1998 Italian Grand Prix

  1998 Italian Grand Prix

Race details
Race 14 of 16 in the 1998 Formula One season
Autodromo Nazionale Monza (last modified in 1995)
Date	September 13, 1998
Official name	LIX Gran Premio Campari d'Italia
Location	Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Monza, Italy
Course	Permanent racing facility 5.770 km (3.585 mi)
Distance	53 laps, 305.810 km (190.022 mi)
Weather	Sunny
Pole position
Driver	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Time	1:25.298
Fastest lap
Driver	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes
Time	1:25.139 on lap 45
Podium
First	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Second	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari
Third	Ralf Schumacher	Jordan-Mugen-Honda

The 1998 Italian Grand Prix was a Formula One race held at Monza on September 13, 1998. The race was won by Michael Schumacher. This was also the last win for tyre manufacturer Goodyear in Formula One.

It was a dramatic race, Häkkinen got a blinding start pushing his way past both Ferraris on the front row, at same time it was a dreadful start for Michael Schumacher who fell down to 5th, soon after he passed Villeneuve for 4th then Irvine for 3rd.

Häkkinen seemed to be struggling soon after and he waved his team mate Coulthard through, but soon after Coulthard's engine blew and seconds later Schumacher, who had caught Häkkinen, passed the Finn when Häkkinen ran wide due to the smoke from Coulthard's engine.

Villeneuve running very low downforce soon spun out of the race, and Häkkinen started catching Schumacher again. Häkkinen was just three seconds behind with a handuful of laps remaining, but then his brakes failed, sending him into a wild spin at the Ascari chicane. He was able to keep his engine running and kept going, at the next corner he ran off track again and Irvine reeled him in and took 2nd off him. Soon after Ralf Schumacher caught and over took Häkkinen who was able to limp home in 4th.

It was jubliant scenes for the Italian crowd as Michael Schumacher came home first and his Ferrari team mate Eddie Irvine took second with Ralf Schumacher 3rd, meaning the Jordan team had finished on all three podium places in two races.

Michael Schumacher was now level on points with Mika Häkkinen going into the Nürburgring, the penultimate round.

Classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	3	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	53	1:17:09.672	1	10
2	4	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari	53	+37.977	5	6
3	10	Ralf Schumacher	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	53	+41.152	6	4
4	8	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	53	+55.671	3	3
5	14	Jean Alesi	Sauber-Petronas	53	+1:01.872	8	2
6	9	Damon Hill	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	53	+1:06.688	14	1
7	2	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Williams-Mecachrome	52	+1 Lap	12
8	5	Giancarlo Fisichella	Benetton-Playlife	52	+1 Lap	11
9	21	Toranosuke Takagi	Tyrrell-Ford	52	+1 Lap	19
10	18	Rubens Barrichello	Stewart-Ford	52	+1 Lap	13
11	23	Esteban Tuero	Minardi-Ford	51	+2 Laps	22
12	20	Ricardo Rosset	Tyrrell-Ford	51	+2 Laps	18
13	12	Jarno Trulli	Prost-Peugeot	50	+3 Laps	10
Ret	19	Jos Verstappen	Stewart-Ford	39	Gearbox	17
Ret	1	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams-Mecachrome	37	Spun off	2
Ret	17	Mika Salo	Arrows	32	Throttle	16
Ret	6	Alexander Wurz	Benetton-Playlife	24	Gearbox	7
Ret	7	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	16	Engine	4
Ret	11	Olivier Panis	Prost-Peugeot	15	Vibrations	9
Ret	22	Shinji Nakano	Minardi-Ford	13	Engine	21
Ret	15	Johnny Herbert	Sauber-Petronas	12	Spun off	15
Ret	16	Pedro Diniz	Arrows	10	Spun off	20

Standings after Grand Prix

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1= Mika Häkkinen 80 1= Michael Schumacher 80 3 David Coulthard 48 4 Eddie Irvine 38 5 Jacques Villeneuve 20

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 McLaren-Mercedes 128 2 Ferrari 118 3 Benetton-Playlife 32 4 Jordan-Mugen-Honda 31 5 Williams-Mecachrome 30

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

Notes

• Lap leaders: Mika Häkkinen 10 (1-7, 32-34), David Coulthard 9 (8-16), Michael Schumacher 34 (17-31, 35-53)
• This was the last win for tyre manufacturer Goodyear in F1.
• McLaren's bad luck started when David Coulthard's engine blew whilst leading, Häkkinen in second was blinded by the smoke allowing Michael Schumacher to pass. Häkkinen slipped to 4th with brake trouble.
• Johnny Herbert spun off owing to a spanner that had been left by one of the Sauber mechanics in his car that slipped beneath the pedals.
• Tora Takagi was fourth fastest in the Warm-up session.

External links

Previous race: 1998 Belgian Grand Prix	FIA Formula One World Championship 1998 season	Next race: 1998 Luxembourg Grand Prix
Previous race: 1997 Italian Grand Prix	Italian Grand Prix	Next race: 1999 Italian Grand Prix

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