Summary
Repeating last week's 1-2, McLaren led from start to finish to take victory in Germany with Hakkinen finishing first, Coulthard second. Jacques Villeneuve in his Williams had an excellent result with third along Damon Hill in his Jordan who took fourth.
Although Michael Schumacher started in ninth position, he managed to work his way up the field to finish fifth. Brother Ralf finished sixth. Giancarlo Fisichella in his Benetton finished seventh.
The most interesting period in the race developed when Hakkinen's McLaren stated to experience a problem that regarded fuel consumption. McLaren were hesitant to give more details at the time. This caused Hakkinen to reduce pace and teammate Coulthard followed the Finn quite closely until the finish. The Scot seemed satisfied to protect Hakkinen's back as Jacques Villeneuve began to close the gap on the McLarens at an alarming rate. However, the Canadian said something broke on his Williams which diminished his chances for a passing attempt.
Hakkinen said, "Towards the end I was quite worried about the situation. At the same time Jacques was pushing quite hard in third place and catching us. At one point there was also some oil on the track, and at the same time that was all happening I started to lose some speed in the car. David has mentioned to me that it was difficult for him to see because there was something coming out of the back of my car. I was obviously concerned about all that..."
Villeneuve added, "Today we could keep up with the two McLarens, mostly when we noticed that Mika was having problems and I was trying to push hard in the hope that Mika's problem would become accentuated. But, then, seven laps from the end something broke on my car and I had to slow down myself. That was really a shame... We were getting a lot of wheelspin on the inside wheel. Maybe the differential had failed, because the revs were going up and nothing was happening on the track. I was losing quite a bit of time because of that."
Damon Hill's finish gained him the first points of the season with Jordan. "We have been competitive all weekend and it was great for the team for both cars to get in the points," said Hill. He added, "It was a fighting finish and we were not far off a podium place. It is something to get your teeth into and we are getting closer to the front." Prior to the race, Eddie Jordan was stating his intentions on keeping Hill for 1999 in a ITV interview, "I would be very disappointed if he did not stay."
Although Michael Schumacher managed to make something out of nothing, there was a considerable amount of disappointment in the Ferrari team after the race. "All weekend has been pretty difficult. (We were) not competitive over the whole weekend. We knew we improved the car after qualifying. But, as we have seen, not good enough... and (there was) no(thing) more we could do." Schumacher now sees his gap between him and Hakkinen grow to 16 points in the Drivers Championship.
Stewart Grand Prix failed to get both Rubens Barrichello and Jos Verstappen to finish. Ford Motorsport Director Martin Whitaker said, "This weekend had been looking good, so it is sad both drivers had to stop with similar problems."
A full race report will follow this week on Atlas F1.
The Times
CLASSIFIED
POS DRIVER NATION TEAM TIME LAP
1 Mika Hakkinen FIN McLaren Mercedes 1:20:47.984 45
2 David Coulthard GB McLaren Mercedes + 0:00.427 45
3 Jacques Villeneuve CAN Williams Mecachrome + 0:02.578 45
4 Damon Hill GB Jordan Mugen-Honda + 0:07.185 45
5 Michael Schumacher GER Ferrari + 0:12.613 45
6 Ralf Schumacher GER Jordan Mugen-Honda + 0:29.739 45
7 Giancarlo Fisichella ITA Benetton Playlife + 0:31.027 45
8 Eddie Irvine GB Ferrari + 0:31.650 45
9 Heinz-Harald Frentzen GER Williams Mecachrome + 0:32.785 45
10 Jean Alesi FRA Sauber Petronas + 0:48.372 45
11 Alexander Wurz AUT Benetton Playlife + 0:57.995 45
12 Jarno Trulli ITA Prost Peugeot + 1 LAP 44
13 Toranosuke Takagi JAP Tyrrell Ford + 1 LAP 44
14 Mika Salo FIN Arrows TWR + 1 LAP 44
15 Olivier Panis FRA Prost Peugeot + 1 LAP 44
16 Esteban Tuero ARG Minardi Ford + 2 LAPS 43
NOT CLASSIFIED
DRIVER NATION TEAM REASON LAP
Johnny Herbert GB Sauber Petronas mechanical 37
Sinji Nakano JAP Minardi Ford mechanical 30
Rubens Barrichello BRA Stewart Ford gearbox 27
Jos Verstappen HOL Stewart Ford gearbox 24
Pedro Diniz BRA Arrows TWR oil pump 2
FL David Coulthard GB McLaren Mercedes 1:46.116
All Times Unofficial
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