Spanish GP 1998

Spanish GP, 1998

Mika Hakkinen was completely dominant throughout the Spanish Grand Prix weekend. The Finn set the fastest time in all sessions and won the race. David Coulthard shadowed his team-mate throughout but found that he could do nothing to match Hakkinen's pace, while Michael Schumacher finished nearly a minute behind Hakkinen on a day when McLaren's Bridgestone tyres had the edge over the Goodyears on the Ferrari.

In qualifying Hakkinen was one and a half seconds ahead of Schumacher, the pair being split by Coulthard who was seventh-tenths slower than Hakkinen. To underline the speed of the Bridgestones Giancarlo Fisichella was fourth fastest in his Benetton with team mate Alexander Wurz fifth ahead of a disappointing Eddie Irvine in the second Ferrari.

It was a bad day for Williams, with World Champion Jacques Villeneuve 10th on the grid and Heinz-Harald Frentzen 13th.

At the start of the race the two McLarens went into the lead but Schumacher was very slow away and dropped behind Fisichella and a fast-starting Irvine. Hakkinen built a 10 second lead in 10 laps while Coulthard was able to stay six seconds clear of Irvine, who was under attack from Fisichella. Michael Schumacher shadowed the pair.

With overtaking difficult the pits stops were very important and, as soon as Irvine and Fisichella went into the pits, Michael Schumacher did his usual impressive job and was able to get ahead of both his rivals. They then collided at the first corner and put each other out of the race, promoting Wurz to fourth and Barrichello to fifth, although he had Villeneuve and Johnny Herbert (Sauber) chasing him.

Schumacher was then given a 10-second stop-go penalty for failing to observe the speed limit in the pitlane. This dropped him behind Wurz but he regained the place during the second pit stops to finish third. Wurz was fourth while Barrichello was able to get away from the Villeneuve-Herbert battle to give Stewart a decent result.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
1 8 Mika Hakkinen McLaren-Mercedes  65 1h33m37.621s  1 
2 7 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes  65 1h33m47.060s  2 
3 3 Michael Schumacher Ferrari  65 1h34m24.716s  3 
4 6 Alexander Wurz Benetton-Playlife  65 1h34m40.159s  5 
5 18 Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford  64  9 
6 1 Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Mecachrome  64  10 
7 15 Johnny Herbert Sauber-Petronas  64  7 
8 2 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams-Mecachrome  63  13 
9 12 Jarno Trulli Prost-Peugeot  63  16 
10 14 Jean Alesi Sauber-Petronas  63  14 
11 10 Ralf Schumacher Jordan-Mugen Honda  63  11 
12 19 Jan Magnussen Stewart-Ford  63  18 
13 21 Ricardo Rosset Tyrrell-Ford  63  21 
14 22 Esteban Tuero Minardi-Ford  63  20 
15 23 Shinji Nakano Minardi-Ford  63  19 
16r 11 Olivier Panis Prost-Peugeot  60 Engine 12 
r 9 Damon Hill Jordan-Mugen Honda  46 Engine 8 
r 4 Eddie Irvine Ferrari  28 Collision With Fisichella 6 
r 5 Giancarlo Fisichella Benetton-Playlife  28 Collision With Irvine 4 
r 17 Mika Salo Arrows  21 Engine 17 
r 16 Pedro Diniz Arrows  20 Engine 15 
dnq 20 Toranosuke Takagi Tyrrell-Ford  0  22