David Coulthard Wins - Belgian GP


Sunday August 29th, 1999

Coulthard leads home McLaren double

The start, today The 1999 Belgian Grand Prix was all but played out in the first corner when David Coulthard pulled across on his team- mate Mika Hakkinen to claim the lead, which he then held for the entire 44 laps. The two McLaren-Mercedes banged into each other as they disputed the La Source hairpin, Hakkinen squeezed tight to the wall, but as Coulthard gave him room again, both cars finally made it through with Coulthard in the lead and an unamused Hakkinen in second spot.

"It was an experience again," said Hakkinen referring to the two team-mates' recent incident in Austria, "Not a very pleasant one. I have no further comment," added Hakkinen, who refused to be drawn into a public slanging match , but made it clear he wasn't happy about what had happened at the start.

Coulthard would not have been in a position to challenge for the lead had Hakkinen not made a bad start from pole position. "As I felt the clutch just before the start it suddenly bit and the car jumped forward. I stopped the car and then went again when the lights went out. Considering that, I made quite a good start," said Mika. He said later that he thought he was going to be given a penalty for his jump before the start, but praised the stewards for not giving it to him due to his own actions to stop the car again after his mistake.

He pushed Coulthard hard for the first half a dozen laps but then backed off from the chase. "We were racing so hard that either the car would have broken or one of us would have gone off. The cars are so closely matched that it would not have been acceptable to try and overtake at that point," he explained. "It was better to finish second than not to get any points at all," he added

The two McLaren drivers then cruised around to a comfortable win, Hakkinen 10 seconds behind at the flag after a brief spurt just after his pit stop in which he set fastest lap of the race.. Third place went to Heinz-Harald Frentzen who started third in the Jordan. He tried to stay with the leaders, but soon dropped back as his tyres started to give up. "I had a lot of oversteer at the end of my first stint. The McLaren's were just too quick for us today," said Frentzen who had a lonely race in third.

Winner David Coulthard, today Eddie Irvine made a great start from sixth place on the grid to claim fourth place ahead of Damon Hill and Ralf Schumacher, but he was unable to stay with Frentzen and had to settle for fourth place at the flag. With Hakkinen only picking up 6 points instead of ten at this race, Irvine now trails the Finn by just one point in the Drivers' Championship. The second successive double for McLaren however puts the team a healthy nine points clear of Marlboro-Ferrari in the constructors' championship.

Considering my starting position and the problems we had with the car this was actually a good result for me," said Irvine. I am happy that I am only one point behind the new leader in the Championship as I thought it would be a bigger gap."

A single stop pit-stop strategy by the Williams team put Ralf Schumacher into fifth place by the flag ahead of Damon Hill who took the final point of the day for Jordan.

Mika Salo drove a strong race in the second Marlboro-Ferrari to claim seventh place just out of the points. The car wasn't too bad in the corners because I ran some more downforce, but it cost me straight line speed which meant I could not get past Hill and that cost me a lot of time," said Salo, who set a faster best race lap than his team-mate.

Michael Schumacher is expected to take over from Salo for the forthcoming Italian Grand Prix in two weeks time. Alex Zanardi was unlucky to finish in eighth place. After his best drive of the year, he was done out of his first points however when Williams failed to get enough fuel into the car on his planned single pit-top race, which forced him to make a second stop and lose two places.

Only six of the 22 starters failed to make it to the finish, Jacques Villeneuve scoring his first finish of the season for BAR when he took a distant 15th place, one lap down, after a one-stop race strategy. His team-mate Zonta retired with a broken gearbox 33 laps into the race.

Race Results:

Belgian Grand Prix
World Championship of Drivers, round 12;
Spa-Francorchamps, August 29th, 1999;
44 laps, 306,577 kms.
Weather: Partly cloudy and dry

CLASSIFIED

Pos  Driver        Team                  Time        
 1.  Coulthard     McLaren Mercedes      1h 25:43.057  
 2.  Hakkinen      McLaren Mercedes        +   10.400  
 3.  Frentzen      Jordan Mugen-Honda      +   33.400  
 4.  Irvine        Ferrari                 +   44.900  
 5.  R.Schumacher  Williams Supertec       +   48.000  
 6.  Hill          Jordan Mugen-Honda      +   54.900  
 7.  Salo          Ferrari                 +   56.200  
 8.  Zanardi       Williams Supertec       + 1:07.000  
 9.  Alesi         Sauber Petronas         + 1:13.800  
10.  Barrichello   Stewart Ford            + 1:20.700  
11.  Fisichella    Benetton Playlife       + 1:32.100  
12.  Trulli        Prost Peugeot           + 1:36.100  
13.  Panis         Prost Peugeot           + 1 Lap     
14.  Wurz          Benetton Playlife       + 1 Lap     
15.  Villeneuve    BAR Supertec            + 1 Lap     
16.  Gene          Minardi Ford            + 1 Lap     



NOT CLASSIFIED / RETIREMENTS

Driver        Team               On Lap   Reason   
de la Rosa    Arrows TWR           35     transmission          
Badoer        Minardi Ford         33     broken suspension          
Zonta         BAR Supertec         33     gearbox          
Herbert       Stewart Ford         27     brakes/spun off          
Diniz         Sauber Petronas      19     spun off          
Takagi        Arrows TWR            0     clutch          


Fastest Lap: Mika Hakkinen, lap 23, 1:53.955 (220,128 kmph)

Lap Leaders: Laps 1-44, Coulthard


Drivers Points Standings after 12 rounds:

 1. Hakkinen      60        2. Irvine        59
 3. Coulthard     46        4. Frentzen      40 
 5. M.Schumacher  32        6. R.Schumacher  24
 7. Fisichella    13        8. Barrichello   12
 9. Hill           7       10. Salo           6 
11. Diniz          3        =  Wurz           3
13. Herbert        2        =  Panis          2
15. Alesi          1        =  Trulli         1
 =  de la Rose     1                           

Constructors' Points Championship:

1. McLaren-Mercedes          106
2. Scuderia Ferrari           97
3. Jordan-Mugen Honda         47
4. Williams-Supertec          24
5. Benetton-Playlife          16
6. Stewart-Ford               14
7. Sauber-Petronas             4
8. Prost Peugeot               3
9. Arrows TWR                  1

All Timing Unofficial


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