1999 Canadian Grand Prix

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1999 Canadian Grand Prix
Race 6 of 16 in the 1999 Formula One World Championship
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Circuit Gilles Villeneuve (1996-2001).svg
Circuit Gilles Villeneuve (last modified in 1996)
Race details
Date13 June 1999
Official name XXXVII Grand Prix Air Canada
Location Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Course Temporary street circuit
Course length 4.421 km (2.747 miles)
Distance 69 laps, 305.049 km (189.549 miles)
Weather Hot with temperatures approaching 31.0 °C (87.8 °F)
Wind speeds up to 5.1 km/h (3.2 mph) [1]
Track 41–43 °C (106–109 °F)
Pole position
Driver Ferrari
Time 1:19.298
Fastest lap
Driver Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Eddie Irvine Ferrari
Time 1:20.382 on lap 62
Podium
First McLaren-Mercedes
Second Benetton-Playlife
Third Ferrari
Lap leaders
  • 1999 Canadian Grand Prix

The 1999 Canadian Grand Prix [2] was a Formula One motor race held on 13 June 1999 at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was the sixth race of the 1999 Formula One season.

Contents

The race was notable for the four crashes that occurred in turn 13 and for the number of times the safety car was deployed. Turn 13, the final chicane, had four separate crashes in which a driver either went wide or spun into the wall. Three of the drivers who crashed there had previously won the Drivers' Championship, leading to the wall becoming known as the "Wall of Champions". The safety car was deployed four times in the race, a record at the time, and was the first Formula One race to finish behind the safety car following Heinz-Harald Frentzen's crash with four laps to go. [3]

Report

Qualifying

Michael Schumacher started on pole for the first time in 1999, ahead of Mika Häkkinen and Eddie Irvine.

Race

The race was won by Mika Hakkinen for McLaren. Mika Hakkinen 1999 Canada.jpg
The race was won by Mika Häkkinen for McLaren.

The front runners got off the line cleanly, with Michael Schumacher maintaining first place, Häkkinen second, and Irvine third. Behind them Giancarlo Fisichella passed David Coulthard to take fifth place. Jarno Trulli, starting ninth, went off the track trying to pass Heinz-Harald Frentzen up the inside into turn one. Trulli spun across turn one, collecting Jean Alesi and Rubens Barrichello in the process. Trulli and Alesi retired, and the safety car was deployed. Alexander Wurz also retired during the first lap with transmission problems. Barrichello limped back to the pits where repairs were made to his car. He was able to resume the race, albeit two laps down on the leader, but ultimately had to retire because of the collision damage after having completed 14 laps. [4] [5]

Eddie Irvine posted his only career fastest lap in this race. Eddie Irvine 1999 Canada.jpg
Eddie Irvine posted his only career fastest lap in this race.

The safety car returned to the pits at the end of the second lap, having been deployed for only one lap, allowing normal racing to resume with the top six being Michael Schumacher, Häkkinen, Irvine, Fisichella, Coulthard and Frentzen.

During the third lap Coulthard passed Fisichella going into turn 13 to retake fourth place. Later that same lap, Ricardo Zonta retired after spinning into the wall at that same turn 13. He stopped just off the track, missing his right rear wheel. This brought the safety car out again. Zonta was the first of four drivers to hit the "Wall of Champions" in this race.

At the end of lap 7 the safety car left the track again, allowing the race to resume normally again. The order remained stable until on lap 15, Damon Hill became the second driver to hit the turn 13 wall. He was able to pull off the track in a safe location, and the safety car was not deployed.

During lap 24, Pedro de la Rosa came in to the pits for a scheduled stop, but when trying to leave his gearbox failed. This forced him to retire. One lap later Stewart's Johnny Herbert, from seventh position, was the first driver running in the top ten to make a scheduled pit stop. He returned to the track in tenth place.

Michael Schumacher hit the wall at turn 13 on lap 30, giving the lead to Mika Häkkinen. Five laps later, Jacques Villeneuve became the fourth and final driver on the day to hit the wall at that turn, bringing the safety car out for the third time. Hill, Schumacher, and Villeneuve were three of the four Formula 1 Drivers' Champions competing in the race who hit the wall. [6]

The third safety car period, occurring around the halfway point of the race, was used by many drivers to make a scheduled pitstop. Fisichella, Frentzen, Pedro Diniz, Ralf Schumacher, Herbert, Häkkinen, and Irvine all came into the pits shortly before or after the safety car having been deployed to the circuit.

