The 1998 Spanish Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 10 May 1998 at the Circuit de Catalunya. It was the fifth race of the 1998 Formula One season. The 65-lap race was won by McLaren driver Mika Häkkinen after he started from pole position. His teammate David Coulthard finished second and Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher took third.
Race summary
Mika Häkkinen qualified in pole position, 0.7 seconds ahead of his McLaren teammate David Coulthard in second place, with Ferrari's Michael Schumacher a further 0.8 seconds behind in third. The race proved to be a formality for Häkkinen, winning the race ahead of Coulthard in second, and Schumacher in third.
Arrows driver Pedro Diniz started from the pit lane due to stalling on the warm up lap. At the start the McLarens got away well, but Schumacher made a poor start and fell back to fifth behind his teammate Eddie Irvine and Benetton's Giancarlo Fisichella. They ran in these positions until the first round of pit stops, when Irvine delayed Fisichella sufficiently for his teammate Schumacher to emerge ahead of them both and regain third. Fisichella and Irvine continued to battle until lap 28, when Fisichella attempted a passing manoeuvre around the outside of Irvine, resulting in a collision spearing them both off into the gravel trap. This led to Fisichella's Benetton teammate, Alexander Wurz, inheriting fourth place which he held until the finish. Mika Häkkinen was consistently faster than his teammate David Coulthard throughout the race weekend, unable to match his pace, even though they were in the same car. Respected ex driver and pundit Martin Brundle made the comment that Häkkinen was "in a class of his own".
During the race, Michael Schumacher and Minardi's Esteban Tuero were given 10 second stop-go penalties for pit lane speeding.
The Stewart of Rubens Barrichello earned two points by finishing in fifth place, which were team's first of the season, this was made possible by the new engine and chassis the team used (however teammate Jan Magnussen ran with the old chassis). Reigning World Champion Jacques Villeneuve finished in sixth place, after Williams had their worst qualifying result since the 1989 United States Grand Prix.
On the final lap, Williams driver Heinz-Harald Frentzen passed Prost's Jarno Trulli for eight place when Trulli was incorrectly shown the blue flags as the marshalls had mistaken the Williams for a Ferrari.
"I am truly angry because I had to give up a great battle, and it isn't fair to lose a position because they are blind and can't recognise one car from another. Of course it doesn't matter much to finish eighth or ninth, but for a racer it matters. In a case of a blue flag I didn't have an alternative". Jarno Trulli
Post race, Fisichella was given a $7,500USD fine for the collision with Irvine.
Classification
Qualifying Pos No Driver Constructor Lap Time Gap 1 8 Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 1:20.262 2 7 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 1:20.996 +0.734 3 3 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:21.785 +1.523 4 5 Giancarlo Fisichella Benetton-Playlife 1:21.894 +1.632 5 6 Alexander Wurz Benetton-Playlife 1:21.965 +1.703 6 4 Eddie Irvine Ferrari 1:22.350 +2.088 7 15 Johnny Herbert Sauber-Petronas 1:22.794 +2.532 8 9 Damon Hill Jordan-Mugen-Honda 1:22.835 +2.573 9 18 Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 1:22.860 +2.598 10 1 Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Mecachrome 1:22.885 +2.623 11 10 Ralf Schumacher Jordan-Mugen-Honda 1:22.927 +2.665 12 11 Olivier Panis Prost-Peugeot 1:22.963 +2.701 13 2 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams-Mecachrome 1:23.197 +2.935 14 14 Jean Alesi Sauber-Petronas 1:23.327 +3.065 15 16 Pedro Diniz Arrows 1:23.704 +3.442 16 12 Jarno Trulli Prost-Peugeot 1:23.748 +3.486 17 17 Mika Salo Arrows 1:23.887 +3.625 18 19 Jan Magnussen Stewart-Ford 1:24.112 +3.850 19 23 Esteban Tuero Minardi-Ford 1:24.265 +4.003 20 22 Shinji Nakano Minardi-Ford 1:24.538 +4.276 21 21 Toranosuke Takagi Tyrrell-Ford 1:24.722 +4.460107% time: 1:25.880 20 Ricardo Rosset Tyrrell-Ford 1:25.946 +5.684 Source:
Race Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 8 Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 65 1:33:37.621 1 10 2 7 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 65 +9.439 2 6 3 3 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 65 +47.095 3 4 4 6 Alexander Wurz Benetton-Playlife 65 +1:02.538 5 3 5 18 Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 64 +1 Lap 9 2 6 1 Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Mecachrome 64 +1 Lap 10 1 7 15 Johnny Herbert Sauber-Petronas 64 +1 Lap 7 8 2 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams-Mecachrome 63 +2 Laps 13 9 12 Jarno Trulli Prost-Peugeot 63 +2 Laps 16 10 14 Jean Alesi Sauber-Petronas 63 +2 Laps 14 11 10 Ralf Schumacher Jordan-Mugen-Honda 63 +2 Laps 11 12 19 Jan Magnussen Stewart-Ford 63 +2 Laps 18 13 21 Toranosuke Takagi Tyrrell-Ford 63 +2 Laps 21 14 22 Shinji Nakano Minardi-Ford 63 +2 Laps 20 15 23 Esteban Tuero Minardi-Ford 63 +2 Laps 19 16 11 Olivier Panis Prost-Peugeot 60 Engine 12 9 Damon Hill Jordan-Mugen-Honda 46 Engine 8 4 Eddie Irvine Ferrari 28 Collision 6 5 Giancarlo Fisichella Benetton-Playlife 28 Collision 4 17 Mika Salo Arrows 21 Engine 17 16 Pedro Diniz Arrows 20 Engine 15 20 Ricardo Rosset Tyrrell-Ford 107% Rule Source:
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Mika Häkkinen 36 2 David Coulthard 29 3 Michael Schumacher 24 4 Eddie Irvine 11 5 Alexander Wurz 9Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 McLaren-Mercedes 65 2 Ferrari 35 3 Williams-Mecachrome 14 4 Benetton-Playlife 10 5 Sauber-Petronas 4Source:
Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
References