Review of Spain 1999
Swings and roundabouts
by David Cunliffe
McLaren-Mercedes needed a 1-2 in Spain to reinvigorate their Championship challenges. Hakkinen and Coulthard duly delivered, relegating Schumacher and his Ferrari team-mate Irvine to 3rd and 4th. No points this time though for the other early season front runners, Jordan and Stewart - the final places in the top six were claimed by Ralf Schumacher for Williams-Supertec and Jarno Trulli for Prost-Peugeot.
After a tense and close fight for pole on Saturday, the Ferraris looked a lot more competitive at the Barcelona track - supposedly the team's worst - than expected. Irvine had outpaced his team leader for once, qualifying 2nd to Schumacher's 4th; the two McLarens were alongside, with Hakkinen keeping his 100% pole position winning record for the season. Irvine was to hinder rather than help the Ferrari No1 as the red lights dimmed - he started poorly and impeded Schumacher's fine start, allowing Jacques Villeneuve to grab 3rd place. For lap after lap, the Canadian impressively held off the Ferraris in his under-powered BAR-Supertec as the McLarens steamed off to take a seemingly unassailable lead.
It was a dull and processional race, the worst of the season so far. What a pity that the promised gathering of the great and the good from F1, called by Max Mosley to find some way to improve the entertainment value of F1, has had to be postponed. If it wasn't for the pitstops, there would have been very little overtaking, apart from an opportunist move on Rubens Barrichello late in the race by Damon Hill who sneaked by the Brazilian's Stewart-Ford in the wake of the lapping Michael Schumacher.
As the season progresses, the teams are sorting out some of their reliability problems - more cars were still running at the end of this race than thus far. Although the Ferraris have been reliable since Melbourne, before Barcelona, the McLarens had only finished three times in eight starts. Their revolutionary 1999 car has been fast but fragile. Ferrari and Schumacher will be worried if the team from Woking has cured that fragility. Ron Dennis warned everyone not to write off his team so early in the season. Sound advice...
| Pos |
Driver / Team |
Laps |
Time/reason |
|
|
|
|
| 1 |
M. Hakkinen
West McLaren Mercedes |
65 |
1hr
34m 13.665s |
| 2 |
D. Coulthard
West McLaren Mercedes |
65 |
+6.238s |
| 3 |
M. Schumacher
Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro |
65 |
+10.845s |
| 4 |
E. Irvine
Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro |
65 |
+30.182s |
| 5 |
R. Schumacher
Winfield Williams |
65 |
+1m 27.208s |
| 6 |
J. Trulli
Gauloises Prost Peugeot |
64 |
|
| 7 |
D. Hill
B & H Jordan Mugen Honda |
64 |
|
| 8 |
R. Barrichello
Stewart Ford |
64 |
|
| 9 |
M. Salo
British American Racing |
64 |
|
| 10 |
G. Fisichella
Mild Seven Benetton Playlife |
64 |
|
| 11 |
A. Wurz
Mild Seven Benetton Playlife |
64 |
|
| 12 |
P. de la Rosa
Zepter Arrows |
63 |
|
| 13 |
T. Takagi
Zepter Arrows |
62 |
|
| 14 |
L. Badoer
Fondmetal Minardi Ford |
50 |
Spin |
| 15 |
J. Villeneuve
British American Racing |
40 |
Gearbox |
| 16 |
P. Diniz
Red Bull Sauber Petronas |
40 |
? |
| 17 |
J. Herbert
Stewart Ford |
40 |
Transmission |
| 18 |
HH. Frentzen
Benson & Hedges Jordan |
35 |
Transmission |
| 19 |
J. Alesi
Red Bull Sauber Petronas |
27 |
? |
| 20 |
A. Zanardi
Winfield Williams |
24 |
Gearbox |
| 21 |
O. Panis
Gauloises Prost Peugeot |
24 |
? |
| 22 |
M. Gene
Fondmetal Minardi Ford |
0 |
Engine |
Fastest lap: M Schumacher
Article is written by and copyright (c) 1999 David Cunliffe, Warrington, UK - all rights reserved.
David Cunliffe has been following F1 for over twenty years and is a fan of any skillful and sporting driver who's a true racer. He produces a number of F1 related websites.
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