French GP - Magny Cours 27 June 1999

Race Report

The French GP was characterised by the same heavy rain downpours seen during the qualifying session. The track was dry before the start of the race but, with the threat of black clouds hanging over their heads, several teams set up their cars expecting rain. Barrichello started well from pole position and took the lead, followed by Alesi and Coulthard, who had managed to get ahead of Frentzen, then M. Schumacher and Panis. Barrichello started to build up a gap, as Alesi was holding the rest of the field back. Hakkinen and Irvine, both having started from low positions, stormed through the field trying to recover places. Before the end of the first lap Coulthard had managed to overtake Alesi and went to chase race leader Barrichello. On lap five the Scot had caught up with the Brazilian and was waiting for the chance to overtake. At the same time Hakkinen had managed to get himself right behind M. Schumacher, who was still stuck behind Frentzen and Alesi. On the same lap Coulthard managed to pass Barrichello at the Nürburgring corner to take the lead. By lap nine Hakkinen was attacking M. Schumacher, who had every intention not to give way and to keep his position, leading to an interesting duel fought mainly on the two drivers trying to underbrake each other on corners. On lap 10 Hakkinen managed to get the inside line on M. Schumacher and overtook the German. On the same lap Coulthard, who had been leading since overtaking Barrichello, suffered an electric failure which deprived him of all his instrumentation and forced him to park his car out of the way and retire. Later he commented that it would be nice to have some sort of luck occasionally. Barrichello was back in the lead, with all the drivers having moved up one position. On lap 16 Hakkinen overtook Frentzen who tried to fight back but to no avail. In the meantime R. Schumacher, who had started from 16th position, had been moving up the field and on lap 17 overtook Fisichella for eighth place. Irvine had been moving up to tenth from 17th starting place and started chasing Fisichella. At the front of the field Hakkinen caught up with Alesi, who tried very hard not to let him pass, but the Finn used McLaren's superior speed, forced the Frenchman to brake late while braking late himself, and took second position, setting off in chase of Barrichello. Alesi's wide run in his struggle with Hakkinen had caused him to lose momentum and he found himself with Frentzen on his tail. On lap 20 the rain, which had been very thin up to that point, started to become heavier and the sky to get darker. Irvine overtook Fisichella for ninth position. On lap 21 the marshals signalled that the track was wet and by lap 23 all the drivers had gone to the pits for a tyre change. Irvine had problems with his stop, which lasted around one minute. Hill collided with an Arrows on his way out of the pits, which caused a puncture in one of his tyres. After all drivers had been to the pits, Barrichello had regained the lead, followed by Hakkinen, Alesi, Frentzen, M. Schumacher and Panis. Condition got increasingly worse until Alesi lost control of his car at the Chateau d'Eau, went on the dirt, managed not to stall his engine but became stuck and had to retire, visibly frustrated. In interview later he said that it had been his mistake. Because of the extreme weather conditions the safety car came out, allowing the field to compact. The cars at the back of the field, still racing each other, started skidding and several drivers retired at this point, including Wurz and Villeneuve, who collided, Fisichella, Hill and Marc Gené. Paul Stewart complained with the race officials that the safety car was going too fast and causing problems for the F1 cars. On lap 35 it had stopped raining and the track had dried enough, so the safety car left and the race restarted. Hakkinen immediately tried to attack Barrichello, who took advantage of being in front to produce as much spraying as he could to prevent Hakkinen from seeing. This tactic paid off as Hakkinen cooled down for a while. M. Schumacher was right behind Frentzen but, just like Hakkinen with Barrichello, did not have enough visibility to try and attack. When the track had dried a bit more Hakkinen decided to try his luck and attack Barrichello, but the Brazilian closed the door to him on a corner and Hakkinen went into a spin, allowing the cars behind him to overtake him. Frentzen had moved up in second position behind Barrichello, followed by M. Schumacher, Panis, Trulli and R. Schumacher. M. Schumacher finally managed to roll on the inside of Frentzen to take second position, while Hakkinen was down in seventh and chased by the second Ferrari driver Irvine. M. Schumacher attacked Barrichello and managed to pass him for the lead at Chateau d'Eau, but then failed to find a gear and Barrichello regained first position. In the meantime Irvine had managed to overtake Hakkinen for seventh position. On lap 44 M. Schumacher attacked Barrichello again the same way as before and this time managed to keep the lead, while his team mate Irvine overtook Trulli to get into the points. On lap 51 the drivers started going for their second stops, mostly still going for rain tyres. On lap 52 M. Schumacher lost lots of time which he had been accumulating to allow for his pit stop. On lap 53 M. Schumacher went into the pits where he had a new steering wheel fitted, as it had become quite clear that he was having problems. His pit stop lasted 13 second and he rejoined in sixth position. Meanwhile Hakkinen had been trying to make up time and was attacking Frentzen. Hakkinen managed to force Frentzen to brake late at the hairpin and overtook him. The Finn then went on to attack Barrichello for the lead, which he took a couple of laps later. On lap 56 Hakkinen went for his second pit stop and so did Barrichello, leaving Frentzen in the lead. Both Hakkinen and Barrichello rejoined in front of M. Schumacher who was obviously still having some sort of problem despite having had the new steering wheel fitted. M. Schumacher was being followed by his brother Ralf, who was in turn being followed by Irvine. Irvine tried to overtake R. Schumacher, but the German did not let him pass and went on to take fourth position from his brother. Irvine, not allowed by team rules to overtake M. Schumacher, had to settle down for sixth position behind his team mate. Irvine was obviously not happy with the situation and showed it by almost storming past M. Schumacher, then letting go and falling back behind his team mate again. Frentzen gambled with having enough fuel left not to stop at the pits for the second time. The gamble paid off, as he passed the chequered flag first, giving Jordan their second victory ever. Hakkinen finished in second position, Barrichello in third and R. Schumacher in fourth. The two Ferrari were fifth and sixth, in team order. Frentzen brightened up Eddie Jordan's day by giving him a superb win, only a short time after Damon Hill had said live that this might well have been his very last F1 race ever. Frentzen drove superbly and took a gamble that paid off, putting him on the highest step of the podium. His happiness was evident and so was Eddie Jordan's, who could hardly keep the tears back as he listened to the Irish anthem being played during the prize ceremony. Hakkinen came back twice, first from 14th on the grid and then from a driving error, to finish in second position increasing his lead in the Drivers Championship over rival M. Schumacher. It did not go as well for his team mate Coulthard, who has probably lost any hope of winning the Championship this year with today's retirement. Despite not winning the race Barrichello showed his superior driving skills again, battling at the same level as Hakkinen and Coulthard, even forcing the current World Champion to commit a mistake which sent him temporarily out of the points. Barrichello made no mistakes today and his third position is due to the fact that McLaren's speed is superior to Stewart's and to the fact that Jordan balanced the fuel load superbly in Frentzen's car. R. Schumacher again showed that he is more than Michael's brother by fighting his way from the back of the grid to fourth position. R. Schumacher had been criticised when he first entered F1, but now that he has gained experience he consistently shows that he is well worthy of his name in his own right. Ferrari had a bad day today. They had come to France thinking of it as a suitable circuit for them, but only managed to get three points overall. The failure in M Schumacher's car has increased the gap between him and his rival Hakkinen, while Irvine was not really ever in the picture today, except when he overtook Hakkinen after the Finn had span out following his fight with Barrichello. Irvine still managed to move up from 17th on the grid to sixth, but his role of second drive to M. Schumacher is obviously starting to get to him and today he did not hide his frustration when he was forced to settle down behind M. Schumacher, who he could easily have overtaken. With his contract not yet renewed for next year and the wild rumours that see him talking to various teams, it would not be surprising to see him and Ferrari part next year. One such rumour wants Irvine in talks with Jordan for Hill's seat, who has announced today that he might not be at Silverstone. The English ex-World Champion has become disillusioned with F1 and said he is not enjoying it as much as he used to and without motivation racing in F1 can be very hard. Next appointment is on the 11th of July in Great Britain.

