Berger returns to
trounce the field twice,
Fisichella sparkles
for Jordan.
"Everybody knows the
difficult times I have had in the past weeks and the
only way to sort it out was to do a quick lap and
that’s what I did today."
So said a 37 year old Gerhard
Berger, the man who rode rough-shod over the
opposition and then went back and did it again. His
statement reveals undertones of the casualness of a
true veteran and the sincerity of a man finding
himself at the inevitable cross-roads of his career.
Standing down to be replaced by the young driver Giancarlo
Fisichella, it is ironic that the two strongest
performances of the day were by the very same duo and
the ‘Old Dog’, driving his first
qualifying session for over two months due to a sinus
infection, showed the young whippersnapper his back
side.
Being Austrian is the
next best thing to being German but this did not
specially please the crowd who, baying and rippling
in a sea of ‘Mexican waves’, blared their
klaxons at anything red or yellow. The noise of the
crowd erupting at the mere oscillation of the
red-gloved wrist of their idol, Michael
Schumacher, drowned the air compressors and the
shrill revs of the engines being started for the
qualifying session.
Early out and first to
hang on to provisional pole, was Mika Hakkinen’s
McLaren setting the yard stick of 1.42.5 and
proving the strength of the Mercedes engine.
The Jordan boys of Ralf Schumacher and
Fisichella were mixing it well and slotted behind in
2nd and 3rd but for the briefest of moments when
older brother, Michael, driving for all he was worth
in a Ferrari that looked decidedly ragged and
off the pace, snatched the Italian’s 3rd slot.
This would rise to 2nd place before Fisichella’s
Peugeot powered Jordan re-took and kept
his slot on the front row of the grid. "I am
reasonably happy with fourth place, which is what I
had expected." Said Schumacher and this time
the underplaying of his comments was absent. "We
went better in qualifying than we did in the morning
session. My closest rival, Villeneuve is only ninth
and that is very important. As for any prediction
about tomorrow, this time I would rather not make
any."
He did indeed trounce Jacques
Villeneuve by over eight tenths of a second which
is considerably better than of late, both William’s
suffering from bad understeer and leaving the team in
a quandary as to how to rectify the problem. Despite
valiant efforts from both drivers, the car just did
not have the legs and left the Canadian trailing in
9th position with his team-mate Frentzen, for once
looking a little more confident but still only on the
third row. "We just didn’t have the
speed and I was pushing all the time." Said
Villeneuve. Having had to use the spare car for the
tail end of the session, he commented, "In
the race car with the same downforce levels as Heinz
I was quite a bit slower down the straight"
David Coulthard
could not match team mate Hakkinen’s pace and
was hard pushed to stay ahead of the lower ranks but
ironically and no doubt of scant comfort to him, he
ended a slot up on the Williams of Villeneuve, in
8th. "I struggled a bit with nervousness at
the rear of the car on entries (to corners) and
because of that I had a spin on the 2nd to last
corner." He said. "It doesn’t
bode well for the race other than to hope that our
reliability will let us score some points."
The last few minutes
produced the usual rush of aspirants to pole but none
amounted to a hill of beans beside Berger’s
efforts. He was out on several occasions giving the
car everything until there was nothing left to give
spinning the car on his last lap seconds before the
session ended.
For a circuit that
most definitely did not suit the Arrows of Damon
Hill his time of 1.43.36 gave him 13th position,
1 ahead of Sauber’s Johnny Herbert and
1 behind Rubens Barichello. Saying that he was
‘satisfied’ rather than pleased with his
result, he too could not help feeling the ‘Berger
factor’ saying with some relief, "He’s
still got it and it’s good to see, because
he’s older than me!"
The Benetton
team of Flavio Briatore, is the strongest looking
team at Hockenheim having not only got the pole, but
the high ground in morale, having possibly secured
the driver of the season. All team boss Eddy
Jordan would say about the loss of his boy
Fisichella to the Italian team next year, was that "Negotiations
were still continuing and nothing is settled."
Obviously pleased about Ginacarlo’s progress he
said, "It’s a great feeling to know that
we will be starting from the front row but ultimately
however, it is the race result which counts, so we
must put the great feeling of today aside and
concentrate on what we have to do tomorrow. We really
need to get that win." He added without a
hint of humour, "Once we win one we can win a
lot." Few who could face his steely glint,
would disagree.
The whole weekend
somehow has been about old men running out of puff
and the new breed taking over Ecclestone’s
asylum. The Home crowd failed to get their main man,
or his brother, on the front row, but has witnessed
the ascension of a couple of stars to the Formula 1
firmament. Whether they can hold it together for the
race or be trampled by the stampeding Buffalo of the
old guard remains to be seen. Michael will most
probably have a fight on his hands and not from the
blue and white quarter as one may expect but whether
the yellow snake will be hissing at his wheels, or he
will be chasing it’s tail , the crowd will have
something to cheer about over their Bratwurst and
beers.
Last year Berger led
the race until the last lap when his engine expired.
To get into that position for tomorrow’s race,
would have been lucky up until today, but now he
could be on to a very fine swan song indeed.
Chris Richardson
Qualifying
positions for the
45th German Grand
Prix, Hockenheim.
1. Gerhard Berger
Benetton 1 41.873
2. Giancarlo
Fisichella Jordan 1:41.896
3. Mika Hakkinen
McLaren 1:42.034
4. Michael
Schumacher Ferrari 1:42.181
5. Heinz-Harald
Frentzen Williams 1:42.421
6. Jean Alesi Benetton
1:42.493
7. Ralf Schumacher Jordan
1:42.498
8. David Coulthard
McLaren 1:42.687
9. Jacques
Villeneuve Williams 1:42.967
10. Eddie Irvine
Ferrari 1:43.209
11. Jarno Trulli Prost
1:43.226
12. Rubens
Barrichello Stewart 1:43.272
13. Damon Hill Arrows
1:43.361
14. Johnny Herbert Sauber
1:43.660
15. Jan Magnussen Stewart
1:43.927
16. Pedro Diniz Arrows
1:44.069
17. Shinji Nakano Prost
1:44.112
18. Norberto
Fontana Sauber 1:44.552
19. Mika Salo
Tyrrell 1:45.372
20. Jos Verstappen
Tyrrell 1:45.811
21. Tarso Marques Minardi
1:45.942
22. Ukyo Katayama Minardi
1:46.499
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