1998 British Grand Prix

1998 British Grand Prix
Previous←	1998 French Grand Prix
Round	9 of 1998
Next→	1998 Austrian Grand Prix
Silverstone in 1998.
Race Details
Date	12 July, 1998
Race Number	623
Official Name	LI RAC British Grand Prix
Location	Silverstone Circuit Northamptonshire, England, UK
Course	Permanent racing facility 5.141 km (3.194 mi)
Distance	60 laps, 308.46 km (191.668 mi)
Pole Position
Driver	Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes
Time	1:23.271
Fastest Lap
Driver	Michael Schumacher Ferrari
Time	1:35.704 on lap 12
Podium
First	Michael Schumacher
Second	Mika Häkkinen
Third	Eddie Irvine
Lap Leaders

The 1998 British Grand Prix, officially known as the LI RAC British Grand Prix, was the ninth round of the 1998 Formula One World Championship, it held significance as being the first race that has been won by a driver from the pit-lane. Michael Schumacher took the race win when he came in to serve a stop/go penalty on the final lap of the race for overtaking under safety car conditions. Championship leader Mika Häkkinen was second with Eddie Irvine in the second Ferrari, third.

Background

Heading into Britain, Mika Häkkinen maintained a six point advantage over Michael Schumacher. Häkkinen's teammate David Coulthard, who headed into his home race at Britain was a further 20 points down on Häkkinen.

Before the race there was a week of testing held at Silverstone, McLaren held the advantage in these tests. The big surprise was the performance of the Jordan's who appeared to be very quick following a series of upgrades to their car during the tests. 

Stewart had also brought an upgraded Ford Zetec engine to the British Grand Prix in hope of moving them up the grid.

Following the French Grand Prix rumours continued to link Jacques Villeneuve to the newly formed BAR team for 1999 which was being run by his former manager and friend Craig Pollock. To further enforce this theory, CART champion and former F1 racer Alessandro Zanardi was being linked as a replacement for Villeneuve in Williams.

Entry List

The full entry list for the 1998 British Grand Prix is outlined below:

No.	Driver	Entrant	Constructor	Chassis	Engine	Model	Tyre
1	Jacques Villeneuve	Winfield Williams	Williams	FW20	Mecachrome	GC37-01 3.0 V10	G
2	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Winfield Williams	Williams	FW20	Mecachrome	GC37-01 3.0 V10	G
3	Michael Schumacher	Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro	Ferrari	F300	Ferrari	047 3.0 V10	G
4	Eddie Irvine	Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro	Ferrari	F300	Ferrari	047 3.0 V10	G
5	Giancarlo Fisichella	Mild Seven Benetton Playlife	Benetton	B198	Playlife	GC37-01 3.0 V10	B
6	Alexander Wurz	Mild Seven Benetton Playlife	Benetton	B198	Playlife	GC37-01 3.0 V10	B
7	David Coulthard	West McLaren Mercedes	McLaren	MP4/13	Mercedes	FO 110G 3.0 V10	B
8	Mika Häkkinen	West McLaren Mercedes	McLaren	MP4/13	Mercedes	FO 110G 3.0 V10	B
9	Damon Hill	Benson & Hedges Jordan	Jordan	198	Mugen-Honda	MF-301HC 3.0 V10	G
10	Ralf Schumacher	Benson & Hedges Jordan	Jordan	198	Mugen-Honda	MF-301HC 3.0 V10	G
11	Olivier Panis	Gauloises Prost Peugeot	Prost	AP01	Peugeot	A16 3.0 V10	B
12	Jarno Trulli	Gauloises Prost Peugeot	Prost	AP01	Peugeot	A16 3.0 V10	B
14	Jean Alesi	Red Bull Sauber Petronas	Sauber	C17	Petronas	SPE-01D 3.0 V10	G
15	Johnny Herbert	Red Bull Sauber Petronas	Sauber	C17	Petronas	SPE-01D 3.0 V10	G
16	Pedro Diniz	Danka Zepter Arrows	Arrows	A19	Arrows	T2-F1 3.0 V10	B
17	Mika Salo	Danka Zepter Arrows	Arrows	A19	Arrows	T2-F1 3.0 V10	B
18	Rubens Barrichello	HSBC Stewart Ford	Stewart	SF02	Ford Cosworth	VJ Zetec-R 3.0 V10	B
19	Jos Verstappen	HSBC Stewart Ford	Stewart	SF02	Ford Cosworth	VJ Zetec-R 3.0 V10	B
20	Ricardo Rosset	PIAA Tyrrell	Tyrrell	026	Ford Cosworth	JD Zetec-R 3.0 V10	G
21	Tora Takagi	PIAA Tyrrell	Tyrrell	026	Ford Cosworth	JD Zetec-R 3.0 V10	G
22	Shinji Nakano	Fondmetal Minardi Team	Minardi	M198	Ford Cosworth	JD Zetec-R 3.0 V10	B
23	Esteban Tuero	Fondmetal Minardi Team	Minardi	M198	Ford Cosworth	JD Zetec-R 3.0 V10	B
Source:

