1998 British Grand Prix

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1998 British Grand Prix
Race 9 of 16 in the 1998 Formula One World Championship
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Silverstone Circuit 1997 to 1998.png
Silverstone Circuit in its 1998 configuration
Race details
Date12 July 1998
Official name LI RAC British Grand Prix
Location Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone, Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire, England
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 5.140 km (3.194 miles)
Distance 60 laps, 308.400 km (191.631 miles)
Weather Rain, Wet Track
Pole position
Driver McLaren-Mercedes
Time 1:23.271
Fastest lap
Driver Flag of Germany.svg Michael Schumacher Ferrari
Time 1:35.704 on lap 12
Podium
First Ferrari
Second McLaren-Mercedes
Third Ferrari
Lap leaders
  • 1998 British Grand Prix

The 1998 British Grand Prix (formally the LI RAC British Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held at the Silverstone Circuit, England on 12 July 1998. It was the ninth race of the 1998 FIA Formula One World Championship. The 60-lap race was won by Michael Schumacher driving a Ferrari car after starting from second position. Mika Häkkinen, who started from pole position, finished second with Eddie Irvine third in the other Ferrari. Schumacher's victory was his fourth of the season, and his third consecutive victory having won both the preceding Canadian and French Grand Prix, but was under controversial circumstances: there was dispute whether he had avoided a stop-and-go penalty by entering the pit lane to serve it on the final lap, crossing the finish line in the pit lane to win the race before reaching his pit box, although the penalty, which was actually merely a time penalty, was later rescinded.

Contents

Report

Qualifying

Mika Häkkinen took pole position by nearly half a second from championship rival Michael Schumacher. Jacques Villeneuve took third position whilst Häkkinen's team-mate David Coulthard qualified in fourth. Ralf Schumacher and Olivier Panis had their qualifying times deleted as they were not able to get out of their cars quick enough during an FIA safety drill, to practice evacuating the cockpit in case of fire. Ralf Schumacher had spun and stalled his engine early in qualifying and qualified in the spare car, which was set up for his team-mate Damon Hill.

Race

Heavy rain fell during the morning prior to the race. Although the rain stopped before the start, there was a mixture of wet and dry parts on the circuit and as a result all but two cars started on intermediate compound tyres. The two Stewart-Fords decided to start on dry weather tyres. [1] The first retirement came after 13 laps, when Damon Hill lost control on the damp track whilst battling with Villeneuve for 7th place. After 16 laps, it began to rain again, and many drivers switched to a full wet weather tyre. Johnny Herbert spun and regained the track, but had damaged his car and retired on reaching the pits.

David Coulthard retires from the race Coulthard-Silverstone98.jpg
David Coulthard retires from the race

David Coulthard, driving on intermediates, spun out on lap 38 whilst passing a backmarker. Jarno Trulli spun out on the same lap as Coulthard as Barrichello spun out and hit the wall at Club on lap 40. His McLaren-Mercedes team-mate Mika Häkkinen had built up a lead of 49 seconds over second place driver Michael Schumacher when four laps later he went off the track, did a complete 360 degrees turn before continuing. The incident damaged the front wing of his car and cost him 10 seconds of his lead but following numerous other spins caused by the worsening conditions the safety car was deployed which slowed the cars down, and removed Häkkinen's advantage over Schumacher altogether. [2]

The race restarted on lap 50 and it took only two laps for Häkkinen to make another mistake, which put Schumacher in the lead. The German quickly pulled away from his rival, who was now nursing his McLaren home.

Michael Schumacher and David Coulthard side by side DC&MSch Britain 1998.jpg
Michael Schumacher and David Coulthard side by side

However, two laps from the finish, Schumacher was issued with a 10-second time penalty for passing Alexander Wurz under the safety car on lap 43. [3] Unsure whether the handwritten notification declared that Schumacher would see 10 seconds being added to his race time or had to serve a 10-second stop-and-go penalty, his team decided to call him in into the pits out of precaution to serve a stop-and-go penalty at the end of the last lap of the race. [3] However, in doing so Schumacher crossed the finish line in the pit lane before reaching the Ferrari garage resulting in a dispute on whether he had actually served a stop and go penalty. [4]

Post-race

Following the race a dispute arose surrounding the circumstances of Michael Schumacher being issued with and serving his penalty. [3] His team argued that the penalty should have been issued within 25 minutes of the incident but instead they were informed after 31 minutes. They also argued that the hand-written notification was unclear as to which penalty was actually being issued: a stop-and-go, or a 10-second addition to Schumacher's race time, though the FIA's International Court of Appeal later clarified that it was the latter. [3] The stewards then decided to nevertheless apply the 10-second addition, post-race. [4] However, the added time penalty can only be used to punish an infraction in the last 12 laps of a Grand Prix, and so did not apply here. [3] The stewards eventually rescinded the penalty altogether. [4]

A protest was lodged by McLaren-Mercedes who felt Ferrari cheated by not having Schumacher serve the penalty, but this was rejected by the FIA. [3] At the hearing for the protest the International Court of Appeal confirmed that the stewards had made several mistakes in issuing a 10-second time penalty for an incident that happened outside of the last 12 laps of a race while exceeding the allowed time limit for the notification of a penalty having been issued. [3] As a result of their mistakes, the three stewards involved handed in their licenses at an extraordinary meeting of the FIA World Council. [5]

