1998 Canadian Grand Prix

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1998 Canadian Grand Prix
Race 7 of 16 in the 1998 Formula One World Championship
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Circuit Gilles Villeneuve (1996-2001).svg
Race details
Date7 June 1998
Official name Grand Prix Player's du Canada
Location Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Course Street circuit
Course length 4.421 km (2.747 miles)
Distance 69 laps, 305.049 km (189.549 miles)
Weather Cool and overcast with air temperatures reaching up to 16.0 °C (60.8 °F)
Wind speeds up to 2.9 km/h (1.8 mph) reported [1]
Pole position
Driver McLaren-Mercedes
Time 1:18.213
Fastest lap
Driver Flag of Germany.svg Michael Schumacher Ferrari
Time 1:19.379 on lap 48
Podium
First Ferrari
Second Benetton-Playlife
Third Ferrari
Lap leaders
  • 1998 Canadian Grand Prix

The 1998 Canadian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on 7 June 1998. The 69-lap race was the seventh round of the 1998 FIA Formula One World Championship. It was won by Michael Schumacher, however the race is probably best remembered for the crash on the first lap involving Alexander Wurz, Jean Alesi and Jarno Trulli, which resulted in the race being red flagged and restarted, only for another collision to take place between Alesi and Trulli at the same corner, and the race being started once again under the safety car.

Contents

Report

Qualifying

In Montreal, David Coulthard secured his third pole position of the season, achieving the fastest time at the very end of the session. Mika Häkkinen encountered a lot of traffic during his quick laps. Michael Schumacher was third with a lap time only 0.2 seconds behind Coulthard's. The night before qualifying, Eddie Irvine had released a comment saying that the Canadian Grand Prix would be crucial for Ferrari, with Schumacher expressing the same opinion.

Race

At the start of the race Michael Schumacher started brilliantly and overtook Mika Häkkinen, whilst his brother Ralf Schumacher stalled. It took two attempts to get the race started as Alexander Wurz precipitated a collision, which somersaulted his Benetton above the gravel trap, into the first turn and involving Jean Alesi and Jarno Trulli as well. This carnage brought out the red flag. The race was stopped and Alesi, Wurz and Trulli all took the restart in their spare cars. Herbert was lucky that his mechanics were able to repair his Sauber, as Alesi took the spare. The only damage to the car proved to be a bent suspension arm.

At the second start, Michael Schumacher's Ferrari got a poor start, and was instantly overtaken by Giancarlo Fisichella. However, even more chaos would ensue. Häkkinen's gearbox jammed causing Ralf Schumacher to take avoiding action; he also went across the grass and spun in the middle of the track and then pulled off the track with a broken gearbox. This caused mayhem in the pack behind him. Trulli mounted Alesi's car and in total five cars retired after the second start: Häkkinen (gearbox), Ralf Schumacher (spun off), Alesi and Trulli who were involved in the accident, and Toranosuke Takagi who had transmission problems.

Michael Schumacher managed to overtake Giancarlo Fisichella on the first lap but due to all the retirements the safety car was sent out. After five laps, the safety car came back in and the order was, David Coulthard followed by Schumacher, Fisichella, Jacques Villeneuve, Rubens Barrichello, and Heinz-Harald Frentzen.

As the race got under way again, Coulthard and Michael Schumacher started to pull away from the rest of the field. Coulthard led for the first 13 laps until the safety car came out for the second time. Pedro Diniz had gone off the track and when he rejoined he threw a lot of grass and dirt on to the circuit that needed to be removed. When the safety car went back in, there were another three retirements. Mika Salo collided with Johnny Herbert who went off for the second time, and Coulthard had a transmission problem caused by a throttle linkage failure while battling Michael Schumacher for the lead.

The accident involving Salo and Herbert sent out the safety car for a third time, and Michael Schumacher took advantage by making a pitstop. When he got back out and yellow flags were waved to show that there was to be no overtaking, coming out of the pit lane on lap 20 Schumacher shot across to block Frentzen for turn one. Frentzen steered off the track and onto the grass and spun into the gravel at the end of turn one to retire from the Grand Prix.

Williams team principal, Patrick Head, furious at what had just happened, went to Ferrari team principal Jean Todt to have strong words with him about the racing incident: "We [Williams] will do everything to get him [Schumacher] thrown out of this race and no we will not tolerate it". [2]

As the restart Fisichella led, ahead of Villeneuve, Michael Schumacher, Damon Hill, Magnussen and Shinji Nakano. Villeneuve immediately tried to go around the outside of Fisichella and take the lead in the race at home, but he got it all wrong, went off the track and damaged his rear wing. On lap 35, Schumacher was given a 10-second stop-and-go penalty due to the 'incident' with Frentzen. This momentarily put him behind Hill, but Schumacher overtook him and regained second place on lap 38. Damon Hill had eventually retired on lap 43 with the result of an electrical problem. Then he took the lead on lap 45 when Fisichella went in for his only pit stop. Schumacher then extended his lead over the rest of the pack, and by the time he made his second pit stop to refuel he was able to hold on to his first place, and subsequently finish the race with 16 seconds between himself and second-place finisher Fisichella, with Schumacher's team-mate Eddie Irvine in third, well over a minute behind despite picking up a puncture at the restart. Jan Magnussen finished sixth, scoring his only Formula One point in his last Grand Prix.

