Villeneuve inherits
race win on final lap after heroic Hill suffers
hydraulic problems.
"I was getting to the
point where I could count on winning the race, but
whenever you think things like that, something
happens." Damon Hill: Arrows
"We’ve
never been in such good shape for a race." Eddie
Irvine: Ferrari
It should have been Damon
Hill’s day, it should have been his race and
the statistics, that the top three qualifiers in the
Hungarian Grand Prix always produces the winner,
almost worked for him. It was only due to an
unfortunate hydraulic problem occurring less than
four miles from the flag that cost him his first win
with the Arrows team after 399 attempts, on a
day when nothing could go wrong. All teams have to
take such major disappointments in their stride yet
it must have been particularly galling for Tom
Walkinshaw boss of the Arrows team to watch his star
performer lose the lead with barely 6 corners
remaining after controlling the race from the tenth
lap. "We lost... we came second... we should
have won it." Said a mightily unhappy
Walkinshaw. "With a 30 second lead with 2
laps to go, he was only cruising and he loses
hydraulic pressure. It’s not easy.... Damon did
a fantastic job and he deserved to win. You never win
‘til you’ve passed the line and that’s
motor tracing."
It was also supposed
to be processional. ‘Lack of passing
places’ they all said. ‘Expect a
dull race’, they said ‘you
won’t see Schumacher for dust,’ they
nodded knowingly, tapping their forefingers on the
sides of their noses. ‘What the hell’s
that Arrows doing there?’ It wasn’t
going to be easy for the world champion, but with the
chassis and Bridgestone tyres obviously in
sympathy with the slow and twisty circuit, the
under-powered Yamaha V10 was able to compete on a more
equal footing with the Renaults, Mercedes
and Ferrari’s. What nobody expected
was for the Arrows to steal the march on even
the Ferrari’s, current darlings of the track and
scoot off into the haze. That, surely was
Schumacher’s scenario?
Tyre compound choice
was again crucial and most of the Goodyear
runners had gone for the soft option. Hot weather
before, has caused blistering especially with the
Ferrari’s and it was therefore unusual to find
them opting for the stickier tyres with a track
temperature of 32 degrees and rising.
With all the best
plans laid for a faultless race, a spin in the warm
up session ended Michael Schumacher’s
chance of that statistical win. Losing all the
advantage that the new lightweight chassis and
it’s extra fuel carrying capacity brought to his
qualifying performance, he was forced to use the
spare car and as such, was slow to leave the grid
when the lights went out.
Struggling on the
‘dirty’ side of the track Jacques
Villeneuve, as predicted, failed to find the
right traction for a smooth getaway. "My
start was pretty bad." He said. "Whether
it was wheel spin or clutch slip I didn’t go
anywhere." It was Hill drawing level with
Schumacher at the first turn, who slotted in behind
the German after also fending off the second Ferrari
of Eddie Irvine who stuck with the leading
pair for barely 4 laps before entering the pits with
tyre balance problems, serving as a warning for his
team mate, that similar problems might occur. In an
ironic pre race statement Irvine said that "We’ve
never been in such good shape for a race."
He should know better than to tell the world that for
whatever excuses Ferrari might put out later, they
could easily be ridiculed
Hill, by lap 4, had
set the fastest lap of 1.19.6 and was harrying
Schumacher’s Ferrari for the front slot. "The
first couple of laps he (Schumacher) was pulling
away." He said. "Then I managed to
close in on him quite easily and you could see that
his tyres were blistering. I knew I had to pass him
as there were cars coming up behind and I could go a
lot quicker." This he did at the end of the
pit straight on lap 10, squeezing through a gap that
the Ferrari driver was extremely reluctant to
concede. Once passed, he was away and apart from a
brief stint in second behind Heinz Harald Frentzen
when he made his first stop, he commanded the race
until his untimely demise.
"I did not
make the best of starts, but I managed to stay in the
lead." Said Schumacher afterwards.
"After a few laps I began to have problems with
my tyres, which we had not seen in practice. The
front tyres should have been the ones to give
trouble, so I was surprised to see blisters on the
rears. The second set worked properly, but the next
two had the same problems as the first. I had to run
at a slower pace in order to look after my
tyres."
The Ferrari began to hold up Mika
Hakkinen who had both Williams lying in wait behind, striving
to get past. This played into Hill’s hands
nicely and he was able to open out a gap of over 5
seconds before Hakinnen retired his McLaren Mercedes with the same problem that was
to affect the Arrows A18 later. "I didn’t
have a gearbox anymore." Said Hakinnen. "I
was looking good, but I was stuck behind
Villeneuve." It was a keen observation by
the Finn, as Villeneuve was indeed making little
progress, the Williams looking sluggish and plodding.
