1997 Belgian Grand Prix

1997 Belgian Grand Prix
Race 12 of 17 in the 1997 Formula One World Championship
Race details
Date 24 August 1997
Official name LV Belgian Grand Prix
Location Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
Francorchamps, Wallonia, Belgium
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 6.968 km (4.330 miles)
Distance 44 laps, 306.592 km (190.507 miles)
Weather Wet, then drying out with temperatures reaching up to 28 °C (82 °F)
Pole position
Driver Williams-Renault
Time 1:49.450
Fastest lap
Driver Canada Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Renault
Time 1:52.692 on lap 43
Podium
First Ferrari
Second Jordan-Peugeot
Third Williams-Renault
Lap leaders

The 1997 Belgian Grand Prix (formally the LV Belgian Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held at Spa-Francorchamps on 24 August 1997. It was the twelfth race of the 1997 Formula One World Championship.

The 44-lap race was won by Michael Schumacher, driving a Ferrari. Giancarlo Fisichella finished second in a Jordan-Peugeot, with Heinz-Harald Frentzen third in a Williams-Renault after Mika Häkkinen's McLaren-Mercedes was disqualified due to a fuel irregularity. Schumacher's Drivers' Championship rival, Jacques Villeneuve, finished fifth in the other Williams-Renault, having started from pole position.

With the win, Schumacher extended his lead over Villeneuve in the Drivers' Championship to 11 points with five races remaining.

Report

The race is regarded by many as one of Schumacher's greatest drives. He started from third on the grid after qualifying had been dominated by his World Championship rival, Jacques Villeneuve. In the morning warm-up, which took place in hot, dry weather, Schumacher was only 15th. However, to everyone's surprise, heavy rain started to fall around half an hour before the scheduled race start and continued for around twenty minutes, completely changing the conditions and resulting in the field starting behind the safety car, the first time this happened in Formula One history.

In the excitement, Schumacher's brother Ralf - who had qualified sixth - spun and crashed his Jordan at Stavelot while going to take his place on the grid. He was forced to start from the pit lane in his spare car. Explaining the incident to ITV later, he said: "I had nothing to lose, and I lost it.". Also during the period of cars assembling on the grid Michael Schumacher made exploratory laps (by returning to the pits rather than the grid) in both his race car and the spare Ferrari, enabling him to assess the track situation and choose the spare that had been set-up for intermediate weather conditions.

Of the front runners, both Williams drivers and Jean Alesi in the Benetton - alongside Villeneuve on the front row - started on full wet tyres while the others started on intermediates. The safety car circulated for the first three laps, and at the end of lap 4 - the first proper racing lap - Villeneuve continued to lead from Alesi and Schumacher. However, this was where the German driver started to take control of the race. He made a brave pass inside Alesi at the La Source hairpin at the start of lap 5, then overtook Villeneuve at the Rivage loop on the same lap. By the end of the lap he was already 5.8 seconds ahead, and on the next lap he stretched this lead to 16.9 seconds, with Giancarlo Fisichella - whose Jordan had also started on intermediates - moving into second after Villeneuve unexpectedly pitted.

Schumacher continued to pull further away, and by lap 12 his lead had reached a full minute, while Villeneuve had dropped to 16th following a second pit stop. By now, the track was drying and the drivers were pitting for slick tyres. Schumacher pitted in this manner on lap 14 and thereafter cruised, eventually winning by 26 seconds. Fisichella held off the McLaren of Mika Häkkinen for second, thus achieving his best finish in F1 at the time; the top six was completed by the second Williams of Heinz-Harald Frentzen, the Sauber of Johnny Herbert and Villeneuve, who had charged back in the later stages of the race and set the fastest lap.

