Under billowing clouds
and with the imminent threat of thunderstorms, a
massive crowd, buoyed up by the sight of local hero Damon
Hill fastest in a wet warm up session that
morning, were vociferous in their appreciation for
the man that has taken the slings and arrows of his
boss and the press, however unfairly dealt, on the
chin and replied in the only way that could silence
his detractors.
Not that Hill was
doing a rain dance before the start of the race, but
his Bridgestone tyres were providing superior
grip to the Goodyear competitors on the rain
soaked track and a deluge now would more than likely
have changed the outcome of the race to the advantage
of several mid-field runners. This was not to be
however. Blue sky dotted with clouds in all shades of
grey heralded the formation lap and with 22 cars
gunning their engines to the point of overheating, a
gear selection problem with the Williams of Heinz Harald Frentzen
set the race start back a further ten minutes and
Frentzen effectively to the back of the grid. This
left a rather large space in front of the Ferrari of Michael Schumacher,
4th on the grid and every opportunity to get ahead at
the first corner.
When the race did get
underway, Villeneuve made a good enough start to take
the lead with Schumacher following. A blinding start
by McLaren’s David Coulthard from
6th position, saw him pass his team mate Mika
Hakkinen and draw level with Schumacher before
the first turn. Holding off the attack, the German
began to pull away immediately, in pursuit of the
Williams.
Meanwhile back on the
grid, the Minardi of Ukyo Katayama
had inexplicably spun halfway down pit straight and
was firmly lodged in the Armco in front of the
Ferrari pits inviting the yellow flag and the Safety
car on to the course until the carnage had been
cleared. The scrum at the rear of the grid is always
fraught with danger as any back marker will tell you,
but Frentzen clearing the grid cleanly, made a rather
careless move on the Tyrrell of Jos Verstappen
at Copse corner, cutting into the
Dutchman’s front wing and puncturing his own
rear left tyre. "As I was making my way
through the field, I was bumped from behind and
forced off the track with a rear tyre problem." He
said with some lack of conviction later. The gravel
trap was the furthest he got to the chequered flag
and even the walk back to the pits was not long
enough for him to think of a decent excuse to tell
his boss Frank Williams already displeased
with his erratic services this season.
Into the pits went the
safety car and into the distance went Villeneuve and
Schumacher, leaving a gaggle of fairly evenly-matched
cars to fight it out for the rest of the points. At
the head of the following crocodile, in third place,
was Coulthard, already holding up team mate Hakkinen
running closely behind but, benefiting from such a
magnificent start, was not about to give up his place
easily and so a disorderly queue followed the
Scotsman round the track for the next ten laps until
the first round of pit stops began to change the
order of the race.
Schumacher put in an
early fast lap of 1.25.5s on lap 8 but by lap 17 the
two leaders had pulled out a considerable gap on
Coulthard and although 22 seconds ahead of the
McLaren, Villeneuve was unable to shake the Ferrari
from his tail and the gap remained a resolute 1.6
seconds.
Both cars were on two
stop strategies and pitted within a lap of each other
on laps 21and 22. The German was in and out in 7.1
seconds and having built up a 25 second lead over the
heavily fuelled-up McLaren on single stop tactics,
took the lead anticipating a renewed skirmish with
Villeneuve on his next pass of the pits. The Canadian
was having a bad time of his stop and as the German
sailed passed the pit exit expecting to see the
Williams ‘popping up’ ahead, mechanics were
scrambling all over the front left wheel of his car
trying to screw on a cross threaded wheel nut. It
took them over 33 seconds to find a replacement it
and get the car on it’s way, losing 6 places in
the process. "The left hand wheel became
loose about 10 laps before my first stop and it was
very difficult to drive the car." Said
Villeneuve. "You had to turn the wheel from
one side to the other and it became very heavy and
the grip wasn’t good. When we pitted, the wheel
nut stuck and it took a while to change it . When
you’re just sitting there helpless in a
situation like that, you become frustrated and more
aggressive too. I had to push."
