The European Grand Prix: Round 14 of 16 in the 1999 Formula One World Championship. Heading into the race, McLaren driver Mika Hakkinen lead the Drivers’ Championship with 60 points, ahead of Ferrari driver Eddie Irvine also on 60 points, with Jordan driver Heinz-Harald Frentzen in third on 50 points, McLaren driver David Coulthard in fourth on 48 points and Michael Schumacher was fifth on 32 points.
The previous round at Monza had seen Häkkinen make an unforced error while leading, Coulthard and Irvine finished only 5th and 6th and Frentzen took his second race win of the season. Also, the performance of Marc Gene in the Minardi in the Grand Prix is seen by many as the defining moment of the 1999 World Driver’s Championship battle for Irvine.
With Irvine unable to pass him for 6th place (and the extra point) this could have given the Irishman the championship that year. (Had Irvine scored this point, it is widely believed that Michael Schumacher would have allowed Irvine to take second place from him in the Japanese Grand Prix later in the year, giving Irvine an overall lead of one point in the final standings.)
In a wet Qualifying session, the star of the show was Frentzen. Although it was a stressful weekend for Frenzten, with car trouble keeping him in his pit, not finding the ideal set-up on his car and an in-team debate going on when going out in the session; he managed to keep himself in the fight for the title with an emphatic and well-planned pole position for the race on Sunday.
Couthard and Hakkinen qualified in second and third place ahead of Ralf Schumacher in his Williams. The McLaren pair and the Williams man will line up in reverse order of their losing the last four of many provisional poles behind Frenzten. Prost driver Olivier Panis edged out Benetton Giancarlo Fisichella for fifth, while Damon Hill pushed fellow ex-world champion Jacques Villeneuve to seventh place and onto the less popular side of Row 4 of the grid.
Eddie Irvine had to be satisfied with his Ferrari starting on the fifth row of the grid tomorrow in ninth place. Irvine had the worst luck of the four remaining title protagonists in today’s lottery called qualifying and knows it will be a tough race for him. Irvine starts alongside Prost’s Jarno Trulli, who tops off the ten best qualifiers.
On race day the track was dry but the start was delayed when Williams driver Alexander Zanardi and Minardi driver Marc Gene lined up out of sequence on the grid, necessitating another formation lap. As the start was aborted during the start lights’ sequence the top five qualifiers and another car actually jumped the start but were not penalised due to the aborting of the start.
When the race finally got under way, Frentzen led from Häkkinen, but further back there was trouble at the first corner. Hill’s Jordan suffered an electrical failure in the middle of the pack which caused Benetton driver Alexander Wurz to swerve into the path of Pedro Diniz and his Sauber and sent him into into a barrel roll.
Sauber Driver Pedro Diniz after contact with Wurz’s Bennetton when his rollbar failed
The safety car was deployed while Diniz was helped uninjured from his car; a fortunate end result as it was revealed that the Sauber’s rollbar had failed when it hit the ground.
The race settled down with the top six Frentzen, Häkkinen, Coulthard, Ralf Schumacher, Fisichella and Irvine. A few laps into the race rain began to fall, and Häkkinen pitted for wet tyres. The rest of the frontrunners stayed out on dry tyres, which proved to be the correct decision as the rain quickly blew over and the track dried.
Ralf Schumacher took advantage of the damp track to pass Coulthard, and Irvine passed Fisichella. However, things would quickly turn sour for Irvine as he had a disastrous pitstop. Irvine’s team mate Mika Salo (who was replacing for the injured Michael Schumacher who broke his leg at the British Grand Prix) had damaged his wing the previous lap leaving the Ferrari pit crew unprepared for Irvine.
Added to this, the team made a late decision to stay on dry tyres and the pit crew could only find three of them. Almost half a minute passed before the fourth was put on the car and Irvine was able to rejoin. Soon afterwards, Häkkinen pitted again to change back to dry tyres.
At the front, Frentzen and Coulthard continued on dry tyres until their scheduled pit stops which they made together (Schumacher had pitted several laps earlier). Frentzen rejoined ahead of Coulthard, with both comfortably ahead of Schumacher. At this point in the race both Irvine and Häkkinen were well out of the points, meaning that if the order stayed the same Frentzen, Irvine, and Häkkinen would have all been tied for the points lead with two races to go, with Coulthard six points behind them.
What followed was a series of heartbreaking retirements that I have never ever seen before. The first to fall was Frentzen, who ground to a halt at the first corner after his pit stop with the same electrical problem that had befallen his teammate. Coulthard inherited the lead and stayed out front until the rain came back with a vengeance.
Coulthard chose to stay out on dry tyres while most pitted for wets, which ultimately proved to be a costly mistake, as he slid off the road and out of the race on the 38th lap as the conditions worsened. Within a handful of laps two Championship contenders had seen their hopes of winning the title fall by the wayside.
Ralf Schumacher (still on dry tyres) then inherited the lead which he held until his pit stop six laps later. This allowed Fisichella (also on dries) to take the lead with Ralf in second, as the rain stopped. Meanwhile, Stewart GP driver Johnny Herbert had quietly moved up the order after changing to wet tyres just at the right time.
The heartbreak then reached new levels. On lap 49 Fisichella lost what would have been his first win when he spun out of the lead like Coulthard before him, giving the lead back to Ralf. But then he too lost the lead (and probable first win) when his right rear tyre punctured, allowing Herbert to take the lead which he would not lose.
Further back, the Minardis were taking full advantage of the unpredictable nature of the race with Luca Badoer in fourth and Marc Gené in seventh. But with just 13 laps to go, Badoer’s gearbox failed, denying the Ferrari test driver his first ever Formula 1 points and leaving him in tears. Gené was promoted to 6th, which became 5th when Jacques Villeneuve’s car failed, robbing the BAR team of their first-ever point.
Behind him, Irvine and Häkkinen had fought their way back into contention for points, with Irvine holding 6th ahead of Häkkinen. After cruising for most of the race, Häkkinen turned up the pressure, eventually forcing Irvine into a mistake and taking 6th place.
Poduim celebrations for Johnny Herbert, Jackie Stewart and Rubens Barrichello winning the first Grand Prix for Stewart Grand Prix
At the front Barrichello tried everything to pass Trulli for 2nd and make it a Stewart 1-2, but ultimately had to settle for 3rd. Meanwhile, Häkkinen caught and passed Gené for 5th to earn 2 invaluable points, but the Spaniard held onto 6th ahead of Irvine to give Minardi their first point for four seasons.
The 1999 European Grand Prix has to be one of the most exciting and yet heartbreaking races that I have seen. I have never seen a Grand Prix that has had so many drivers in the mix to win the race but yet at the same time retire from the Grand Prix. Herbert showed throughout the race with some determination and great driving to gain the lead of the race when the opportunity arose and he was rewarded with a cracking race win for his hard work.
It will also be remembered as the only race ever won by the Stewart Grand Prix team, as well as being the only time Stewart had two drivers finish on the podium. It was also the last Grand Prix victory for Johnny Herbert, and the last podium finish for the Prost Grand Prix team. Jackie Stewart in an interview after the race and even currently still considers this race greater than any of his own race wins, which shows just how much this means to him even today.
And as the 1999 World Championship leaded towards the next round in San Marino at the Sepang Circuit in Malaysia, Hakkinen was still leading the Driver’s Championship by 62 points ahead of Irvine two points behind with 60 points and Frentzen in third with 50 points.
You can watch the highlights of the 1999 European Grand Prix below by clicking on the YouTube link:-
Jones on F1 