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1998 French Grand Prix

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1998 French Grand Prix
Race 8 of 16 in the 1998 Formula One World Championship
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Race details
Date 28 June 1998
Official name Mobil 1 Grand Prix de France
Location Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours
Magny-Cours, France
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 4.250[1] km (2.641 miles)
Distance 71 laps, 301.564[2][3] km (187.383 miles)
Scheduled distance 72 laps, 305.814[4] km (190.024 miles)
Weather Sunny, warm
Pole position
Driver McLaren-Mercedes
Time 1:14.929
Fastest lap
Driver United Kingdom David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes
Time 1:17.523 on lap 59
Podium
First Ferrari
Second Ferrari
Third McLaren-Mercedes
Lap leaders

The 1998 French Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Magny-Cours on 28 June 1998. It was the eighth race of the 1998 FIA Formula One World Championship.

The 71-lap race was won by German driver Michael Schumacher, driving a Ferrari. It was Schumacher's third victory of the season. Northern Irish teammate Eddie Irvine finished second, with Finn Mika Häkkinen third in a McLaren-Mercedes, having started from pole position.

Report

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Background

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The race was originally dropped due to a dispute over television broadcasting rights in France. Though TF1 had the rights, rival channel France 3 obtained a judgement from a French court to allow all channels to operate on the grounds of the circuit.[5][6]

Jos Verstappen replaced Jan Magnussen at the Stewart team for the remainder of the season.

Qualifying

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Mika Häkkinen of McLaren-Mercedes took pole position, beating Michael Schumacher by 0.2 seconds. David Coulthard qualified third, and Eddie Irvine took fourth place. Throughout the qualifying session, Schumacher and Häkkinen exchanged first place, until Häkkinen finally took the pole.

Race

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At the beginning of the race, Verstappen stalled his Stewart, the race was stopped on lap 1, and a restart was required. At the second start, Häkkinen was overtaken by Michael Schumacher and Irvine. Schumacher then began to pull away, sometimes at one second a lap, with Irvine holding both the McLarens behind him. On lap 20, Häkkinen tried an ambitious move on Irvine. His attempt failed, and he spun into the gravel trap. However, he managed to keep his car going, pitted for fresh tyres, and rejoined in fourth place. Then he regained third place when Coulthard had problems during his pit stop: Coulthard went into the pits, but due to a fuel filling problem, had to do another lap, and then go into the pits again. After the second set of pit stops, Häkkinen was back behind Irvine, and Schumacher was some way in front. On the final lap, on the final corner, Häkkinen made an attempt to overtake Irvine, after Irvine was very slow through the chicane before the final corner. Irvine just held off Häkkinen to take second, but only by a tenth of a second. However, both drivers were 19 seconds behind Schumacher. After Coulthard's misfortune in the pitlane, he finished sixth, scoring one world championship point. It was Ferrari's first 1–2 in 8 years, the previous being at the 1990 Spanish Grand Prix, with Alain Prost and Nigel Mansell.

