Jacques Villeneuve kept it all together to win his second Grand Prix of the season 19 seconds
in front of Austrian Gerhard Berger, Mika Hakkinen came third.
A stunned British crowd watched Damon Hill spin his wheels on pole position and finally make it to the first corner in 5th place. Villeneuve made the corner first followed by Jean Alesi who made a great start from 6th on the grid. Schumacher and Hakkinen also passed Hill in these first few seconds.
More amazement as 3 laps later Michael Schumachers Ferrari retires with his gearbox stuck in 6th. Having charged from 10th on the grid up to 7th Eddie Irvines Ferrarri then retires with mucho smoke.
The race then settled down with Villeneuve pulling away in front, Alesi in clear air and Hill right on the tail of Hakkinen. After several abortive attempts to get past Hakkinen Hill's front wheel bearing fails and he spins off into the gravel. The crowd was speachless. . . .
In the latter third of the race Alesi (in 3rd behind Hakkinen) retired into the pits with a rear brake blowing smoke. His 3rd place was picked up by team mate Berger.
After the final round of pit stops Berger moved into 2nd with Hakkinen in 3rd. A 20 second gap between each car left the top 6 pacing the last 15 laps and hoping nothing fell off.
In the post race interview Berger said that he also had brake problems and drove the last laps carefully. Mika Hakkinen was very pleased to have his first podium finish this year. Jacques Villeneuve was happy to have put one over on Damon and is looking forward to the next Grand Prix at Hockenheim a track which he has not visited before.
The session started in very slippery conditions with Frentzen spinning 360 on his very first lap. Most cars started on wet tyres but as a dry line appeared they quickly moved to slicks.
During the sesison the lap times dropped every few minutes:
Traffic was also a problem for many drivers as everyone was trying to
get as much experience of the new conditions as possible.
And from interviews with the drivers after yesterdays qualifying. . . . .
Hill - very pleased with pole, his main concern now is Jacques Villeneuve
Schumacher took pole 17 minutes in to the session but was never close once the Williams cars
came out, he takes thrid place on the grid 0.637s behind Villeneuve.
Hakkinen crept up to Schumachers time during the session but ended up 0.149s behind him in fourth.
Disapointment for Alesi who after some good free sessions will start 5th on the grid behind Barrichello.
Irvine in the second Ferrari will start in 10th place.
The two Forti cars made their first appearance on track (presumably to ensure they
were not fined for non-competing). Having run no laps in the free session they were less
competitive than usual and both ended well outside the 107% required qualifying time
and so will not race on Sunday.
Schumacher, Barrichello, Berger, Hakkinen and Brundle completed the top six as they
started their second 45 minute session.
Track times are always confusing in this final free session, some teams run heavy fuel
loads to test race setups while others are concentrating on ultimate speed ready for
qualifying.
Most teams ran new tyres today after having spent all of yesterday on the same set. One
exception to this was Villeneuve who had to change to a new set yesterday after cuts were
found in one tyre.
The second part of this session did not see any real improvements the warmer temperature
maybe slowing the track down, or it could just be tactics.
Once again the Forti Team did not run any cars. They are at the circuit
but have been reported to have no engines due to financial problems.
As with any other F1 team if they fail to compete in an event they will
incur financial penalties.
Jean Alesi finished the session third fastest after a reliable performance
keeping him in the top 3 for the entire session.
With many teams using the Silverstone circuit as their home track the non
British based teams such as Ferrari and Ligier started at a distinct
disadvantage. This did not keep Schumacher back for too long, he moved
from 9th to 3rd in the first 15 minutes. A problem on his final fast laps
left him 5th behind Coulthard with Hakkinen close on his heels.
The dry 20 degree weather was described by one race engineer as being a
perfect day for engines and tyres but not so good for the spectators.
Due to financial problems the Forti Team did not take part in todays
practices.
7m 1m 49.818s Katayama
-- drivers change to slicks --
11m 1m 45.006s Alesi
16m 1m 34.879s Hill
18m 1m 32.186s Alesi
21m 1m 32.037s Panis
22m 1m 31.904s Hakkinen
23m 1m 31.033s Panis
24m 1m 30.401s Hakkinen
Hakkinen - will go very hard in the race as he is starting only one position off the podium
Schumacher - felt that Williams should have their own Grand Prix and everyone else
would compete in a second race afterwards!!
Hill on Pole
[Sat Jul-13 15h10 CET] - Damon Hill continues his perfect weekend by qualifying on pole position for Sundays
Grand Prix. He was the only driver faster than 1m 27s but did face some serious competition
from his team mate Jacques Villeneuve who finished 0.195s behind. During the qualifying session
Hill and Villeneuve had swapped pole position several times and drama struck when Hills clutch failed 11 minutes
from the end of the session. The Williams mechanics were quick to reconfigure the spare car and Hill was back
on track at the end of the session. Villeneuve though was unable to go any faster.
Williams top after free sessions
[Sat Jul-13 12h10 CET] - A nice sunny day at Silverstone for the 2 part final free practice session
this morning. Williams in fine form with Damon Hill running a 1m 26.560s
finishing the first 45 minute
session over half a second faster than team mate Jacques Villeneuve.
Villeneuve fastest on first day
[Fri Jul-12 15h20 CET] - On a classical English Summers day (cloudy and overcast :-) Jacques
Villeneuve ran two blinding laps to take provisinal pole away from
Damon Hill in the last 10 minutes of the second free session.