1998 French Grand Prix

1998 French Grand Prix
Previous←	1998 Canadian Grand Prix
Round	8 of 1998
Next→	1998 British Grand Prix
1992–2008 layout of Magny-Cours
Race Details
Date	28 June, 1998
Race Number	622
Official Name	LXXXIV Grand Prix Mobil 1 de France
Location	Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours Magny-Cours, France
Course	Permanent racing facility 4.250 km (2.641 mi)
Scheduled Distance	72 laps, 306 km (190.140 mi)
Completed Distance	71 laps, 301.75 km (187.499 mi)
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
Second	Eddie Irvine
Third	Mika Häkkinen
Lap Leaders

The 1998 French Grand Prix, officially known as the LXXXIV Grand Prix Mobil 1 de France, was the eighth round of the 1998 Formula One Season. The race was won by Ferrari with Michael Schumacher and Eddie Irvine taking a one-two finish for the team, the team's first since the 1990 Spanish Grand Prix.

Background

The biggest news heading into the French Grand Prix was that Jan Magnussen would be replaced for the rest of the season at Stewart by Benetton test driver Jos Verstappen. Verstappen who had failed to attain a drive at the beginning of 1998, had been linked as a replacement by the underperforming Magnussen since as early as San Marino. Despite gaining his first F1 points in Canada, it would not be enough to convince Stewart to retain Magnussen for the remainder of the season. 

There was also news at Tyrrell, it was annouced that its Deputy Technical Director Mike Gascoyne had left the team to join Jordan from the British Grand Prix onwards. Furthermore, its driver Ricardo Rosset was looking to be replaced within the team. Rosset had made a poor impression in Formula One, many questioning his ability to compete after failing to qualify in Spain and Monaco. Rosset was also behind on many of his payments to the Tyrrell team, with team boss Craig Pollock announcing following Canada that it was evaluating Tom Kristensen to race for the team. Rosset, however came good on his payments and therefore was contractually obliged to continue racing for the team despite his unwelcome nature within the Tyrrell camp. 

To further confound Tyrrell's misery, it had been announced that Harvey Postlethwaite, the man who had been left in charge of the day to day running of the team following Ken Tyrrell's retirement, had decided to leave the team and join the Honda F1 Project. However good news for the team would occur when Craig Pollock announced that the team would be using Supertec engines for the 1999 season upon its renewal as BAR. 

Prior to France, Benetton became the first team to confirm its 1999 line-up with Giancarlo Fisichella and Alexander Wurz impressing substantially to be retained into the coming year. 

Entry List

The full entry list for the 1998 French 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

The Friday practice sessions saw an increased competition between the Ferrari annd McLaren teams. In fact it was Eddie Irvine who was consistently topping the timesheets, holding his advantage unexpectedly over teammate Michael Schumacher. However in the dying minutes of the session Mika Häkkinen went fastest with a 1:16.515, only half a tenth faster than Irvine. Coulthard was third followed by Frentzen and the two Schumacher brothers of Michael and Ralf.

Michael Schumacher was not at ease in the session complaining of oversteer on his car. The new arrival on the grid, Jos Verstappen struggled on his return to F1 following an oil leak in the morning, he was only able to better the Minardi cars in the session. The only notable incidents in the session was of Jacques Villeneuve and Esteban Tuero spinning off the circuit into the gravel, ending their days. 

Ricardo Rosset who recorded a solid fourteenth fastest time saw his car catch alight into flames whilst in the pit-lane. 

FP2

Mika Häkkinen once again went fastest in Saturday practice, however the two Ferrari's were heavy on his heels. Michael Schumacher went second despite a spin mid-way through the session. David Coulthard who went fourth fastest, also spun into the gravel before he was beached. Ralf Schumacher once again demonstrated a strong time to go fifth for Jordan. 

Sauber suffered a torrid session with Johnny Herbert having an engine failure whilst Jean Alesi only managed to complete four laps. Esteban Tuero also had a nasty shunt into the tyre barrier. 

