1997 French Grand Prix

  1997 French Grand Prix

Race details
Race 8 of 17 in the 1997 Formula One season
Date	June 29, 1997
Official name	LXXXIII Grand Prix de France
Location	Circuit de Nevers, Magny-Cours, France
Course	Permanent racing facility 4.250 km (2.641 mi)
Distance	72 laps, 306.000 km (190.140 mi)
Weather	Dry at first, rain in closing stages
Pole position
Driver	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Time	1:14.548
Fastest lap
Driver	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Time	1:17.910 on lap 37
Podium
First	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Second	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Williams-Renault
Third	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari

The 1997 French Grand Prix was a Formula One race held at Magny-Cours on June 29, 1997.

Race summary

At the start, Michael Schumacher led away from pole with Frentzen in the Williams behind him all the way. It was a bad start for Damon Hill, who lost his wing at the first corner after going off and didn't feature much after that.

Not too much happened in the race until towards the end, when rain hit, causing some drivers to spin off. Even Michael Schumacher had an off but managed to continue and maintained his big lead, but he did not pit for wet tyres.

In the end, Michael crossed the line well ahead of Frentzen but on the last couple of laps a huge battle was going on between Ralf Schumacher, David Coulthard and Jean Alesi. At the same time Jacques Villeneuve was reeling in Eddie Irvine for the final podium spot.

Ralf Schumacher spun, seemingly throwing away sixth place, but as mentioned in the notes, Michael Schumacher (who had lapped him), allowed him back through at the final corner. At the time, Murray Walker famously said that it was a silly move. It allowed Ralf Schumacher to gain back sixth place on the final lap.

On the last lap Alesi pushed Coulthard straight off, costing David fifth place, thus giving Ralf Schumacher the final point.

Meanwhile, at the last corner, Villenuve had caught Irvine. In a desperate lunge at the final corner he spun off, rejoining, somehow holding off Alesi at the flag.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Time	Gap
1	5	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	1:14.548
2	4	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Williams-Renault	1:14.749	+0.201
3	11	Ralf Schumacher	Jordan-Peugeot	1:14.755	+0.207
4	3	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams-Renault	1:14.800	+0.252
5	6	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari	1:14.860	+0.312
6	14	Jarno Trulli	Prost-Mugen-Honda	1:14.957	+0.409
7	8	Alexander Wurz	Benetton-Renault	1:14.986	+0.438
8	7	Jean Alesi	Benetton-Renault	1:15.228	+0.680
9	10	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	1:15.270	+0.722
10	9	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:15.339	+0.791
11	12	Giancarlo Fisichella	Jordan-Peugeot	1:15.453	+0.905
12	15	Shinji Nakano	Prost-Mugen-Honda	1:15.857	+1.309
13	22	Rubens Barrichello	Stewart-Ford	1:15.876	+1.328
14	16	Johnny Herbert	Sauber-Petronas	1:16.018	+1.470
15	23	Jan Magnussen	Stewart-Ford	1:16.149	+1.601
16	2	Pedro Diniz	Arrows-Yamaha	1:16.536	+1.988
17	1	Damon Hill	Arrows-Yamaha	1:16.729	+2.181
18	18	Jos Verstappen	Tyrrell-Ford	1:16.941	+2.393
19	19	Mika Salo	Tyrrell-Ford	1:17.256	+2.708
20	17	Norberto Fontana	Sauber-Petronas	1:17.538	+2.990
21	20	Ukyo Katayama	Minardi-Hart	1:17.563	+3.015
22	21	Tarso Marques	Minardi-Hart	1:18.280	+3.732

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	5	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	72	1:38:50.492	1	10
2	4	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Williams-Renault	72	+23.537	2	6
3	6	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari	72	+1:14.801	5	4
4	3	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams-Renault	72	+1:21.784	4	3
5	7	Jean Alesi	Benetton-Renault	72	+1:22.735	8	2
6	11	Ralf Schumacher	Jordan-Peugeot	72	+1:29.871	3	1
7	10	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	71	Collision	9
8	16	Johnny Herbert	Sauber-Petronas	71	+1 lap	14
9	12	Giancarlo Fisichella	Jordan-Peugeot	71	+1 lap	11
10	14	Jarno Trulli	Prost-Mugen-Honda	70	+2 laps	6
11	20	Ukyo Katayama	Minardi-Hart	70	+2 laps	21
12	1	Damon Hill	Arrows-Yamaha	69	+3 laps	17
Ret	19	Mika Salo	Tyrrell-Ford	61	Electrical	19
Ret	8	Alexander Wurz	Benetton-Renault	60	Spun off	7
Ret	2	Pedro Diniz	Arrows-Yamaha	58	Spun off	16
Ret	17	Norberto Fontana	Sauber-Petronas	40	Spun off	20
Ret	22	Rubens Barrichello	Stewart-Ford	36	Engine	13
Ret	23	Jan Magnussen	Stewart-Ford	33	Brakes	15
Ret	9	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	18	Engine	10
Ret	18	Jos Verstappen	Tyrrell-Ford	15	Spun off	18
Ret	15	Shinji Nakano	Prost-Mugen-Honda	7	Spun off	12
Ret	21	Tarso Marques	Minardi-Hart	5	Engine	22

Notes

• Pedro Diniz outqualified team-mate Damon Hill for the first time.
• Michael allowed his brother Ralf to overtake him and unlap himself on the last corner. Ralf subsequently gained the last point of the day as a result, rising from 7th to 6th after Jean Alesi ran David Coulthard off the road.
• Jarno Trulli switched from Minardi to Prost, replacing the injured Olivier Panis.
• Trulli's seat at Minardi went to Tarso Marques.
• Norberto Fontana replaced Gianni Morbidelli at Sauber. Morbidelli was suffering from a broken arm.
• This was the youngest grid in Formula One history.

Standings after Grand Prix

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Michael Schumacher 47 2 Jacques Villeneuve 33 3 Heinz-Harald Frentzen 19 4 Eddie Irvine 18 5 Olivier Panis 15

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Ferrari 65 2 Williams-Renault 52 3 Benetton-Renault 25 4 McLaren-Mercedes 21 5 Prost-Mugen-Honda 16

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

Previous race: 1997 Canadian Grand Prix	FIA Formula One World Championship 1997 season	Next race: 1997 British Grand Prix
Previous race: 1996 French Grand Prix	French Grand Prix	Next race: 1998 French Grand Prix

This page uses some content from Wikipedia. The original article was at 1997 French 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.