1998 Canadian Grand Prix

Canada  1998 Canadian Grand Prix
Race details
Race 7 of 16 in the 1998 Formula One season

Date June 7, 1998
Official name Grand Prix du Canada
Location Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal, Canada
Course Street circuit
4.421 km (2.747 mi)
Distance 69 laps, 305.049 km (189.549 mi)
Weather Cool, overcast and windy
Pole position
Driver United Kingdom David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes
Time 1:18.213
Fastest lap
Driver Germany Michael Schumacher Ferrari
Time 1:19.379 on lap 48
Podium
First Germany Michael Schumacher Ferrari
Second Italy Giancarlo Fisichella Benetton-Playlife
Third United Kingdom Eddie Irvine Ferrari

The 1998 Canadian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on June 7, 1998. The race, contested over 69 laps, was the seventh round of the 1998 Formula One season. It was won by Michael Schumacher, however the race is probably best remembered for the crash on the first lap involving Alexander Wurz, Jean Alesi and Jarno Trulli, which resulted in the race being red flagged and restarted, only for another collision to take place between Alesi and Trulli at the same corner, and the race being started once again under the safety car.

Report

Qualifying

In Montreal, David Coulthard secured his third pole position of the season. The Scotsman managed to do the fastest time at the very end of the session. Mika Häkkinen was very unlucky during the qualifying session. He encountered a lot of traffic during his quick laps. Michael Schumacher was third, and was happily surprised by his lap time which was only 0.2 seconds behind Coulthard's time. The night before qualifying, Eddie Irvine had released a comment saying that the Canadian Grand Prix would be crucial for Ferrari, with Schumacher expressing the same opinion.

Race

At the start of the race Michael Scumacher started brilliantly and overtook Häkkinen, whilst his brother Ralf Schumacher stalled. At the first corner Alexander Wurz was squeezed by other cars and was forced to cut across the grass in his Benetton. This meant that he was unable to brake, and therefore the Austrian crashed into Jean Alesi as well as Johnny Herbert and Jarno Trulli. Wurz' car rolled over three times, though luckily he was not injured. The race was stopped and Alesi, Wurz and Trulli all took the restart in their spare cars. Herbert was lucky that his mechanics were able to repair his Sauber, as Alesi took the spare. The only damage to the car proved to be a bent suspension arm.

At the second start, Michael Schumacher's Ferrari got a poor start, and was instantly overtaken by Giancarlo Fisichella. Häkkinen's gearbox jammed while further back there was another incident. This time it was Ralf Schumacher who was pushing too hard; he also went across the grass and spun in the middle of the track. This caused mayhem in the pack behind him. Trulli mounted Alesi's car and in total five cars retired after the second start: Häkkinen (gearbox), Ralf Schumacher (spun off), Alesi and Trulli who were involved in the accident, and Toranosuke Takagi who had transmission problems.

Michael Schumacher managed to overtake Giancarlo Fisichella on the first lap but due to all the retirements the safety car was sent out. After five laps, the safety car came back in and the order was Coulthard followed by Michael Schumacher, Fisichella, Jacques Villeneuve, Rubens Barrichello, and Heinz-Harald Frentzen.

As the race got under way again, Coulthard and Michael Schumacher started to pull away from the rest of the field. Coulthard led for the first 13 laps until the safety car came out for the second time. Pedro Diniz had gone off the track and when he rejoined he threw a lot of grass and dirt on to the circuit that needed to be removed. When the safety car went back in, there were another three retirements. Mika Salo collided with Herbert who went off for the second time, and Coulthard had a transmission problem.

The accident involving Salo and Herbert sent out the safety car for a third time, and Michael Schumacher took advantage by making a pitstop. When he got back out and yellow flags were waved to show that there was to be no overtaking, Schumacher shot across to the other side of the track and sent Frentzen off the track and onto the grass as he tried to avoid the Ferrari. The Williams driver was thus knocked out of the Grand Prix.

At the restart Fisichella led, ahead of Villeneuve, Michael Schumacher, Damon Hill, Jan Magnussen and Shinji Nakano. Villeneuve immediately tried to go around the outside of Fisichella and take the lead, but he got it all wrong, went off the track and damaged his rear wing. On lap 35, Michael Schumacher was given a 10-second stop-and-go penalty due to the 'incident' with Frentzen. This momentarily put him behind Hill, but Schumacher overtook him and regained second place on lap 38. Then he took the lead on lap 45 when Fisichella went in for his only pit stop. Schumacher then extended his lead over the rest of the pack, and by the time he made his second pit stop to refuel he was able to hold on to his first place, and subsequently finish the race with 16 seconds between himself and second place finisher Fisichella. Magnussen finished sixth, scoring his only Formula One point in his last grand prix.