Practice Results

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

No.	Driver	Constructor	FP1		FP2		Warm-Up
			Time	Pos.	Time	Pos.	Time	Pos.
1	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams-Mecachrome	1:19.008	17	1:16.782	7	1:18.442	5
2	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Williams-Mecachrome	1:17.026	4	1:15.870	3	1:18.466	6
3	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	1:17.429	5	1:15.738	2	1:17.189	3
4	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari	1:16.597	2	1:15.870	3	1:17.628	4
5	Giancarlo Fisichella	Benetton-Playlife	1:17.664	7	1:17.106	8	1:18.545	7
6	Alexander Wurz	Benetton-Playlife	1:17.706	8	1:17.205	9	1:18.607	8
7	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	1:16.707	3	1:15.909	4	1:16.483	1
8	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:16.515	1	1:15.613	1	1:16.718	2
9	Damon Hill	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	1:17.895	9	1:17.426	10	1:18.819	12
10	Ralf Schumacher	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	1:17.505	6	1:16.678	5	1:18.790	11
11	Olivier Panis	Prost-Peugeot	1:18.367	13	1:18.706	19	1:18.729	10
12	Jarno Trulli	Prost-Peugeot	1:18.036	11	1:17.711	11	1:19.442	15
14	Jean Alesi	Sauber-Petronas	1:18.172	12	1:18.893	20	1:18.611	9
15	Johnny Herbert	Sauber-Petronas	1:17.977	10	1:17.873	13	1:19.092	13
16	Pedro Diniz	Arrows	1:19.023	18	1:18.389	16	1:20.240	20
17	Mika Salo	Arrows	1:18.656	15	1:18.075	14	1:19.733	17
18	Rubens Barrichello	Stewart-Ford Cosworth	1:18.703	16	1:18.170	15	1:19.097	14
19	Jos Verstappen	Stewart-Ford Cosworth	1:20.286	20	1:18.451	18	1:19.641	16
20	Ricardo Rosset	Tyrrell-Ford Cosworth	1:18.649	14	1:18.405	17	1:22.160	22
21	Tora Takagi	Tyrrell-Ford Cosworth	1:19.057	19	1:17.847	12	1:19.788	18
22	Shinji Nakano	Minardi-Ford Cosworth	1:20.445	21	1:19.324	21	1:19.835	19
23	Esteban Tuero	Minardi-Ford Cosworth	1:20.871	22	1:19.475	22	1:21.376	21
Source:

Qualifying

Ralf Schumacher in the Jordan was the first person out on track setting a lap time to take provisional pole. Jean Alesi then came round but was unable to better the Jordan's time, setting a relatively slow time. 

Michael Schumacher then came round to take provisional pole despite going wide through the chicanes and being held up by a Minardi. Giancarlo Fisichella then set a time to go second, ahead of Ralf Schumacher. Eddie Irvine then came round to set the provisional pole time. Olivier Panis then suffered a mechanical failure forcing him to return to the pits to compete in the spare car. 

Damon Hill set his first competitive lap, going fifth just behind teammate Ralf Schumacher. David Coulthard then went fastest to take the provisional pole time. Immediately afterwards Mika Häkkinen responded to take the pole time. Ralf Schumacher then improved to go fifth ahead of Fisichella, immediately afterwards Jacques Villeneuve went ahead of Fisichella as well.

Michael Schumacher, meanwhile came round to complete his first true flying lap to go second fastest one tenth slower than Häkkinen. Irvine then improved his time to take third ahead of Coulthard. 

Toranosuke Takagi then suffered a major engine blow out down the second straight. Villeneuve then improved to go fifth fastest whilst Hill then went sixth fastest. Häkkinen then went round to go 0.2 seconds faster with a 1:15.253 despite running wide onto the grass during his lap. Coulthard then came round for his next lap but whilst he went faster than Irvine, he was unable to top Häkkinen or Schumacher. 

Michael Schumacher then went on to set the fastest provisional time with a 1:15.159. Pedro Diniz then spun off the circuit coming out of the first corner and ending into the barriers. Diniz ran back to the pits for the spare car however was unable to resume the session as teammate Mika Salo had already occupied it. 

Irvine then experienced problems when exitting the pits, his car lost power and had to be wheeled back into the garage by his mechanics. Häkkinen meanwhile came round to reclaim pole position with a 1:14.929. Coulthard also appeared to be on a quick lap, however ran wide whilst entering the final sector ruining his lap.

Tuero then suffered a mechanical failure just after the start-finish line. Irvine's final time was not enough to improve on the cars ahead of him. Salo then pulled off the circuit with mechanical failure. 

