Grand Prix of Brazil Review
Interlagos, Sao Paulo, Brazil April 11th, 1999	by Michele Lupini, South Africa

Sao Paolo saw the Formula One scene returning to the form expected after 1998, following that extraordinary result in Australia, when Mika Hakkinen won a race he'll more than likely always remember. With a suspect car, in clearly physically challenging conditions, Mika beat off an almost surprised to be second Michael Schumacher, who like local man "Rubhino" Barrichello, led a good deal of the Brazilian Grand Prix. But the pecking order behind Hakkinen and Schumacher appears to have changed somewhat, with some unexpected teams, headed by Stewart, vying for the remaining points positions compared to last year's second division. Free Practice The Silver Arrows were up to their old one-two from the outset in the opening practise session on Friday, despite conditions which were far from ideal. It would remain much like that until qualifying at least. The first session, always vital for getting a good start towards a setup that will work in qualifying and then the race, was a washout. Ralf Schumacher made the most of drying conditions to put a Williams on top of the time sheets for the first time in a while. But the McLarens were quickest when it was wettest, an omen for the rest about what was to follow... That fact was brought home in the Friday afternoon session, Mika Hakkinen leading a familiar silver and red first four positions, with team mate David Coulthard second from the Ferraris, headed by Schumacher. Giancarlo Fisichella further proved that there wasn't really all that much wrong with the Playlife/Mecachrome/Supertec engine, despite some worries from others using that mill's output, with a promising Barrichello next up. The McLarens were way out front again on Saturday's first session, but Saturday's second open session was abandoned almost before it had even started, after Ricardo Zonta took himself out of the reckoning for the weekend, sustaining fractures and cuts to his feet and legs in a spectacular crash. Damaged armco meant no more play until qualifying, so everyone was at a disadvantage, with only two of the four practices proving constructive toward progress. But after just 15 minutes of that short-lived session, the McLaren status quo was still in place, with Heinz Harald Frentzen showing continued good form, with third in the revised Jordan, and Rubens starting to show the pace of the Stewart - which many were waiting to see, in fourth. Michael Schumacher was a rather unlikely fifth when the session was prematurely stopped. Qualifying So most teams went into qualifying without as good a setup as they'd have liked. But The McLarens opened their account early, Mika quickly going out and setting the fastest lap of the weekend until then, with a lap quicker than his last year's three-groove pole, under ominously black sky, with Coulthard close behind. Barrichello was third. Rubens improved as the session progressed - by mid-session he was half a second behind Mika and about the same ahead of Fisichella, Irvine, Frentzen, Herbert and Michael Schumacher, all within twenty-five thousandths of a second of each other. The promise of rain never materialised, besides a light, misty spray early on. With five minutes left, very few drivers had done less than their allowed 12 laps, but among those were Mika and David, the top men. Both went out, Mika storming to a time half a second quicker than his own last year's best and about the same amount of time off Villeneuve's '97 slick-shod pole. Coulthard ended up under two tenths adrift, despite three desperate-looking laps, with an impressive Barrichello confirming his testing pace, by keeping out Michael Schumacher, who couldn't get within a second of typically impressive Mika's McLaren on pole. The local crowd, already of a significant proportion on Saturdy, were thrilled by their homeboy, going wild when he disposed of the Ferrari to claim the preferred berth on the second row. Fisichella was next up, from Irvine and the Jordans of Hill, for once ahead of Frentzen. Wurz and Herbert rounded off the top ten. Ralf Schumacher, who wasn't all that happy with his Mecachrome engine all weekend, was next up, ahead of the Prosts and Saubers, and then the man who preferred to sulk alone rather than attend the party thrown for him by his team, '97 pole man, Jacques Villeneuve. Alex Zanardi was seventeenth, from a gaggle of Arrows and Minardis. Zonta would miss the race as a result of his shunt earlier, but team mate Villeneuve's bad day got even worse when he was tossed to the back of the grid because his fuel wasn't to specification... This re-promoted de la Rosa to eighteenth, but behind Sarrazin, after his quickest lap was docked as a result of a yellow flag indiscretion on that lap, when his team mate's car was being removed from the tyre wall. So, the McLarens were on pole, again, like they had been for just about every race for the past year. And