Schumacher continued
to gain on Coulthard who was having all sorts of
problems with his brake balance, locking his front
and then his rear tyres at almost every other corner.
This afforded the opportunity for Hakkinen to pass
but, having been forced to wait in line for so long
found that he was now 22 seconds down on the Ferrari.
The McLarens both pitted for fresh rubber and fuel
leaving the door open for both Benettons of Jean Alesi and Alex
Wurz, who was having the time of his life, to
inherit 2nd and 3rd.
The German’s
Ferrari was flying and with another fastest lap of
1.24.47 he did indeed look invincible. But all this
was about to come to an end with a tell-tale puff of
smoke from the left rear wheel, yet all appeared to
be well until, after pitting again for a brief
inspection, the car speed died on the circuit and
Schumacher coasted it home to the garage, his wheel
bearings shot. "I am not too disappointed as
I was comfortably in he lead when it occurred."
Said a Schumacher brightly, "It’s the
first technical problem we have had this year and
it’s no reason to be upset. Williams still has a
slight advantage in qualifying trim, but we are
competitive in the race." He can console
himself with the fact that he still maintains a four
point advantage over Villeneuve and goes to his home
Grand Prix, the Championship leader.
Faces were even longer
in the Scuderia pits when 6 laps later, Irvine
didn’t get past the pit exit after his second
fuel stop. In a sobering reminder of events at the
Canadian Grand Prix last year when a similar event
occurred although more spectacularly, a half-shaft
failure effectively put a temporary halt to
Ferrari’s indomitable march to both titles. The
Irishman echoed his team-mate's sentiments regarding
Ferrari’s unexpected fallibility. "At my
second stop the mechanics noticed there was a problem
with the rear right wheel. It is the first time this
season that Ferrari has had a mechanical problem and
until now it has been incredibly reliable. In race
trim we are very near the Williams, but we need to
improve our qualifying. We are still
competitive."
This put Hakkinen
firmly in control leaving Villeneuve, having made his
second stop, the task of carving a way through the
Benettons of Alesi and Wurz who were maintaining
station albeit quite a distance behind the McLaren.
The Jordans of Ralf Schumacher
and Giancarlo Fisichella were
proving to be a disappointment after setting the
fastest time during testing at Silverstone
and fell easy prey to both Villeneuve and Coulthard.
A one stop strategy which could have lead Fisichella
to the podium failed after he was forced to make an
unscheduled stop for new tyres after damaging them in
a spin in the gravel. "I am very angry with
myself." He said "After my pit stop,
I came off the first bend and wasted
everything."
For the third race in
a row lady luck saw fit to bestow her favours
anywhere else but with McLaren and as Villeneuve
roared up to Hakkinen’s tail, the excited crowd
clamoured in anticipation of a race to the finish.
With a badly blistered rear tyre, the Finn was making
a race of it, anticipating the moves of the marauding
Williams. But then the Mercedes let go and
Villeneuve, scooping the good fortune that let fly
from the McLaren, was given the race. Looking more
confident than he really should have in the
circumstances, Villeneuve didn’t think there
would have been a problem overtaking the McLaren. "I
could see that Hakkinen had blistered his rear tyres
and I was waiting for the last laps to make my move
but then he broke something." But he
recognised his change in fortune during the race by
unwittingly complimenting Ferrari on their
consistency this year. "It’s great to
see that it happened to them too, as we have had our
share of mechanical problems too." He added,
"It balances out the Championship."
Jean Alesi driving
well, and lucky to finish second and Alex Wurz
driving brilliantly in only his third Grand Prix,
gave Benetton the Silver and the Bronze, something
that boss Flavio Briatore hasn’t seen in
a while. "Our selection of a one-stop
strategy was the perfect tactic today. I felt slow
and not in good shape driving a race with a lot of
fuel, but it was amazing to see my position improving
all the time." Alesi said afterwards. Wurz
at a loss for words and obviously a novice at driver
interviews said. "I always thought about what
I would say at these press conferences and now
I’ve lost everything! Without the brilliant
tactic of going just for one stop, we would not have
managed to secure this result. I am delighted."
