[Sun Aug-25 16h10 CET] - Michael Schumacher took his second victory of the year
at the Belgium Grand Prix followed closely by Jacques Villeneuve
and Mika Hakkinen. Championship Points leader Damon Hill
finished 5th.
Schumacher started third on the grid, quickly moved to second and stayed second until the Safety Car came out and he dived into the pits. Later he said that the Safety Car timing was lucky as he was going into the pits anyway. This apparent tatical use of the Safety Car could have given him the edge which kept him in front of Villeneuve in the latter stages.
Villeneuve (a master of Safety Car tactics from Indy cars) said that a mis-understanding with the pits on the radio kept him out longer than he would have liked.
The Safety Car came on track after a high speed crash by Jos Vertsappen left him in the car in a dangerous position. Verstappen was eventually seen to walk from the car and taken to hospital in a helicopter.
When the Safety Car returned to the pits it left the McLarens of Coulthard and Hakkinen in the first two positions followed closely by Schumacher, Villeneuve, Alesi and Mika Salo in 5th. Pits stops for the two McLarens then put Schumacher into the lead.
Villeneuve took the lead when Schumacher changed tyres but immediately lost it when he himself took a pit stop.
After dropping back to 9th during the Safety Car laps Hill fought his way up to 6th before Coulthard (in 5th) spun off. Gerhard Berger (in 6th) put in many fine laps near the end but was unable to catch the rather disappointing performance of Damon Hill.
[Sun Aug-25 10h10 CET] - Hotest of the pack in the Sunday Morning Warm Up session was Jacques
Villeneuve followed closely by the Benettons and McLarens, team mate
Damon Hill was sixth.
The Hot Lap:
08m 1m 57.177s Coulthard 11m 1m 56.776s Hill 13m 1m 56.747s Coulthard 15m 1m 54.730s Berger 18m 1m 54.348s Berger 27m 1m 54.087s VilleneuveLast night it rained heavily but the session was run in partial sunshine. Many teams ran Wet Tyres at the start of the session but the line was basically dry.
The last two minutes of the session were eventful first with Verstappen spinning into the gravel, then Diniz hit the wall and broke his car, and finally Hill spun coming into the Bus Stop, stalled and retired.
[Sat Aug-24 14h10 CET] - Jacques Villeneuves first time at Spa not only sees him fastest
in the free qualifying but also on pole for Sundays Belgium Grand Prix.
Team mate Hill will be second on the grid with Schumacher and
Coulthard close behind.
The qualifying session started with a bang as most teams were worried about the weather. 9 cars left the pits when the session opened including both Williams. Fast laps were quickly set, after 10 minutes Berger was on pole followed by Hakkinen, Hill, Coulthard and Villeneuve.
The forever cool Schumacher stayed in the pits for 20 minutes before coming out. He immediately came in at 3rd, dropped back to 5th and at half past the hour was 3rd again. 10 minutes later the track was clear as rain started to fall.
The monsoon started 10 minutes after that but only lasted 4 minutes. The sun came out straight away and several teams ventured on to the soaking track with wet tyres. After 2 or 3 laps the track was 70% dry and the session ended.
[Fri Aug-23 14h10 CET] - After holding the fastest time for most of the second free session McLaren
lost out in the end. 14 minutes into the session Mika Hakkinen ran a 1m 54.991s which
beat the mornings fastest by Berger at 1m 55.288s. Hakkinen kept fastest lap
until 57 minutes into the session when teammate David Coulthard ran a 1m 54.342s.
Both were then eclipsed by the flying Austrian who came back with a 1m 53.206s
in the last few seconds of the session.
Michael Schumacher did not drive in the afternoon session after a massive backwards crash in the morning session destoryed the back of his car. Schumacher was unhurt and walked away from the wreck waving to the crowd.
Many other drivers spun harmlessly in the morning including Villeneuve and Panis . The morning session ended with Berger taking the fastest lap in the last few seconds just 0.045s faster than Schumacher.