Villeneuve moves to
keep his championship hopes alive.
Hakinnen loses pole
by just over a minute.
Mika Hakkinen was
cruelly denied the first pole position of his career
in the closing minute of the qualifying session at
the A!-Ring in Austria today by a blistering
and aggressive lap from Williams driver Jacques
Villeneuve. Where starting positions is an all
important step to the final outcome of the race, the
Canadian has put himself in the strongest possible
position for a much needed race win if he is to offer
any competition at all to current leader Michael
Schumacher who struggled to a lowly 9th place
behind team mate Eddie Irvine.
For the first 25
minutes there was nothing to spoil the view of the
rolling hills and distant mountains of the Tyrol
under a fine mottled blue sky. Certainly not any cars
marred the scene, with the exception of Tarso
Marques’ Minardi and Jos Verstappen’s
Tyrrell who did the early work of laying down
the first layer of rubber on a track that lacks any
grip. With only two runs expected from the teams and
after a prolonged and rather eerie silence, an
increasingly frustrated crowd eventually saw track
action get underway with barely half the session
remaining.
Bridgestone
tyres seem well suited to the nature of the ‘stop
and go’ circuit and throughout the weekend
the Japanese tyres have been running close to the
front of the pack. The Goodyear soft option
was not the choice of the teams today. Still
blistering within 4 or 5 laps in warm weather, harder
compounds were favoured by the majority and, whilst
not giving high qualifying positions, they are
considered a less compromising bet for the race. Only
Ferrari’s Eddie Irvine and Sauber
opted for the softer tyres possibly gambling on a
cooler track temperature for the race, yet all the
Bridgestone runners seemed to be able to make up for
their lack of speed by running with the softer and
more durable rubber, dividing the first six places
evenly between both manufacturers.
The first solid times
were set by Stewart drivers Jan Magnussen
and Rubens Barichello who continued to trade
personal bests for the rest of the session in their
best showing to date, the newly modified Ford V10
showing drastic improv3ment over recent outings.
Jarno Trulli’s
Mugen-Honda gave out in a big way at turn 6 (A1
Kurve) leaving a trail of oil all the way to the
pits to the great displeasure of all who followed in
his wake. Indeed Magnussen under a great deal of
pressure from his Boss Jackie Stewart to
improve his overall performance thought that he was
capable of better times. "My hopes were
really high," He said. "but first
Trulli put oil down in front of me, then when I did a
long run at the end of the session I got caught
behind a Minardi when I was on a quick lap."
This was indeed the
case for all the drivers who all exited the pits in a
scrum as if a whistle had blown and at one point
there were17 cars on the track at the same time all
trying to find clear space for a quick run. Heinz
Harald Frentzen remained in the pit lane with a
jammed gear and was hard pushed at the end of the
session to improve his time from DNQ to 4th place.
The McLarens
again proving their inexplicable disparity, blew hot
and cold. Hot for Hakinnen who hung on to his
provisional pole until the very last moments and most
definitely cold for David Coulthard who was
close to being a back marker until he managed to
screw a few more revs from the Mercedes to
place him 10th
Gerhard Berger
struggled all through the session, the Benettons
not running at all well. "I am not happy with
this poor result." Said Berger. "We
have worked hard all weekend, but did not manage to
get the best from the car. We chose hard tyres and we
just weren’t able to get a quick lap. Down from
18th position, it will be a real challenge to get
some points." Jean Alesi likewise
suffering in a team that is undergoing a small crisis
at the moment with a management take-over and their
showing so far. "The balance of the car
seemed good, but I did not seem to be able to get the
grip which is needed." He said. "We
have to try and understand the problem and see what
we can do before tomorrow."
The Jordan Peugeot
team uncharacteristically, were well down the field Schumacher
Junior finishing ahead of team mate Giancarlo
Fisichella, normally a front runner these days,
in 11th. Neither driver was able to make their car
perform to recent standards. "I am not really
surprised at out poor results today." Said
Schumacher. We have not really been on good form all
weekend and are suffering from a lack of grip. The
only real problems were understeer in the fourth
corner and nervousness in the rear when I try to
accelerate in the mid-corners." No such
complaints from Fisichella however, who just
complained about the traffic. "The real
problem for me though was traffic and I was really
held up by Sauber and by Michael Schumacher."
To say that you were held up by the best driver on
the planet is indicative of how slow the Ferrari’s
were and for the two time world champion to finish a
slot adrift of his team mate proves that the Ferrari
is definitely not at home in Austria.
Damon Hill ran
well setting quick times on his first outing to put
him in 3rd slot but with increasing traffic and a
quicker track he was unlucky not to get any higher
and was slowly pushed down the grid by fast times
from Villeneuve, Frentzen and a brilliant last minute
dive from Jarno Trulli in the spare Prost,
to take a surprising 3rd place. Hill, trying too
hard, ended up in the gravel on his last quick lap, 5
minutes before the flag fell
With less than a
second separating the top 14 places and five of those
on Bridgestone rubber, tomorrow’s race
will certainly be unpredictable. Lack of overtaking
opportunities will put the onus on the tyres to
perform, perhaps beyond their limits and on a track
that lacks grip but forces the driver to run with
less downforce than he would like to enable him to
get through the corners without stopping, the mid
field could have it’s day.
Williams
however, look set to dominate but not without some
intervention from the likes of Stewart and McLaren.
What is important, is that Schumacher’s Ferrari
lies 8 places behind Villeneuve’s Williams. It
will take a superhuman effort from the German to make
up that kind of deficit at the start especially with
wizzmaster Coulthard right beside him. The start will
be crucial to any number of drivers and could set the
seal for an interesting race of tactics, in as much
as the leading protagonists could be those that
don’t usually see so much of the limelight.
Chris Richardson
Top 6 qualifying
results Austrian Grand Prix Sept 20th 1997
1 J Villeneuve
Williams Renault 1:10.304
2 M Hakinnen McLaren
Mercedes 1:10.398
3 J Trulli Prost
Mugen-Honda 1:10.511
4 H Frentzen Williams
Renault 1:10.670
5 R Barichello Stewart
Ford 1:10.700
6 J Magnussen Stewart
Ford 1:10.893
