car pulled over to the side of the track with a fuel pick-up problem. The track marshals as a result waved yellow flags meaning that drivers must slow down at that part of the track. Despite the yellow flags, nine drivers, including Michael Schumacher and Jacques Villeneuve, never slowed down. Villeneuve in the process, set his fastest time of the session on that lap. ^[5]

Villeneuve set pole position with a time of 1:36.071, half a tenth faster than Schumacher, who was second in the Ferrari setting a time of 1:36.133. Schumacher's team-mate, Eddie Irvine, qualified third, four-tenths behind Villeneuve. McLaren driver Mika Häkkinen rounded out the top four, only three thousands of a second behind Irvine. The Benetton drivers were fifth and seventh; Gerhard Berger ahead of Jean Alesi. Heinz-Harald Frentzen in a Williams split the two in sixth, six-tenths behind Villeneuve. ^[5]

On the Thursday before practice, the local driver Ukyo Katayama announced his retirement from the category after the next race.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Time	Gap
1	3	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams-Renault	1:36.071
2	5	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	1:36.133	+0.062
3	6	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari	1:36.466	+0.395
4	9	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:36.469	+0.398
5	8	Gerhard Berger	Benetton-Renault	1:36.561	+0.490
6	4	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Williams-Renault	1:36.628	+0.557
7	7	Jean Alesi	Benetton-Renault	1:36.682	+0.611
8	16	Johnny Herbert	Sauber-Petronas	1:36.906	+0.835
9	12	Giancarlo Fisichella	Jordan-Peugeot	1:36.917	+0.846
10	14	Olivier Panis	Prost-Mugen-Honda	1:37.073	+1.002
11	10	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	1:37.095	+1.024
12	22	Rubens Barrichello	Stewart-Ford	1:37.343	+1.272
13	11	Ralf Schumacher	Jordan-Peugeot	1:37.443	+1.372
14	23	Jan Magnussen	Stewart-Ford	1:37.480	+1.409
15	15	Shinji Nakano	Prost-Mugen-Honda	1:37.588	+1.517
16	2	Pedro Diniz	Arrows-Yamaha	1:37.853	+1.782
17	1	Damon Hill	Arrows-Yamaha	1:38.022	+1.951
18	17	Gianni Morbidelli	Sauber-Petronas	1:38.556	+2.485
19	20	Ukyo Katayama	Minardi-Hart	1:38.983	+2.912
20	21	Tarso Marques	Minardi-Hart	1:39.678	+3.607
21	18	Jos Verstappen	Tyrrell-Ford	1:40.259	+4.188
22	19	Mika Salo	Tyrrell-Ford	1:40.529	+4.458
107% time: 1:42.796
Source: [12]

Race

At the start, Jacques Villeneuve dived to the right and blocked Michael Schumacher, keeping the lead. Behind the frontrunners, Mika Hakkinen passed Eddie Irvine for third. At the final of the first lap, the order was Villeneuve, Michael Schumacher, Hakkinen, Irvine, Frentzen and Berger. Running light on fuel, Irvine started an aggressive climbing of the grid, storming to the lead on lap 3. By lap 5, the Northern Irishman had built a gap of 8.9 seconds from Villeneuve, meanwhile the difference from the Canadian, in 2nd place, to Jean Alesi, in 6th, was less than two seconds. The first casualties were the Stewart duo, retiring with three laps of difference apart. Local heroes Ukyo Katayama and Shinji Nakano soon followed them.

After 13 laps, the drivers started to pit, as did Hakkinen and Berger. At the end of lap 15 Irvine pitted for the lead, 12.7 seconds from Villeneuve in 2nd place. The top-6 were formed then by Michael Schumacher, Frentzen, Johnny Herbert and Giancarlo Fisichella. Schumacher pitted just after his teammate and Villeneuve did the same at the end of lap 19. The Canadian exited the pits just in front of Schumacher, however, with warmer tires, the German stormed to the main straight, dived inside and passed Villeneuve for good. On lap 23, after all the frontrunners had pitted, the order was Irvine, Schumacher, Villeneuve, Frentzen, Hakkinen and Alesi.

The gap from the leader to the second was about 11 seconds on lap 22, but as part of Ferrari's strategy, Irvine soon started to lift his foot and in a couple of laps let Schumacher passed by him to the lead, immediately blocking and holding Villeneuve in third place. The strategy worked perfectly and Villeneuve anticipated his second pit to try to leave the traffic and undercut Irvine. This meant nothing to the Canadian, as he fell down to 6th place and never had the pace to challenge even a podium. After the second round of pits, the major change was in second place, as Frentzen, running heavier on fuel and spending more time on track, passed Irvine for 2nd place. By lap 38 the order was Schumacher, Frentzen (8.5 seconds behind), Irvine, Alesi, Hakkinen and Villeneuve (23 seconds from the leader).

