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In an ever-impressive race at Spa-Francorchamps, Mika Hakkinen took his
second successive race win and extended his lead in the driver's championship to six points. Michael Schumacher is still in the title race
after coming home in second, whilst Ralf Schumacher made it an excellent day
for the German family, completing the podium in third.
The race was thrown into controversy before the start lights even went out
as drivers and team bosses discussed the possibility of starting the race
behind the pace car due to the customary heavy downpours that soaked the
track before the race. FIA race director Charlie Whiting consulted the
leading drivers before making the final decision and the safety car was used
on the formation lap before letting the race go to green as Mika Hakkinen
crossed the start-finish line for the first time.
With the cars spread out due to the rolling start, Hakkinen began to pull
away easily from the Jordan of Jarno Trulli. The Italian, however, was
under pressure from Jenson Button and Michael Schumacher. The young Brit
seemed to be making a real push for second place but a mistake going into
the Bus Stop chicane gave Schumacher third place. As the group came up to
La Source hairpin Schumacher took a dive down the inside of Trulli to
promote himself to second place. An over ambitious Button attempted to
capitalize on the move and tried to follow the German past Trulli but with
nowhere to go, he tapped Trulli's car, putting the Italian out of the race
and relegating Button to fifth place behind David Coulthard and Ralf
Schumacher.
On a drying track, it soon became apparent that dry weather, grooved
tires were the quickest rubber to be on, and after a well-timed pitstop Michael
Schumacher was able to reduce Hakkinen's lead. An unlucky Coulthard was
again hampered by team decisions as he was forced to do an extra lap on
wet-weather tires while Hakkinen came into the pits to change. "I need to
try to understand exactly what we were doing at the pitstops because
obviously I lost a lot of places there and it put me out behind Frentzen,"
said the Scot. "When I saw Michael pit I started a conversation as to
whether it was the right time to stop … Mika decided to pit the next lap and
given how far back I was, I think I could have pitted that lap as well.
Even if I'd had to queue up slightly I would have lost less time than I did
having to do the complete lap so there's things like that that the team have
to sharpen up on."
The bad day for McLaren continued when Hakkinen, under increasing pressure
from a rapidly closing Michael Schumacher, made a mistake exiting Stavelot
corner and put his car into a half spin. The Finn kept the engine running
and rejoined the track but not before the German seared past to take the
lead.
It looked as if Schumacher was about to enjoy yet another taste of victory
at Spa but while the German seemed to be struggling with his tires, cooling
them on the few remaining wet patches, Hakkinen began to move ever-closer to
the leader. There followed a series of exciting laps as Schumacher tried to
keep an obviously faster Hakkinen behind, but after failing to overtake on
the straight the lap before, Hakkinen put in a breathtaking move, with three
laps to go, to retake the lead.
As the two leaders approached the slower car of Ricardo Zonta, Hakkinen
seized the opportunity, and while Schumacher chose to keep to the racing
line to pass Zonta, the Finn took to the inside to pass both Zonta and
Schumacher. "It was quite a different [move]," said a grinning Hakkinen.
"Normally that kind of situation is unusual to overtake someone on a
straight line when the backmarker is between us. I knew following Michael
that there was no point in trying to follow him at the end of the straight
because obviously he is not going to give me room so I took Plan B and I
went completely inside and overtook the backmarker and Michael at the same
time."
Zonta, meanwhile, seemed calm in his account of the move. "I saw Schumacher
and Hakkinen my mirrors as I was going through Eau Rouge so I slowed on the
following straight and just stayed in the middle of the track to give them
room. It was an amazing view as they went past either side of my car."
Schumacher was hard pushed to hide the admiration for his rival. "Mika did
a really outstanding maneuver to pass on the inside because it was unexpected. But honestly if he hadn't caught me that time he would a lap or
two later."
Hakkinen went on to cross the line first, just over a second ahead of
Schumacher. Ralf Schumacher came home a comfortable third while Coulthard
was disappointed with fourth. Button and Frentzen rounded off the top six.
Selected Quotes
Mika Hakkinen (1st) - "It was incredible. It was very difficult [with]
unusual situations including my spin [which] was obviously not planned but
the curbs here are very difficult, very slippery. I was lucky to stay on
the track and able to continue. It was a fabulous race to drive, really
enjoyable and the car was getting better and better all the time."
Michael Schumacher (2nd) - "I tried my best. It was not enough today but we
have got six points and we keep the championship alive even though we made
it a little more difficult today. We'll keep going for it."
Ralf Schumacher (3rd) - "I think we are definitely the third team in the
world championship now and we'll try to stay there and get some more podium
and points finishes."
David Coulthard (4th)- "To keep in there with a hunt at the championship
I've got to score more points. [The championship is] getting further away."
Jenson Button (5th) - "The car was working well at the beginning [and I]
tried to get up the inside of Trulli into the first corner I think on the
second or third lap, but it didn't happen [and] we collided and that's how I
dropped down to fifth. All round it's good to get some points but a bit
disappointing. It would have been nice to have been in the top three but
there you go."
Jacques Villeneuve (7th) - "It was a very boring race from my perspective.
The car had terrible oversteer and I do not know why. We had oversteer all
weekend, mostly on old tyres, and yet in the race the car was only good
after 25 laps. I am disappointed because it was a wasted day. We raced
hard the whole time but were just out of the points."
Johnny Herbert (8th) - "It was an enjoyable race but unfortunately I was on
my own most of the time so was not actually racing with anybody."
Eddie Irvine (10th)- "I felt we gelled better as a team this weekend than we
have all year."
Giancarlo Fisichella (retired lap 8) - "I got some sort of electrical
problem and lost power in the Bus Stop chicane. After qualifying in one run
on Saturday and my big crash in warm-up, this really has been a disastrous
weekend for me.
Tom Walkinshaw (Arrows drivers 15th and 16th) - "The most you can say about
the weekend is that it was character building … The only thing we did not do
with the cars at pitstops was wash them!"
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2000: Hakkinen dominates 8/13/00
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