Classification

Coulthard took pole position, but retired from the race

Qualifying

Pos No Driver Constructor Lap Time Gap
1 7 United Kingdom David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 1:18.213
2 8 Finland Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 1:18.282 +0.069
3 3 Germany Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:18.497 +0.284
4 5 Italy Giancarlo Fisichella Benetton-Playlife 1:18.826 +0.613
5 10 Germany Ralf Schumacher Jordan-Mugen-Honda 1:19.242 +1.029
6 1 Canada Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Mecachrome 1:19.588 +1.375
7 2 Germany Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams-Mecachrome 1:19.614 +1.401
8 4 United Kingdom Eddie Irvine Ferrari 1:19.616 +1.403
9 14 France Jean Alesi Sauber-Petronas 1:19.693 +1.480
10 9 United Kingdom Damon Hill Jordan-Mugen-Honda 1:19.717 +1.504
11 6 Austria Alexander Wurz Benetton-Playlife 1:19.765 +1.552
12 15 United Kingdom Johnny Herbert Sauber-Petronas 1:19.845 +1.632
13 18 Brazil Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 1:19.953 +1.740
14 12 Italy Jarno Trulli Prost-Peugeot 1:20.188 +1.975
15 11 France Olivier Panis Prost-Peugeot 1:20.303 +2.090
16 21 Japan Toranosuke Takagi Tyrrell-Ford 1:20.328 +2.115
17 17 Finland Mika Salo Arrows 1:20.536 +2.323
18 22 Japan Shinji Nakano Minardi-Ford 1:21.230 +3.017
19 16 Brazil Pedro Diniz Arrows 1:21.301 +3.088
20 19 Denmark Jan Magnussen Stewart-Ford 1:21.629 +3.416
21 23 Argentina Esteban Tuero Minardi-Ford 1:21.822 +3.609
22 20 Brazil Ricardo Rosset Tyrrell-Ford 1:21.824 +3.611

Race

G.Fisichella, M.Schumacher and E.Irvine on the podium after the race.
Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 3 Germany Michael Schumacher Ferrari 69 1:40:57.335 3 10
2 5 Italy Giancarlo Fisichella Benetton-Playlife 69 +16.662 4 6
3 4 United Kingdom Eddie Irvine Ferrari 69 +1:00.059 8 4
4 6 Austria Alexander Wurz Benetton-Playlife 69 +1:03.232 11 3
5 18 Brazil Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 69 +1:21.513 13 2
6 19 Denmark Jan Magnussen Stewart-Ford 68 +1 Lap 20 1
7 22 Japan Shinji Nakano Minardi-Ford 68 +1 Lap 18  
8 20 Brazil Ricardo Rosset Tyrrell-Ford 68 +1 Lap 22  
9 16 Brazil Pedro Diniz Arrows 68 +1 Lap 19  
10 1 Canada Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Mecachrome 63 +6 Laps 6  
Ret 23 Argentina Esteban Tuero Minardi-Ford 53 Electrical 21  
Ret 9 United Kingdom Damon Hill Jordan-Mugen-Honda 42 Electrical 10  
Ret 11 France Olivier Panis Prost-Peugeot 39 Engine 15  
Ret 2 Germany Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams-Mecachrome 20 Spun off 7  
Ret 7 United Kingdom David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 18 Throttle 1  
Ret 15 United Kingdom Johnny Herbert Sauber-Petronas 18 Spun off 12  
Ret 17 Finland Mika Salo Arrows 18 Accident 17  
Ret 8 Finland Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 0 Gearbox 2  
Ret 10 Germany Ralf Schumacher Jordan-Mugen-Honda 0 Gearbox 5  
Ret 14 France Jean Alesi Sauber-Petronas 0 Collision 9  
Ret 12 Italy Jarno Trulli Prost-Peugeot 0 Collision 14  
Ret 21 Japan Toranosuke Takagi Tyrrell-Ford 0 Transmission 16  

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings
Pos Driver Points
1 Finland Mika Häkkinen 46
2 Germany Michael Schumacher 34
3 United Kingdom David Coulthard 29
4 United Kingdom Eddie Irvine 19
5 Italy Giancarlo Fisichella 13

Constructors' Championship standings
Pos Constructor Points
1 United Kingdom McLaren-Mercedes 75
2 Italy Ferrari 53
3 Italy Benetton-Playlife 25
4 United Kingdom Williams-Mecachrome 16
5 United Kingdom Stewart-Ford 5

Previous race:
1998 Monaco Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
1998 season
Next race:
1998 French Grand Prix
Previous race:
1997 Canadian Grand Prix
Canadian Grand Prix Next race:
1999 Canadian Grand Prix