1997 Australian Grand Prix

  1997 Australian Grand Prix

Race details
Race 1 of 17 in the 1997 Formula One season
Date	9 March 1997
Official name	LXII Qantas Australian Grand Prix
Location	Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit, Albert Park, Melbourne
Course	Temporary Street Circuit 5.303 km (3.295 mi)
Distance	58 laps, 308.792 km (191.110 mi)
Weather	Partly Cloudy, Dry
Pole position
Driver	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams-Renault
Time	1:29.369
Fastest lap
Driver	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Williams-Renault
Time	1:30.585 on lap 36
Podium
First	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes
Second	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Third	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes

The 1997 Australian Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on 9 March 1997 at the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit in Albert Park, Melbourne. It was the first race of the 1997 Formula One season. It was the second Grand Prix to be hosted in Melbourne.

Report

Background

Two new teams came into Formula One in 1997: Stewart and Lola. Footwork reverted to their old name of Arrows and acquired Yamaha engines, while Ligier were bought by Alain Prost and changed their name to Prost Grand Prix. Tyrrell acquired Ford engines.

The change that dominated the drivers line up was Damon Hill's surprise sacking from Williams having just won the World Championship to join Tom Walkinshaw and the newly purchased Arrows team. In the week up to the race, there were rumours of Hill having left Arrows due to the poor performance of the car, rumours that were quashed.

Pedro Diniz with his sponsorship backing was hired as his teammate. Williams retained Jacques Villeneuve and was teamed with Heinz-Harald Frentzen who was not seen as a popular replacement to Hill.

Villeneuve was the bookmakers favourite heading into the new season, himself noting that being the favourite put "extra pressure, but it's good pressure [on me]".

Ferrari retained Michael Schumacher and Eddie Irvine, Benetton kept Jean Alesi and Gerhard Berger and McLaren signed on Mika Häkkinen and David Coulthard. The Jordan team had two new drivers in Giancarlo Fisichella the Italian youngster from Minardi and had signed Ralf Schumacher brother of Michael in an interesting line up. The new Prost Grand Prix team kept Olivier Panis and signed Japanese rookie driver Shinji Nakano. Sauber kept Johnny Herbert and the loss of Frentzen saw Peter Sauber sign Ferrari test driver Nicola Larini. Tyrrell retained Mika Salo for a third year and added Jos Verstappen to the team from Arrows. Minardi with V8 Hart engines signed Ukyo Katayama and promising Italian driver Jarno Trulli. This was a milestone grand prix for Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Olivier Panis, both making their 50th race entry, and Johnny Herbert's 100th race entry.

The new Stewart Grand Prix team had signed Rubens Barrichello as their main driver and highly promising Danish driver Jan Magnussen. Lola recruited pay driver Riccardo Rosset and former Benetton test driver Vincenzo Sospiri.

Bridgestone also made their first official appearance in Formula 1 breaking Goodyear's reign as a sole tyre supplier which began in 1992. Bridgestone provided tyres for Minardi, Arrows, Prost, Stewart and Lola.

The British television coverage switched to ITV for the 1997 season and beyond, after 18 years of regular coverage for the BBC. Former driver Martin Brundle joined Murray Walker in the commentary box.

In the build-up to the weekend, Michael Schumacher was criticised for calling the circuit "wasn't particularly special", with locals responding by calling him an "overpaid prima donna". There was also protests in the lead-up to the race, with protestors pouring diesel on to the track the week before the race. A strike also meant that there was no public services running, Jeff Kennett, the Premier of Victoria, labelling them "bloody minded" and that they will have to "incur the wrath of the community".

Practice and qualifying

Canadian Jacques Villeneuve took his fourth career pole position after a stunning lap of 1:29.369, while Heinz-Harald Frentzen could only manage a 1:31.121 to fill the remaining spot on the front row. Only 6 drivers managed to qualify within 3 seconds of the pole position time. The session was red flagged with just over two minutes remaining after a collision between Gerhard Berger and Nicola Larini on the straight between turns 10 and 11. This resulted in many of the cars effectively having to complete a one-lap sprint to post a lap time before the end of the session. Damon Hill struggled during the session, only just qualifying inside of the 107% limit due to an oil leak which hampered the lap times. Both of the Lola cars failed to make the qualifying limit and were over ten seconds slower than Villeneuve in their first and only F1 qualifying session, as the team had to withdraw from the next race due to a lack of funds. Pedro Diniz was also outside of the 107% time, however he was permitted to race, having set a time in practice within the 107% time.