Classification

Qualifying

PosNoDriverConstructorLapGap
18 Flag of Finland.svg Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 1:23.271
23 Flag of Germany.svg Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:23.720+0.449
31 Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Mecachrome 1:24.102+0.831
47 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 1:24.310+1.039
54 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Eddie Irvine Ferrari 1:24.436+1.165
62 Flag of Germany.svg Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams-Mecachrome 1:24.442+1.171
79 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Damon Hill Jordan-Mugen-Honda 1:24.542+1.271
814 Flag of France.svg Jean Alesi Sauber-Petronas 1:25.081+1.810
915 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Johnny Herbert Sauber-Petronas 1:25.084+1.813
105 Flag of Italy.svg Giancarlo Fisichella Benetton-Playlife 1:25.654+2.383
116 Flag of Austria.svg Alexander Wurz Benetton-Playlife 1:25.760+2.489
1216 Flag of Brazil.svg Pedro Diniz Arrows 1:26.376+3.105
1317 Flag of Finland.svg Mika Salo Arrows 1:26.487+3.216
1412 Flag of Italy.svg Jarno Trulli Prost-Peugeot 1:26.808+3.537
1519 Flag of the Netherlands.svg Jos Verstappen Stewart-Ford 1:26.948+3.677
1618 Flag of Brazil.svg Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 1:26.990+3.719
1721 Flag of Japan (1870-1999).svg Toranosuke Takagi Tyrrell-Ford 1:27.061+3.790
1823 Flag of Argentina.svg Esteban Tuero Minardi-Ford 1:28.051+4.780
1922 Flag of Japan (1870-1999).svg Shinji Nakano Minardi-Ford 1:28.123+4.852
2020 Flag of Brazil.svg Ricardo Rosset Tyrrell-Ford 1:28.608+5.337
107% time: 1:29.100
2110 Flag of Germany.svg Ralf Schumacher Jordan-Mugen-Honda No Time 1
2211 Flag of France.svg Olivier Panis Prost-Peugeot No Time 1
Source: [6]
Notes

Race

PosNoDriverConstructorLapsTime/RetiredGridPoints
13 Flag of Germany.svg Michael Schumacher Ferrari 601:47:02.450210
28 Flag of Finland.svg Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 60+22.46516
34 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Eddie Irvine Ferrari 60+29.19954
46 Flag of Austria.svg Alexander Wurz Benetton-Playlife 59+1 Lap113
55 Flag of Italy.svg Giancarlo Fisichella Benetton-Playlife 59+1 Lap102
610 Flag of Germany.svg Ralf Schumacher Jordan-Mugen-Honda 59+1 Lap211
71 Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Mecachrome 59+1 Lap3 
822 Flag of Japan (1870-1999).svg Shinji Nakano Minardi-Ford 58+2 Laps19 
921 Flag of Japan (1870-1999).svg Toranosuke Takagi Tyrrell-Ford 56+4 Laps17 
Ret14 Flag of France.svg Jean Alesi Sauber-Petronas 53Electrical8 
Ret16 Flag of Brazil.svg Pedro Diniz Arrows 45Spun off12 
Ret11 Flag of France.svg Olivier Panis Prost-Peugeot 40Spun off22 
Ret18 Flag of Brazil.svg Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 39Accident16 
Ret19 Flag of the Netherlands.svg Jos Verstappen Stewart-Ford 38Engine15 
Ret7 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 37Spun off4 
Ret12 Flag of Italy.svg Jarno Trulli Prost-Peugeot 37Spun off14 
Ret20 Flag of Brazil.svg Ricardo Rosset Tyrrell-Ford 29Spun off20 
Ret23 Flag of Argentina.svg Esteban Tuero Minardi-Ford 29Spun off18 
Ret15 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Johnny Herbert Sauber-Petronas 27Spun off9 
Ret17 Flag of Finland.svg Mika Salo Arrows 27Throttle13 
Ret2 Flag of Germany.svg Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams-Mecachrome 15Spun off6 
Ret9 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Damon Hill Jordan-Mugen-Honda 13Spun off7 
Source: [7]

Championship standings after the race

Footnotes

  1. Autosport.com: British Grand Prix Review
  2. BBC News:Schumacher wins British GP
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "International Court of Appeal – Hearing of Monday, 27 July 1998" (PDF). International Court of Appeal of the FIA. 27 July 1998. Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 April 2018.
  4. 1 2 3 "Scandal at Silverstone". Grandprix.com . Inside F1. 13 July 1998. Archived from the original on 29 September 2007.
  5. "...but the stewards got the axe". Grandprix.com . Inside F1. 3 August 1999. Archived from the original on 8 May 2009.
  6. F1, STATS. "Britain 1998 - Qualifications • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 19 October 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  7. "1998 British Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 5 December 2014. Retrieved 24 December 2015.
  8. 1 2 "Britain 1998 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 14 March 2019.
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1998 French Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
1998 season
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1998 Austrian Grand Prix
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1997 British Grand Prix
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1999 British Grand Prix