With Schumacher in the pits for the first of
seemingly many tyre changes, Villeneuve was suddenly
in second place in front of team mate Frentzen, who
was setting a fastest lap of 1.19.03s. Was this to be
a comeback for Williams?
By the time that the
first pit stops were due, Hill had a seven second
lead over Villeneuve. The Canadian, suffering a
longer stop than Hill who stopped a lap later, lost
nearly two seconds to the Arrows stop of 8.9s due to
a sticking wheel nut. With David Coulthard
running up the pitlane behind the Williams, they
rejoined the race in 3rd and 4th places, Hill having
managed a lightening ‘in’ lap to maintain a
9 second gap over Villeneuve on exiting the pits.
Frentzen had the lead
and 19 seconds on Hill, but after setting another
fast lap of 1.18.3, the refuelling coupling flew off
his car and ominous gouts of flame started erupting
intermittently from the rear. It was therefore not
surprising to see the pit crew waiving their hands
horizontally to signify that it was all over when
Frentzen finally came to a rest in the pits, slinging
his wheel away unceremoniously as he got out of the
car.
The Benettons meanwhile had quietly
disappeared. From being the talk of the town a
fortnight ago, Gerhard Berger, lying in 13th
place had been lapped by the top three drivers. They
were not the only team illustrating their ups and
downs in fortune. Jordan Peugeot who also ran well at the German
Grand Prix and after qualifying 13th and 14th
were making a race of it, With Ralf Schumacher
passing a troubled looking Jean Alesi albeit well
down the field.
By lap 30, Hill had
pulled out a 12 second lead over Villeneuve who had
the renewed threat of a rapidly closing Michael
Schumacher who unexpectedly pitted for new rubber
on lap 33 losing his fourth place to Johnny
Herbert’s Sauber.
As Hill continued to
pull out a massive 22 second lead on Villeneuve so
Coulthard started to close on the Canadian. The
remaining McLaren driver pitted alongside
Herbert on lap 51 and both Hill and Villeneuve came
in a lap later. Hill was out and long gone by the
time that the Williams driver shot out of the pitlane
inches behind Coulthard who was coming round to
complete his ‘out’ lap. The Scotsman ran
wide allowing Villeneuve to take him at the first
corner. After another stab at passing, Coulthard was
forced to let him go until on lap 65 his race came to
a standstill with a failed alternator. This pushed
Herbert up to third and Schumacher senior 4th, his
brother Ralf doing an excellent job in trying to
force the unwieldy Ferrari into a mistake but despite
his blistering tyres, the German with all his
experience, would see out the race in front of the
Jordan and take 3 points for the championship. "I
was a lot quicker than Michael" Said a
modest Schumacher junior. "But I felt to have
tried any harder to overtake him would have been too
much of a risk. I nearly spun twice as it was so I
decided to back off and save my fifth position."
Michael confirmed his brother’s statement with
uncharacteristic sentiment. "My brother was
quicker than me and if I had not been fighting for
the title, I could have let him pass."
Tension must have been
high in the TWR pits with only two laps to go.
An Arrows Yamaha fronting a Grand Prix, 34
seconds ahead, must indeed have been a strange
experience for the team and when Hill reported on the
radio that his throttle was not backing off, there
still must have been optimism that within two and a
half minutes the race would be theirs. This was not
to be. Still staying on course, Hill was slowing
rapidly and Villeneuve began to eat the seconds
hungrily. "Damon was really flying, but I
thought that there was no way he could finish" Villeneuve
said. "By the end of the race it was looking
pretty grim because he was going on and on and on.
Then, the pit crew told me he was slowing down. When
I got to him I saw he was going left and right and I
knew he was going to block me which was normal on the
last lap, so I just went onto the grass. He had the
race in his pocket, It’s a shame for him."
As Hill slowed, unable
to select his gears, he started swerving the car to
try to rejoin his severed electrical connections.
Villeneuve passed in a cloud of dirt as he ran along
the grass verge and into the final 4 corners that
would take him to an extremely fortuitous victory 9
seconds up on the Arrows. Hill’s lead over third
placed Johnny Herbert was such that he managed
to cross the line 11 seconds in front so salvaging 6
points from his days work.