Classification

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Qualifying

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Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap
1 8 Finland Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 1:14.929
2 3 Germany Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:15.159 +0.230
3 7 United Kingdom David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 1:15.333 +0.404
4 4 United Kingdom Eddie Irvine Ferrari 1:15.527 +0.598
5 1 Canada Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Mecachrome 1:15.630 +0.701
6 10 Germany Ralf Schumacher Jordan-Mugen-Honda 1:15.925 +0.996
7 9 United Kingdom Damon Hill Jordan-Mugen-Honda 1:16.245 +1.316
8 2 Germany Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams-Mecachrome 1:16.319 +1.390
9 5 Italy Giancarlo Fisichella Benetton-Playlife 1:16.375 +1.446
10 6 Austria Alexander Wurz Benetton-Playlife 1:16.460 +1.531
11 14 France Jean Alesi Sauber-Petronas 1:16.627 +1.698
12 12 Italy Jarno Trulli Prost-Peugeot 1:16.892 +1.963
13 15 United Kingdom Johnny Herbert Sauber-Petronas 1:16.977 +2.048
14 18 Brazil Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 1:17.024 +2.095
15 19 Netherlands Jos Verstappen Stewart-Ford 1:17.604 +2.675
16 11 France Olivier Panis Prost-Peugeot 1:17.671 +2.742
17 16 Brazil Pedro Diniz Arrows 1:17.880 +2.951
18 20 Brazil Ricardo Rosset Tyrrell-Ford 1:17.908 +2.979
19 17 Finland Mika Salo Arrows 1:17.970 +3.041
20 21 Japan Toranosuke Takagi Tyrrell-Ford 1:18.221 +3.292
21 22 Japan Shinji Nakano Minardi-Ford 1:18.273 +3.344
22 23 Argentina Esteban Tuero Minardi-Ford 1:19.146 +4.217
107% time: 1:20.174
Source:[7]

Race

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Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 3 Germany Michael Schumacher Ferrari 71 1:34:45.026 2 10
2 4 United Kingdom Eddie Irvine Ferrari 71 + 19.575 4 6
3 8 Finland Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 71 + 19.747 1 4
4 1 Canada Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Mecachrome 71 + 1:06.965 5 3
5 6 Austria Alexander Wurz Benetton-Playlife 70 + 1 lap 10 2
6 7 United Kingdom David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 70 + 1 lap 3 1
7 14 France Jean Alesi Sauber-Petronas 70 + 1 lap 11  
8 15 United Kingdom Johnny Herbert Sauber-Petronas 70 + 1 lap 13  
9 5 Italy Giancarlo Fisichella Benetton-Playlife 70 + 1 lap 9  
10 18 Brazil Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 69 + 2 laps 14  
11 11 France Olivier Panis Prost-Peugeot 69 + 2 laps 16  
12 19 Netherlands Jos Verstappen Stewart-Ford 69 + 2 laps 15  
13 17 Finland Mika Salo Arrows 69 + 2 laps 19  
14 16 Brazil Pedro Diniz Arrows 69 + 2 laps 17  
15 2 Germany Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams-Mecachrome 68 Suspension 8  
16 10 Germany Ralf Schumacher Jordan-Mugen-Honda 68 + 3 laps 6  
17 22 Japan Shinji Nakano Minardi-Ford 65 Engine 21  
Ret 21 Japan Toranosuke Takagi Tyrrell-Ford 60 Engine 20  
Ret 12 Italy Jarno Trulli Prost-Peugeot 55 Spun off 12  
Ret 23 Argentina Esteban Tuero Minardi-Ford 41 Gearbox 22  
Ret 9 United Kingdom Damon Hill Jordan-Mugen-Honda 19 Hydraulics 7  
Ret 20 Brazil Ricardo Rosset Tyrrell-Ford 16 Hydraulics 18  
Source:[8]

Championship standings after the race

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  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

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  1. ^ Calculated based on the qualifying classification shown during TV broadcast
  2. ^ "Grand Prix de France". Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. Archived from the original on 2010-09-15. Retrieved 2023-07-21.
  3. ^ Calculated based on the race classification shown during TV broadcast: [1]
  4. ^ Calculated by adding lap length to the race distance
  5. ^ "Motor Racing: Doubts over Belgian Grand Prix". The Independent. 13 December 1997. Archived from the original on 2022-05-01. Retrieved 8 December 2012.
  6. ^ "France dropped from F1 season". BBC News. 13 December 1997. Retrieved 8 December 2012.
  7. ^ "France 1998 - Qualifications". StatsF1. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  8. ^ "1998 French Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 5 December 2014. Retrieved 24 December 2015.
  9. ^ a b "France 1998 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 17 March 2019.


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1998 Canadian Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
1998 season
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1998 British Grand Prix
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1997 French Grand Prix
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1999 French Grand Prix