His modesty, with Just the right amount of deference
to the team, should see him set fair for a future
with the Enstone-based outfit.
A disappointed crowd
still had one man to shout for and having trundled
round in 12th place for most of the race, Hill now
found himself in seventh in the Arrows and with an outside chance of
getting in the points. The four second gap between
him and old adversary, Shinji Nakano looked
fairly insurmountable until the Japanese
driver’s Mugen-Honda engine gave up the
ghost on the penultimate lap. Hill couldn’t
believe his luck and started to wave to the
crowd as if he was to be first passed the line.
Bringing back a situation he hasn’t experienced
since last year, Hill was in a jubilant mood
afterwards. "I feel like I’ve won
something!" he said, "I only got a
point but everyone was waving and cheering. I
thought, if I got a point it would be nearly as good
as a win. When I saw Nakano’s engine blow up, I
went past and I was actually waving at the crowd I
was so excited!"
No matter that Hill
was nowhere to be seen when the Champagne started
spraying, the crowd had been satisfied, Hill had
regained a great deal of dignity and from an outside
observer’s point of view at least, his
relationship with Tom Walkinshaw seemed on
slightly firmer ground. Asked if he was happy with
the result Hill said: "I am pleased but I
would have done just as well without the criticism.
The best we could have hoped for was a point."
Walkinshaw’s acknowledgement of Hill’s
achievement was tempered with a touch of the
self-righteous when he said, "Sometimes you
have to do hard things to get the best out of
people."
It wasn’t obvious
to the thousands of Hill’s loyal fans either,
that he was doing it because he got told off in
public. "I am going to give it my all for
myself and for my supporters, who have stuck by me
all along." He told a newspaper over the
weekend. "To have people cheering and waving
their banners means a lot to me." Carrying
the Yamaha V10 with a deficit of over one
hundred horsepower round 59 laps of one of the
fastest circuits of the season and to finish in the
points, will not have gone unnoticed by several teams
who will undoubtedly have vacant seats for next year.
All the Fords suffered major engine failures
as did a Mercedes and a Mugen-Honda, proving that Silverstone
is one of the toughest circuits on engine
performance. In comparison, Villeneuve’s victory
was the seventh in succession by a Renault-powered car and the sixth for
Williams in the last seven British Grands Prix.
The traditional Jordan
party pit-side, went ahead despite the disappointment
of team boss Eddie Jordan. "I thought we had
a very good chance to get a podium but unfortunately
it didn’t work out and I’m disappointed
especially here at Silverstone." Before the
music started and the beer began to flow he said, "We
need to learn to maximise our opportunities and
achieve better results in the race."
This could also have
been the watch word at Williams this weekend and for
a race, the outcome of which, was directly related to
the amount of luck dished out, it seemed a fair
result and one that has, by mid season, opened up the
competition at the point when the championship was in
danger of becoming a foregone conclusion.
Chris Richardson
Race results for
the 32nd British Grand Prix
Silverstone July
13th 1997
1. J Villeneuve
(Williams-Renault), 1h 20'01"665
2. J Alesi
(Benetton-Renault), + 10" 205
3. A Wurz
(Benetton-Renault), + 11" 296
4. D Coulthard
(McLaren-Mercedes), + 31" 229
5. R. Schumacher
(Jordan-Peugeot), + 31" 880
6. D Hill
(Arrows-Yamaha), + 1'13" 552
7. G Fisichella
(Jordan-Peugeot), + 1 lap
8. J Trulli
(Prost-Mugen-Honda), + 1 lap
9. N Fontana
(Sauber-Petronas), + 1 lap
10. T Marques
(Minardi-Hart), + 1 lap
11. S Nakano
(Prost-Mugen-Honda), + 1 lap
The British Grand
Prix can be followed on the Web at the following URL:
http.www.grandprix97.co.uk
In a race of high attrition and
disappointment for both 