The German Grand Prix did not produce the expected winner, but the driver that did win was possibly the most popular victor in recent memory.

Benetton back on form, Williams off the pace, how do things bode for the rest of the season?

Before the race
On Friday and Saturday free practice sessions, some unusual drivers were around the top of the time sheets, courtesy of constantly changing weather conditions. Even though few conclusions could be drawn from this, the lack of performance of the Williams-Renault team raised a few eyebrows in the paddock. The official line was that the car was suffering from chronic understeer, but many took it as a sign that Williams are finally on their way down from the top.

Williams spectacularly repeated their poor practice form in qualifying where Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Jacques Villeneuve were 5th and 9th respectively. Both drivers complained that the team would not allow them to go their own way on setup, and the team said that neither driver was getting the best from the car if left to their own devices. Regardless of who was telling the truth, the team is starting to show cracks in their once impenetrable armour.

The two qualifying performances of note were, of course, those of Gerhard Berger and Giancarlo Fisichella. Having stated that his tenure at Benetton-Renault was drawing to a close, he confounded the team and this observer by claiming pole position in a fair fight, ending up just 0.023 seconds ahead of the Jordan-Peugeot driver. Although the Renault engine powering the Benetton is almost a guarantee of a decent place at Hockenheim, the performance was made all the more remarkable considering the distance between Berger and the other 3 Renault drivers.

Giancarlo was having the best qualifying session that either himself or the team has enjoyed all season. The Italian was clearly at home in the car and beat Ralf Schumacher (perhaps guilty of trying too hard) in his home Grand Prix. According to Benetton, Fisichella is set to become one of their drivers in 1998, but Eddie Jordan intimated that all was not set. Indeed, the Italian driver himself expressed a desire to stay with Jordan for next season. However things turn out, this young man is set to become join the biggest stars in the F1 firmament in the very near future.

The Race
As the lights went out, Gerhard Berger made one of the best starts that he has ever made in the Benetton, pulling well clear of the cars behind him on the grid. Behind Berger, Giancarlo Fisichella got away cleanly, and although Michael Schumacher momentarily looked like being able to pass, the Italian held his line into the first corner and retained second place. Behind these two, Mika Hakkinen kept his 4th place without too much effort, too far back to challenge 2nd or 3rd and too far ahead of 5th to be worried.

Further back, Eddie Irvine (who qualified 10th) overtook no less that 4 cars in the run up to the first corner and was on the inside of 5th placed Heinz-Harald Frentzen as he turned in. What happened next will long be a cause of consternation between Irvine and Frentzen fans, but as Irvine moved across on the exit of the corner (as is expected), his left-rear tyre clipped the right-front of the #4 Williams car, puncturing both. Whilst the BBC commentator apportioned the blame 30% Irvine vs. 70% Frentzen, both drivers claimed innocence and said that the other party was at fault.

Both drivers were then forced to drive back to the pits very slowly to avoid damage to their cars. Slow or not, the pits was as far as either driver got, with the Ferrari catching fire as it stopped and the Williams having suffered serious suspension damage in the incident.

At the back of the field, unlucky Minardi driver Tarso Marques, who qualified ahead of team-mate Ukyo Katayama for the first time, failed even to make the first corner before suffering a mechanical failure.

The final victim of first lap accidents was David Coulthard. Frentzen had clipped McLaren-Mercedes driver Coulthard as the German fought with his car, and the contact damaged the front wing. The reduced downforce caused David to understeer off the track at the start of the stadium section before entering the pits for a new nosecone. Despite the new nose, the Scotsman retired from the race less than half a lap later.

Immediately, Gerhard Berger started to pull away from Giancarlo Fisichella, and pulled ahead by almost 2 seconds by the time the first lap was complete. Behind Berger, the mirrors of the Jordan-Peugeot were full of Ferrari as Schumacher attempted to pass Fisichella.

1 second behind Schumacher, Mika Hakkinen was also in a battle, this time with Jean Alesi who was keen to show that he was as capable of a top-flight performance as his team-mate.

Behind Alesi was Jacques Villeneuve, who had managed to get through the melee at the first corner without any difficulty. 7th placed starter Ralf Schumacher had problems doing this and dropped behind Jarno Trulli (Prost-Mugen Honda), Johnny Herbert (Sauber-Petronas), and Rubens Barrichello (Stewart-Ford).