After the race, Häkkinen was disqualified due to a fuel irregularity, thus promoting Frentzen to third, Herbert to fourth, Villeneuve to fifth and the second Benetton of Gerhard Berger to sixth. Nonetheless, Schumacher extended his lead over Villeneuve in the Drivers' Championship to 11 points, while Ferrari led Williams by six points in the Constructors' Championship.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap
1 3 Canada Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Renault 1:49.450
2 7 France Jean Alesi Benetton-Renault 1:49.759 +0.309
3 5 Germany Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:50.293 +0.843
4 12 Italy Giancarlo Fisichella Jordan-Peugeot 1:50.470 +1.020
5 9 Finland Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 1:50.503 +1.053
6* 11 Germany Ralf Schumacher Jordan-Peugeot 1:50.520 +1.070
7 4 Germany Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams-Renault 1:50.656 +1.206
8 2 Brazil Pedro Diniz Arrows-Yamaha 1:50.853 +1.403
9 1 United Kingdom Damon Hill Arrows-Yamaha 1:50.970 +1.520
10 10 United Kingdom David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 1:51.410 +1.960
11 16 United Kingdom Johnny Herbert Sauber-Petronas 1:51.725 +2.275
12 22 Brazil Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 1:51.916 +2.466
13 17 Italy Gianni Morbidelli Sauber-Petronas 1:52.094 +2.644
14* 14 Italy Jarno Trulli Prost-Mugen-Honda 1:52.274 +2.824
15 8 Austria Gerhard Berger Benetton-Renault 1:52.391 +2.941
16 15 Japan Shinji Nakano Prost-Mugen-Honda 1:52.749 +3.299
17 6 United Kingdom Eddie Irvine Ferrari 1:52.793 +3.343
18 23 Denmark Jan Magnussen Stewart-Ford 1:52.886 +3.436
19 19 Finland Mika Salo Tyrrell-Ford 1:52.897 +3.447
20 20 Japan Ukyo Katayama Minardi-Hart 1:53.544 +4.094
21 18 Netherlands Jos Verstappen Tyrrell-Ford 1:53.725 +4.275
22 21 Brazil Tarso Marques Minardi-Hart 1:54.505 +5.055
107% time: 1:57.112
Source:
  • * Ralf Schumacher and Trulli would start from the pitlane.

Race

Pos No Driver Constructor Tyre Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 5 Germany Michael Schumacher Ferrari G 44 1:33:46.717 3 10
2 12 Italy Giancarlo Fisichella Jordan-Peugeot G 44 +26.753 4 6
3 4 Germany Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams-Renault G 44 +32.147 7 4
4 16 United Kingdom Johnny Herbert Sauber-Petronas G 44 +39.025 11 3
5 3 Canada Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Renault G 44 +42.103 1 2
6 8 Austria Gerhard Berger Benetton-Renault G 44 +1:03.741 15 1
7 2 Brazil Pedro Diniz Arrows-Yamaha B 44 +1:25.931 8  
8 7 France Jean Alesi Benetton-Renault G 44 +1:42.008 2  
9 17 Italy Gianni Morbidelli Sauber-Petronas G 44 +1:42.582 13  
10 6 United Kingdom Eddie Irvine Ferrari G 43 Collision 17  
11 19 Finland Mika Salo Tyrrell-Ford G 43 +1 lap 19  
12 23 Denmark Jan Magnussen Stewart-Ford B 43 +1 lap 18  
13 1 United Kingdom Damon Hill Arrows-Yamaha B 42 Wheel nut 9  
14 20 Japan Ukyo Katayama Minardi-Hart B 42 Engine 20  
15 14 Italy Jarno Trulli Prost-Mugen-Honda B 42 +2 laps 14  
DSQ 9 Finland Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes G 44 Fuel irregularity (+30.856) 5  
Ret 18 Netherlands Jos Verstappen Tyrrell-Ford G 25 Spun off 21  
Ret 11 Germany Ralf Schumacher Jordan-Peugeot G 21 Spun off 6  
Ret 10 United Kingdom David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes G 19 Spun off 10  
Ret 21 Brazil Tarso Marques Minardi-Hart B 18 Spun off 22  
Ret 22 Brazil Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford B 8 Steering 12  
Ret 15 Japan Shinji Nakano Prost-Mugen-Honda B 5 Electrical 16  
Source:

Championship standings after the race

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

This page was last updated at 2023-10-30 03:46 UTC. Update now. View original page.

All our content comes from Wikipedia and under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.


Top

If mathematical, chemical, physical and other formulas are not displayed correctly on this page, please useFirefox or Safari