1998 San Marino Grand Prix

  1998 San Marino Grand Prix

Race details
Race 4 of 16 in the 1998 Formula One season
Date	26 April 1998
Location	Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, Imola, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Course	Permanent racing facility 4.933 km (3.065 mi)
Distance	62 laps, 305.609 km (189.897 mi)
Weather	Sunny
Pole position
Driver	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes
Time	1:25.627
Fastest lap
Driver	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Time	1:29.345 on lap 48
Podium
First	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes
Second	Michael Schumacher	Scuderia Ferrari
Third	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari

The 1998 San Marino Grand Prix was a Formula One race held at Imola on April 26, 1998. The race was won by David Coulthard and represented his first win since the 1997 Italian Grand Prix.

Race Summary

It was back to business for McLaren in Qualifying, with Coulthard outpacing Häkkinen for Pole, and Ferrari's Schumacher and Eddie Irvine keeping things neat by qualifying third and fourth. However, the men in red had hoped for better, and had followed Tyrrell's lead in fitting 'side-wings' - x-shaped wings bolted atop the sideboards. But these appendages didn't produce enough of a gain to topple the McLarens and, with Jordan and Sauber also sprouting these peculiar side-wings the sport's governing body voted to ban them the day after the race, as they felt that they would be unsafe if a driver suffered a side-on impact.

The race was simplicity itself for Coulthard as he controlled proceedings ahead of Mika Häkkinen, with Schumacher split from Irvine by Jacques Villeneuve's Williams. But on lap 17 Häkkinen retired to the pits, and the garage door was immediately rolled down to conceal his problem. It later proved to be a gearbox failure.

Unaware of his team-mate's problem, Coulthard motored on ahead of Schumacher until the German emerged from his second stop and started to fly, eating into the Scot's 20-second advantage at a rate of a second per lap. Debris in a sidepod had sent Coulthard's oil cooler temperature soaring, and team boss Ron Dennis kept sprinting from the pit wall to the McLaren garage to check on the telemetry, so that Coulthard could be instructed how much he could afford to ease off to save his engine. Therefore, the Scot could every so often match Schumacher's pace, and he duly recorded the win. Irvine sent the Ferrari fans home happy by taking the final podium place, with the Williams duo of Villeneuve and Frentzen the only other unlapped runners.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Lap Time	Gap
1	7	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	1:25.973
2	8	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:26.075	+0.102
3	3	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	1:26.437	+0.464
4	4	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari	1:26.705	+0.732
5	6	Alexander Wurz	Benetton-Playlife	1:27.273	+1.300
6	1	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams-Mecachrome	1:27.390	+1.417
7	9	Damon Hill	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	1:27.592	+1.619
8	2	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Williams-Mecachrome	1:27.645	+1.672
9	10	Ralf Schumacher	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	1:27.866	+1.893
10	5	Giancarlo Fisichella	Benetton-Playlife	1:27.937	+1.964
11	15	Johnny Herbert	Sauber-Petronas	1:28.111	+2.138
12	14	Jean Alesi	Sauber-Petronas	1:28.191	+2.218
13	11	Olivier Panis	Prost-Peugeot	1:28.270	+2.297
14	17	Mika Salo	Arrows	1:28.798	+2.825
15	21	Toranosuke Takagi	Tyrrell-Ford	1:29.073	+3.100
16	12	Jarno Trulli	Prost-Peugeot	1:29.584	+3.611
17	18	Rubens Barrichello	Stewart-Ford	1:29.641	+3.668
18	16	Pedro Diniz	Arrows	1:29.932	+3.959
19	23	Esteban Tuero	Minardi-Ford	1:30.649	+4.676
20	19	Jan Magnussen	Stewart-Ford	1:31.017	+5.044
21	22	Shinji Nakano	Minardi-Ford	1:31.255	+5.282
22	20	Ricardo Rosset	Tyrrell-Ford	1:31.482	+5.509

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	7	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	62	1:34:25.4	1	10
2	3	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	62	+4.554	3	6
3	4	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari	62	+51.775	4	4
4	1	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams-Mecachrome	62	+54.59	6	3
5	2	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Williams-Mecachrome	62	+1:17.476	8	2
6	14	Jean Alesi	Sauber-Petronas	61	+1 Lap	12	1
7	10	Ralf Schumacher	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	60	+2 Laps	9
8	23	Esteban Tuero	Minardi-Ford	60	+2 Laps	19
9	17	Mika Salo	Arrows	60	+2 Laps	14
10	9	Damon Hill	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	57	Hydraulics	7
11	11	Olivier Panis	Prost-Peugeot	56	Engine	13
Ret	20	Ricardo Rosset	Tyrrell-Ford	48	Engine	22
Ret	21	Toranosuke Takagi	Tyrrell-Ford	40	Engine	15
Ret	12	Jarno Trulli	Prost-Peugeot	34	Throttle	16
Ret	22	Shinji Nakano	Minardi-Ford	27	Engine	21
Ret	16	Pedro Diniz	Arrows	18	Engine	18
Ret	8	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	17	Gearbox	2
Ret	5	Giancarlo Fisichella	Benetton-Playlife	17	Spun off	10
Ret	6	Alexander Wurz	Benetton-Playlife	17	Engine	5
Ret	15	Johnny Herbert	Sauber-Petronas	12	Puncture	11
Ret	19	Jan Magnussen	Stewart-Ford	8	Transmission	20
Ret	18	Rubens Barrichello	Stewart-Ford	0	Spun off	17

Standings after Grand Prix

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Mika Häkkinen 26 2 David Coulthard 23 3 Michael Schumacher 20 4 Eddie Irvine 11 5 Heinz-Harald Frentzen 8

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 McLaren-Mercedes 49 2 Ferrari 31 3 Williams-Mecachrome 13 4 Benetton-Playlife 7 5 Sauber-Petronas 4

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

Notes

• Fastest Lap: Michael Schumacher 1m 29.345s
• This was the only win in 1998 for David Coulthard

Previous race: 1998 Argentine Grand Prix	FIA Formula One World Championship 1998 season	Next race: 1998 Spanish Grand Prix
Previous race: 1997 San Marino Grand Prix	San Marino Grand Prix	Next race: 1999 San Marino Grand Prix
Awards
Preceded by 1997 Australian Grand Prix	Formula One Promotional Trophy for Race Promoter 1998	Succeeded by 1999 Malaysian Grand Prix

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