1998 French Grand Prix

1998 French Grand Prix
Race 8 of 16 in the 1998 Formula One World Championship ←  Previous race Next race  →
Race details
Date	28 June 1998
Official name	Mobil 1 Grand Prix de France
Location	Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours Magny-Cours, France
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	4.250 [1] km (2.641 miles)
Distance	71 laps, 301.564 [2] [3] km (187.383 miles)
Scheduled distance	72 laps, 305.814 [4] km (190.024 miles)
Weather	Sunny, warm
Pole position
Driver	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes
Time	1:14.929
Fastest lap
Driver	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes
Time	1:17.523 on lap 59
Podium
First	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Second	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari
Third	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes
Lap leaders

The 1998 French Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Magny-Cours on 28 June 1998. It was the eighth race of the 1998 FIA Formula One World Championship.

The 71-lap race was won by German driver Michael Schumacher, driving a Ferrari. It was Schumacher's third victory of the season. Northern Irish teammate Eddie Irvine finished second, with Finn Mika Häkkinen third in a McLaren-Mercedes, having started from pole position.

Report

Background

The race was originally dropped due to a dispute over television broadcasting rights in France. Though TF1 had the rights, rival channel France 3 obtained a judgement from a French court to allow all channels to operate on the grounds of the circuit. ^{[5] [6]}

Jos Verstappen replaced Jan Magnussen at the Stewart team for the remainder of the season.

Qualifying

Mika Häkkinen of McLaren-Mercedes took pole position, beating Michael Schumacher by 0.2 seconds. David Coulthard qualified third, and Eddie Irvine took fourth place. Throughout the qualifying session, Schumacher and Häkkinen exchanged first place, until Häkkinen finally took the pole.

Race

At the beginning of the race, Verstappen stalled his Stewart, the race was stopped on lap 1, and a restart was required. At the second start, Häkkinen was overtaken by Michael Schumacher and Irvine. Schumacher then began to pull away, sometimes at one second a lap, with Irvine holding both the McLarens behind him. On lap 20, Häkkinen tried an ambitious move on Irvine. His attempt failed, and he spun into the gravel trap. However, he managed to keep his car going, pitted for fresh tyres, and rejoined in fourth place. Then he regained third place when Coulthard had problems during his pit stop: Coulthard went into the pits, but due to a fuel filling problem, had to do another lap, and then go into the pits again. After the second set of pit stops, Häkkinen was back behind Irvine, and Schumacher was some way in front. On the final lap, on the final corner, Häkkinen made an attempt to overtake Irvine, after Irvine was very slow through the chicane before the final corner. Irvine just held off Häkkinen to take second, but only by a tenth of a second. However, both drivers were 19 seconds behind Schumacher. After Coulthard's misfortune in the pitlane, he finished sixth, scoring one world championship point. It was Ferrari's first 1–2 in 8 years, the previous being at the 1990 Spanish Grand Prix, with Alain Prost and Nigel Mansell.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Time	Gap
1	8	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:14.929
2	3	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	1:15.159	+0.230
3	7	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	1:15.333	+0.404
4	4	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari	1:15.527	+0.598
5	1	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams-Mecachrome	1:15.630	+0.701
6	10	Ralf Schumacher	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	1:15.925	+0.996
7	9	Damon Hill	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	1:16.245	+1.316
8	2	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Williams-Mecachrome	1:16.319	+1.390
9	5	Giancarlo Fisichella	Benetton-Playlife	1:16.375	+1.446
10	6	Alexander Wurz	Benetton-Playlife	1:16.460	+1.531
11	14	Jean Alesi	Sauber-Petronas	1:16.627	+1.698
12	12	Jarno Trulli	Prost-Peugeot	1:16.892	+1.963
13	15	Johnny Herbert	Sauber-Petronas	1:16.977	+2.048
14	18	Rubens Barrichello	Stewart-Ford	1:17.024	+2.095
15	19	Jos Verstappen	Stewart-Ford	1:17.604	+2.675
16	11	Olivier Panis	Prost-Peugeot	1:17.671	+2.742
17	16	Pedro Diniz	Arrows	1:17.880	+2.951
18	20	Ricardo Rosset	Tyrrell-Ford	1:17.908	+2.979
19	17	Mika Salo	Arrows	1:17.970	+3.041
20	21	Toranosuke Takagi	Tyrrell-Ford	1:18.221	+3.292
21	22	Shinji Nakano	Minardi-Ford	1:18.273	+3.344
22	23	Esteban Tuero	Minardi-Ford	1:19.146	+4.217
107% time: 1:20.174
Source: [7]

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	3	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	71	1:34:45.026	2	10
2	4	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari	71	+ 19.575	4	6
3	8	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	71	+ 19.747	1	4
4	1	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams-Mecachrome	71	+ 1:06.965	5	3
5	6	Alexander Wurz	Benetton-Playlife	70	+ 1 lap	10	2
6	7	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	70	+ 1 lap	3	1
7	14	Jean Alesi	Sauber-Petronas	70	+ 1 lap	11
8	15	Johnny Herbert	Sauber-Petronas	70	+ 1 lap	13
9	5	Giancarlo Fisichella	Benetton-Playlife	70	+ 1 lap	9
10	18	Rubens Barrichello	Stewart-Ford	69	+ 2 laps	14
11	11	Olivier Panis	Prost-Peugeot	69	+ 2 laps	16
12	19	Jos Verstappen	Stewart-Ford	69	+ 2 laps	15
13	17	Mika Salo	Arrows	69	+ 2 laps	19
14	16	Pedro Diniz	Arrows	69	+ 2 laps	17
15	2	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Williams-Mecachrome	68	Suspension	8
16	10	Ralf Schumacher	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	68	+ 3 laps	6
17	22	Shinji Nakano	Minardi-Ford	65	Engine	21
Ret	21	Toranosuke Takagi	Tyrrell-Ford	60	Engine	20
Ret	12	Jarno Trulli	Prost-Peugeot	55	Spun off	12
Ret	23	Esteban Tuero	Minardi-Ford	41	Gearbox	22
Ret	9	Damon Hill	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	19	Hydraulics	7
Ret	20	Ricardo Rosset	Tyrrell-Ford	16	Hydraulics	18
Source: [8]

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Mika Häkkinen 50 2 Michael Schumacher 44 3 David Coulthard 30 4 Eddie Irvine 25 5 Alexander Wurz 14 Source: [9]

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 McLaren-Mercedes 80 2 Ferrari 69 3 Benetton-Playlife 27 4 Williams-Mecachrome 19 5 Stewart-Ford 5 Source: [9]

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

1. Calculated based on the qualifying classification shown during TV broadcast
2. "Grand Prix de France". Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. Archived from the original on 2010-09-15. Retrieved 2023-07-21.
3. Calculated based on the race classification shown during TV broadcast:
4. Calculated by adding lap length to the race distance
5. "Motor Racing: Doubts over Belgian Grand Prix" . The Independent . 13 December 1997. Archived from the original on 2022-05-01. Retrieved 8 December 2012.
6. "France dropped from F1 season". BBC News . 13 December 1997. Retrieved 8 December 2012.
7. "France 1998 - Qualifications". StatsF1. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
8. "1998 French Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 5 December 2014. Retrieved 24 December 2015.
9. "France 1998 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 17 March 2019.

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