Practice Overview

FP1

During the Friday practice sessions, it was David Coulthard who ran fastest throughout the day. Coulthard maintained his pace throughout the day ahead of teammate Häkkinen. Coulthard would however recieve a £8 000 fine for speeding in the pit-lane. Michael Schumacher was quiet throughout the day, focussing on set-ups doing only single flying laps before returning to the pits. He was seventh fastest at the end of the day. 

The Williams cars were running well with Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Jacques Villeneuve third and fourth on the grid. Eddie Irvine was fifth fastest despite a spin into the gravel trap during the morning session.

Practice Results

The full practice results for the 1998 British Grand Prix are outlined below:

No.	Driver	Constructor	FP1		FP2		Warm-Up
			Time	Pos.	Time	Pos.	Time	Pos.
1	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams-Mecachrome	1:26.114	4	1:24.791	6	1:42.133	11
2	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Williams-Mecachrome	1:26.107	3	1:25.187	8	1:41.620	8
3	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	1:26.884	7	1:24.260	3	1:40.296	5
4	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari	1:26.791	5	1:24.834	7	1:40.127	4
5	Giancarlo Fisichella	Benetton-Playlife	1:26.840	6	1:25.822	10	1:39.802	3
6	Alexander Wurz	Benetton-Playlife	1:27.121	8	1:25.904	11	1:40.917	6
7	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	1:25.640	1	1:24.233	2	1:37.910	1
8	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:25.764	2	1:23.639	1	1:37.921	2
9	Damon Hill	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	1:27.667	10	1:24.683	5	1:43.797	19
10	Ralf Schumacher	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	1:27.460	9	1:24.496	4	1:43.738	18
11	Olivier Panis	Prost-Peugeot	1:29.193	17	1:26.881	14	1:41.762	9
12	Jarno Trulli	Prost-Peugeot	1:28.685	15	1:27.002	17	1:44.526	20
14	Jean Alesi	Sauber-Petronas	1:28.136	12	1:25.769	9	1:42.369	12
15	Johnny Herbert	Sauber-Petronas	1:27.978	11	1:25.949	12	1:42.908	16
16	Pedro Diniz	Arrows	1:29.375	19	1:26.929	15	1:41.938	10
17	Mika Salo	Arrows	1:29.262	18	1:26.947	16	1:41.582	7
18	Rubens Barrichello	Stewart-Ford Cosworth	1:28.339	14	1:27.323	18	1:42.530	14
19	Jos Verstappen	Stewart-Ford Cosworth	1:28.983	16	1:27.690	19	1:43.305	17
20	Ricardo Rosset	Tyrrell-Ford Cosworth	1:29.664	20	1:28.650	22	1:48.865	22
21	Tora Takagi	Tyrrell-Ford Cosworth	1:28.258	13	1:26.521	13	1:46.189	21
22	Shinji Nakano	Minardi-Ford Cosworth	1:30.090	21	1:28.317	21	1:42.510	13
23	Esteban Tuero	Minardi-Ford Cosworth	1:30.266	22	1:28.224	20	1:42.779	15
Source:

• Bold indicates a driver's fastest practice time.

Qualifying

Before the qualifying session began, it was announced Ralf Schumacher would lose his fastest time during qualifying for failing to slow down during a yellow flag period following Giancarlo Fisichella's accident in the Saturday practice session. The session started with the two Tyrrell cars and Esteban Tuero's Minardi going onto track almost immediately. They were then followed by Johnny Herbert's Sauber. It was Jacques Villeneuve to set the first competitive lap time amongst the front runners taking the provisional pole time.

Michael Schumacher's Ferrari was not impressive on his first run, although he took the fastest time he was almost immediately bettered by Heinz-Harald Frentzen's Williams car. However on his second run, he was much more competitive going a full second faster than Frentzen's time. Schumacher's time did not last long at the top as Mika Häkkinen then took the provisional pole time.

Eddie Irvine then came round to set the third fastest time, right behind teammate Schumacher. David Coulthard managed to set only the third fastest time following his first lap time. More bad news occured for Ralf Schumacher when he spun his car on his second flying lap and stalled the car, forcing him to jog back to the pits for the spare car.

