Grand Prix of Italy Review
Autodromo Monza, Milan, Italy 11th - 13th September 1998	by Ian Burley, England

The sea of scarlet red was cock-a-hoop at Michael Schumacher bouncing back from his disappointment at Spa two weeks earlier. The Ferrari idol lead home a memorable 1-2 for the Maranello team and re-ignited the championship challenge. And where better to do this than at Monza? Indeed, the dream of Ferrari, Michael Schumacher and the Tifosi came true. For Mika Hakkinen and McLaren, it was the blackest of nightmares. Qualifying The story which led up to that classic showdown between Championship contenders Hakkinen and Schumacher was far from straightforward. Friday morning was dry, but the afternoon session was rudely rained upon. To the delight of the locals, Eddie Irvine's Ferrari topped the time-sheets, but things were far from settled. Saturday morning was also wet and although the sun came out well before official qualifying started, the track was still damp where the many over-hanging trees shaded parts of the circuit. To cap it all, water appeared to be seeping out of certain sections of the track, creating small but potentially lethal rivulets across the racing line. Spa winner, Damon Hill, was the first top runner to be tempted out some half an hour after the pit lane opened. Running dry tyres, the skittish demeanour of Hill's Jordan on the damp sections of the track made it sure that a lap in anger was out of the question. Some back markers eventually set the opening benchmark while running intermediate wet tyres. Then out came Michael Schumacher, immediately claiming provisional pole. This didn't last long as first David Coulthard and then a slightly nervous-looking Hakkinen brought the times under 1:27 seconds, over five seconds off last year's pole. It was now clear that dry tyres - well, they're not slicks anymore are they? - were the boots to wear. Schumacher's first run on dry tyres was marked by some impressive slides, but little did he realize that he had already won pole. Later, he recounted: "We got everything right - the first lap worked, and I tried hard on my third lap but then I ran wide at the final corner. But as we saw, it was enough. This is a dream result. We had been expecting to go better than we did in testing, but this is a great position from which to be starting such an important race." Coulthard and Hakkinen were beating individual sector times comfortably, but other cars would always spoil things. However, Jacques Villeneuve was luckier and claimed the second slot on the front row for Williams. However, the reigning World Champion explained that his lap wasn't one he was especially proud of. "I had a lot of understeer and I couldn't brake hard either," said the Canadian, "So the lap itself wasn't very good but I was very happy to get on the front row because my laps up to that point had not been very good. I didn't want to make a mistake on that final lap." For only the second time this year, there wasn't a McLaren on the front row. Hakkinen and Coulthard had to be content with third and fourth places. "The conditions were very difficult," The Finn explained. "Michael did the best lap he could today and the same for Jacques, but what went wrong for us is that we were victims of circumstance. Obviously I would have preferred pole position but we have a good car at the moment in race configuration and we have improved the car throughout the weekend. And even if conditions are very difficult I really think tomorrow it is going to be an exciting race from start to finish." Prophetic words, indeed... Eddie Irvine felt happy with his qualifying fifth position in the second Ferrari. "Not bad," he said, "I went out on a set-up we had not tried and it gave me a bit too much understeer. There was no time to change it. I started my last lap, which was my quickest one, behind a slower car and as I could not pass it going into the first corner, I got a bit held up Without that, I could have been quicker still." In sixth was a happy Ralf Schumacher, faring rather better than Jordan team-mate Hill, who languished in 14th place - coming back to earth with a bump after his Spa victory. Jordan were very up-beat about Monza; the cars had another revised Mugen Honda for qualifying, plus new Williams-style rear-end bodywork, which was claimed to improve aerodynamic efficiency by three percent. "This qualifying result is very disappointing as the car is very good here, especially with the new Mugen-Honda engine," reflected a frustrated Hill. "You can see from the speed trap times that the possibility was there to have been in the top six. Our strategy was perfect, but I just never managed to get a clear lap because of traffic." Of the rest, Alexander Wurz was seventh, while his Benetton team mate, Giancarlo Fisichella, lost out to the end-of-session lottery and wound up 11th. Neither Benetton looked like reversing their mid-season drift. Jean Alesi was eighth in his Sauber, while Olivier Panis' ninth position for Prost rather flattered the team. Jarno Trulli had been going a lot better than Panis in the other Prost, but ended up one place behind his team mate in tenth. Twelfth was Heinz Harald Frentzen, unlucky with the traffic and hence ten places behind his Williams team mate. Rubens Barrichello was a very disappointed thirteenth for Stewart, while his team mate, Jos Verstappen, could only manage 17th. Herbert, complaining of a lack of power from his Petronas-powered Sauber, was 15th and Mika Salo was 16th in the Arrows, the Finn glad to get a time in at all after chronic electrical problems during earlier sessions. The much-maligned Ricardo Rosset managed to out-qualify his esteemed Japanese Tyrrell team mate, Tora Takagi, in 18th and 19th respectively. Pedro Diniz (Arrows), Shinji Nakano (Minardi) and Esteban Tuero (Minardi), brought up the rear. The Race The Sunday morning warm up took place under damp conditions and most ran intermediate tyres. The big surprise was the sight of Tora Takagi's Tyrrell up in fourth place, splitting the two Ferraris. Coulthard was fastest, well over a second ahead of Schumacher in third. Hakkinen was a comfortable second, a full second faster than the Ferrari. As the grid formed up, both Hakkinen and Michael Schumacher opted for the their respective spare cars. Both teams had brought four cars to Monza, so there were plenty to go around. The news was that most would be one-stopping, except for Hill and, possibly, Michael Schumacher. As the red lights were extinguished, Hakkinen made a perfect start, while Schumacher - as he recalled later - started as if he was off for a walk rather than a race. Hakkinen had to steer sharp right to avoid Schumacher who was also leaning to the right. Villeneuve had made a reasonable start, but Hakkinen was already alongside well before the first chicane and the Canadian had to give way to avoid contact with Hakkinen. While the first three went to the right, Coulthard was given a straight run down the left. As the leading group braked for the first chicane, Hakkinen lead Coulthard comfortably, with Irvine third and Schumacher back in fifth, behind Villeneuve. Meanwhile, Alesi had made another great start from 8th to claim 6th position, tailed by Ralf