The final round of the 1997 FIA Formula One World Championship is over and now, after the smoke has settled and the crowds have gone home, it is time to reflect on one of the most interesting races of all season. Despite hopes for a clean fight between the two main protagonists, the way the title was decided has again proved that drivers are men and not machines.

With all the fuss surrounding the title contenders, you could have been forgiven for missing the retirement of two of the "characters" in Formula One, namely Ukyo "Tiny Warrior" Katayama and Gerhard Berger. Whilst it is sad to see the former retire, the retirement of Berger signals the end of an era in F1. Gerhard was part of F1 (as a driver) when sportsmanship was more important than money and the sport will be somehow lessened by his departure.

Before the race
As predicted, Bridgestone had the upper hand in the tyre war, producing yet another superb tyre (for qualifying at least). The net result of this was a superb 4th position on the grid, just 0.058s behind the fastest car, or should I say cars?

Obviously, the 1997 European Grand Prix will go down in history at least partly because of the 3-way tie for fastest qualifying lap. Despite it being pure Hollywood in terms of an exciting qualifying session, statistically there is no reason why it couldn't happen. Many have said that TAG-Heuer and FOCA fixed the timings so that they could set the scene for the race. Williams actually shared their telemetry for Jacques Villeneuve and Heinz-Harald Frentzen and proved that they did do exactly the same time.

It was early in the session that the fun started, with Jacques setting a lap almost an entire second faster than Heinz-Harald who was fastest at that time. 26 minutes into the session, Michael Schumacher came out for a run in an attempt to displace his rival from pole. Amazingly, the German dragged his Ferrari around in exactly the same time, netting him second on the grid by the virtue of Villeneuve doing it first.

With around 10 minutes remaining in the session Frentzen came out for another go and having been told by Frank Williams before the session to get between Villeneuve and Schumacher, did the only thing available, he set exactly the same time.

Further back, the Minardi pair used their Bridgestone rubber to full advantage and relegated both the Tyrrell cars to the back row of the grid. Another team lower than they have been was Jordan who could only manage 16th and 17th on the grid in their last race with Peugeot engines.

The race
As the lights winked out, it seemed that Jacques Villeneuve would keep first place as his start, whilst not exactly blinding was certainly quick enough. Sadly for him, he appeared to bog down and Michael Schumacher took advantage of this to nip through into the lead.

As the field turned for the first corner, Heinz-Harald Frentzen also squeezed through into second, but there was little doubt that this was all part of the plan. A little further back, Damon Hill lost out to both McLaren-Mercedes, ending the first lap 6th, 2 places down from his starting position.

Immediately Schumacher set off down the track, determined to build up a solid lead before the first round of stops and was 2.2 seconds ahead of the #4 Williams at the end of the second lap. Villeneuve, for his part, was less than a second behind his team mate, but the McLaren pair, led by Mika Hakkinen, was only 1.1 seconds behind and ready to punish any slips he might make in his chase for the title.

For Schumacher, that was as easy as it got as Frentzen soon got into his rhythm and started go faster, closely followed by Villeneuve. Lap 3 saw the German Williams driver set fastest race lap, but this was bettered on lap 4 and again on lap 6 by a flying Jacques Villeneuve.

By the time this last lap time was set, the Williams drivers had knocked around 0.5 seconds off the lead of the #5 Ferrari, proving that despite being slower than the Williams drivers, Schumacher was not that much slower.

With Jacques Villeneuve closing on Heinz-Harald Frentzen, the Williams team decided to ask the latter to get out of the way and let the Championship rivals fight it out on track directly. Unlike the manoeuvre used by Ferrari in Suzuka, this was a clumsy affair, with Villeneuve losing around 1 second in passing his teammate. Even worse, as the cars cleared the corner it was evident that Frentzen had lost the almost 4 second lead he had over the McLaren drivers. Could Williams be this inept at strategic racing?