Häkkinen then came round to improve his pole position time despite making a mistake during his lap. Frentzen then did well to improve his time to go third fastest in the session. 

Schumacher managed to close the gap to Häkkinen but still was not able to overtake the Finn who was dominating the session. Coulthard was still struggling to compete with Häkkinen and Schumacher ahead of him, one of his flying laps being held up by Eddie Irvine's Ferrari. Irvine who was lingering in a disappointing seventh managed to improve his time to go fourth fastest. 

However Villeneuve was able to put in a searing lap to bring his Williams up to third. Häkkinen came close to bettering his best time but messed up the final sector of the circuit. Schumacher and Coulthard tried to better their times but it was to no avail. The session ended with Häkkinen taking pole ahead of Schumacher, Villeneuve, Coulthard, Irvine and Frentzen.

Following the session, Ralf Schumacher and Olivier Panis had their times to deleted meaning they would start from the back of the grid. The pair were disqualified the session for failing to exit their car in the neccessary time period following the pair stopping their cars out on track.

Qualifying Results

The full qualifying results for the 1998 British Grand Prix are outlined below:

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Time	Gap	Ave. Speed
1	8	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:23.271	—	222.214 km/h
2	3	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	1:23.720	+0.449s	221.022 km/h
3	1	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams-Mecachrome	1:24.102	+0.831s	220.019 km/h
4	7	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	1:24.310	+1.039s	219.476 km/h
5	4	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari	1:24.436	+1.165s	219.148 km/h
6	2	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Williams-Mecachrome	1:24.442	+1.171s	219.133 km/h
7	9	Damon Hill	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	1:24.542	+1.271s	218.873 km/h
8	14	Jean Alesi	Sauber-Petronas	1:25.081	+1.810s	217.487 km/h
9	15	Johnny Herbert	Sauber-Petronas	1:25.084	+1.813s	217.479 km/h
10	5	Giancarlo Fisichella	Benetton-Playlife	1:25.654	+2.383s	216.032 km/h
11	6	Alexander Wurz	Benetton-Playlife	1:25.760	+2.489s	215.765 km/h
12	16	Pedro Diniz	Arrows	1:26.376	+3.105s	214.226 km/h
13	17	Mika Salo	Arrows	1:26.487	+3.216s	213.951 km/h
14	12	Jarno Trulli	Prost-Peugeot	1:26.808	+3.537s	213.160 km/h
15	19	Jos Verstappen	Stewart-Ford Cosworth	1:26.948	+3.677s	212.817 km/h
16	18	Rubens Barrichello	Stewart-Ford Cosworth	1:26.990	+3.719s	212.714 km/h
17	21	Tora Takagi	Tyrrell-Ford Cosworth	1:27.061	+3.790s	212.541 km/h
18	23	Esteban Tuero	Minardi-Ford Cosworth	1:28.051	+4.780s	210.151 km/h
19	22	Shinji Nakano	Minardi-Ford Cosworth	1:28.123	+4.852s	209.979 km/h
20	20	Ricardo Rosset	Tyrrell-Ford Cosworth	1:28.608	+5.337s	208.830 km/h
107% Time: 1:29.100
EXC*	10	Ralf Schumacher	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	1:25.461	+2.190s	216.520 km/h
EXC*	11	Olivier Panis	Prost-Peugeot	1:26.847	+3.576s	213.064 km/h
Source:

• Bold indicates a driver's best/qualifying time.
• * Ralf Schumacher and Panis were excluded from the results of qualifying for failing a safety drill.

Grid

The full grid for the 1998 British Grand Prix is shown below:

	Pos.	Pos.
	Driver	Driver
	______________
Row 1	1	______________
	Mika Häkkinen	2
	______________	Michael Schumacher
Row 2	3	______________
	Jacques Villeneuve	4
	______________	David Coulthard
Row 3	5	______________
	Eddie Irvine	6
	______________	Heinz-Harald Frentzen
Row 4	7	______________
	Damon Hill	8
	______________	Jean Alesi
Row 5	9	______________
	Johnny Herbert	10
	______________	Giancarlo Fisichella
Row 6	11	______________
	Alexander Wurz	12
	______________	Pedro Diniz
Row 7	13	______________
	Mika Salo	14
	______________	Jarno Trulli
Row 8	15	______________
	Jos Verstappen	16
	______________	Rubens Barrichello
Row 9	17	______________
	Tora Takagi	18
	______________	Esteban Tuero
Row 10	19	______________
	Shinji Nakano	20
	______________	Ricardo Rosset
Row 11	21	______________
	Ralf Schumacher	22
	______________	Olivier Panis

Race

Report

Rain had afflicted the track throughout the day, although the rain had subsided before the start got underway, the track remained quite damp. Mika Häkkinen kept his lead into the first corner, with Michael Schumacher in tow. Jacques Villeneuve made a poor getaway dropping behind David Coulthard and Jean Alesi who had made a phenomenal start from eighth on the grid to climb to fourth. Eddie Irvine made an appaling start dropping down to tenth position. On the second lap Irvine managed to reclaim ninth from Alexander Wurz.