The dying minutes saw the two McLaren's of Häkkinen and Coulthard as well as Schumacher's Ferrari enter the track in a final bid to improve their time. None of the three would improve their times meaning Häkkinen would take his fifth pole position of the season.

Qualifying Results

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

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Time	Gap	Ave. Speed
1	8	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:14.929	—	204.193 km/h
2	3	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	1:15.159	+0.230s	203.568 km/h
3	7	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	1:15.333	+0.404s	203.098 km/h
4	4	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari	1:15.527	+0.598s	202.577 km/h
5	1	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams-Mecachrome	1:15.630	+0.701s	202.301 km/h
6	10	Ralf Schumacher	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	1:15.925	+0.996s	201.515 km/h
7	9	Damon Hill	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	1:16.245	+1.316s	200.669 km/h
8	2	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Williams-Mecachrome	1:16.319	+1.390s	200.474 km/h
9	5	Giancarlo Fisichella	Benetton-Playlife	1:16.375	+1.446s	200.327 km/h
10	6	Alexander Wurz	Benetton-Playlife	1:16.460	+1.531s	200.105 km/h
11	14	Jean Alesi	Sauber-Petronas	1:16.627	+1.698s	199.669 km/h
12	12	Jarno Trulli	Prost-Peugeot	1:16.892	+1.963s	198.980 km/h
13	15	Johnny Herbert	Sauber-Petronas	1:16.977	+2.048s	198.761 km/h
14	18	Rubens Barrichello	Stewart-Ford Cosworth	1:17.024	+2.095s	198.639 km/h
15	19	Jos Verstappen	Stewart-Ford Cosworth	1:17.604	+2.675s	197.155 km/h
16	11	Olivier Panis	Prost-Peugeot	1:17.671	+2.742s	196.985 km/h
17	16	Pedro Diniz	Arrows	1:17.880	+2.951s	196.456 km/h
18	20	Ricardo Rosset	Tyrrell-Ford Cosworth	1:17.908	+2.979s	196.385 km/h
19	17	Mika Salo	Arrows	1:17.970	+3.041s	196.229 km/h
20	21	Tora Takagi	Tyrrell-Ford Cosworth	1:18.221	+3.292s	195.600 km/h
21	22	Shinji Nakano	Minardi-Ford Cosworth	1:18.273	+3.344s	195.470 km/h
22	23	Esteban Tuero	Minardi-Ford Cosworth	1:19.146	+4.217s	193.314 km/h
107% Time: 1:20.174
Source:

Grid

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

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

Race

Report

It was a good start for the McLaren's, Häkkinen maintaining his lead into the first corner ahead of Michael Schumacher, whilst David Coulthard climbed to second ahead of Eddie Irvine. However, the start was aborted due to Jos Verstappen on his return to racing stalled on the grid, being forced to start from the back of the grid on the second re-start.

The second start was disaster for McLaren, Schumacher took the lead as Häkkinen dropped to third behind Eddie Irvine. Coulthard started poorly dropping behind Jacques Villeneuve, however he managed to reclaim the position going into turn 3. Alexander Wurz had made a strong start to climb to eighth position. 

Schumacher immediately began to disappear into the lead of the race leaving teammate Irvine to fend off the McLaren attack from behind. Jacques Villeneuve's fifth position also came under threat as the two Jordan cars of Ralf Schumacher and Damon Hill began to apply the pressure. However Hill would encounter problems on lap 15 with his hydraulics which caused him to drop behind Wurz and Jean Alesi. 

Ricardo Rosset became the first retirement on lap 16 when he pulled into the pits with hydraulics failure. On lap 17, Ralf Schumacher became the first of the frontrunners to pit. A lap later teammate Hill came in, however a troublesome pit-stop saw him drop to 13th. He then retired a lap later with hydraulics failure. To make things even worse for Jordan, Wurz and Ralf Schumacher collided, damaging Schumacher's track rod forcing him into the pits. The damage took a number of laps to fix and whilst Schumacher rejoined the race he was several laps down on the leaders. 

Meanwhile at the front, Häkkinen continued to apply pressure on Irvine, he attempted to overtake through the inside of the last corner but only succeeded in spinning the car, losing third to Coulthard. Coulthard was then able to overtake Irvine into turn 3 for second, before the Ferrari driver came into the pits for his first stop. A lap later, race leader Schumacher came into the pits allowing Coulthard a brief moment in the lead.