Frentzen eventually charged back and reduced the gap to 5 seconds by lap 45, meanwhile Villeneuve passed Alesi for 5th. The scenario was showing a comfortable leading and eventual winning for Schumacher with 8 laps to go; however, with two laps remaining, the German stuck behind Damon Hill, who was about to be lapped. This meant the gap from him to Frentzen to reduce to one second on final stages, but Schumacher cleaned his way and keep the lead until the chequered flag. As Villeneuve had ended in 5th place, the Canadian initially secured the Championship lead by one point. With his disqualification from the race, he lost two points and the Championship lead to Schumacher, also by one point and one round to go.

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	5	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	53	1:29:48.446	2	10
2	4	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Williams-Renault	53	+1.378	6	6
3	6	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari	53	+26.384	3	4
4	9	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	53	+27.129	4	3
5	7	Jean Alesi	Benetton-Renault	53	+40.403	7	2
6	16	Johnny Herbert	Sauber-Petronas	53	+41.630	8	1
7	12	Giancarlo Fisichella	Jordan-Peugeot	53	+56.825	9
8	8	Gerhard Berger	Benetton-Renault	53	+1:00.429	5
9	11	Ralf Schumacher	Jordan-Peugeot	53	+1:22.036	13
10	10	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	52	Engine	11
11	1	Damon Hill	Arrows-Yamaha	52	+1 lap	17
12	2	Pedro Diniz	Arrows-Yamaha	52	+1 lap	16
13	18	Jos Verstappen	Tyrrell-Ford	52	+1 lap	21
Ret	21	Tarso Marques	Minardi-Hart	46	Gearbox	20
Ret	19	Mika Salo	Tyrrell-Ford	46	Engine	22
Ret	14	Olivier Panis	Prost-Mugen-Honda	36	Engine	10
Ret	15	Shinji Nakano	Prost-Mugen-Honda	22	Wheel bearing	15
Ret	20	Ukyo Katayama	Minardi-Hart	8	Engine	19
Ret	22	Rubens Barrichello	Stewart-Ford	6	Spun off	12
Ret	23	Jan Magnussen	Stewart-Ford	3	Spun off	14
DSQ	3	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams-Renault	53	Ignored yellow flags during practice	1
DNS	17	Gianni Morbidelli	Sauber-Petronas	0	Injury	18
Source: [7]

Championship standings after the race

Note, only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Michael Schumacher 78 2 Jacques Villeneuve 77 3 Heinz-Harald Frentzen 41 4 Jean Alesi 36 5 David Coulthard 30 Source: [13]

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Williams-Renault 118 2 Ferrari 100 3 Benetton-Renault 64 4 McLaren-Mercedes 47 5 Jordan-Peugeot 33 Source: [13]

References

1. "1997 Japanese Grand Prix | Motorsport Database".
2. "2013 Japanese Grand Prix: Official Media Kit" (PDF). FIA.com. Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. p. 31. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 March 2014. Retrieved 2022-09-19.
3. Domenjoz, Luc (1997). Formula 1 Yearbook – 1997–98 (8th ed.). Parragon. p. 209. ISBN   0-7525-2386-4 – via Internet Archive.
4. "Formula 1 Honda Japanese Grand Prix 2022 – Media Kit" (PDF). Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. 5 October 2022. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
5. Domenjoz, Luc (1997). Formula 1 Yearbook – 1997–98 (8th ed.). Parragon. p. 204. ISBN   0-7525-2386-4 – via Internet Archive.
6. Domenjoz, Luc (1997). Formula 1 Yearbook – 1997–98 (8th ed.). Parragon. p. 205. ISBN   0-7525-2386-4 – via Internet Archive.
7. "1997 Japanese Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 29 October 2014. Retrieved 24 December 2015.
8. "Villeneuve in trouble". GrandPrix.com. 1997-10-13. Retrieved 2008-05-09.
9. "Williams drops its appeal". GrandPrix.com. 1997-10-20. Retrieved 2008-05-09.
10. "Grand Prix Results: Japanese GP, 1997". GrandPrix.com. Retrieved 2008-05-09.
11. Domenjoz, Luc (1997). Formula 1 Yearbook – 1997–98 (8th ed.). Parragon. p. 220. ISBN   0-7525-2386-4 – via Internet Archive.
12. "Japan 1997 – Qualifications". StatsF1. Retrieved 27 March 2016.
13. "Japan 1997 – Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 18 March 2019.

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