Finishing Times - France

Position	Driver	Car	Time
1st	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Jordan	1h58'24"343
2nd	Mika Hakkinen	McLaren	+11"0
3rd	Rubens Barrichello	Stewart	+43"4
4th	Ralf Schumacher	Williams	+45"4
5th	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	+47"8
6th	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari	+48"9
7th	Jarno Trulli	Prost	+57"7
8th	Olivier Panis	Prost	+58"5
9th	Ricardo Zonta	BAR	+1'28"7
10th	Luca Badoer	Minardi	+1 lap
11th	Toranosuke Takagi	Arrows	+1 lap
12th	Pedro De La Rosa	Arrows	+1 lap

Fastest Lap

Driver	Lap	Time
David Coulthard	7	1'19"492

Qualifying Grid Times:

Row	Driver	Car	Qualifying Time	Driver	Car	Qualifying Time
1st	Barrichello, R.	Stewart Ford	1'38"441 155.423 km/h	Alesi, J.	Sauber Petronas	1'38"881 + 0'00"440
2nd	Panis, O.	Prost Peugeot	1'40"400 + 0'01"959	Coulthard, D.	McLaren Mercedes	1'40"403 + 0'01"962
3rd	Frentzen, H.-H.	Jordan Mugen-Honda	1'40"690 + 0'02"249	Schumacher, M.	Ferrari	1'41"127 + 0'02"686
4th	Fisichella, G.	Benetton Playlife	1'41"250 + 0'02"809	Trulli, J.	Prost Peugeot	1'42"096 + 0'03"655
5th	Herbert, J.	Stewart Ford	1'42"199 + 0'03"758	Zonta, R.	BAR Supertec	1'42"228 + 0'03"787
6th	Diniz, P.	Sauber Petronas	1'42"942 + 0'04"501	Villeneuve, J.	BAR Supertec	1'43"748 + 0'05"307
7th	Wurz, A.	Benetton Playlife	1'44"319 + 0'05"878	Hakkinen, M.	McLaren Mercedes	1'44"368 + 0'05"927
8th	Zanardi, A.	Williams Supertec	1'44"912 + 0'06"471	Schumacher, R.	Williams Supertec	1'45"189 + 0'06"748
9th	Irvine, E.	Ferrari	1'45"218 + 0'06"777	-	-	-

Times Outside 107% Rule (1'45"332):

Driver	Car	Qualifying Time
Hill, D.	Jordan Mugen-Honda	1'45"334 + 0'06"893
Gené, M.	Minardi Ford	1'46"324 + 0'07"883
Badoer, L.	Minardi Ford	1'46"784 + 0'08"343
De La Rosa, P.	Arrows TWR	1'48"215 + 0'09"774
Takagi, T.	Arrows TWR	1'48"322 + 0'09"881

Images from La Gazzetta dello Sport Online and Raisport