Wily Schumacher bottles Hakkinen, helps Irvine to victory

Sunday’s success put Irvine ahead of reigning World champion Mika Hakkinen of McLaren-Mercedes in the championship race which concludes at Suzuka, Japan, at the end of this month. Irvine leads the table with 70 points as against Hakkinen’s 66.Suzuka GP will also decide the Constructors’ championship where the Scuderia Ferrari leads McLaren by 118 points to 114.

Schmacher played a major role in Ferrari’s success by first setting the pace with a brilliant start and then allowing Irvine to pass him on Lap 4 of the 56-lap event before holding up his McLaren-Mercedes rival Mika Hakkinen for the rest of the race. And finally, came the ultimate `sacrifice’ when Schumacher leading Irvine by over five seconds with four laps to go, let his team-mate through.

Schumacher’s brilliance was reflected in the manner in which he nursed his car through a one-stop strategy while Irvine came into pits twice as did Hakkinen. But McLaren team seemed to have goofed up on Hakkinen’s shocking second pit stop with just nine laps remaining and with the the Finn running second. When asked about the second stop, Hakkinen simply said: “It was for refuelling”. But he refused to elaborate when queried whether he was radioed in or it was his decision. Either way, it was amassive miscalculation on part of McLaren who earlier in the race had lost their second driver David Coulthard whose car seemed to have died on him.

The day’s race within the race was the one fought between Hakkinen and Schumacher. The 30-year old German literally toyed with Hakkinen who grew increasingly frustrated and even gesticulated at one point. Later, Hakkinen questioned Schumacher’s tactics, though not in so many words. “Michael was braking in funny places, taking different lines in the turns, suddenly accelerating and then slowing down. I did not want to take any chances with somebody driving like that. But it was really frustrating,” said Hakkinen who appeared absolutely drained by the chase, not to speak of having to submit to Schumacher’s whims.

Schumacher, of course, defended himself by saying: “I was running on softer compound tyres which I had to nurse. You saw my tyres at the first pit-stop. They were really chewed up. And what I did was within the rules. The rules allow us to docertain things and we do it. It is part of the business. That’s racing.”

Schumacher’s lone mistake in the race was when he was caught off-guard by Coulthard’s pass. The wheels of the two cars touched, but fortunately, there was no accident like the one in the very first lap which took out Damon Hill and Jarno Trulli. While the Ferrari camp celebrated, the McLaren garage was full of glum faces. They knew they had botched up on their strategy.

However, they drew some consolation from Hakkinen’s late burst which saw him climb a position from fourth to third with a daring move past Johnny Herbert in the final lap after the Stewart-Ford driver had committed a mistake.Incidentally, it was Ferrari’s second 1-2 finish of the season and Irvine’s fourth win. Schumacher and Irvine had finished in that order at the San Marino GP.

The results (1-6 positions) 56 laps, 310.352 Kms: Eddie Irvine (Ireland, Ferrari) 1 (1 hr, 36 mins, 38.494 secs); Michael Schumacher (Germany, Ferrari) 2 (1:36:39.534); MikaHakkinen (Finland, McLaren-Mercedes) 3 (1:36:48.237); Johnny Herbert (Britain, Stewart-Ford) 4 (1:36:56.032); Reubens Barichello (Brazil, Stewart-Ford) 5 (1:37:10.790); Heinz-Harald Frentzen (Germany, Jordan) 6 (1:37:13.378).

Fastest lap: Michael Schumacher, 1:40.267 on Lap 25.

Drivers’ championship standings (after 15 of 16 rounds): Irvine 1 (70 pts); Hakkinen 2 (66); Frentzen 3 (51); Coulthard 4 (48); Michael Schumacher 5 (38); Ralf Schumacher 6 (33).