Lap three saw Irvine reclaim eighth from Johnny Herbert as the order at the front stabilised. Ralf Schumacher had made a strong start climbing up to thirteenth by lap four. The same lap the older Schumacher made a mistake whilst chasing Häkkinen for the lead of the race meaning he fell right back into the clutches of the second McLaren of Coulthard. The following lap Coulthard managed to make his overtake on Schumacher's Ferrari for second position.

On lap five the rain returned providing further challenges for the drivers. At the front Häkkinen then began to establish a lead as Coulthard began to pull away from Schumacher in second. Irvine further advanced his recovery drive on lap 7 by overtaking the Jordan of Damon Hill around the outside of stowe. The following lap Jacques Villeneuve went wide losing two places to teammate Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Eddie Irvine. 

Michael Schumacher then began to find some pace setting the fastest lap on lap 9 as he set out to catch the McLaren's. Ralf Schumacher, meanwhile had began to apply heavy pressure to Giancarlo Fisichella's Benetton who was running in eleventh place. 

Lap eleven saw Irvine take fifth place from Frentzen's Williams. The other Ferrari of Michael Schumacher then set the fastest lap of the race the following lap with a 1:35.704. Ralf Schumacher then pitted on the following lap for a new set of intermediate tyres. The two Stewart's meanwhile fitted dry tyres, a critical error as the two cars struggled around the track.

Lap 15 saw the first retirement when Damon Hill spun at Brooklands corner and stalled the engine. Hill angrily beat the steering wheel as he retired from his home grand prix. Two laps later Frentzen also spun off the circuit in the wet conditions ending his race as well. The Stewarts meanwhile realising their error returned to the pits for intermediates.

The rain had began to intensify yet despite this Michael Schumacher came into the pits for a new set of intermediate tyres on lap 19. The following lap saw Villeneuve and Wurz pit also fitting intermediates. 

A couple of laps later Coulthard then came into the pits for new intermediates. Two laps after Coulthard, Alesi and Irvine came into the pits. Alesi however made a poor pit-stop and Irvine was able to gain fourth position from the Sauber despite being several seconds behind Alesi as he entered the pits. One lap later Häkkinen came into the pits for wet tyres, becoming the first driver to come in for the full wet compound. 

Irvine was then able to take fourth position from Johnny Herbert on-track. Herbert was the only driver of the front-runners who had yet to make a stop. Ralf Schumacher had managed to climb up to seventh position following the pit-stop phase. 

Lap 27 saw two retirements, first being Mika Salo with throttle failure then Johnny Herbert who was struggling on old tyres spinning into the gravel and being bogged down. Herbert managed to get a push-start by the marshalls to get him out of the gravel but immediately retired from the race due to the illegality of a push-start. Two laps later there was more victims in the rain with the backmarkers of Esteban Tuero and Ricardo Rosset spinning into the gravel.

As the track became increasingly wet, Häkkinen on wet tyres was able to extend his advantage over teammate Coulthard. However when Häkkinen caught up to traffic, Coulthard then began to catch the leading McLaren beginning to apply the pressure on teammate Häkkinen. However soon enough Coulthard caught the same traffic and as he attempted to weave his way through the backmarkers he made a critical error in getting caught out on some standing water where he spun violently into the gravel trap and out of the race. 

Shortly afterwards Irvine came into the pits for a set of full wet tyres. The following lap Häkkinen and Schumacher made their pit-stops, both fitting the full wet tyre. Jarno Trulli then spun his car into retirement whilst the same lap Jos Verstappen suffered an engine failure, spinning his car as he pulled off the circuit. As the race intensified those that were on the intermediate were forced to come in for full wets.

Race leader Häkkinen then spun his car entering bridge corner but luckily for him he was able to continue without losing his lead. Rubens Barrichello was the next retirement when he spun into the barriers. Barrichello was followed by Olivier Panis into retirement with the Prost driver spinning into the gravel trap. Shinji Nakano also had a moment off track but luckily for him was able to continue driving. 

With the conditions continuing to worsen, the safety car was brought out on lap 41. With the safety car coming out, Häkkinen's 40 second lead was wiped out as the cars bunched up behind the safety car.