Barrichello was the man closest to them, with Michael Schumacher a rather distant fourth. Barrichello had everything to prove. He was a position up on the grid over last race, Brazil's favourite son was set to give his home town crowd something really significant to shout about for the first time in a good many years... The Race The pre race hype was led by the champion, as has become usual, warning of his machinery's advantage, "I always knew I would be threatened during qualifying, but felt I had a little bit in reserve," he mused confidently. Despite his obviously failed and prolonged attempt to wrest pole at the end, Coulthard believed he was at his best, "That was the most competitive I have been in Brazil. I felt I could have been quicker than Mika and I feel very strong and confident for the race." But it wasn't a McLaren driver that everyone wanted to hear from. Rubhino was the man of the moment, and he was philosophical about his chances. "The lap when I got third was the best in my life. Last year was the (previous) best of my life and I only got 13th or 14th place. It's great to finally have a good car," he said. "I don't think I can win if Mika and David are still on the track, but it's not impossible. Reliability is always a problem for everyone early in the season and I certainly want to get a podium finish." Schumacher was on the other end of the scale of happiness, his progress clearly not to his usual high standards. "I did not expect to be one second off the pole time. We had hoped to be competitive right from the start of this season and it seems we have not achieved that. It is unlikely that we can close the gap between now and the race. However, we have improvements to come once the championship moves to Europe. We have to continue working hard to catch up." But the warm-up hinted differently, with proceedings which saw the familiar 1-2, with Schumacher an encouraging half a second closer to the front... Conditions at the start were the best they'd been since the start of the action at Interlagos two days prior. Partly cloudy and warm, the drums and sambas hissed in anticipation of a representative of the local populus being right in the fray for the first time since their beloved Senna, it was 23 degC, with the track cooling under the intermittent cloud, to 25 degC. Although Michael Schumacher must have been a little more nervous than usual on the start, following his dramas in his previous two races, the problem which he found this time around wasn't a stalled Ferrari, but a stationary McLaren ahead of him - as David Coulthard stalled on the grid as the lights turned green. The McLaren moved but an inch at the green, and Michael and the rest can be commended on missing the stricken McLaren. Once they'd cleared the first corner, Hakkinen led from Barrichello, to the delight of the crowd, and Schumacher and Irvine, while Frentzen got the better of team mate Hill, to restore the now expected order at Jordan. Hill was passed by Wurz, in the buildup to an action filled dice... By lap three, the McLaren crew managed to draw life from Coulthard's Mercedes-Benz engine and David appeared out of the pits as Mika approached the pit exit on the track. But as the number 2 car accelerated, Mika suddenly slowed, letting Barrichello through into a most popular lead, from Schumacher. Just as quickly as it slowed, Mika's car picked up speed again, and despite speculation as to an intermittent problem, appeared to easily keep pace with the clearly slower Ferrari ahead of him. Coulthard, running behind Rubens and ahead of Schumacher and his team mate, and clearly with Belgium in mind, moved over to let the following cars through when he was rather embarrassingly shown the blue flag. So what happened to Mika's car? There are three possibilities. Either the car had a rather unlikely one-off hydraulic problem, which immediately cured itself, or the problem was monitored in the pits, where the faulty system, whatever it was, was immediately over-ridden by a backup, perhaps activated by Mika. A third scenario could have been to do with some confusion over the elimination of Coulthard's pit-road speed limiter, with Hakkinen's device being activated instead off David's switched off. Both the second and third scenarios, especially the third, create some interesting speculation, as telemetry is supposed only to monitor an F1 car's progress. Could there be some form of pit-to-car communication on the McLarens, beyond simple tracking devices? Ron Dennis concluded after the race that the problem was a "miss-shift early on in the race which cost him the lead," while Mika echoed his boss's propaganda, saying "I was pulling out a considerable lead on Rubens when I had a miss-shift and I thought that the game was over, but I dropped down a gear, accelerated and it was all fine." But Brazil was ecstatic - their man was out front, clearly driving the race of his life, with his home crowd ecstatically proclaiming his every move