SEPTEMBER 8, 1997
Hakkinen loses Spa points
The decision meant that Jacques Villeneuve gained an extra World Championship point, moving from sixth to fifth in the classification, while Williams gained another point thanks to Heinz-Harald Frentzen being moved up to third. Benetton's Gerhard Berger also gained a point for sixth position.
In a statement the team said that it "accepted that a minor analytical difference existed" but said that "the complex nature of the fuels used in F1 and the difficulty in achieving consistent analysis makes the interpretation of the results an extremely complex matter."
The team added that it had concluded that the difference between the fuel used in qualifying at Spa and the one submitted to the FIA was "a consequence of aging and/or minor contamination of a small quantity of the fuel".