Near the end of lap 38, David Coulthard passed the safety car before entering the pit lane for his scheduled stop. Shortly afterwards Alessandro Zanardi did the same after coming out of the pit lane following his stop trying to prevent being lapped. Both Coulthard and Zanardi also ignored a red light at the end of the pit lane when exiting following their pit stop. [5]

Following the series of pit stops, the top six behind the safety car was Häkkinen, Irvine, Coulthard, Fisichella, Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Ralf Schumacher. Normal racing restarted again on lap 41. Coulthard tried to go around the outside of Eddie Irvine into turn one, then the inside on turn two. However they touched, and both spun off. Both were able to rejoin, though Coulthard had to pit at the end of the lap. This dropped them to 8th and 10th place respectively while Fisichella and Frentzen took over third and fourth place with Ralf Schumacher and Diniz following in fifth and sixth.

Two laps later Fisichella and Frentzen found themselves trying to lap Luca Badoer and Olivier Panis. However Panis attempted to pass Badoer while approaching turn 13, thus ignoring blue flags being shown to them. Panis was unable to pass before the turn and being on the outside going into it had to yield. This meant he went rather slowly through the turn, forcing Fisichella behind wide which in turn allowed Frentzen to move into third place. On the same lap, Toranosuke Takagi, already two laps from the lead, slowly entered the pit lane to retire his Arrows with transmission problems.

During lap 47 Coulthard, Zanardi, Badoer and Panis were all issued 10 second stop and go penalties. Coulthard and Zanardi for ignoring the red light in the pit lane following their pitstops, Badoer and Panis for ignoring blue flags. [5] The latter three served their penalties on the same lap, while Coulthard followed suit one lap later.

Meanwhile, Irvine continued to move back up the order following the incident with Coulthard. By lap 46 he had moved into seventh place. At the start of lap 47 he passed Diniz for sixth place going into turn one. Six laps later he passed Herbert for fifth place going into turn 13, though both drivers had to cut across the grass. Another five lap later he passed Ralf Schumacher on the same spot to take fourth place. In the meantime, on lap 51, Zanardi retired with brake problems.

The fourth and final safety car of the race came out on lap 66 after Heinz-Harald Frentzen, running in second place, suffered a brake failure whilst approaching turn three and he crashed into the barriers sideways. He was uninjured. The safety car came out at the start of the next lap, with the race finishing under safety car conditions, a first for Formula One, [5] with Mika Häkkinen victorious. [4] Eddie Irvine scored his first fastest lap [7] and finished third behind Giancarlo Fisichella.

Classification

Jacques Villeneuve 1999 Canada.jpg
Michael Schumacher 1999 Canada.jpg
Damon Hill 1999 Canada.jpg
Jacques Villeneuve (BAR) (top), Michael Schumacher (Ferrari) (center), and Damon Hill (Jordan) (bottom) all became victims of the outside wall at the exit of the final chicane. Because all three of them were former World Champions, their collisions with that wall, which all happened on separate occasions, resulted in it being nicknamed the "Wall of Champions".

Qualifying

PosNoDriverConstructorLapGap
13 Flag of Germany.svg Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:19.298
21 Flag of Finland.svg Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 1:19.327+0.029
34 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Eddie Irvine Ferrari 1:19.440+0.142
42 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 1:19.729+0.431
516 Flag of Brazil.svg Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 1:19.930+0.632
68 Flag of Germany.svg Heinz-Harald Frentzen Jordan-Mugen-Honda 1:20.158+0.860
79 Flag of Italy.svg Giancarlo Fisichella Benetton-Playlife 1:20.378+1.080
811 Flag of France.svg Jean Alesi Sauber-Petronas 1:20.459+1.161
919 Flag of Italy.svg Jarno Trulli Prost-Peugeot 1:20.557+1.259
1017 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Johnny Herbert Stewart-Ford 1:20.829+1.531
1110 Flag of Austria.svg Alexander Wurz Benetton-Playlife 1:21.000+1.702
125 Flag of Italy.svg Alessandro Zanardi Williams-Supertec 1:21.076+1.778
136 Flag of Germany.svg Ralf Schumacher Williams-Supertec 1:21.081+1.783
147 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Damon Hill Jordan-Mugen-Honda 1:21.094+1.796
1518 Flag of France.svg Olivier Panis Prost-Peugeot 1:21.252+1.954
1622 Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Jacques Villeneuve BAR-Supertec 1:21.302+2.004
1723 Flag of Brazil.svg Ricardo Zonta BAR-Supertec 1:21.467+2.169
1812 Flag of Brazil.svg Pedro Diniz Sauber-Petronas 1:21.571+2.273
1915 Flag of Japan (1870-1999).svg Toranosuke Takagi Arrows 1:21.693+2.395
2014 Flag of Spain.svg Pedro de la Rosa Arrows 1:22.613+3.315
2120 Flag of Italy.svg Luca Badoer Minardi-Ford 1:22.808+3.510
2221 Flag of Spain.svg Marc Gené Minardi-Ford 1:23.387+4.089
107% time: 1:24.849
Source: [8]

