Hungaroring

10 August 1997

Since the last Austrian Grand Prix in 1987, the Hungaroring has been regarded as a “home” race by Gerhard Berger’s countrymen, and they were certainly out in force this year even with the return of Austria to the calendar after their hero’s comeback win at Hockenheim. Gianni Morbidelli was back in the Sauber, relegating Fontana back to testing duties, but otherwise it was business as usual. The Ferrari team were using a new lighter-weight car which allowed ballast to be placed in the best spot for balance, and the team had also developed a new torque-control system, recently ruled legal by the FIA. Jean Todt insisted they weren’t using it this weekend, but other teams and pundits were sceptical about that. Practice indicated that the Goodyear and Bridgestone tyres performed better at different temperatures, which on this circuit which could heat and cool quickly might make a lot of difference. Friday was hotter and the Bridgestones went better, while Saturday started hot but quickly cooled off and the Goodyears had the advantage. The game of musical chairs driver wise continued for 1998, with Ferrari confirming Eddie Irvine for his third season with the team while rumours persisted that at least one of Coulthard and Häkkinen would be looking for a new employer.

Michael Schumacher claimed pole in the new car, and Villeneuve likewise had a late excursion off track on his way to second on the grid. Third on the grid, though, was a major turn-up for the books: Damon Hill. He’d gone fifth-fastest on Friday on his Bridgestones, depsite only getting one lap because his mechanics spent 55 minutes trying to find an electronic problem in his gearbox, but Saturday was broadly a Goodyear day and still he’d gone third. Hungary is not a power circuit, after all, and Damon and Tom Walkinshaw both agreed that they had a neatly balanced chassis. Fourth was Häkkinen, who’d been second right up until Villeneuve and Hill made their last laps in the dying seconds of the session, then Irvine and Frentzen. Heinz-Harald and his engineers had taken a gamble in choosing harder tyres (you have to qualify on the tyres you intend to race on) which meant less grip for a quick lap but if the race was hot they’d last much better. The Jordan team had made the same call, but their boys were down in 13th (Fisichella) and 14th (Schumacher) so they’d have a real job making up places. The Benetton drivers weren’t thrilled with 7th and 9th on the grid, split by Coulthard who’d had his best lap ruined by a gearbox gremlin-induced spin. Johnny Herbert rounded out the top ten in his Sauber, with returning teammate Morbidelli 17th.

Race day was hot: good news for the Bridgestone runners and those on harder tyres, not so good for most of the top men on the soft Goodyears. After last year’s problems with the dirty side of the track – particularly at the start – the organisers had been out with giant industrial vacuum cleaners and hoovered up a lot of the dust, but there were still treacherous patches. Michael Schumacher found one of them, and had an off in the morning warmup, so would have to start the race in his T-car.

When the lights went out, Schumacher stormed off to keep his lead, but Villeneuve was tardy away and Hill squeezed through to take second. Irvine got a cracking start and went up to third, hotly pursued by Häkkinen. Villeneuve was fifth just ahead of his team-mate Frentzen, with Herbert also having a good start to slot in seventh, taking advantage of a near-collision between the two Benettons. Magnussen and Morbidelli had a coming-together further back, which sent both of them off the track and into the pits for repairs.

Schumacher began to pull away from Hill – 1.7s already by the end of lap 1 – but behind the Arrows, Irvine was having to spend most of his time fighting off Häkkinen rather than chasing. Coulthard had moved back up ahead of Herbert to take seventh, meanwhile, with Alesi, Berger and Trulli (up from 12th) making up the top ten. After a lap or two, Hill began to close the gap to Schumacher again, and the pair of them were pulling away from the Irvine-Häkkinen scrap. Michael was driving an unfamiliar T-car and had blistered his tyres, while Hill had the Bridgestone tyres with the better characteristics in the heat, and before long Hill had caught right up to him. Irvine was having similar problems with a badly-balanced set of tyres, and lost places to Häkkinen and Villeneuve before coming in for a pitstop on lap 7 for new tyres. With him out of the way, Mika and Jacques were bearing down on the leaders with Frentzen and Coulthard not far behind. By the end of lap 8, a four-car train had developed at the front.

Then, at the end of lap 10, with the British ITV coverage off on a commercial break, Hill got past Schumacher to take the lead going into turn 1. By the end of the next lap, Damon was over 2.6s ahead, and continued to pull out at a rate of knots. Häkkinen’s hydraulics died on lap 13 – joining Magnussen and Morbidelli, who’d both retired a few laps after pitting for repairs – so Villeneuve now took up the pursuit of Schumacher, and managed to get past quickly and set off in pursuit of his former team-mate. Schumacher was clearly having trouble and eventually came in to the pits on lap 14, which put Frentzen into third and the German was on a charge, putting in a series of fastest laps and closing in on his Canadian team-mate. Schumacher, meanwhile, rejoined 12th behind Nakano.