Schumacher, who lost one place on the first lap, putting him 7th. The other Jordan of Damon Hill was doing rather better - up from 14th to 11th after the first lap, the start of an incredible first stint which would see Hill make up a further six positions, including a pass on his team-mate, by lap 16, thanks to a low fuel load. Unlike last year, there was going to be plenty of passing during the Italian Grand Prix. By the fifth lap, the leading order hadn't changed, except that Hill was now 7th and Irvine had ceded his third place to Schumacher, after the latter passed Villeneuve. The two McLarens were now four seconds ahead and the Ferrari challenge looked wanting, especially if Schumacher was on a two-stopper as had been widely speculated. Now, Coulthard appeared to be challenging Hakkinen for the lead and the pair's advantage over the following Ferraris had stopped growing. Indeed, Schumacher was beginning to catch up. On lap 9, Hakkinen let Coulthard by. You had to ask yourself - was DC on a two stopper like Hill and maybe Schumacher? In truth, Coulthard was on the same one-stop strategy as his team mate, but Hakkinen wasn't finding his car's balance ideal and the pit crew changed pressures in his replacement set of tyres in an attempt to compensate for later in the race. Lap 13 was unlucky for Johnny Herbert. For some time Herbert was struggling against an unlikely problem. A red-faced Sauber mechanic watched in horror as the car he had serviced some 30 minutes earlier flew off the track after his missing pair of pliers got jammed under the Herbert's brake pedal. Team owner Peter Sauber was copious in his apologies to his bemused driver. Having a much better time of it was Hill, who, on lap 14 passed Villeneuve into a remarkable 5th place from 14th at the start. Alas, this was also the same lap that his first of three stints would have to end because of his low fuel load at the start, but he had left an indelible mark on the race. Hill re-joined 12th, behind Frentzen's Williams. Ironically, the two - who will be paired up at Jordan next year - were just starting a ferocious 20-lap battle which certainly enlivened things greatly mid-field. Lap 14 was also the lap in which Coulthard recorded the latest in a string of fastest laps, but it was to be the last from the Scot. Two laps later, he had increased his lead over Hakkinen by a further two and a half seconds to almost ten seconds, but quite unexpectedly, he never made it to lap 17 - his Mercedes V10 expiring most dramatically. Coulthard felt that his bad luck hit him especially hard this time: "The car was very strong, the set up was working well and then the engine tightened as I came out of the first chicane and the engine blew. I had a good one stop strategy and today's result is very disappointing because we had such a good car and an advantage at this circuit. It is a shame not to finish." Schumacher was right with Hakkinen at this point, though not yet in a position to challenge for the lead in normal conditions. As the two reached the smoky scene of Coulthard's demise, Hakkinen twitched on his team mate's lost oil, went off line and Schumacher pounced. Schumacher explained: "We both had to slow down big-time, and Mika actually ran on to the grass although I was still behind him. Mika then lost it into the chicane. He ran wide and was struggling, so I was able to out-accelerate him on the way out of the chicane down to the first of the Lesmos. He obviously defended by moving over and trying to close the door. But I still went through and that is what won the race for me." For the next 15 laps, Schumacher steadily built up a 7 second lead before making just one stop on lap 31. Three laps later, Hakkinen pitted and re-joined just under six seconds behind the Ferrari. Now, with better tyres, the McLaren was able to motor once more and the deficit to Schumacher gradually declined. Meanwhile, Villeneuve threw away a potential podium place on lap 37 after spinning off at one of the chicanes. Hakkinen, however, had whittled Schumacher's lead down from six seconds to two and a half seconds, aided by backmarkers' traffic which slowed down the leading Ferrari. At last, we were going to have a wheel to wheel race for the championship again. On lap 45, with 8 laps to go, Hakkinen set the fastest lap of the race, but luck then deserted the hapless Finn, just as it had deserted his team mate 29 laps earlier. Braking for the chicane, the McLaren snapped out of control - Hakkinen's brake pedal had gone to the floor with no effect. After careering along the gravel trap backwards for a hundred metres or so, Hakkinen took his time to get the car pointing the right way and re-joined the circuit. Irvine was some way behind in third, so the primary sensation must have been relief that the car was still running. "I was lucky to come out of that without stalling," recalled Hakkinen. "Whilst I was spinning I was thinking 'this will mean zero points,' but fortunately I managed to keep going and score three points. Up to that point I was competitive and on my second set of tyres I was reeling in Michael." The nightmare wasn't yet over - while Hakkinen would have been relatively grateful to settle for second at this point, he promptly found he had to straight-line the next chicane - his brakes were totally ineffective, so from now on Hakkinen could only brake using the engine - which wasn't much fun, he said. It was touch and go if he would even make it to the finish. Both Irvine and Ralf Schumacher eventually caught Hakkinen and passed him, turfing him off the podium in the process, but Hakkinen limped across the line safe from the ensuing battle for 5th between Alesi and Hill behind. Michael Schumacher cruised the last quarter of the final lap with a defiant fist held high - this was the perfect antidote to the crushing disappointment of two weeks earlier and Irvine was there in second to ensure it was a perfect finish for Ferrari. The Tifosi went wild - as did the Ferrari pit crew, with one team member getting accidentally crushed in the process, luckily without serious injury. After the race, a beaming Schumacher, such a contrast to his manic look at Spa, thanked his team "who have worked night and day to make this great victory possible. After Hockenheim we thought Monza would be very difficult for us, but all this hard work paid off today." What must be worrying Hakkinen and McLaren now is that they should have walked away from Monza with a 13 point lead over Schumacher. Instead, Schumacher and Ferrari took the fight to McLaren and the latter disintegrated under the pressure. Now Hakkinen finds Schumacher level on 80 points with just two races to go. Ferrari can rightfully claim they earned their great win today, but McLaren will also be honest enough to realize that they threw their opportunity away. Ironically, Hakkinen can still clinch the drivers crown in two weeks as the Grand Prix circus visits the Nurburgring in Germany for the Luxembourg Grand Prix. Both Schumacher and Hakkinen have six wins apiece, but if Hakkinen wins and Schumacher fails to score, the title will be the Finn's on the strength of his better record of second places. Somehow, that thought is probably far from Hakkinen's mind just now.