in typical Brazilian style. It was so good to see a nation stunned by the tragedy of four years ago emerging from F1 hibernation to acknowledge the sport so emotionally once again. Barrichello led the Mclaren meat of Hakkinen in a Ferrari sandwich, maintaining a reasonable lead. Impressive were de la Rosa, rising from eighteenth to tenth, Panis ahead of him and Alesi on a charge in a flying Sauber. Then the Hill/Wurz dice came to a head when Hill tried to pass and there was contact between them, Damon blaming everything, as usual, on the other party. "I was extremely disappointed and rather angry when I was knocked out of the race," said Hill. "I did not think it was very good driving from Alexander as I had outbraked him and won the corner and he kept coming over until we hit. The knock damaged my suspension and put me out of the race. Luck has not been on my side for the first two races, but things will get better." Damon paid for his efforts with retirement, while Wurz, who went on to finish, had a more neutral view on the incident: " Damon Hill tried to overtake me and we had a collision." Damon, perhaps, should learn that it takes two to tango, and in the end, in life one makes your own good luck... In the mean time, Alex Zanardi's F1 return was going from bad to worse, the Italian pitting early on lap 11 for attention to his ailing Williams, while Panis came in to pay for a jumped start with a ten second penalty the next lap. Despite his charge, Alesi was retaken by Herbert, who was due for imminent retirement in any event. Another impressive race was being driven by GP debutante, Sarrazin, who took his Minardi into 14th past Panis. By lap 20, all was constant up front, in spite of some seesawing of gaps, while Alesi's charge saw him pass Fisichella for fifth. Schumacher Sr. was clearly holding up Hakkinen, who seemed to be able to carry much more speed into corners than the Ferrari ahead of him, but the McLaren just did not have the steam to actually pass the red car. It was clear that the race was becoming a tactical one. Coulthard, in the interim, was having a dreadful day, coming in again and being sent back out, once again just ahead of the leaders, and having to obey another blue flag. He was put out of his misery when the McLaren finally expired out on the circuit. On lap 26, Barrichello pitted, clearly on a 2-stop strategy, as the Stewart has a restricted fuel capacity. Interlagos has an awfully long pit straight and exit, and it's difficult to understand that a team can build a car that has to pit twice in a race for fuel, when there are circuits that definitely favour one-stop strategies. If the Stewart, which suddenly appears to be right on the button, has a flaw, fuel capacity must be it. Maybe, later in the season, this limitation is going to cost the team dear. So Schumacher led the Brazilian GP, from a clearly frustrated Hakkinen, Irvine and Barrichello. Alesi spoiled a brilliant drive by stalling in the pits, allowing Frentzen now to challenge Fisichella for fifth. Alex Wurz then preceded to delay both Schumacher Sr. and Hakkinen, the Austrian struggling with an evil-handling Benetton after the Hill fiasco. Barrichello then caught and passed Irvine to the delight of the crowd, while a dizzy Sarrazin exited, spinning like a top in a cloud of smoke after hitting the tyre wall into the main straight. On lap 37, Schumacher pitted - his stop took 10.2 seconds, and he rejoined 11 seconds ahead of Barrichello. Fisichella then took his turn at stalling in the pits, but Eddie Irvine's stop was excellent, just 9.3 seconds. Eddie rejoined ahead of leader Hakkinen, Mika clearly on a charge to make his stop work and maintain the lead. Mika set a fatsest lap before a blinding 9.1 second stop to rejoin - now in the lead. Then, to the disgust of the crowd, Rubhino's Ford engine expired, robbing Brazil of the certain home glory of a podium finish. To rub salt in the wound, countryman Pedro Diniz retired at the same time. Rubens was bittersweet after his retirement. "Leading the race took me back to my Formula Three days. I made a good start and I was running at a good pace up until the first stop. I lost a bit of consistency with the second set of tyres and I was probably not running well enough to win but good enough to be on the podium. I think we showed that we can race up the front today. I could sense the crowd getting behind me, so it's sad for them and for the whole team that we didn't get to the finish." Meanwhile, Hakkinen put his stamp of authority on the race, easily building up to a six second lead over Michael, which he maintained at will. Frentzen, repeating his brilliant Australian performance, was a strong fourth, clearly closing on Irvine, while Villeneuve was trying to make amends for BAR's awful weekend by challenging Panis for sixth and a possible first point for the team. But he retired on lap 49, bringing their nighmarish weekend to a close. de la Rosa went out on lap 52, after