1998 French Grand Prix

  1998 French Grand Prix

Race details
Race 8 of 16 in the 1998 Formula One season
Date	June 28, 1998
Official name	Mobil 1 Grand Prix de France
Location	Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours, Magny-Cours, France
Course	Permanent racing facility 4.250 km (2.641 mi)
Distance	71 laps, 301.750 km (187.499 mi)
Scheduled Distance	72 laps, 306.000 km (190.140 mi)
Weather	Sunny, warm
Pole position
Driver	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes
Time	1:14.929
Fastest lap
Driver	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes
Time	1:17.523 on lap 59
Podium
First	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Second	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari
Third	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes

The 1998 French Grand Prix was a Formula One race held at Magny-Cours on June 28, 1998. The race, contested over 72 laps, was won by Michael Schumacher driving for Scuderia Ferrari.

Report

Background

The grand prix was originally dropped over a dispute for Television broadcasting rights for the race. French broadcasters TF1 had the broadcasting rights while rival channel FR3 obtained a judgement from a French court to allow all channels to operate on the grounds of the racetrack.

Qualifying

Mika Häkkinen took pole position, beating Michael Schumacher by 0.2 seconds. David Coulthard qualified third, and Eddie Irvine took fourth place. Throughout the qualifying session, Schumacher and Häkkinen exchanged first place, until Häkkinen finally took the pole.

Race

At the beginning of the race, Jos Verstappen stalled his Stewart, meaning that a restart had to be called for. At the second start, Mika Häkkinen was overtaken by both Eddie Irvine and Michael Schumacher. This meant that Häkkinen dropped down from first to third, and Schumacher led Irvine in a Ferrari 1-2. After this start, Schumacher began to pull away; sometimes at one second a lap. While Schumacher was pulling away, Irvine was holding both the McLarens behind him. On lap 20, Häkkinen tried an ambitious move on Irvine. His attempt failed, and he drove into the gravel trap. However, he managed to keep his car going, went into the pits for more tyres, and rejoined in fourth place. However, he regained third place when David Coulthard had problems with his pitstop. Coulthard went into the pits, but due to a fuel filling problem, had to do another lap, and then go into the pits again. After this second set of pits, Häkkinen was back behind Irvine, and Schumacher was some way in front. On the final lap, on the final corner, Häkkinen made an attempt to overtake Irvine, after Irvine was very slow through the chicane before the final corner. Irvine just held off Häkkinen to take second, Irvine only a tenth of a second ahead of Häkkinen. However, both drivers were 19 seconds behind Schumacher. After Coulthard's misfortune in the pitlane, he finished sixth, scoring one world championship point. It was Ferrari's first one-two for 8 years, the previous being at the 1990 Spanish Grand Prix, Alain Prost and Nigel Mansell scoring the one-two.

Classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	3	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	71	1:34:45.026	2	10
2	4	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari	71	+19.575	4	6
3	8	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	71	+19.747	1	4
4	1	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams-Mecachrome	71	+1:06.965	5	3
5	6	Alexander Wurz	Benetton-Playlife	70	+1 Lap	10	2
6	7	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	70	+1 Lap	3	1
7	14	Jean Alesi	Sauber-Petronas	70	+1 Lap	11
8	15	Johnny Herbert	Sauber-Petronas	70	+1 Lap	13
9	5	Giancarlo Fisichella	Benetton-Playlife	70	+1 Lap	9
10	18	Rubens Barrichello	Stewart-Ford	69	+2 Laps	14
11	11	Olivier Panis	Prost-Peugeot	69	+2 Laps	16
12	19	Jos Verstappen	Stewart-Ford	69	+2 Laps	15
13	17	Mika Salo	Arrows	69	+2 Laps	19
14	16	Pedro Diniz	Arrows	69	+2 Laps	17
15	2	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Williams-Mecachrome	68	Suspension	8
16	10	Ralf Schumacher	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	68	+3 Laps	6
17	22	Shinji Nakano	Minardi-Ford	65	Engine	21
Ret	21	Toranosuke Takagi	Tyrrell-Ford	60	Engine	20
Ret	12	Jarno Trulli	Prost-Peugeot	55	Spun off	12
Ret	23	Esteban Tuero	Minardi-Ford	41	Gearbox	22
Ret	9	Damon Hill	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	19	Hydraulics	7
Ret	20	Ricardo Rosset	Tyrrell-Ford	16	Hydraulics	18

Standings after Grand Prix

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Mika Häkkinen 50 2 Michael Schumacher 44 3 David Coulthard 30 4 Eddie Irvine 25 5 Alexander Wurz 14

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 McLaren-Mercedes 80 2 Ferrari 69 3 Benetton-Playlife 27 4 Williams-Mecachrome 19 5 Stewart-Ford 5

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

Notes

• Lap leaders: Michael Schumacher 70 (1-22, 24-71), Eddie Irvine 1 (23)

References

Previous race: 1998 Canadian Grand Prix	FIA Formula One World Championship 1998 season	Next race: 1998 British Grand Prix
Previous race: 1997 French Grand Prix	French Grand Prix	Next race: 1999 French Grand Prix

This page uses some content from Wikipedia. The original article was at 1998 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.