Within 6 laps, Berger was over 5 seconds ahead of Fisichella, but the Italian driver was unable to shake off Schumacher, who was a mere 0.757 seconds behind him. The pace of these two was sufficient, however, to give them a 3.155 second lead over Hakkinen and Alesi, who had a similar distance between them and Villeneuve.

For the Williams driver, things were not as easy as they had been previously, with Jarno Trulli breathing down his neck and Ralf Schumacher, who had passed both Barrichello and Herbert, bearing down on the pair of them.

Herbert, for his part, was having an awful race and was being passed by anyone with the speed to catch him. Indeed, so slow was the Sauber-Petronas that Damon Hill even managed to catch and pass Herbert without too much difficulty. What is so surprising about the World Champion passing Johnny, is that the Arrows-Yamaha is said to have over 100bhp less than the re-badged Ferrari engine in the Sauber.

2 laps after Hill passed Herbert, his team-mate, Pedro Diniz, was ready to make his move. Sadly, where the Hill manoeuvre was clean and smartly executed, Diniz changed his mind half way through, tried to regain his line and ran into the back of Herbert, punting both of them off the track into retirement (and the gravel).

On lap 15, a further 5 laps down the road, Berger was over 12 seconds in front of Fisichella, who was finally starting to get a bit of space between himself and Schumacher.

Almost 7 seconds behind Schumacher, Mika Hakkinen was clearly holding up Jean Alesi. Down the straights the McLaren-Mercedes was fast enough to pull a small gap out, but as soon as handling, rather than speed, was an issue the Benetton would reel it in.

Just when it looked like this state of play could carry on for the whole race, Benetton called Jean Alesi in for a pit-stop, announcing their intention to stop twice as opposed to the expected one-stop strategy. Arrows driver Damon Hill was also in early, the team trying to gain advantage from the fresh tyres and the hopefully empty track that would face Hill when the stop was finished.

Not only did Alesi indicate his strategy by stopping on lap 16, he also indicated that the pace of his team mate was more than likely due to the lighter fuel load that he would run if also on two stops. Lap 17 confirmed this when Gerhard Berger came into the pits for fresh fuel and tyres, rejoining as Hakkinen came past.

In most other races (and for most other drivers), emerging behind a slightly slower car would have stopped any form of progress and doomed the 2 stop strategy to failure. For Berger, however, Hakkinen was no problem and the Austrian was past in just one lap, keen to chase down Schumacher and Fisichella, 8.4 seconds and 10.7 seconds ahead respectively.

Jean Alesi had not been so fortunate, coming out of the pits at the back of the queue of traffic being held up by Jacques Villeneuve. Even though Jarno Trulli (6th), Ralf Schumacher (7th), and Alesi (8th) looked to be capable of running much faster, the Renault power was sufficient to keep them at bay.

With 6 retirements the order, on lap 20, was as follows:
Fisichella, M. Schumacher, Berger, Hakkinen, Villeneuve, Trulli, R. Schumacher, Alesi, Nakano, Barrichello, Salo, Fontana, Hill, Magnussen, Verstappen, and Katayama.

For Katayama, the race was over less than two laps later, with his Minardi running out of fuel, putting him out of a race that he had been running at the back of for it's entirety.

Ralf and Michael Schumacher, Mika Hakkinen and Jacques Villeneuve all stopped for fresh fuel and rubber on lap 23 and were followed a lap later by Giancarlo Fisichella and Jarno Trulli.

With one stop apiece, the field could have been expected to be the same as it was on lap 16, before Alesi pitted. It was Jean Alesi, however, who had spoiled this by putting in some superb laps after Villeneuve had got out of the way, and had managed to gain enough time to get ahead of not only Mika Hakkinen, but also Michael Schumacher. Sadly for Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher, their respective pit crews were unable to beat the Williams team and both came out behind the relatively slow Jacques Villeneuve.

Lap 28 saw the first Ford engine induced retirement of the race, with the TV viewers being treated to a spectacular show when the v10 in the back of the Jan Magnussen driven Stewart exploded down one of the straights. For the rest of the Ford powered cars, the question was when, rather than if, their engines would explode.

