Brazilian GP 1999

Brazilian GP, 1999

After the Australian Grand Prix Ferrari had done 2500 miles of testing but after qualifying in Brazil the gap between the team and McLaren was still there. Worse still Michael Schumacher was outqualified by the Stewart-Ford of Rubens Barrichello as well.

But if things at Ferrari were not happy, it was a lot better than at British American Racing where on Friday Jacques Villeneuve stormed off to his hotel, fed up with mechanical troubles and missing his own BAT-sponsored birthday celebrations. On Saturday Ricardo Zonta crashed heavily when something broke and he was carted off to hospital with a gashed leg. Villeneuve then qualified 16th only to be booted to the back of the grid because of illegal fuel. The BAR boys began to realise that F1 was rather more difficult than they had expected.

The race was to see David Coulthard's McLaren falter at the start. The car had to be pushed into the pitlane and started from there, three laps down. Hakkinen had set off looking dominant but after four laps the McLaren's gearbox faltered and he was passed by both Barrichello and Schumacher. Barrichello's lead did not last long. He had chosen a two-stop strategy and had to pit. When Barrichello stopped Schumacher's Ferrari led the race but there was no way he could keep Hakkinen behind during the pit stop sequence: the McLaren was simply too fast. Heinz-Harald Frentzen finished third for Jordan, despite breaking down on the last lap, thankfully all those behind him had been lapped. Barrichello was held up by Eddie Irvine's Ferrari after his first stop and then retired with engine failure.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL TIMEPOS
1 1 Mika Hakkinen McLaren-Mercedes  72 1h36m03.785  1m16.568 1 
2 3 Michael Schumacher Ferrari  72 4.925  1m17.578 4 
3 8 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Jordan-Mugen Honda  72 1m13.487  1m17.902 8 
4 6 Ralf Schumacher Williams-Supertec  71 1 Lap  1m18.506 11 
5 4 Eddie Irvine Ferrari  71 1 Lap  1m17.843 6 
6 18 Olivier Panis Prost-Peugeot  71 1 Lap  1m18.636 12 
7 10 Alexander Wurz Benetton-Supertec  70 2 Laps  1m18.334 9 
8 14 Toranosuke Takagi Arrows  69 2 Laps  1m20.096 19 
9 21 Marc Gene Minardi-Ford  69 3 Laps  1m20.710 20 
r 15 Pedro de la Rosa Arrows  52 Hydraulics 1m19.979 18 
r 22 Jacques Villeneuve BAR-Supertec  49 Hydraulics 1m19.377 21 
r 5 Alessandro Zanardi Williams-Supertec  43 Clutch 1m19.452 16 
r 12 Pedro Diniz Sauber-Petronas  42 Spin 1m19.194 15 
r 16 Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford  42 Engine 1m17.305 3 
r 9 Giancarlo Fisichella Benetton-Supertec  38 Clutch 1m17.810 5 
r 20 Luca Badoer Minardi-Ford  31 Accident 1m20.016 17 
r 11 Jean Alesi Sauber-Petronas  27 Mechanical 1m18.716 14 
r 2 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes  22 Gearbox 1m16.715 2 
r 19 Jarno Trulli Prost-Peugeot  21 Gearbox 1m18.684 13 
r 17 Johnny Herbert Stewart-Ford  15 Hydraulics 1m18.374 10 
r 7 Damon Hill Jordan-Mugen Honda  10 Suspension Damage 1m17.884 7 
nq 23 Ricardo Zonta BAR-Supertec    No Time