European GP - Nürburgring 26 September 1999

Race Report

With the cars lined on the grid and ready for the European GP the starting lights came on one by one .....and stayed on. After a very long gap Frentzen, who was in pole position, thought that the lights had to be just about to change and started, imitated by other drivers. After a few yards he stopped with Hakkinen alongside him, having realised the lights had not changed. Some of the other drivers had moved forwards slightly and stopped realising something was wrong with the lights. In fact, the first start was aborted because the grid had not been reformed correctly after the formation lap and a second start took place five minutes later, with the race reduced by one lap. No driver was penalised for jumping the start because the first start had been halted before the cars had moved. When the lights (finally) went out for the second start Frentzen took the lead followed by Hakkinen. As the pack of cars started off, Wurz had to swerve sharply to avoid Hill who was going very slow and hit Diniz's car, which went flying, turned on its top and skidded upside down on to the verge and the grass. The rollbar had broken in the impact and when the car stopped it was possible to see Diniz's head moving under the hulk of the car. Luckily the belts that strapped him in the car had not broken and the unlucky driver was hanging upside down in the wreck of his Sauber. The marshalls rushed to the scene, turned the car over and helped Diniz out of what was left the car. Diniz was taken away by ambulance and the race carried on behind the safety car while the debris from the accident was being cleared. Diniz escaped the accident with only some bruising to his head and shoulders and will be back for testing. The other two casualties of the accident were Wurz and Hill, who retired. Frentzen had the lead, followed by Hakkinen, Coulthard and R. Schumacher, who had had to take a long detour on the grass during Diniz's accident to avoid being involved. Fisichella had the fifth position with Irvine pressing on him. Zanardi and Tagaki collided and while the Arrows came out unscathed, Zanardi's car became stuck across the track. The marshalls quickly moved the car out of the way, without need for the safety car since the rest of the pack was still compact and at the other end of the circuit. Irvine kept on attacking Fisichella, who held his own and kept Irvine behind. The Irishman could do nothing and the gap between himself and the leading group increased to over eight seconds. Finally Irvine managed to force Fisichella to brake late, took advantage of the situation and overtook him, immediately speeding away chasing the cars at the front. Around this time the rain started falling and the different tyre strategies started coming into play. R. Schumacher, a good driver in the rain like his brother, started attacking Coulthard, who was on slick tyres. The McLaren driver resisted for a while but at the end had to give way when the rain turned very heavy. Fisichella lost control of his car, took a long trip on the grass and almost hit the barrier, managed to keep the engine going and rejoined the race. R. Schumacher made full use of his tyre advantage and started attacking Hakkinen for second position. With the rain still falling heavily and having seen that Coulthard could not hold up R. Schumacher, Ron Dennis gave the order to call in Hakkinen for a quick change of tyres (8.1 seconds). Other teams followed the example and Salo too made an unscheduled stop to get wet tyres, but something went wrong with one of his front tyres and lots of time was lost (37.9 seconds). In the meantime it stopped raining, with Hakkinen now having wet tyres on. Irvine went into the pits to get new slick tyres on. Unluckily for him some confusion had occurred during Salo's stop and one of Irvine's tyres had rolled away and gone missing. Irvine's car had to stay in the pits while the mechanics frantically searched for the missing tyre. Finally a journalist who happened to be in the pits and had seen what had happened pointed it out and the tyre was mounted on Irvine's car, having lost 28.2 seconds and the position in the leading group of cars. Hakkinen was now in 13th position and Irvine in 10th. Frentzen was still in the lead, followed by R. Schumacher, Coulthard, Fisichella, Barrichello and Trulli. On lap 24 Salo stopped again to change to slick tyres and on the following lap Hakkinen did the same (6.4 seconds). On lap 26 R. Schumacher had his first pit stop (7.0). Coulthard was in second position and had every intention of taking the lead away from Frentzen, even forcing him to make a mistake on the chicane on lap 31, but without being able of taking advantage of the situation to overtake the Jordan. The other McLaren driver, Hakkinen, was being lapped by several drivers and appeared completely demoralised and not even trying to fight back. On lap 32 Frentzen and Coulthard pitted at the same time and Frentzen (7.0 seconds) managed to restart first and to keep the edge on Coulthard (7.4 seconds). Despite his great race up to that point, bad luck hit Frentzen as soon as he came out of the pits. His car suffered from a driveshaft problem and the German had to park his Jordan by the side on turn three and retired, leaving Coulthard in the lead. On lap 34 it started raining heavily again, but only on part of the circuit, playing havoc with tyres. Salo slid on the water, took a trip on the grass but managed not