Sunday September 26th, 1999
Herbert wins European GP lottery
After starting from a distant 14th place on the grid, Johnny Herbert was the surprise winner of the European Grand Prix for the Stewart-Ford team in what turned out to be a lottery caused by several rain showers which upturned the fortunes of most of the leading contenders.
For the first 32 laps of this 66-lap race it was the pole winner Heinz-Harald Frentzen who looked all set to take the honours until his only pit stop of the race.
By that time, his McLaren-Mercedes challengers of Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard were down to just one when Hakkinen dropped out of contention after being called in by his team for rain tyres while the others managed to keep going with dry weather tyres.
An excellent pit stop by the Jordan team saw Frentzen make it out of the pit lane still ahead of Coulthard, who had stopped on the same lap, but as Frentzen rejoined the circuit his race came to a sudden halt when the engine died because of an electrical problem. It was the same problem that had put out Hill from seventh place just after the start. His slowing Jordan causing Wurz to weave to avoid him and take out Pedro Diniz' Sauber. It was a tense moment as Diniz' car came to rest upside down with most of it's anti-roll hoop broken away, but after several laps of the race run under the yellow flag, Diniz was extracted by the medical team with only minor injuries.
With Frentzen out, Coulthard took over the lead and looked to be heading for the win until he got caught out by another rain shower and slid off the road and into a tyre barrier just five laps later.
The torch was taken up by Ralf Schumacher, who was having another good race for Williams after starting in fourth place , but a second pit stop for wet tyres allowed Giancarlo Fisichella's Benetton to take over the lead on lap 45.
Schumacher got a reprieve four laps later when the Italian spun off the slick track and out of the race, but Schumacher's joy was short lived when he too dropped down the field again as he limped to the pits with a flat rear tyre.
As the leaders all ran into trouble or got delayed by slow pit stops and wrong race tactics, including the two Ferraris of Eddie Irvine and Mika Salo, it was Johnny Herbert, who had chosen to stay on wet tyres, who came through to take the lead which he held to the end to finish a comfortable 22 seconds clear of hi nearest rival.
That turned out to be the Prost-Peugeot of Jarno Trulli who only just managed to hold off a determined attack from the second Stewart-Ford of Rubens Barrichello who, after dropping away when the track was at its wettest, picked up in the final laps to almost make it a Stewart-Ford one-two for the team's first ever race victory since they began almost three seasons ago.
Another 16 seconds back Schumacher managed to take fourth place for Williams with Mika Hakkinen eventually finishing in fifth place, the only one of the four Championship contenders to claim any points from this race. The final point of the day went to the Spaniard Marc Gene, the first point of his career and the first for his Minardi team this year.
The only other driver to finish on the same lap as the leader was Eddie Irvine, an eventual seventh for the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro team and delighted that the team's missed opportunity of finishing higher up had put him only two points away from the Championship lead with just two races to go. Team-mate Mika Salo dropped out of the race after 44 laps with binding brakes which made the car impossible to drive as the track dried out. 
However, he was well down the field at the time after losing time in the early laps with a pit stop to replace a damaged nose.
A lap behind the winner, Ricardo Zonta (BAR) and Olivier Panis (Prost) were the only other two finishers, Jacques Villeneuve's hopes of scoring the BAR team's first ever points shattered when his clutch failed five laps from the flag while in fifth place, although he was still classified 10th.
This was the final European race of the season, the Championship moving to Malaysia and Japan for the last two races of the season which still promises to be a close fought affair following the surprise outcome of the European GP.
European Grand Prix
World Championship of Drivers, round 14;
Nurburgring, September 26th, 1999;
66 laps, 300,679 kms.
Weather: occasional rain
CLASSIFIED
Pos Driver Team Time
1. Herbert Stewart Ford 1h 41.54:314
2. Trulli Prost Peugeot + 22:618
3. Barrichello Stewart Ford + 22:865
4. R.Schumacher Williams Supertec + 39:507
5. Hakkinen Mclaren Mercedes + 1.02:950
6. Gene Minardi Ford + 1.05:154
7. Irvine Ferrari + 1.06:683
8. Zonta BAR Supertec + 1 Lap
9. Panis Prost Peugeot + 1 Lap
10. Villeneuve BAR Supertec + 5 Laps *
* retired with clutch failure
NOT CLASSIFIED / RETIREMENTS
Driver Team On Lap Reason
Badoer Minardi Ford 53 engine
de la Rosa Arrows TWR 52 gearbox
Fisichella Benetton Supertec 48 spun off
Salo Ferrari 44 brakes
Takagi Arrows TWR 42 spun off
Coulthard Mclaren Mercedes 37 spun off
Alesi Sauber Petronas 35 driveshaft
Frentzen Jordan Mugen-Honda 32 electrical
Zanardi Williams Supertec 10 accident
Hill Jordan Mugen-Honda 0 electrical
Wurz Benetton Supertec 0 accident
Diniz Sauber Petronas 0 accident
Fastest Lap: M. Hakkinen, lap 64, 1.21:282 (202.786 kmph)
Lap Leaders: Laps 1-32, Frentzen;
Laps 33-37, Coulthard;
Laps 38-44, R.Schumacher;
Laps 45-48, Fisichella;
Laps 49-50, R.Schumacher;
Laps 50-66, Herbert.
Drivers Points Standings after 14 rounds:
1. Hakkinen 62 2. Irvine 60
3. Frentzen 50 4. Coulthard 48
5. R.Schumacher 33 6. M.Schumacher 32
7. Barrichello 19 8. Fisichella 13
9. Herbert 12 10. Salo 10
11. Hill 7 = Trulli 7
13. Diniz 3 = Wurz 3
15. Panis 2 16. Alesi 1
= de la Rose 1 = Gene 1
Constructors' Points Championship:
1. McLaren-Mercedes 110
2. Scuderia Ferrari 102
3. Jordan-Mugen Honda 57
4. Williams-Supertec 33
5. Stewart-Ford 31
6. Benetton-Playlife 16
7. Prost Peugeot 9
8. Sauber-Petronas 4
9. Arrows 1
= Minardi 1
All Timing Unofficial