Race

Before the race even began there were problems for the reigning world champion, Damon Hill. On the parade lap his throttle jammed leaving him stranded on the track and causing him to retire from the race. The drama continued into the first corner as Eddie Irvine dived into the first corner and misjudged his braking, hitting both Villeneuve and Herbert - all three were out of the race. Jos Verstappen spun off on lap two while attempting to overtake Ukyo Katayama. Both of the Jordan cars soon retired from the race, Ralf Schumacher suffering a gearbox problem and Fisichella spinning off the track while passing Barrichello. Jean Alesi embarrassingly retired from the race after running out of fuel, despite the Benetton team calling him into the pits 5 laps earlier. At the front David Coulthard continued to keep away from these incidents to lead the race, followed by Michael Schumacher and Frentzen. Schumacher had to make an unscheduled fuel stop towards the end of the race, promoting Frentzen to second. However, large quantities of dust had been coming from Frentzen's brakes for some time and with three laps to go a brake disc failed, sending him into the gravel trap at the end of the start/finish straight. Coulthard went on to take his second career win. It was also McLaren's first win since Ayrton Senna won the 1993 Australian Grand Prix.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Time	Gap
1	3	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams-Renault	1:29.369
2	4	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Williams-Renault	1:31.123	+1.754
3	5	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	1:31.472	+2.103
4	10	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	1:31.531	+2.162
5	6	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari	1:31.881	+2.512
6	9	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:31.971	+2.602
7	16	Johnny Herbert	Sauber-Petronas	1:32.287	+2.918
8	7	Jean Alesi	Benetton-Renault	1:32.593	+3.224
9	14	Olivier Panis	Prost-Mugen-Honda	1:32.842	+3.473
10	8	Gerhard Berger	Benetton-Renault	1:32.870	+3.501
11	22	Rubens Barrichello	Stewart-Ford	1:33.075	+3.706
12	11	Ralf Schumacher	Jordan-Peugeot	1:33.130	+3.761
13	17	Nicola Larini	Sauber-Petronas	1:33.327	+3.958
14	12	Giancarlo Fisichella	Jordan-Peugeot	1:33.552	+4.183
15	20	Ukyo Katayama	Minardi-Hart	1:33.798	+4.429
16	15	Shinji Nakano	Prost-Mugen-Honda	1:33.989	+4.620
17	21	Jarno Trulli	Minardi-Hart	1:34.120	+4.751
18	19	Mika Salo	Tyrrell-Ford	1:34.229	+4.860
19	23	Jan Magnussen	Stewart-Ford	1:34.623	+5.254
20	1	Damon Hill	Arrows-Yamaha	1:34.806	+5.437
21	18	Jos Verstappen	Tyrrell-Ford	1:34.943	+5.574
22	2	Pedro Diniz	Arrows-Yamaha	1:35.972	+6.603
DNQ	24	Vincenzo Sospiri	Lola-Ford	1:40.972	+11.603
DNQ	25	Ricardo Rosset	Lola-Ford	1:42.086	+12.717

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	10	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	58	1:30:28.718	4	10
2	5	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	58	+20.046	3	6
3	9	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	58	+22.177	6	4
4	8	Gerhard Berger	Benetton-Renault	58	+22.841	10	3
5	14	Olivier Panis	Prost-Mugen-Honda	58	+1:00.308	9	2
6	17	Nicola Larini	Sauber-Petronas	58	+1:36.040	13	1
7	15	Shinji Nakano	Prost-Mugen-Honda	56	+2 Laps	16
8	4	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Williams-Renault	55	Brakes	2
9	21	Jarno Trulli	Minardi-Hart	55	+3 Laps	17
10	2	Pedro Diniz	Arrows-Yamaha	54	+4 Laps	22
Ret	22	Rubens Barrichello	Stewart-Ford	49	Engine	11
Ret	19	Mika Salo	Tyrrell-Ford	42	Engine	18
Ret	23	Jan Magnussen	Stewart-Ford	36	Suspension	19
Ret	7	Jean Alesi	Benetton-Renault	34	Out Of Fuel	8
Ret	20	Ukyo Katayama	Minardi-Hart	32	Electrical	15
Ret	12	Giancarlo Fisichella	Jordan-Peugeot	14	Spun off	14
Ret	18	Jos Verstappen	Tyrrell-Ford	2	Spun off	21
Ret	11	Ralf Schumacher	Jordan-Peugeot	1	Gearbox	12
Ret	3	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams-Renault	0	Collision	1
Ret	6	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari	0	Collision	5
Ret	16	Johnny Herbert	Sauber-Petronas	0	Collision	7
DNS	1	Damon Hill	Arrows-Yamaha	0	Throttle	20

Standings after Grand Prix

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 David Coulthard 10 2 Michael Schumacher 6 3 Mika Häkkinen 4 4 Gerhard Berger 3 5 Olivier Panis 2

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 McLaren-Mercedes 14 2 Ferrari 6 3 Benetton-Renault 3 4 Prost-Mugen-Honda 2 5 Sauber-Petronas 1

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

Race Details
"1997 Australian Grand Prix". Chicane F1. http://www.chicanef1.com/racetit.pl?year=1997&gp=Australian%20GP. Retrieved 2 August 2007. 

Classification
Qualifying
"1997 Australian Grand Prix Qualifying". Chicane F1. http://www.chicanef1.com/race.pl?year=1997&gp=Australian%20GP&type=qual. Retrieved 2 August 2007. 

"1997 Australian Grand Prix Qualifying". Grand Prix Racing. http://www.gpracing.net192.com/races/qualify/598.cfm. Retrieved 2 August 2007. 

Race
"1997 Australian Grand Prix". Official Formula One Website. Archived from the original on 5 July 2007. http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1997/147/. Retrieved 2 August 2007. 

"1997 Australian Grand Prix". Chicane F1. http://www.chicanef1.com/race.pl?year=1997&gp=Australian%20GP&type=res. Retrieved 2 August 2007. 

Previous race: 1996 Japanese Grand Prix	FIA Formula One World Championship 1997 season	Next race: 1997 Brazilian Grand Prix
Previous race: 1996 Australian Grand Prix	Australian Grand Prix	Next race: 1998 Australian Grand Prix
Awards
Preceded by 1996 Australian Grand Prix	Formula One Promotional Trophy for Race Promoter 1997	Succeeded by 1998 San Marino Grand Prix

This page uses some content from Wikipedia. The original article was at 1997 Australian Grand Prix. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Autopedia, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.