Villeneuve gets
pole for clash of the Titans, but Schumacher gets
psychological advantage as Canadian races under
suspension.
Jacques Villeneuve will
be contesting the Japanese Grand Prix under
protest of disqualification on Sunday, after not
taking quite the definitive pole position that he had
hoped for. Already competing under a one race ban
suspended for 9 races from a similar misdemeanour at Monza,
he was deemed to have ignored a yellow flag waved in
the mornings warm up session when the Marshals were
clearing Jos Verstappen’s stricken Tyrrell
from the track and disqualified. "I find this
difficult to accept." Said Villeneuve.
"It’s a blow now that we are fighting
for the championship and It’s the most difficult
season I have been part of in any form of
racing."
The appeal will be
heard by the FIA court of appeal next week and
should he lose, which is highly likely, then any
points he gets today will be discounted.
Five cars also on the
track at that point received the same sentence,
suspended for 2 further races. However, drivers Michael
Schumacher, Johnny Herbert, Heinz
Harald Frentzen, Rubens Barichello and Ukyo
Katayama are not under any penalties at present
so all will be racing tomorrow.
This represents a
severe blow to Williams’ chances of
securing both championship titles this weekend.
Technical director Patrick Head was none too
pleased, but philosophical about the incident.
Indicating that Villeneuve was undaunted by his
predicament, he confirmed that the Canadian was
determined to win the race, no matter what the
outcome. He added that, "In the case of
Jacques already being under a suspended ban, he might
have been wiser to have made a deliberate point of
slowing down but he didn’t."
This opens up the
battle for the Championship title and gives Ferrari
driver Schumacher a distinct psychological
advantage over the Canadian. With team mate Eddie
Irvine putting in a brilliant drive for third, he
has his back covered against any incursion that Villeneuve’s
team-mate Heinz Harald Frentzen may make from
the third row. "I will try and help Michael
for the Championship," said Irvine,
"which makes my job ten times harder as I have
to think about both of us." Flippantly he
joked, "I hope to make the best start, pass
both of them and then let Michael pass me!"
Under the threat of
dark stormy clouds there was a rush for the pit exit
as qualifying got under way. Mika Hakinnen
continuing his brilliant form in the McLaren
Mercedes showed the way with the first
provisional pole time of 1:36.46s and even with
Villeneuve and Schumacher both on the track making
the first of their four runs, his time stuck for the
first fifteen minutes of the session. An explosion of
oil from the engine of Rubens Barichello’s
Stewart-Ford left oil spread over the first
two corners and consequently lap times suffered until
the slick had been ‘driven away’ by other
cars.
With the threat of
rain receding, Villeneuve gained the pole on his
second run out, followed 6 minutes later by Eddie
Irvine into second place. Schumacher’s Ferrari,
like his team mate’s, seemed to run well on the
thin rubber of the Goodyear soft compounds as
the track temperature during the early stages was not
critical and the German slotted in behind Villeneuve,
3 tenths of a second up on the Irishman pushing him
to third. A rising track temperature saw the end of Ferrari’s
competitiveness although Schumacher thought he could
achieve faster lap times. "Maybe I could have
gone a little bit quicker," He said, "but
I had too much understeer on my last run."
Bridgestone
continued to disappoint. With the accumulated data
from constant testing at their home track, they were
surprisingly uncompetitive. Using a special compound
formulated for the circuit the choice was about
evenly split between hard and soft, the harder
winning through to give Prost driver, Olivier
Panis the highest position for the Japanese tyre
manufacturer, at 10th place.
Damon Hill’s
performance was disappointing for the Arrows
team, the inferior power of the Yamaha forcing
the TWR team to make compromises with the
downforce to enable the car to be at least
competitive on the straight. It was therefore down to
the driver’s skill to pilot the cars safely
through the corners and it was in those corners that
the time was lost. Hill finished a lowly 17th, one
place behind his ever improving partner Pedro
Diniz.
