Hill’s fateful
day came to an untimely conclusion when,
understandably frustrated by earlier events and the
uncompromising nature of the circuit, he took a long
dive at Shinji Nokano’s Prost on the
entry to the Variente Bassa complex.
The inevitable collision occurred, Hill losing his
front wheel and sending the talentless Japanese
spinning into the dirt. "I touched him
alright, in fact I T-boned him," said an
uncharacteristically darkly-humoured Hill after the
race, "I thought it was ambitious, yes, but I
wasn’t going to tag around at the back of the
field. I caught him up, as I was 3 secs a lap
quicker. He blocked me for a lap and to be honest, I
was pretty cheesed off after starting in the pit
lane. The move was only on if he let me through...but
he didn’t. You don’t enjoy being held up by
people who shouldn’t be holding you up. For
the first time this season, he let go at the team,
"We’ve got to get our act
together," he said, "We have not had
one race meeting yet where I have not sprung an oil
leak either on the grid or in the pits." It
was quite clear that Hill was getting to the end of
his tether and the racing driver in him was just
itching to get out. The blame for the incident could
not really be laid fully at Nakano’s feet. "Hill
just ran into me from behind at the last
chicane." Calling Hill ‘Mr World
Champion’, he explained, "I saw him
in my mirrors but, as I turned in, he hit the rear
left of my car hard." Being realistic, the
chance of a major points loss caused by this incident
however, seemed slim indeed. To add to his wretched
weekend, Hill was given a suspended one race ban by
the stewards who had no doubts at all as to where the
blame lay. His team-mate Pedro Diniz collected
a similar prize for causing a near miss with Jacques
Villeneuve. In addition to taking his driver out,
Hill may have brought back grim memories for team
boss Alain Prost who on several occasions in
his own career, must have suffered the same
frustrations.
A series of
retirements before the first round of stops changed
the order of the mid runners, when Ralf Schumacher
after a superb drive, retired with a broken drive
shaft handing fourth place to Herbert who, coasting
to a standstill with an electrical fault moments
later, handed his place to Irvine. Panis by
this time had dropped back down the line clearly
struggling with his Bridgestone tyres, the
infallibility of which up until this point, had been
legendary. This could be portentous for the Japanese
manufacturer and the chink in their armour that Goodyear
were looking for. Nil points for Olivier this time.
By the time Schumacher
made his first pit stop on Lap 24, Frentzen was
buzzing around his exhaust like an angry bee and,
using the clear air, he put in two truly electrifying
laps while his team-mate stopped for tyres also.
Those vital seconds gained, combined with
Villeneuve’s out lap being hampered by traffic,
enabled him to retain his lead and he started pulling
away at the rate of over a second a lap. Tables were
now turned for the Williams boys and, about time.
Indeed Villeneuve seemed to be having trouble hanging
on to Schumacher and it looked at one point that he
would be swallowed up by the McLaren of David
Coulthard who, on a 1 stop strategy was light on
fuel and moving very quickly.
Retirement for Rubens
Barrichello came with a loss of oil pressure
after a solid drive in 8th and proving to be the
better of the Bridgestone runners. This makes the
second retirement in a row for the Stewart Ford
team." We have had a troubled weekend and
we’ve just got to see what we can do about
it." commented Jackie Stewart afterwards.
The gaggle of
mid-placed cars were still trying to make a race of
it 27 second behind the race leaders. Making things
worse, was Ukyo Katayama thinking that Sundays
were for driving slow and looking at the scenery and
not in ones mirrors. Had he done so, he would have
seen not only Coulthard bearing down on him but
Irvine, Giancarlo Fisichella, desperate to
prove a point to his departed and unmissed team-mate
Schumacher, and Panis. A fine spray of oil was now
emanating from the back of Coulthard’s McLaren
and undoubtedly this gave Fisichella the opportunity
to make a daring move past Irvine’s momentarily
sliding Ferrari, only to have his visor splattered
with oil seconds later, as the McLaren Mercedes,
exploded in a billow of white smoke.
It was now obvious
that Villeneuve was in trouble and after a prolonged
pit stop on lap 42, where a desperate attempt to fit
a new steering wheel and get the jammed gearbox into
neutral met without success after two full minutes,
the car was wheeled into the garage, a bitterly
disappointed Canadian still strapped tightly in his
cockpit. "The car was strong all weekend and
it is a great disappointment." Villeneuve
said, "The gears wouldn’t change down,
but then I got on the straight, accelerated and it
would change down by itself, so I lost control of the
gears. It’s impossible to drive like that."
Frentzen responded to the demise of his team mate
with a fastest lap, handing the lead briefly to
Schumacher when he made his final pit stop.
Schumacher couldn’t hold onto it, being forced
to brake heavily by a wayward Nicola Larini
and then having to follow him into the pits, losing
valuable time in the process. The position was not to
change. Irvine having regained his place over
Fisichella by way of a timely pitstop and inheriting
Villeneuve’s space, found himself in third,
albeit 18 seconds down with an easy cruise to the
second podium finish in a row. "I had a good
idea he (Fisichella) had more fuel onboard so I could
go longer in the 2nd stint and I was able to overtake
him in the pits." Said Irvine, clearly
unfazed by the result, "After the 2nd pit
stop it was quite boring, plodding along to the
finish. It’s nice to be back on the podium, but
it didn’t give me the same buzz as two weeks
ago."
As the rain started to
spot the drivers mirrors, Heinz Harald Frentzen
crossed the line to take the flag hotly pursued in
the latter stages by Schumacher who followed,
breathing down his neck 1.2 seconds behind. "The
car was working fairly well and I was basically
happy. Second is more than I expected." Said
a delighted Schumacher, " We are the only
team that can go at almost the speed of the Williams
and certain changes in our car soon, may give us the
step up we are looking for."
Oddly enough the
Italians got what they wanted by seeing two thirds of
the podium covered in red and indeed Fans crossing
the borders to see new German hero Frentzen make
good, got a double Teutonic helping, it being a first
in Grand Prix history. Schumacher also promised ‘more
German dominance’ to come and one can only
surmise what will happen when younger brother Ralf,
throws his towel on the top step of the podium.
Frentzen of course was
delighted and, initially lost for words but
eventually his faltering English never sounded so
eloquent, "It’s very much like....oil on
my soul. I put in two quick laps before my pit stop
and gained about 2 seconds and when I came out and
saw P1, I was absolutely pleased and surprised. I was
concerned about the brakes, I didn’t want to
happen again what happened in Melbourne. I had to
push but I didn’t brake as much as I could have
done. I tried to save more brakes at the end."
Williams Boss, Frank Williams, allowing the
Formula 1 fraternity a rare smile, was not
advertising his vindication in his decision to
replace Hill with the young German. He said, "He
was concerned about his brakes, but they were fine
and we were telling him to go quicker, but, he was in
control." Fully aware of the increased
pressure this will now put on him to continue his
success rather than to achieve it for the first time,
Frentzen stated earlier that he ‘become the prey
instead of being the hunter’.
But, despite his
undeniably dazzling win, a shadow of doubt must still
remain as to Frentzen’s consistent race winning
capabilities. With the real yard stick having retired
and his fellow countryman driving a car lacking the
outright speed of the Williams, yet finishing less
than a second and a half behind, the German has, for
the time being at least, still to be the hunter and
win, against the only man that is capable at this
moment, of going faster.
Chris Richardson
Top six placings
