1997 Monaco Grand Prix

Monaco  1997 Monaco Grand Prix
Race details
Race 5 of 17 in the 1997 Formula One season
Date 11 May 1997
Official name LV Grand Prix de Monaco
Location Circuit de Monaco, Monte Carlo, Monaco
Course Temporary street circuit
Course length 3.36 km (2.08 mi)
Distance 62 laps, 207.08 km (128.96 mi)
Scheduled Distance 78 laps, 260.52 km (162.24 mi)
Weather Overcast, cold and rain
Pole position
Driver Williams-Renault
Time 1:18.216
Fastest lap
Driver Germany Michael Schumacher Ferrari
Time 1:53.315 on lap 26
Podium
First Ferrari
Second Stewart-Ford
Third Ferrari

The 1997 Monaco Grand Prix (formally the LV Grand Prix de Monaco) was a Formula One race held on 11 May 1997 at the Circuit de Monaco, Monte Carlo, Monaco. It was the fifth round of the 1997 Formula One season. The 62-lap race was won by Michael Schumacher for the Scuderia Ferrari team after starting from second position. Rubens Barrichello, who started the Grand Prix from tenth position, finished second in a Stewart car, with Eddie Irvine third in the other Ferrari. Schumacher's win saw him take over the lead of the World Driver's championship from Williams driver Jacques Villeneuve.[1] Ferrari also took over the lead of the Constructors' Championship from Williams.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen, driving for Williams, started from pole position ahead of Schumacher. However, Frentzen and team-mate Villeneuve both made poor starts down to a case of tyre strategy made by Williams and both drivers later retired from the race from separate accidents. Schumacher won the race comfortably, with a gap of 53 seconds from Barrichello who scored the first podium slot for the Stewart team in only their 5th Grand Prix. The race had been scheduled for 78 laps, but was only run for 62 laps due to the race taking longer than 2 hours to complete. This was largely down to rainy conditions that the drivers encountered during the Grand Prix.

Report

Background

The Grand Prix was contested by eleven teams with two drivers each. The teams (also known as constructors) were Arrows, Williams, Ferrari, Benetton, McLaren, Jordan, Prost, Sauber, Tyrrell, Minardi and Stewart.[2]

Heading into the fifth race of the season, Williams driver Jacques Villeneuve was leading the Drivers' Championship with 20 points, Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher was second on 14 points, 6 points behind Villeneuve. Behind Villeneuve and Schumacher in the Driver's Championship, Heinz-Harald Frentzen, driving for Williams, David Coulthard, driving for McLaren and Eddie Irvine, driving for Ferrari, were all on 10 points. In the Constructors' Championship, Williams were leading on 30 points and Ferrari were on 24 points.

Qualifying

Qualifying saw Heinz-Harald Frentzen qualify on pole in his Williams in front of Michael Schumacher in the Ferrari; third was Jacques Villeneuve in the other Williams. Fourth was Giancarlo Fisichella in the Jordan-Peugeot, while the fifth place was taken by David Coulthard in the McLaren and the sixth by Ralf Schumacher in the second Jordan, showing the good setup the team had found on the circuit.

Race

The warm-up session was dry, with Williams taking first and second places. But about 30 minutes to go before the start, rain began to fall; Williams decided to run both cars with dry tyres, thinking the weather would improve, while Michael Schumacher set the car for intermediate weather conditions. During the warm up lap, the weather worsened, and at the start, Schumacher was quickest.[2] He led by 22 seconds on lap 5. Behind him the Jordans, which both had the car set for rain, took second and third spots, until they were both passed by Rubens Barrichello in the Stewart, who benefited from the Bridgestone wet tyres, which were better than Goodyear's under those conditions.

The start of the race was catastrophic for the Arrows team, as Pedro Diniz, who had opted to start the race on slick tyres, slid straight into the wall on the opening lap, while Diniz' team-mate Damon Hill was involved in a collision with Mika Häkkinen's McLaren on the second lap, eliminating both cars on the spot.

Both Willams drivers went out of the race after they had to pit to change their tyres. Frentzen hit a barrier at the chicane on lap 39, while Villeneuve hit a wall and had to retire on lap 17. Schumacher continued to build his lead until he had about 30 seconds advantage over Barrichello; then he backed off and began to maintain the gap. He made an error on lap 53 at the Sainte Devote corner, in which he went down the escape road and lost 10 seconds, but did not lose his lead. The race was stopped on lap 62 instead of the 78 scheduled because of the time limit of 2 hours, and Schumacher won with a 53-second margin over Barrichello.[3] Eddie Irvine finished third after overtaking Olivier Panis, exacting some measure of revenge for Panis' overtaking manoeuvre that had seen him get past Irvine a year earlier. After losing third place to Irvine, Panis backed off in the closing stages and settled for fourth place. Mika Salo finished fifth despite denting his front wing on debris left from Mika Häkkinen's accident early on, and also despite not making a single pit stop during the race. Giancarlo Fisichella, who at one point was running as high as second place, finished in sixth. The race was the first win for a Ferrari driver since the 1981 running of the Monaco Grand Prix.[4]

