1999 Malaysian Grand Prix

  1999 Malaysian Grand Prix

Race details
Race 15 of 16 in the 1999 Formula One season
Sepang International Circuit (new circuit)
Date	17 October 1999
Official name	I Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix
Location	Sepang, Malaysia
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	5.542 km (3.444 mi)
Distance	56 laps, 310.352 km (192.853 mi)
Weather	Cloudy, hot, dry
Pole position
Driver	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Time	1:39.688
Fastest lap
Driver	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Time	1:40.267 on lap 25
Podium
First	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari
Second	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Third	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes

The 1999 Malaysian Grand Prix (formally the I Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 17 October 1999 at the Sepang International Circuit near Sepang, Malaysia. It was the fifteenth race of the 1999 Formula One season. The 56-lap race was won by Eddie Irvine driving a Ferrari car from a second position start. Michael Schumacher, in his first race back since breaking his leg during that season's British Grand Prix at Silverstone, and who started from pole position, finished second with Mika Häkkinen finishing third driving for McLaren.

Report

This was the first Malaysian Grand Prix since a Formula Holden event in 1995, but the first time at Formula One world championship level. Michael Schumacher returned to Formula One having recovered from his broken leg, and replaced Mika Salo at Ferrari. The German took pole position by nearly a second, won the start with Irvine in second and Coulthard in third, and went off in the lead with Irvine having trouble keeping Coulthard, Häkkinen and Barrichello behind him. On lap four Schumacher slowed and allowed Irvine to pass him and then proceeded to block Coulthard and the others. But on the next lap Coulthard forced his way past the Ferrari and went off in pursuit of Irvine. He was challenging for the lead when his car broke down.

Back in second place, Schumacher slowed down again to allow Irvine to get an advantage. Then, needing to stay ahead of Häkkinen during the pit stops, Michael accelerated the pace in order to build a lead. Realising this, McLaren took a risk. They gave Häkkinen half a tank of fuel and hoped it would be enough to get him out of the pits ahead of Schumacher.

Ferrari F399's bargeboard

The gamble failed. Schumacher blocked Häkkinen again and the gap to Irvine went up to around 20secs. Irvine did not have a big enough advantage to stay ahead at his second stop but Ferrari was sure that Häkkinen would have to stop again. He did, emerging in fourth place behind Herbert. Schumacher slowed again to allow Irvine to take the lead. Häkkinen could do no more than force his way past Herbert to take third place.^[1] Immediately after the race the two Ferraris were disqualified due to an infringement on their bargeboards. This meant that Mika Häkkinen was effectively handed the championship by default. However, Ferrari appealed against the FIA's decision in court and both drivers were subsequently reinstated.^[2]

As a consequence of the race, Irvine regained the lead of the Drivers' Championship over Häkkinen and extended the gap to four points with their nearest rival Heinz-Harald Frentzen out of the championship chase as he was nineteen points behind Irvine. In the constructors championship, Ferrari passed McLaren for the lead with a gap of four points.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Lap	Gap
1	3	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	1:39.688
2	4	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari	1:40.635	+0.947
3	2	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	1:40.806	+1.118
4	1	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:40.866	+1.178
5	17	Johnny Herbert	Stewart-Ford	1:40.937	+1.249
6	16	Rubens Barrichello	Stewart-Ford	1:41.351	+1.663
7	10	Alexander Wurz	Benetton-Playlife	1:41.444	+1.756
8	6	Ralf Schumacher	Williams-Supertec	1:41.558	+1.870
9	7	Damon Hill	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	1:42.050	+2.362
10	22	Jacques Villeneuve	BAR-Supertec	1:42.087	+2.399
11	9	Giancarlo Fisichella	Benetton-Playlife	1:42.110	+2.422
12	18	Olivier Panis	Prost-Peugeot	1:42.208	+2.520
13	23	Ricardo Zonta	BAR-Supertec	1:42.310	+2.622
14	8	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	1:42.380	+2.692
15	11	Jean Alesi	Sauber-Petronas	1:42.522	+2.834
16	5	Alessandro Zanardi	Williams-Supertec	1:42.885	+3.197
17	12	Pedro Diniz	Sauber-Petronas	1:42.933	+3.245
18	19	Jarno Trulli	Prost-Peugeot	1:42.948	+3.260
19	21	Marc Gené	Minardi-Ford	1:43.563	+3.875
20	14	Pedro de la Rosa	Arrows	1:43.579	+3.891
21	20	Luca Badoer	Minardi-Ford	1:44.321	+4.633
22	15	Toranosuke Takagi	Arrows	1:44.637	+4.949
Sources:[3][4]