At the end of lap 49, the safety car came into the pits and the race resumed. Within a lap of the safety car entering the pits Pedro Diniz spun out of the race. Esteban Tuero then spun but resumed the race. Schumacher, meanwhile began to apply pressure to race leader Häkkinen. Under the pressure Häkkinen ran wide and onto the grass allowing Schumacher to take the lead from the McLaren  driver. Schumacher immediately began to pull away from Häkkinen at a vast rate opening up a comfortable lead in the race. 

There was disappointment for Alesi, whilst running in a competitive fourth Alesi pulled off the circuit and into retirement with electrical failure.

Ralf Schumacher who was running in sixth began a great battle with the Benetton of Alexander Wurz, coming close several times to overtaking in attempt to gain Jordan's first points of the season. Häkkinen began to struggle with Irvine coming up behind him and beginning to threaten his second position.

There was drama in the final laps, Schumacher was given a stop and go penalty by the stewards for overtaking Wurz under yellow flag conditions. Schumacher would not serve his penalty until the final lap of the race. Coming into the pits Schumacher crossed the line before pulling into his pit box to serve his penalty. This technality meant that Schumacher would take the race win ahead of Häkkinen, Irvine, the two Benetton's of Fisichella and Wurz and Ralf Schumacher, who gained Jordan's first points of the season.

Post-race, there was debate on the last lap drama. Ferrari claimed that they were issued the penalty too late and were unsure which kind of penalty should they serve, a stop/go or post-race time penalty. McLaren however demanded a harsher time penalty equivalent to how long an average stop/go penalty would take. After a meeting, it was decided that no further action was taken. Schumacher's win was allowed to stand while the stewards involved in deciding the penalty had their licenses revoked.

Results

The full results for the 1998 British Grand Prix are outlined below:

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1*	3	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	60	1:47:02.450	2	10
2	8	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	60	+22.465s	1	6
3	4	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari	60	+29.199s	5	4
4	6	Alexander Wurz	Benetton-Playlife	59	+1 lap	11	3
5	5	Giancarlo Fisichella	Benetton-Playlife	59	+1 lap	10	2
6	10	Ralf Schumacher	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	59	+1 lap	21	1
7	1	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams-Mecachrome	59	+1 lap	3
8	22	Shinji Nakano	Minardi-Ford Cosworth	58	+2 laps	19
9	21	Tora Takagi	Tyrrell-Ford Cosworth	56	+4 laps	17
Ret	14	Jean Alesi	Sauber-Petronas	53	Electrical	8
Ret	16	Pedro Diniz	Arrows	45	Spin	12
Ret	11	Olivier Panis	Prost-Peugeot	40	Spin	22
Ret	18	Rubens Barrichello	Stewart-Ford Cosworth	39	Spin	16
Ret	19	Jos Verstappen	Stewart-Ford Cosworth	38	Engine	15
Ret	7	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	37	Spin	4
Ret	12	Jarno Trulli	Prost-Peugeot	37	Spin	14
Ret	20	Ricardo Rosset	Tyrrell-Ford Cosworth	29	Spin	20
Ret	23	Esteban Tuero	Minardi-Ford Cosworth	29	Spin	18
Ret	15	Johnny Herbert	Sauber-Petronas	27	Spin	9
Ret	17	Mika Salo	Arrows	27	Throttle	13
Ret	2	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Williams-Mecachrome	15	Spin	6
Ret	9	Damon Hill	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	13	Spin	7
Source:

• * Michael Schumacher's 10-second penalty had not been received because it was delayed as he had won the British Grand Prix.

Milestones

• Ralf Schumacher gave Jordan their first point of 1998.

Standings

World Championship for Drivers Pos. Driver Pts. 1 Mika Häkkinen 56 2 Michael Schumacher 54 3 David Coulthard 30 4 Eddie Irvine 29 5 Alexander Wurz 17 6 Giancarlo Fisichella 15 7 Jacques Villeneuve 11 8 Heinz-Harald Frentzen 8 9 Rubens Barrichello 4 10 Jean Alesi 3 = Mika Salo 3 12 Johnny Herbert 1 = Pedro Diniz 1 = Jan Magnussen 1 = Ralf Schumacher 1

International Cup for Manufacturers Pos. Team Pts. 1 McLaren-Mercedes 86 2 Ferrari 83 3 Benetton-Playlife 32 4 Williams-Mecachrome 19 5 Stewart-Ford Cosworth 5 6 Arrows 4 = Sauber-Petronas 4 8 Jordan-Mugen-Honda 1

Only point scoring drivers and teams are shown.

References

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References:

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