Hill was in a
philosophical mood "I was getting to the
point when I thought I could count on winning the
race, but whenever you think things like that,
something happens." He said "To be
fair, second place is better than nothing, and we
almost got nothing. The car was really coughing and
spluttering towards the end and a few times it
stopped completely. I had Tom(Walkinshaw) on the
radio and he was saying, ‘try to keep it in 5th
gear’, but by that time I couldn’t get any
gear at all except 2nd."
A win here, would have
marked the first win for Bridgestone tyres,
ending the virtual monopoly that Goodyear has
enjoyed for the last ten years. Heavily influential
in the performance of the Arrows Yamaha, it has been their best showing
to date and it is certain that more teams will join
the Japanese company next season when their contracts
with Akron Ohio expire.
For Yamaha too, it
would have been a maiden victory but ironically,
having for so long relied on and been let down by,
the V10 to keep them going, the tables were now
reversed. Rough justice perhaps, it was the car that
let the engine down at the crucial moment.
As the two Union flags
hung above the podium flanking the Maple leaf of
Canada, the National Anthem played for the winning
constructor, Williams. It could have been a
reconstruction of so many of last years results. It
was hard not to make comparisons with Hill’s
unmistakably smooth driving style in the Arrows A18 which apart from a different
paint job, could so easily have been a Williams
cruising with ease around the Hungaroring
today.
An early tussle with
his arch nemesis brought back briefly the glory days
of 1994, and with it the nostalgic pleasure of seeing
this English Gentleman at his finest. Team boss Frank
Williams, whilst pleased that he lucked in to 10
constructors points, must surely realise that this
was not his victory. Poor race preparation and
average pitlane activities would not have won Williams this race. It will have done
Hill a great deal of good regarding the allocation of
competitive drives for next season. The chances of a
seat with McLaren look more positive, but as with
Berger, it may not be possible to maintain this form.
The next race in Belgium is a different circuit, all
about fast corners and straight line speed and Hill
must reconcile himself to the possibility of again
qualifying back in the mid field. Hill has driven a
lot of excellent races this season and it is all too
obvious that, with his wealth of qualifying
experience and ‘given the right equipment’,
as he once said, he is more capable than most of
doing the job.
His win would have
been a popular one, as Berger’s was at Hockenheim.
Schumacher, speaking probably for himself still
echoed the sentiments of the collective pit-lane bar
one team perhaps, when he said, "I hoped Hill
would win, as he deserved to and also because it
would have helped me in the championship. I must
congratulate him and the team on the good job they
did."
With the mellowing of
his arrogant ways over the past two seasons more
often than not, Schumacher can display more than a
touch of benevolence and it was almost with a sense
of regret that he finished with, "It was like
the old days, we two battling, unfortunately I
couldn’t fight back, but maybe next
time..."
Maybe Hill had a small
moment on the Podium before the champagne party began
when he heard that Anthem. It played for him as much
as for Williams and it must have gladdened the hearts
of millions of his fans globally, that he was back
where he rightfully belongs.
Chris Richardson
Race classification
Hungarian Grand
Prix Budapest 10 Aug 1997
1 Villeneuve
Williams Renault 1:45:47.14
2 Hill Arrows
Yamaha 1:45:56.22
3 Herbert
Sauber Petronas 1:46:07.59
4 M Schumacher
Ferrari 1:46:17.65
5 R Schumacher
Jordan Peugeot 1:46:17.86
6 Nakano Prost
Mugen Honda 1:46:28.66
7 Trulli Prost
Mugen Honda 1:47:02.70
8 Berger
Benetton Renault 1:47:03.55
9 Irvine Ferrari
1:44:51.83 DNF
10 Katayama
Minardi Hart 1:45:48.74 1 lap
11 Alesi Benetton
Renault 1:45:56.52
12 Marques
Minardi Hart 1:46:19.96 2 laps
13 Salo Tyrrell
Ford 1:46:20.75
Unclassified
14 Coulthard
McLaren Mercedes 1:29:14.70 DNF
15 Verstappen
Tyrrell Ford 1:26:25.37 DNF
16 Diniz Arrows
Yamaha 1:14:03.70 DNF
17 Fisichella Jordan
Peugeot 0:57:52.83 DNF
18 Frentzen
Williams Renault 0:39:13.43 DNF (fastest lap
1.18.372s)
19 Barrichello
Stewart Ford 1:46:20.75 DNF
20 Hakkinen
McLaren Mercedes 0:16:26.00 DNF
21 Morbidelli Sauber
Petronas 0:10:07.94 DNF
22 Magnussen
Stewart Ford 0:08:09.74 DNF
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