Race

PosNoDriverConstructorLapsTime/RetiredGridPoints
11 Flag of Finland.svg Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 691:41:35.727210
29 Flag of Italy.svg Giancarlo Fisichella Benetton-Playlife 69+0.78276
34 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Eddie Irvine Ferrari 69+1.79734
46 Flag of Germany.svg Ralf Schumacher Williams-Supertec 69+2.392133
517 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Johnny Herbert Stewart-Ford 69+2.805102
612 Flag of Brazil.svg Pedro Diniz Sauber-Petronas 69+3.711181
72 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 69+5.0044 
821 Flag of Spain.svg Marc Gené Minardi-Ford 68+1 Lap22 
918 Flag of France.svg Olivier Panis Prost-Peugeot 68+1 Lap15 
1020 Flag of Italy.svg Luca Badoer Minardi-Ford 67+2 Laps21 
118 Flag of Germany.svg Heinz-Harald Frentzen Jordan-Mugen-Honda 65Brakes/accident6 
Ret5 Flag of Italy.svg Alessandro Zanardi Williams-Supertec 50Brakes12 
Ret15 Flag of Japan (1870-1999).svg Toranosuke Takagi Arrows 41Transmission19 
Ret22 Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Jacques Villeneuve BAR-Supertec 34Accident16 
Ret3 Flag of Germany.svg Michael Schumacher Ferrari 29Accident1 
Ret14 Flag of Spain.svg Pedro de la Rosa Arrows 22Transmission20 
Ret7 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Damon Hill Jordan-Mugen-Honda 14Accident14 
Ret16 Flag of Brazil.svg Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 14Collision damage5 
Ret23 Flag of Brazil.svg Ricardo Zonta BAR-Supertec 2Spun off17 
Ret11 Flag of France.svg Jean Alesi Sauber-Petronas 0Collision8 
Ret19 Flag of Italy.svg Jarno Trulli Prost-Peugeot 0Collision9 
Ret10 Flag of Austria.svg Alexander Wurz Benetton-Playlife 0Transmission11 
Sources: [2] [9]

Championship standings after the race

References

  1. "1999 Canadian GP: Weather". The Old Farmers' Almanac. Retrieved 26 June 2013.
  2. 1 2 "1999 Canadian Grand Prix". The Official Formula 1 Website. Archived from the original on 9 January 2015. Retrieved 24 December 2015.
  3. "Formula One Safety Car". F1 Technical. Retrieved 17 February 2014.
  4. 1 2 "Grand Prix of Canada Review". Autosport. 13 June 2013. Retrieved 17 February 2014.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Grand Prix of Canada - Race Facts" (PDF). FIA.com (PDF). Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. 13 June 1999. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 March 2005.
  6. "Murray's Memories: F1 Canadian GP 1999: 'The Wall of Champions'". BBC Sport. 5 June 2013. Retrieved 17 February 2014.
  7. "1999 Canadian GP: Overview". ChicaneF1.com. Retrieved 17 February 2014.
  8. "1999 Canadian GP". chicanef1.com. Retrieved 17 February 2014.
  9. "1999 Canadian GP". chicanef1.com. Retrieved 17 February 2014.
  10. 1 2 "Canada 1999 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 14 March 2019.
Previous race:
1999 Spanish Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
1999 season
Next race:
1999 French Grand Prix
Previous race:
1998 Canadian Grand Prix
Canadian Grand Prix Next race:
2000 Canadian Grand Prix