Classified                                                     

P  DRIVER                NATION  TEAM                        TIME                
 1 Michael Schumacher    GER     Ferrari F300                1h 17:09.672  
 2 Eddie Irvine          GBR     Ferrari F300                +     37.977    
 3 Ralf Schumacher       GER     Jordan-Mugen-Honda 198      +     41.152    
 4 Mika Hakkinen         FIN     McLaren-Mercedes MP4/13     +     55.671    
 5 Jean Alesi            FRA     Sauber-Petronas C17         +   1:01.872    
 6 Damon Hill            GBR     Jordan-Mugen-Honda 198      +   1:06.688    
 7 Heinz-Harald Frentzen GER     Williams-Mecachrome FW20    1 lap         
 8 Giancarlo Fisichella  ITA     Benetton-Mecachrome B198    1 lap         
 9 Toranosuke Takagi     JPN     Tyrrell-Ford 026            1 lap         
10 Rubens Barrichello    BRA     Stewart-Ford SF2            1 lap         
11 Esteban Tuero         ARG     Minardi-Ford M198           2 laps        
12 Ricardo Rosset        BRA     Tyrrell-Ford 026            2 laps        
13 Jarno Trulli          ITA     Prost-Peugeot AP01          3 laps        

Fastest Lap: Mika Hakkinen Lap 45, 1m 25,139s, 243.977 kph.

Not Classified

14 Jos Verstappen        NED     Stewart-Ford SF2            14 laps  gearbox       
15 Jacques Villeneuve    CAN     Williams-Mecachrome FW20    16 laps  spin           
16 Mika Salo             FIN     Arrows A19                  21 laps  hydraulics     
17 Alexander Wurz        AUT     Benetton-Mecachrome B198    29 laps  gearbox        
18 David Coulthard       GBR     McLaren-Mercedes MP4/13     37 laps  engine         
19 Olivier Panis         FRA     Prost-Peugeot AP01          38 laps  rear suspension
21 Sinji Nakano          JPN     Minardi-Ford M198           40 laps  engine         
20 Johnny Herbert        GBR     Sauber-Petronas C17         41 laps  spin           
22 Pedro Diniz           BRA     Arrows A19                  43 laps  spin           
                                                                                       
All timing is unofficial