At this point Berger was 19.211 seconds ahead of Fisichella, who was in turn 4.016 seconds ahead of Alesi. Alesi was just about keeping Schumacher at bay, but behind this pair, there was a 17.962-second gap back to Hakkinen and Villeneuve.

Briefly, Giancarlo Fisichella seemed capable of closing the gap on Berger, taking as much as 2 seconds from his lead on lap 29. The Austrian was on a charge and, looking to dispel any thoughts that his time in F1 was over, took the 2 seconds back in less than two laps.

Jean Alesi came in for his second stop on lap 31, dropping him back behind Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher. Instead of staying outside the garage to wait for Berger, the Benetton pit crew went back inside, the team preferring to give Berger the extra time to increase his lead to Fisichella. Gerhard would need a minimum of 22 seconds to complete his required stop and his lead by this time was just under 20 seconds.

Lap 33 saw the retirement of Mika Salo, Rubens Barrichello, and Jacques Villeneuve. Mika Salo had the distinction of being the only Ford driver this weekend to not suffer an engine failure, instead retiring due to clutch problems. As Jacques came up to lap Norberto Fontana, he chose to try and outbrake the Argentinean into the second chicane, rather than use his extra horsepower and pass on the exit. Not content with outbraking Fontana, Jacques also managed to outbrake himself and spun the Williams-Renault across the path of the Sauber (at least managing to avoid it) before coming to rest in the gravel trap.

On lap 34, the Benetton crew came out of the garage, preparing for the imminent arrival of race leader Berger. His lead over Fisichella at this point was a little over 2 seconds, not quite enough to get out in front of the Italian. With Schumacher 6 seconds behind the Jordan, there was the risk that even a slight mistake would drop Berger down to 3rd place.

Sure enough, as Gerhard emerged from the pitlane, the Jordan-Peugeot roared past, taking the lead by less than a second. Although on colder tyres, Berger immediately set about pressurising Giancarlo and was right behind him by the time they reached the first chicane.

Despite holding the Benetton at bay through the first chicane and down the following straight, in the second chicane Fisichella made a mistake, allowing Berger past and back into the lead.

Two laps later, the Benetton was over 2 seconds ahead, and the field looked like this:
Berger -> 2.388s -> Fisichella - > 5.572s -> M. Schumacher -> 21.625s -> Hakkinen -> 2.910s -> Trulli -> 1.588s -> R. Schumacher -> Alesi -> Nakano -> Hill -> Fontana -> Verstappen

With Berger leading and pulling ahead further all the time, Fisichella second (also extending his lead over the chasing cars), Schumacher in a solid 3rd and the rest of the field apparently unable to do anything about each other, the race appeared over.

As is so often the case, this impression proved false and with 6 laps to go, the left-rear tyre exploded on the Jordan of 2nd placed Giancarlo Fisichella. Although he limped back to the pits (suffering a spin in the stadium section), it was clear that his race was over. The Jordan team duly replaced the damaged tyre and sent Fisichella on his way, but less than a lap later, he pulled off the track into retirement, ending his most competitive outing in F1 so far.

While the trials and tribulations of the Jordan team were not good for them, for the German fans, it was the best thing that could have happened. After apparently being set for a 3rd place finish, their hero Michael Schumacher was now in 2nd place.

For the legion of spectators decked in the scarlet Ferrari caps and T-shirts, there would be no last minute retirements to give Schumacher the win and the field finished in the same order that it was running in after Fisichella dropped out. Despite this, the crowd cheered as Gerhard Berger came home for his 10th win, and possibly the most dominant performance of his career.

The podium contained one of the happiest looking group of drivers that it has held for a long time (even though Schumacher and his impromptu taxi service held it up) and both Mika Hakkinen and Michael Schumacher looked genuinely pleased to see Berger ahead of them. The only sour face on the podium was that of Flavio Briatore, the Benetton Managing Director, who was clearly wondering what had caused the turn around in the driver he had just dropped.

In the press conference Berger said "I seem to have been given some special powers today, but I think I know where that comes from and I am very happy about it."

As are most of the people who saw it Gerhard.

German Grand Prix result