However as Coulthard entered the pits, he suffered a dismal 17 second stop as the mechanics struggled to attach the fuel nossle. He exited back in fourth behind Irvine and Häkkinen. 

Whilst chasing down Jean Alesi, Giancarlo Fisichella collided with the back of the Sauber damaging his front wing, causing a replacement to be fitted before his second pit-stop.

The order at the front then stabilised, Schumacher continued to further consolidate his lead as Irvine held the McLaren's at bay from second position. Battles at the back saw Wurz take sixth position away from Jean Alesi, Wurz then began to put pressure on Villeneuve's Williams for fifth yet was unable to find a way past.

In the second round of pit-stops there was trouble yet again for Coulthard. His refuelling rig would once again not attach properly to his car, Coulthard remained stationary in the pits for 37 seconds exiting in fifth behind Villeneuve without receiving any fuel. The following lap Coulthard returned to the pits, after another lengthy pit-stop, the mechanics finally began refuelling Coulthard. The McLaren driver then exited in eighth position. He quickly disposed of Heinz-Harald Frentzen's Williams on his out-lap.

Esteban Tuero then retired from the race with gearbox issues. Coulthard, meanwhile was the fastest car on circuit, quickly catching up to Alesi's Sauber before overtaking him to get back into the points.

Johnny Herbert had a wild moment going into the first chicane, he went off the circuit and into the gravel then bounced back into the track, nearly causing an accident with Jarno Trulli. Despite just missing out on accident, Trulli would spin out of the race on lap 55.

At the front Schumacher consolidated his lead whilst Irvine came under serious pressure from Häkkinen. Coulthard, who set the fastest lap on lap 59 had just managed to overtake Wurz and set on hunting down Villeneuve, when he was called to the pits yet again for more fuel. This dropped Coulthard back down to eighth. 

Häkkinen came close many times to overtaking Irvine but to no avail, he was held up in one of his attempts by the backmarker Stewart car of Jos Verstappen. In the dying laps, Toranosuke Takagi and Shinji Nakano both retired with engine failures. 

Lap 68 saw Heinz-Harald Frentzen climb to the rear of Jean Alesi, attempting an overtake the two cars collided. Alesi continued, however Frentzen pulled into the pits, his crippled car retiring with suspension damage. The collision allowed Coulthard to close on the rear of Alesi, before going for the overtake and taking sixth position, salvaging some points. 

Schumacher, however would take a dominant race win. Häkkinen attempted one final overtake manoeveure on the last corner of the last lap, but Irvine maintained second. Villeneuve was fourth with Wurz right behind while Coulthard could only manage a single point in sixth. 

The Ferrari 1-2 was the first for the team since the 1990 Spanish Grand Prix.  

Results

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

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	+19.575s	4	6
3	8	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	71	+19.747s	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 Cosworth	69	+2 laps	14
11	11	Olivier Panis	Prost-Peugeot	69	+2 laps	16
12	19	Jos Verstappen	Stewart-Ford Cosworth	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 Cosworth	65	Engine	21
Ret	21	Tora Takagi	Tyrrell-Ford Cosworth	60	Engine	20
Ret	12	Jarno Trulli	Prost-Peugeot	55	Accident	12
Ret	23	Esteban Tuero	Minardi-Ford Cosworth	41	Gearbox	22
Ret	9	Damon Hill	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	19	Engine	7
Ret	20	Ricardo Rosset	Tyrrell-Ford Cosworth	16	Engine	18
Source:

• * Frentzen and Nakano were still classified despite retiring as they had completed 90% of the race distance.

Standings

World Championship for Drivers Pos. Driver Pts. 1 Mika Häkkinen 50 2 Michael Schumacher 44 3 David Coulthard 30 4 Eddie Irvine 25 5 Alexander Wurz 14 6 Giancarlo Fisichella 13 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

International Cup for Manufacturers Pos. Team Pts. 1 McLaren-Mercedes 80 2 Ferrari 69 3 Benetton-Playlife 27 4 Williams-Mecachrome 19 5 Stewart-Ford Cosworth 5 6 Arrows 4 = Sauber-Petronas 4

Only point scoring drivers and teams are shown.

References

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