Classification

Qualifying

Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap
1 4 Germany Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams-Renault 1:18.216
2 5 Germany Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:18.235 +0.019
3 3 Canada Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Renault 1:18.583 +0.367
4 12 Italy Giancarlo Fisichella Jordan-Peugeot 1:18.665 +0.449
5 10 United Kingdom David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 1:18.779 +0.563
6 11 Germany Ralf Schumacher Jordan-Peugeot 1:18.943 +0.727
7 16 United Kingdom Johnny Herbert Sauber-Petronas 1:19.105 +0.889
8 9 Finland Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 1:19.119 +0.903
9 7 France Jean Alesi Benetton-Renault 1:19.263 +1.047
10 22 Brazil Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 1:19.295 +1.079
11 17 Italy Nicola Larini Sauber-Petronas 1:19.468 +1.252
12 14 France Olivier Panis Prost-Mugen-Honda 1:19.626 +1.410
13 1 United Kingdom Damon Hill Arrows-Yamaha 1:19.674 +1.458
14 19 Finland Mika Salo Tyrrell-Ford 1:19.694 +1.478
15 6 United Kingdom Eddie Irvine Ferrari 1:19.723 +1.507
16 2 Brazil Pedro Diniz Arrows-Yamaha 1:19.860 +1.644
17 8 Austria Gerhard Berger Benetton-Renault 1:20.199 +1.983
18 21 Italy Jarno Trulli Minardi-Hart 1:20.349 +2.133
19 23 Denmark Jan Magnussen Stewart-Ford 1:20.516 +2.300
20 20 Japan Ukyo Katayama Minardi-Hart 1:20.606 +2.390
21 15 Japan Shinji Nakano Prost-Mugen-Honda 1:20.961 +2.745
22 18 Netherlands Jos Verstappen Tyrrell-Ford 1:21.290 +3.074

Race

Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 5 Germany Michael Schumacher Ferrari 62 2:00:05.654 2 10
2 22 Brazil Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 62 +53.306 10 6
3 6 United Kingdom Eddie Irvine Ferrari 62 +1:22.108 15 4
4 14 France Olivier Panis Prost-Mugen-Honda 62 +1:44.402 12 3
5 19 Finland Mika Salo Tyrrell-Ford 61 +1 Lap 14 2
6 12 Italy Giancarlo Fisichella Jordan-Peugeot 61 +1 Lap 4 1
7 23 Denmark Jan Magnussen Stewart-Ford 61 +1 Lap 19  
8 18 Netherlands Jos Verstappen Tyrrell-Ford 60 +2 Laps 22  
9 8 Austria Gerhard Berger Benetton-Renault 60 +2 Laps 17  
10 20 Japan Ukyo Katayama Minardi-Hart 60 +2 Laps 20  
Ret 4 Germany Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams-Renault 39 Accident 1  
Ret 15 Japan Shinji Nakano Prost-Mugen-Honda 36 Accident 21  
Ret 17 Italy Nicola Larini Sauber-Petronas 24 Accident 11  
Ret 7 France Jean Alesi Benetton-Renault 16 Spun off 9  
Ret 3 Canada Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Renault 16 Accident damage 3  
Ret 11 Germany Ralf Schumacher Jordan-Peugeot 10 Accident 6  
Ret 16 United Kingdom Johnny Herbert Sauber-Petronas 9 Accident 7  
Ret 21 Italy Jarno Trulli Minardi-Hart 7 Accident 18  
Ret 10 United Kingdom David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 1 Accident 5  
Ret 9 Finland Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 1 Collision 8  
Ret 1 United Kingdom Damon Hill Arrows-Yamaha 1 Collision 13  
Ret 2 Brazil Pedro Diniz Arrows-Yamaha 0 Spun off 16  
Source:[5]

Notes

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings
Pos Driver Points
1 Germany Michael Schumacher 24
2 Canada Jacques Villeneuve 20
3 United Kingdom Eddie Irvine 14
4 Germany Heinz-Harald Frentzen 10
5 United Kingdom David Coulthard 10

Constructors' Championship standings
Pos Constructor Points
1 Italy Ferrari 38
2 United Kingdom Williams-Renault 30
3 United Kingdom McLaren-Mercedes 20
4 Italy Benetton-Renault 13
5 France Prost-Mugen-Honda 9

References

  1. "Schumacher is simply stunning". New Straits Times. 12 May 1997. p. 39.
  2. 1 2 "Grand Prix Results: Monaco GP, 1997". grandprix.com. 11 May 1997. Retrieved 10 April 2013.
  3. Richardson, Chris (11 May 1997). "Monaco Grand Prix 1997 - Race Report". Speed Motorsport. Retrieved 10 April 2013.
  4. "Schumacher wins Monaco Grand Prix". Boca Raton News. 12 May 1997. p. 2C.
  5. "1997 Monaco Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 29 October 2014. Retrieved 24 December 2015.
Previous race:
1997 San Marino Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
1997 season
Next race:
1997 Spanish Grand Prix
Previous race:
1996 Monaco Grand Prix
Monaco Grand Prix Next race:
1998 Monaco Grand Prix

Coordinates: 43°44′4.74″N 7°25′16.8″E / 43.7346500°N 7.421333°E / 43.7346500; 7.421333

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, April 30, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.