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	4	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari	56	1:36:38.494	2	10
2	3	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	56	+1.040	1	6
3	1	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	56	+9.743	4	4
4	17	Johnny Herbert	Stewart-Ford	56	+17.538	5	3
5	16	Rubens Barrichello	Stewart-Ford	56	+32.296	6	2
6	8	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	56	+34.884	14	1
7	11	Jean Alesi	Sauber-Petronas	56	+54.408	15
8	10	Alexander Wurz	Benetton-Playlife	56	+1:00.934	7
9	21	Marc Gené	Minardi-Ford	55	+1 Lap	19
10	5	Alessandro Zanardi	Williams-Supertec	55	+1 Lap	16
11	9	Giancarlo Fisichella	Benetton-Playlife	52	+4 Laps	11
Ret	22	Jacques Villeneuve	BAR-Supertec	48	Hydraulics	10
Ret	12	Pedro Diniz	Sauber-Petronas	44	Spun off	17
Ret	14	Pedro de la Rosa	Arrows	30	Engine	20
Ret	20	Luca Badoer	Minardi-Ford	15	Spun off	21
Ret	2	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	14	Fuel pressure	3
Ret	6	Ralf Schumacher	Williams-Supertec	7	Spun off	8
Ret	15	Toranosuke Takagi	Arrows	7	Transmission	22
Ret	23	Ricardo Zonta	BAR-Supertec	6	Engine/Spun off	13
Ret	18	Olivier Panis	Prost-Peugeot	5	Engine	12
Ret	7	Damon Hill	Jordan-Mugen-Honda	0	Collision	9
DNS	19	Jarno Trulli	Prost-Peugeot	0	Engine	18
Sources:[5][6]

Championship standings after the race

• Bold text indicates who still has a theoretical chance of becoming World Champion.

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Eddie Irvine 70 2 Mika Häkkinen 66 3 Heinz-Harald Frentzen 51 4 David Coulthard 48 5 Michael Schumacher 38

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Ferrari 118 2 McLaren-Mercedes 114 3 Jordan-Mugen-Honda 58 4 Stewart-Ford 36 5 Williams-Supertec 33

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

Notes

• First race: Malaysian Grand Prix, Sepang International Circuit.
• Last win: Eddie Irvine.
• Statistics:
  • 25th Fastest lap for Bridgestone.
• Jarno Trulli suffered an engine failure on the formation lap.
• Last points: Stewart Grand Prix, Johnny Herbert

References

1. "Ferrari wins F1 appeal". [GrandPrix.com]. 17 October 1999. Archived from the original on 2 December 2010. Retrieved 6 January 2011.
2. "GRAND PRIX RESULTS: MALAYSIAN GP, 1999". BBC. 23 October 1999. Archived from the original on 28 February 2008. Retrieved 21 February 2008.
3. "1999 Malaysian GP: Qualification". ChicaneF1.com. Retrieved 31 July 2007.
4. "Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix - 1999: Startgrid". The Formula One Database. Retrieved 1 August 2007.
5. "1999 Malaysian Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 9 January 2015. Retrieved 24 December 2015.
6. "1999 Malaysian GP: Classification". ChicaneF1.com. Retrieved 1 August 2007.

• "1999 Malaysian GP: Overview". ChicaneF1.com. Retrieved 1 August 2007.