All is over

Ferrari 2nd in the World Championship

Suzuka, November 1, 1998

Position one on the grid, but then...

Hakkinen world champion

Exploding tire for Goodyear’s farewell

Too low on revs

Results

The World Championship

In Friday’s training and in qualifying, things had looked good for Ferrari: Michael Schumacher had always been the fastest man on the track and gained the pole position for the race. His rival in the struggle for the championship title, Mika Häkkinen, was right aside of him on the grid on position two.

Then the debacle started: The first attempt to start the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka had to be stopped after Jarno Trulli had stalled his engine after the information lap.

Then, the second trial was stopped, too, because Michael Schumacher had suffered the same mishap.

Due to regulations meant to punish drivers who cause an interruption of a Grand Prix start, both Trulli and Schumacher had to start the race from the very last positions of the field. For Schumacher, not only the pole position was gone, but the chance to become world champion had in turn moved into far distance as well.

Mika Häkkinen could pull away in front o the pack without any problems, took the win without any complications and became the 1998 Formula One World Champion.

Since this is the overall tenth world champion title for McLaren, Ferrari has now moved down to second position in the rankings indicating the total number of titles achieved by certain teams.

However, Michael Schumacher had started a furious chase for the lead and passed nearly everyone in the field. To be more exactly, he managed to gain the 3^rd position, his teammate Eddie Irvine being the only driver left between him and Mika Häkkinen. But all was over in lap 32: When Schumacher was close to top speed at about 300 km/h on the straight, his right rear tire exploded.

The world champion of 1994 and 1995 worked hard to keep his car on the track and was able to stop the car. The tire failure was as bad for Schumacher as it was for Goodyear: For the American company, this was the last Grand Prix after their decision to retire from the Formula One business. To see one of their products explode in this crucial race was for sure not what they had wished to happen.

After the race, Michael Schumacher told the media that he stalled the engine when he tried to keep the rev rate as low as possible because the engine had become very hot after the complications during the first start attempt. Unfortunately, the clutch did not open completely and so the V10 was too low on revs and stalled. Schumacher was quite surprised about the tire failure since there had been absolutely no signs of any damage or other problems prior to the explosion.

1. Mika Häkkinen, McLaren-Mercedes

2. Eddie Irvine, Ferrari

3. David Coulthard, McLaren-Mercedes

4. Damon Hill, Jordan-Mugen

5. Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Williams-Mecachrome

6. Jacques Villeneuve, Williams-Mecachrome

 

Qualifying

Chassis

Schumacher 189, Irvine 184

Race

Chassis

Schumacher 189, Irvine 184

Driver

1. Mika Häkkinen, 100 Punkte

2. Michael Schumacher, 86 Punkte

3. David Coulthard, 56 Punkte

4. Eddie Irvine, 47 Punkte

5. Jacques Villeneuve, 21 Punkte

 

Teams

1. McLaren-Mercedes, 156 Punkte

2. Ferrari, 133 Punkte

3. Williams-Mecachrome, 38 Punkte

Text Gregor Schulz
Translation Andreas Birner
Photo Rainer W. Schlegelmilch