Soon, however, it became clear that this actually was their strategy, with Frentzen slowing the McLaren pair as Villeneuve closed on Schumacher, therefore allowing the Canadian to concentrate on passing rather than being passed.

On lap 12, Pedro Diniz spun out of 13th place and stalled the engine, ending his race and the 1997 season with a grand total of 2 points from a year that he claimed he would end ahead of Rubens Barrichello.

By lap 14 Villeneuve had closed the gap to Schumacher by a small amount to 4.9 seconds, but had a 4.6-second lead over Frentzen who was still doing what he was told and keeping the McLarens behind. That said, neither of the Silver Arrows looked to be that bothered about passing the Williams. It was almost as if they didn't want to get past, but more of that later.

Lap 15 saw Mika Salo and Tarso Marques pit for fresh rubber and tyres indicating that some teams may opt for as many as 3 stops over the course of the race.

Back at the front, Michael Schumacher and Jacques Villeneuve were both setting a blistering pace, exchanging fastest race laps almost every time around the track. Even though the gap between the title aspirants was fairly static they were still increasing the gap between themselves and the chasing pack.

So, on lap 18, the top 6 looked like this:
Schumacher -> 5.144s -> Villeneuve -> 11.287s -> Frentzen -> 0.725s -> Hakkinen -> 1.799s -> Coulthard -> 2.223s -> Hill

Even though several cars had stopped before lap 22, it was at this point that first of the important stops happened. Michael Schumacher arrived and in 7.6 was refuelled and had new tyres fitted to his Ferrari. Damon Hill also stopped, but took around 2 seconds longer and with Eddie Irvine breathing down his neck, this was time he could little afford.

Lap 23 saw Villeneuve's stop (7.5 seconds), which was followed a lap later by Eddie Irvine (7.4 seconds). On lap 25 and 26 David Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen respectively stopped for fuel and tyres, both getting out in around 7.6 seconds.

With Heinz-Harald Frentzen pitting on lap 27 and Berger on 29, this meant that the top 6 looked like this:
Schumacher -> 0.949s -> Villeneuve -> 12.978s -> Coulthard -> 0.991s -> Hakkinen -> Frentzen -> Irvine

Lap 30 saw only the second retirement of the day, with Rubens Barrichello parking his Stewart-Ford after the gearbox failed.

Michael Schumacher had relatively slow in and out laps and because of this, Jacques Villeneuve had been able to knock 4 second off the lead of the German driver. We suddenly looked set for a titanic battle, but once again had it spoiled by recalcitrant backmarkers.

Where Schumacher in his Ferrari was able to scythe through them, Villeneuve seemed to have a massive amount of trouble and on lap 32 lost a massive 3 seconds passing one car.

Despite having lost this time, Jacques Villeneuve never gave up and put in a superb show of on the limit driving, invariably sliding out of the final corner in an attempt to catch and pass his rival. Even with this massive effort, he was still only able to take 0.1 seconds per lap out of the lead and it started to look like only a massive effort from the Williams pit crew would be able to hand him the lead.

The second round of pit stops started on lap 43, with Villeneuve needing to gain over 2.379 seconds from the stop to get into the lead.

Schumacher stopped first, needing 9.4 seconds for his team to fit fresh tyres and refuel the car, and was followed a lap later by Villeneuve (8.3s), Hakkinen and Irvine. Even though the Williams team had been 1.1 seconds faster, Schumacher had actually pulled

Lap 44 also saw the retirement of Michael Schumacher's younger brother Ralf, whose Jordan had been leaking fluid for some time. Taking the safe route, Jordan decided to bring the young German driver in before the Peugeot decided to explode on track.

On lap 46 both Damon Hill and David Coulthard stopped, but all eyes were focused on the 2nd and 3rd placed pair of Schumacher and Villeneuve who were now less than 1 second apart. Villeneuve had pulled back the deficit in a little over 2 laps, and was making it look that his rival was suffering from some kind of mechanical problem.

