1998 Canadian Grand Prix

  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	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes
Time	1:18.213
Fastest lap
Driver	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Time	1:19.379 on lap 48
Podium
First	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Second	Giancarlo Fisichella	Benetton-Playlife
Third	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	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	1:18.213
2	8	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:18.282	+0.069
3	3	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	1:18.497	+0.284
4	5	Giancarlo Fisichella	Benetton-Playlife	1:18.826	+0.613
5	10	Ralf Schumacher	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	1:19.242	+1.029
6	1	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams-Mecachrome	1:19.588	+1.375
7	2	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Williams-Mecachrome	1:19.614	+1.401
8	4	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari	1:19.616	+1.403
9	14	Jean Alesi	Sauber-Petronas	1:19.693	+1.480
10	9	Damon Hill	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	1:19.717	+1.504
11	6	Alexander Wurz	Benetton-Playlife	1:19.765	+1.552
12	15	Johnny Herbert	Sauber-Petronas	1:19.845	+1.632
13	18	Rubens Barrichello	Stewart-Ford	1:19.953	+1.740
14	12	Jarno Trulli	Prost-Peugeot	1:20.188	+1.975
15	11	Olivier Panis	Prost-Peugeot	1:20.303	+2.090
16	21	Toranosuke Takagi	Tyrrell-Ford	1:20.328	+2.115
17	17	Mika Salo	Arrows	1:20.536	+2.323
18	22	Shinji Nakano	Minardi-Ford	1:21.230	+3.017
19	16	Pedro Diniz	Arrows	1:21.301	+3.088
20	19	Jan Magnussen	Stewart-Ford	1:21.629	+3.416
21	23	Esteban Tuero	Minardi-Ford	1:21.822	+3.609
22	20	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	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	69	1:40:57.335	3	10
2	5	Giancarlo Fisichella	Benetton-Playlife	69	+16.662	4	6
3	4	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari	69	+1:00.059	8	4
4	6	Alexander Wurz	Benetton-Playlife	69	+1:03.232	11	3
5	18	Rubens Barrichello	Stewart-Ford	69	+1:21.513	13	2
6	19	Jan Magnussen	Stewart-Ford	68	+1 Lap	20	1
7	22	Shinji Nakano	Minardi-Ford	68	+1 Lap	18
8	20	Ricardo Rosset	Tyrrell-Ford	68	+1 Lap	22
9	16	Pedro Diniz	Arrows	68	+1 Lap	19
10	1	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams-Mecachrome	63	+6 Laps	6
Ret	23	Esteban Tuero	Minardi-Ford	53	Electrical	21
Ret	9	Damon Hill	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	42	Electrical	10
Ret	11	Olivier Panis	Prost-Peugeot	39	Engine	15
Ret	2	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Williams-Mecachrome	20	Spun off	7
Ret	7	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	18	Throttle	1
Ret	15	Johnny Herbert	Sauber-Petronas	18	Spun off	12
Ret	17	Mika Salo	Arrows	18	Accident	17
Ret	8	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	0	Gearbox	2
Ret	10	Ralf Schumacher	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	0	Gearbox	5
Ret	14	Jean Alesi	Sauber-Petronas	0	Collision	9
Ret	12	Jarno Trulli	Prost-Peugeot	0	Collision	14
Ret	21	Toranosuke Takagi	Tyrrell-Ford	0	Transmission	16

Standings after the race

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

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

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.