The session was
stopped for fifteen minutes with five minutes
remaining, when Giani Morbidelli’s Sauber
hit the tyre barriers. Schumacher was on his
third run and about to start his quick lap but
aborted his mission and returned to the pits, the
stickers on his tyres still showing. The rush back to
the track didn’t produce any dramatic changes at
the front of the grid. Villeneuve who was concerned
over his slender pole position lead, was forced out
with two minutes remaining, fearing the German would
be on his tail. He failed to capitalise on his
premature actions, when Irvine, trying for a
better time in the dying seconds of the session, was
put to the side of the track with a fuel flow problem
prompting the yellow flags to be fluttered again.
Schumacher, seemingly playing ‘cat and
mouse’ with his rival and looking like he was
about to shadow the Canadian’s every move, chose
to stay in the pits. "I wasted my third run
when the red flag came out and did not go out at the
end of the session, because I saw that the yellow
flags were out again." He said. "If
I had done my quickest lap at that point, I would
have lost that time.." Whether he talked
about self preservation or ‘gamesmanship’,
it was not noticeable on his countenance and one has
to assume that it was indeed, as he said. "I
saw all the cars were stopping and I knew it was
going to be a mess and I would just waste another set
of tyres."
It was clear that Villeneuve’s
session had not gone the way he had hoped. Not
withstanding his disqualification. An hour before the
Stewards’ announcement he was guardedly
confident. "I wasn’t expecting the
Ferrari’s to be so close to us." He
said. "The bad thing is that my team mate is
behind and he’s not in there to help us."
Aware of the threat that the two Ferrari’s
present at the first corner, he continued, "We’ll
have to wait and see what Eddie does without having
Heinz there to do the same."
As darkness descended
over the pits, the Williams mechanics
continued their work on setting up a car that they
knew might not even garner a single point despite it
winning the race, but, it had to be done. The life
of Jim Morrison, Villeneuve’s current
reading material, is likely to remain unopened in his
hotel room at the circuit tonight and Schumacher will
be in his pits long after everyone else had gone
home, briefing his engineers on the finest details of
his lap performance. An extra tenth of a second here
or there could make all the difference. But with the
threat of disqualification for the Canadian and no
matter what the outcome of the race, there will be no
championship celebrations until the FIA have
had their say next week. Spain could be the unlikely
venue for the final confrontation for the
victor’s crown.
Chris Richardson
Unofficial
qualifying results for the Japanese Grand Prix,
Suzuka 11th Oct 1997
1. Jacques
Villeneuve, Williams-Renault, 1:36.071s (subject
to appeal)
2. Michael
Schumacher, Ferrari, 1:36.133.
3. Eddie Irvine,
Ferrari, 1:36.466.
4. Mika Hakkinen,
McLaren-Mercedes, 1:36.469.
5. Gerhard Berger,
Benetton-Renault, 1:36.561.
6. Heinz-Harald
Frentzen, Williams-Renault, 1:36.628.
7. Jean Alesi, Benetton-Renault,
1:36.682.
8. Johnny Herbert,
Sauber-Petronas, 1:36.906.
9. Giancarlo
Fisichella, Jordan-Peugeot, 1:36.917.
10. Olivier Panis,
Prost Mugen-Honda, 1:37.073.
11. David Coulthard,
McLaren-Mercedes, 1:37.095.
12. Rubens
Barrichello, Stewart-Ford, 1:37.343.
13. Ralf Schumacher,
Jordan-Peugeot, 1:37.443.
14. Jan Magnussen,
Stewart-Ford, 1:37.480.
15. Shinji Nakano,
Prost Mugen-Honda, 1:37.588.
16. Pedro Diniz,
Arrows-Yamaha, 1:37.853.
17. Damon Hill,
Arrows-Yamaha, 1:38.022.
18. Gianni
Morbidelli, Sauber-Petronas, 1:38.556.
19. Ukyo Katayama,
Minardi-Hart, 1:38.983.
20. Tarso Marques,
Minardi-Hart, 1:39.678.
21. Jos Verstappen,
Tyrrell-Ford, 1:40.259.
22. Mika Salo, Tyrrell-Ford,
1:40.529.