Classification

Coulthard took pole position, but retired from the race 1998 Canadian Grand Prix Coulthard.jpg
Coulthard took pole position, but retired from the race

Qualifying

PosNoDriverConstructorLap TimeGap
17 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 1:18.213
28 Flag of Finland.svg Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 1:18.282+0.069
33 Flag of Germany.svg Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:18.497+0.284
45 Flag of Italy.svg Giancarlo Fisichella Benetton-Playlife 1:18.826+0.613
510 Flag of Germany.svg Ralf Schumacher Jordan-Mugen-Honda 1:19.242+1.029
61 Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Mecachrome 1:19.588+1.375
72 Flag of Germany.svg Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams-Mecachrome 1:19.614+1.401
84 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Eddie Irvine Ferrari 1:19.616+1.403
914 Flag of France.svg Jean Alesi Sauber-Petronas 1:19.693+1.480
109 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Damon Hill Jordan-Mugen-Honda 1:19.717+1.504
116 Flag of Austria.svg Alexander Wurz Benetton-Playlife 1:19.765+1.552
1215 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Johnny Herbert Sauber-Petronas 1:19.845+1.632
1318 Flag of Brazil.svg Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 1:19.953+1.740
1412 Flag of Italy.svg Jarno Trulli Prost-Peugeot 1:20.188+1.975
1511 Flag of France.svg Olivier Panis Prost-Peugeot 1:20.303+2.090
1621 Flag of Japan (1870-1999).svg Toranosuke Takagi Tyrrell-Ford 1:20.328+2.115
1717 Flag of Finland.svg Mika Salo Arrows 1:20.536+2.323
1822 Flag of Japan (1870-1999).svg Shinji Nakano Minardi-Ford 1:21.230+3.017
1916 Flag of Brazil.svg Pedro Diniz Arrows 1:21.301+3.088
2019 Flag of Denmark.svg Jan Magnussen Stewart-Ford 1:21.629+3.416
2123 Flag of Argentina.svg Esteban Tuero Minardi-Ford 1:21.822+3.609
2220 Flag of Brazil.svg Ricardo Rosset Tyrrell-Ford 1:21.824+3.611
107% time: 1:23.688
Source: [3]

Race

Fisichella, Schumacher, and Irvine on the podium after the race. Cgp podium 1998.jpg
Fisichella, Schumacher, and Irvine on the podium after the race.
PosNoDriverConstructorLapsTime/RetiredGridPoints
13 Flag of Germany.svg Michael Schumacher Ferrari 691:40:57.335310
25 Flag of Italy.svg Giancarlo Fisichella Benetton-Playlife 69+16.66246
34 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Eddie Irvine Ferrari 69+1:00.05984
46 Flag of Austria.svg Alexander Wurz Benetton-Playlife 69+1:03.232113
518 Flag of Brazil.svg Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 69+1:21.513132
619 Flag of Denmark.svg Jan Magnussen Stewart-Ford 68+1 Lap201
722 Flag of Japan (1870-1999).svg Shinji Nakano Minardi-Ford 68+1 Lap18 
820 Flag of Brazil.svg Ricardo Rosset Tyrrell-Ford 68+1 Lap22 
916 Flag of Brazil.svg Pedro Diniz Arrows 68+1 Lap19 
101 Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Mecachrome 63+6 Laps6 
Ret23 Flag of Argentina.svg Esteban Tuero Minardi-Ford 53Electrical21 
Ret9 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Damon Hill Jordan-Mugen-Honda 42Electrical10 
Ret11 Flag of France.svg Olivier Panis Prost-Peugeot 39Engine15 
Ret2 Flag of Germany.svg Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams-Mecachrome 20Spun off7 
Ret7 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 18Throttle1 
Ret15 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Johnny Herbert Sauber-Petronas 18Spun off12 
Ret17 Flag of Finland.svg Mika Salo Arrows 18Accident17 
Ret8 Flag of Finland.svg Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 0Gearbox2 
Ret10 Flag of Germany.svg Ralf Schumacher Jordan-Mugen-Honda 0Gearbox5 
Ret14 Flag of France.svg Jean Alesi Sauber-Petronas 0Collision9 
Ret12 Flag of Italy.svg Jarno Trulli Prost-Peugeot 0Collision14 
Ret21 Flag of Japan (1870-1999).svg Toranosuke Takagi Tyrrell-Ford 0Transmission16 
Source: [4]

Championship standings after the race

References

  1. "Weather information for the "1998 Canadian Grand Prix"". The Old Farmers' Almanac. Retrieved 20 May 2015.
  2. "Schumacher -Frentzen Canada 1998". YouTube. Archived from the original on 22 December 2021. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
  3. F1, STATS. "Canada 1998 - Qualifications • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 19 October 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  4. "1998 Canadian Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 5 December 2014. Retrieved 24 December 2015.
  5. 1 2 "Canada 1998 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 14 March 2019.
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1997 Canadian Grand Prix
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1999 Canadian Grand Prix