Jacques Villeneuve had now, it seemed, realised that if Michael got away from him, it would probably mean the end of the Championship.

On lap 47, Villeneuve was less than 0.5 seconds behind the Ferrari and closing rapidly. At Curva Dry Sack he saw an opening and pulled out from behind the leading car obviously intending to outbrake it into the corner. Despite being quite a long way back, the gambit looked like paying off and Villeneuve was clearly ahead as the pair reached the turn in point.

Sadly for the sport, and the legion of Ferrari/Schumacher fans, the former World Champion did not give way and instead appeared to deliberately turn into his Canadian rival. Luckily for Villeneuve, the front right wheel of the Ferrari only hit the left-hand sidepod rather than either the front or back wheels, thereby causing relatively little damage to the Williams.

For Michael things were not so good, and the Ferrari was left sitting in the gravel with the Championship apparently lost.

The assertion made by Michael immediately after the race was that it was a racing accident, no more, no less, but the press and the World in general did not agree. What should have been an epic battle settled by a superb overtaking move was turned into a farce by the man who had said that he feared the same from his rival in Suzuka. Quite rightly, Schumacher has been called before the FIA council to account for his behaviour and it will be a travesty if he only gets fined for this "accident".

All of this brought back memories of the final race of 1994 and Damon Hill appeared to agree, retiring in sympathy with a broken gearbox on the same lap as his arch rival.

With Villeneuve over 12 second clear of 2nd placed David Coulthard and with around 20 laps left to run, it seemed that Villeneuve would have a relatively easy run to the line. Once again, this proved to be wrong, as the Williams driver seemed to slow, causing fears that his car was more damaged than it looked and a retirement was on the cards.

The really strange thing was that his pace varied by as much as a second per lap, sometimes appearing on the brink of retiring, but at others racing at the pace of the rest of the front runners. Slowly but surely the gap came down from 10 seconds on lap 50 to 5 on lap 60.

Without pondering about why this was happening, it looked like Williams and McLaren had arranged a mutual agreement where Villeneuve would hand over the lead to McLaren if he was confident of winning the title. Also, if McLaren were going to be given a race victory for one of their drivers, it would make sense for Mika Hakkinen to take it, as it would be a reward for the poor luck he had suffered all season.

Sure enough, with 3 laps left to run, David Coulthard backed off at the final corner and let his team mate through to give chase.

This meant that on lap 66, the top 6 looked like this:
Villeneuve -> 2.604s -> Hakkinen -> 0.654s -> Coulthard -> 2.299s -> Irvine -> 0.555s -> Berger -> 0.643s -> Frentzen

Even with Mika chasing hard it looked almost impossible for him to catch Villeneuve, let alone pass him, but on the very last lap, Villeneuve practically stopped at the chicane in order to let the McLaren past. David Coulthard also slipped through, but this reshuffle also affected the rest of the top 6.

Gerhard Berger passed Eddie Irvine in the confusion following the switch and had Jacques Villeneuve in his sights. As the cars exited the last corner it seemed entirely possible that Villeneuve had outsmarted himself and lost the final podium position (although not the Championship), but he just managed to hold off Berger and beat him to the line by 0.116 seconds.

The entire paddock was on hand to cheer Mika Hakkinen and Jacques Villeneuve as they drove towards the Parc Ferme and a joyous podium celebration.

Since making his F1 debut for Lotus in 1991, Mika Hakkinen has been on the podium many times and has looked like scoring his maiden win several times this season but has retired each time. Whilst Finland and the rest of his fans worldwide rejoiced, the man himself was also ecstatic. During the post-race conference, Mika said, "This is just unbelievable. I never thought I could win this race. I still don't know how I did it but it is just fantastic."

Despite looking weak on many occasions, Jacques Villeneuve has bounced back well and on the strength of this race alone is a deserving Champion.

As is customary I will leave the last word to the new World Champion. "It has been such an up and down year but in the end we have got the job done. I am really pleased for the team, for everyone and, of course, for Canada."