another impressive weekend for the Spanish F1 newcomer. Then Ferrari called Irvine in to pull debris off hot radiators, robbing him of a clear third. Why that wasn't done 13 laps earlier, when Eddie refuelled, is a mystery - especially considering the nature of Interlagos' paper-friendly crowd. It would rob Ferrari of two points that could be vital come Japan... In the mean time, Ralf Schumacher, almost unnoticed, had climbed to fourth ahead of the hapless Irvine. Despite his lack of competitive grunt in the Williams, Schumacher Jr. once again kept his nose clean in an impressive performance. But Eddie was out to make up at least Ralf's position... And Ralf's fuel position was clearly marginal, as the Williams crew was waiting for him, fuel hose in hand... It wasn't necessary - Ralf held off an aggressive Irvine as Hakkinen put in the fastest lap of the race to win from Schumacher and a delighted Frentzen - who ran out of fuel but was fortunate that Ralf and Irvine were lapped by Hakkinen - and Olivier Panis, claiming a deserved point for the resurgent Prost equipe. Mika was drained, slowly emerging from the cockpit to exhaustedly celebrate victory. His rested his head on the cushioned cockpit sides for much of the latter stages of the race in fast corners. It will be a race he'll cherish - he worked harder than normal to pull it off, in obviously more difficult circumstances than normal. Victory like that, is always sweeter. "I really enjoyed today's race although it wasn't without incident,"the Fin later commented. "Soon after the start, I was changing through the gears normally and going flat out. I was pulling out a considerable lead on Rubens when I had a miss-shift and I thought that the game was over, but I dropped down a gear, accelerated and it was all fine. By that time I dropped to third. The team have done a great job since Australia and they did a fantastic pit-stop today which made all the difference to the final result. So, it was a tough race, both physically and mentally, but a very enjoyable one." A relieved Michael Schumacher was also clearly happy: "I am very satisfied with this second place. It was not what we expected after yesterday's qualifying. The team managed to improve the car for the race and it was much better. When I was behind Mika after my pit stop, I could only push and wait and hope he made a mistake. But he drove a very good race. There are new developments to come in time for Imola, which should help us to close the gap even more. I am not worried about the points situation as we are still at a very early stage in the season." Frentzen concluded a happy podium, continuing where he left off in Australia, and clearly relishing in his new team. "I still don't really know what happened on that last lap," he said. "All of a sudden I lost fuel pressure. I was really surprised when the engine started cutting out and the team didn't tell me that I was short of fuel. By that time I was pushing like hell. I didn't want to be lapped by Mika. Also, I had had a very strong mid-race situation because I had spent a long time out there trying to fight back for places on old tyres. I had quite a lot of big 'offs'. Fortunately, I stopped at the right moment and it was enough to keep my third place." In the end, the Brazilian Grand Prix was an entertaining one. It was close-run throughout, while the world championship sees Ferrari ahead, despite McLaren's dominant pace. Despite Mika and his team's assurance of an early shower after they've won the title, it's not going to be easy this year, especially if Ferrari attain their promised pace. This time last year, McLaren were way ahead, and there was a point in it going into Japan. On current form, nothing's as clear cut as some may try to make it look. And there are a couple of surprises lurking in the wings too. Just look at Barrichello's performance in Brazil. CLASSIFIED 1 Hakkinen FIN McLaren Mercedes 1:36:03.785 192.994 km/h 2 M.Schumacher GER Ferrari + 4.925 192.829 km/h 3 Frentzen GER Jordan Mugen-Hond + 1 lap 71 4 R.Schumacher GER Williams Supertec + 1 lap 71 5 Irvine GBR Ferrari + 1 lap 71 6 Panis FRA Prost Peugeot + 1 lap 71 7 Wurz AUT Benetton Playlife + 2 laps 70 8 Takagi JPN Arrows TWR + 3 laps 69 9 Gene SPN Minardi Ford + 3 laps 69 Fastest Lap: Mika Hakkinen, Lap 70, 1:18.448, 196,961 kph NOT CLASSIFIED de la Rosa SPN Arrows TWR hydraulic failure 52 Villeneuve CAN BAR Supertec hydraulic failure 49 Zanardi ITA Williams Supertec hydraulic failure 43 Barrichello BRA Stewart Ford engine 42 Diniz BRA Sauber Petronas contact/Takagi,spin 42 Fisichella ITA Benetton Playlife clutch 38 Sarrazin FRA Minardi Ford suspension failure 31 Alesi FRA Sauber Petronas gearbox 27 Coulthard GBR McLaren Mercedes gearbox 22 Trulli ITA Prost Peugeot transmission 21 Herbert GBR Stewart Ford hydraulic failure 15 Hill GBR Jordan Mugen-Hond contact/Wurz 10

Michele Lupini	© 1999 Kaizar.Com, Incorporated.
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