Belgian GP - Spa-Francorchamps 29 August 1999
Race Report
McLaren dominated the Belgian GP despite a controversial start to the race. As he waited for the lights to go out, Hakkinen released his clutch a bit too much and his car moved fractionally ahead, enough to be picked up by the sensors at the start. The Finn immediately pushed it down stopping the car, which cost him the lead because the lights went off at that same moment and his team mate leapt ahead of him from second on the grid. Hakkinen tried to get back first position and caused a slight collision with Coulthard at the first bend, luckily without consequences. Frentzen, who was in third position, saw his chance and tried to overtake the Finn, but could not go past and settled for third position. Irvine had gone ahead of R. Schumacher and Damon Hill to take fourth place. Hill had had a bad start and found himself in seventh position behind Zanardi. Salo had managed to get past Barrichello at the start. Tagaki (on the spare car) and Zonta were stuck on the grid and while the Japanese retired straight away, the BAR driver managed to get going and joined the race almost one lap down. The length of the Belgian circuit allowed the grid situation to be solved without the intervention of the safety car. On lap two it was announced that car number one (Hakkinen) was under investigation for an accident at the start and for a while it seemed probable that the reigning World Champion would be given a 10 seconds stop-go penalty but, after the regulation 20 minutes, nothing had been announced.
Coulthard maintained a very fast pace and Hakkinen never appeared to be in the condition to try and catch up with him, in fact the gap between the two already was three seconds on lap four. On lap 13 Panis was the first driver to go for a pit stop (7.4 seconds), showing that he had adopted a three stop strategy. Badoer went for his pit stop too (9.8 seconds). Several other drivers, both on two and three stop strategies, started the pit stop carousel: Alesi (10.2 seconds), Gené (8.0) and De La Rosa on lap 14, Herbert (10.0) and Diniz on lap 15, Hill (6.8) on lap 16, Frentzen (7.7), Salo (8.1) and Barrichello on lap 17. On lap 18 both Hakkinen (7.7 seconds) and Irvine (6.9) stopped at the pits for the first time and on lap 19 race leader Coulthard had his first pit stop (7.2 seconds), coming back out comfortably into the lead. On lap 21 Diniz lost control of his car, went into a spin like Villeneuve had done in the free practice, entered the gravel trap which successfully slowed it down and stopped against the barrier, retiring from the race. At the same time Alesi, Barrichello and Wurz were engaged in an exciting three-way fight, which ended with Alesi coming out on top, having managed to get past the other two cars and forcing Barrichello to open the door and let Wurz through. On lap 22 those on a one-stop strategy, Zanardi and Fisichella (11.1), went to their pit stops and finally so did R. Schumacher (11.9, on a one stop strategy too) on lap 23.
Having reached the second half of the race Hakkinen started pushing trying to catch up with Coulthard. On lap 27 Villeneuve, on a one stop strategy, stopped at the pits (9.6 seconds). On lap 28 Hill went for a pit stop. At the same time Herbert span out of control and retired. He had gone onto the gravel earlier on in the lap, which might have caused the damaged that made him lose control of the car, or might have been part of a brakes problem which eventually took him out. On lap 29 it was Alesi's and Gené's turn to pit. On lap 31 Hakkinen had his second pit stop but tried to start too early and had to stop to allow a mechanic to finish before he could start again and leave the pits. On the following lap race leader Coulthard (6.9 seconds) had his second pit stop and rejoined the race in the lead. Irvine (8.0 second) and Frentzen (6.9) had their second pit stops on the same lap. Irvine almost collided with Salo as he came out of the pits but managed to avoid the shunt and settled behind his team mate who soon enough made way for him to overtake. On lap 34 Badoer cut a corner at speed and the front of his car lifted, then crashed down on the track. Badoer kept going but his little acrobatics had obviously caused damage to the car as he retired on the following lap with a broken front left suspension. On lap 36 Zonta slowly drove back to the pits and retired. Nothing else happened until the end of the race, won by Coulthard followed by team mate Hakkinen, Frentzen, Irvine, R. Schumacher and Hill.
With McLaren having found a new reliability and having by far the superior engine, the 1999 season seems to be decided. Ferrari seems to have lost the spark that had kept it going after M. Schumacher's accident and not even the return of the man himself, expected at Monza in a fortnight, might change things. Jordan performed well on a circuit they like a lot but which has seen its last GP for the foreseeable future because of strict Belgian tobacco advertising laws. Next appointment is in Italy on 12 September.
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The Belgian GP was throughout dominated by McLaren despite some nags. Hakkinen moved before the lights were out and he was lucky not to be given a 10 seconds stop-go penalty. He then caused a small collision with Coulthard who was obviously not pleased about it, as it was evident by the two drivers' cold attitude to each other after the race and in the winners press conference. Hakkinen also was too impatient in the pits, which could have cost him dearly. Despite all this, nobody had the slightest chance of challenging McLaren, as Irvine started fourth and finished fourth, losing the lead of the Drivers Championship to Hakkinen, albeit only by one point, and the Constructors Championship to McLaren by a more sizeable nine points. Salo was again battling it out at the back of the field and was of no help to Irvine or Ferrari. Similarly to Irvine, Frentzen started third and finished third, unchallenged and driving quietly along in a boring race, as he said in the press conference. His thought went to the public who had come to see a very dull race. Despite the boredom of the race Jordan did well, with Frentzen on the podium and Hill sixth.
R. Schumacher had equally run a good unchallenged and unchallenging race to bring two points home to Williams. The whole race was remarkably dull and overtaking just did not happen, not even at the pit stops, with the exception of Alesi's interesting but short battle with Wurz and Barrichello. Villeneuve had every reason to be happy despite the dull race, having finally managed to finish a GP 1999.
| Images from La Gazzetta dello Sport Online and Raisport |