Soon enough, it was time for the first round of pit-stops as a quarter-distance approached for those running three stops, and one of the first in was Pedro Diniz – he emerged just in front of Hill and within a lap or so Hill was past, lapping his team-mate. Villeneuve took longer getting by, then came in for his first stop on lap 24 accompanied by Coulthard, then Hill came in – the Arrows stop was a little better and Hill rejoined in second with Herbert third until he made his own stop. Hill was now catching Frentzen on new tyres, when suddenly the Williams started shooting out squirts of flame, then smoke. He came in on lap 29, but only to retire: part of the refuelling connector on his car had sprung loose on the lap before his stop, and fuel had been slopping out and igniting on the hot rear bodywork. Unfortunately, this also meant that the team couldn’t refuel him and he was out.

On lap 31, then, Hill led once more, 13.6s ahead of Villeneuve, with Coulthard half a second back in the McLaren, then another three seconds back to a charging Michael Schumacher, who was the first to come in for a second stop, rejoining fifth in front of Fisichella, who began to harry the Ferrari. Coulthard, meanwhile, had caught right up to the back of Villeneuve as they wove through traffic, and Hill now had a lead of more than 18s over the pair of them. Fisichella’s exuberance got the better of him, spinning his Jordan into retirement as he tried to get past Schumacher, which promoted Nakano to sixth. Villeneuve had slowed up to preserve his tyres, safe in the knowledge that it was tough to pass and Coulthard would have a job getting past. Coulthard came in instead, hoping to get past on strategy rather than on the track.

On lap 51, Hill came in for his second of two stops, followed by Villeneuve, who got out just behind Coulthard, who ran slightly wide at turn 1 and let Jacques through. Frustrated, he tried to get past but JV made the Williams wide and kept him behind. Irvine was fourth, with Herbert fifth while the Schumacher brothers were now dicing over the last point, with Michael keeping Ralf behind him. Pedro Diniz’ undistinguished afternoon ended with a battery problem after 53 laps, while Irvine dropped back after stopping, joining the back of a queue led by Michael Schumacher in 5th, with his brother now 6th, with Nakano 7th and Irvine now 8th. There were 14 laps to go and he was clearly holding up his brother and the rest. Meanwhile Damon Hill now had a lead of some 30s and was looking as comfortable at the front as he had in a Williams for the previous four years.

Irvine got past Nakano as Couthard’s electrics went fritz and promoted them all another place, with Herbert now in a lonely third place and the four-car battle between the Schumachers, Irvine and Nakano promoted to one for fourth. With just 8 laps to go, if Schumacher could hang onto fourth place with Villeneuve sixth, then Jacques would only catch up by three points in the standings. The laps ticked down towards a famous win for Damon Hill and Arrows, while the cameras were mainly watching the 4-5-6-7 battle. And then a bit of bad news – Damon was finding a problem with his throttle and slowed down. With just two laps to go, Hill was lapping very slowly and Villeneuve was gaining at a rate of knots. But did the Canadian have the time to catch up?

Hill started the last lap with his car jerking and twitching as his throttle cut out intermittently and backmarkers came streaming past. Halfway through the last lap it was over as Villeneuve caught up and, veering onto the grass to avoid the Arrows jerking left as he came through, went through into the lead and won the race. Hill managed to coax his Arrows across the line for second place, with Herbert third. the Schumacher brothers finished fourth and fifth, but Irvine had a rush of blood to the head and put his Ferrari in the gravel trying to get past the Jordan, leaving Shinji Nakano to gratefully accept the last point to equal his best-ever finish.

A somewhat deflated Damon Hill listened to “O Canada” on the podium but gave a good show of being happy to be where he was – Arrows’ best result for some time, Yamaha’s best ever as an engine supplier and a fine reward for all the team’s progress this year. Still, a typically forthright Tom Walkinshaw summed up his and Damon’s thoughts. “Maybe I should be glad to be second, but right now I’m just pissed off.” It was later discovered that the culprit was a single washer, cost about 50p. But Jacques Villeneuve, whatever sympathy he felt for his former team-mate, wasn’t complaining at the opportunity to close the championship gap to just three points.

Drivers’ Championship

POSITION DRIVER POINTS 1 Michael Schumacher 56 2 Jacques Villeneuve 53 3 Jean Alesi 22 4 Gerhard Berger 20 5 Heinz-Harald Frentzen 19 6 Eddie Irvine 18 7 Olivier Panis 15 8= David Coulthard 14 8= Mika Häkkinen 14 10= Ralf Schumacher 11 10= Johnny Herbert 11 12 Giancarlo Fisichella 8 13 Damon Hill 7 14 Rubens Barrichello 6 15 Alexander Wurz 4 16 Jarno Trulli 3 17= Mika Salo 2 17= Shinji Nakano 2 19 Nicola Larini 1

Constructors’ Championship