to stall the engine and stayed in the race. Several cars went back to the pits for another change of tyres, giving a nice colourful aspect to the pits, as at one point mechanics for all teams were out waiting for a driver to come in. Alesi suffered a broken gearbox, parked his car by the side at the exit of the pits and retired. Coulthard decided to keep his slick tyres rather than risk losing the lead during a pit stop and kept going. Irvine had managed to make up positions and was catching up with Villeneuve in seventh. Hakkinen was in 12th position and a long way behind. Coulthard paid dearly for his decision to stay on slick tyre when he lost control of his car, crashed into the tyre barrier, stalled his engine and had to retire. On lap 39, with Coulthard's retirement, R. Schumacher was left in the lead followed by Fisichella, Herbert, Trulli, Barrichello, Villeneuve and Irvine. Herbert, who was on wet tyres, was at this stage lapping at some five seconds faster than the race leader and catching Fisichella. On lap 42 Irvine went for another pit stop and put on wet tyres (7.9 seconds). On lap 43 Fisichella lost control of his car, went to the grass but still managed to keep it going and even to rejoin in front of Herbert. On lap 44, since the rain had eased, R. Schumacher went back to the pits to put on slicks (7.9 seconds), rejoining behind Fisichella (now in the lead) and Herbert. Tagaki crashed out, one of his tyres became detached and leisurely went rolling along the track, until it decided to turn towards the inside and carry on rolling on the grass. Luckily the runaway tyre did not cause any problem to the other drivers. Salo drove back to the pits and retired. Herbert went for a tyre change and put on slicks (6.2 seconds), managing to get back in front of Trulli. Fisichella locked his brakes immediately after lapping Irvine, stalled the engine, went onto the grass and retired, leaving R. Schumacher in the lead. R. Schumacher's lead did not last very long though, as he suffered a puncture to his right back tyre and had to slowly drive to the pits back across half the length of the track. Herbert was left in the lead in front of Trulli and Barrichello. Irvine went back to the pits for yet another change of tyres (6.0 seconds). R. Schumacher managed to get back to the pits and have new tyres put on, rejoining behind Barrichello and Badoer and in front of Villeneuve, Gené and Irvine. Badoer'car started smoking and the Italian had to stop along the side and retire while trying to get back to the pits. Badoer's retirement put R. Schumacher in fourth position, Villeneuve in fifth, Gené in sixth, Irvine in seventh and Hakkinen, who had decided to wake up from his torpor, in eighth just three seconds behind the Ferrari. As the race approached its final stages, Hakkinen kept on attacking Irvine for seventh and Barrichello kept on attacking Trulli for second. Villeneuve again failed to finish a race and retired, leaving Irvine in sixth position. Finally Hakkinen forced Irvine to make a mistake and overtook him to get into the points. He then went on to attack Gé and easily overtook him using his superior speed to get fifth position. Trulli in the meantime had been bravely resisting all of Barrichello's attacks to keep second position behind the other Stewart driver Herbert. Herbert went on to win the race, Trulli was second, Barrichello third, R. Schumacher fourth, Hakkinen fifth and Gené sixth. The European GP was "a freak of a race", to quote Eddie Jordan, and it certainly was a very strange race, with the lead changing constantly due to accidents and retirements. The rain played a primary role in the GP, causing a large number of unplanned stops to change the tyres to suit the current meteoric conditions and throwing any pit stop strategy out of the window. Hakkinen could possibly have won the race, had he not been called in to put on wet tyres just as it was stopping raining. The Ferrari mechanics, normally considered among the best in F1, were a far cry from they usual professionalism, first with the problems in Salo's stop and then with Irvine's comedy pit stop which may well have cost him a finishing position in the points. Coulthard's hopes of winning the Championship this season are now almost completely gone, despite it being still mathematically possible, thanks to his own mistake while in the lead. Hakkinen spent almost the whole race lapping colourlessly in the background after having been called in for the first tyre change, only putting an effort in to get two points at the end of the race. Frentzen ran a good race, putting up a good resistance to Coulthard until the driveshaft betrayed him. Herbert and Barrichello brought home a wonderful present for Jacky Stewart, who was not ashamed of shedding a tear of joy. Herbert was finally vindicated of all the bad luck he has suffered this year. Trulli ran possibly the best race of his career so far, bravely resisting all attempts at passing from Barrichello, next year's new driver at Ferrari. R. Schumacher brought home a good result, all considered, as the puncture could easily have put him out of the points. Gé proudly delivered Minardi's first point of the season. The 1999 season is approaching its end with only two races to go and both Championships are still open. Hakkinen is the favourite for the Drivers Championship but, if the rest of the season is anything to go by, anything can still happen. Next appointment is in Malaysia on the 17th of October.