Johnny Herbert Wins - European GP


Sunday September 26th, 1999

Herbert wins European GP lottery

After starting from a distant 14th place on the grid, Johnny Herbert was the surprise winner of the European Grand Prix for the Stewart-Ford team in what turned out to be a lottery caused by several rain showers which upturned the fortunes of most of the leading contenders.

The start of today's Grand PrixFor the first 32 laps of this 66-lap race it was the pole winner Heinz-Harald Frentzen who looked all set to take the honours until his only pit stop of the race.

By that time, his McLaren-Mercedes challengers of Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard were down to just one when Hakkinen dropped out of contention after being called in by his team for rain tyres while the others managed to keep going with dry weather tyres.

An excellent pit stop by the Jordan team saw Frentzen make it out of the pit lane still ahead of Coulthard, who had stopped on the same lap, but as Frentzen rejoined the circuit his race came to a sudden halt when the engine died because of an electrical problem. It was the same problem that had put out Hill from seventh place just after the start. His slowing Jordan causing Wurz to weave to avoid him and take out Pedro Diniz' Sauber. It was a tense moment as Diniz' car came to rest upside down with most of it's anti-roll hoop broken away, but after several laps of the race run under the yellow flag, Diniz was extracted by the medical team with only minor injuries.

Diniz' crash, todayWith Frentzen out, Coulthard took over the lead and looked to be heading for the win until he got caught out by another rain shower and slid off the road and into a tyre barrier just five laps later.

The torch was taken up by Ralf Schumacher, who was having another good race for Williams after starting in fourth place , but a second pit stop for wet tyres allowed Giancarlo Fisichella's Benetton to take over the lead on lap 45.

Schumacher got a reprieve four laps later when the Italian spun off the slick track and out of the race, but Schumacher's joy was short lived when he too dropped down the field again as he limped to the pits with a flat rear tyre.

As the leaders all ran into trouble or got delayed by slow pit stops and wrong race tactics, including the two Ferraris of Eddie Irvine and Mika Salo, it was Johnny Herbert, who had chosen to stay on wet tyres, who came through to take the lead which he held to the end to finish a comfortable 22 seconds clear of hi nearest rival.

Coulthard retires, todayThat turned out to be the Prost-Peugeot of Jarno Trulli who only just managed to hold off a determined attack from the second Stewart-Ford of Rubens Barrichello who, after dropping away when the track was at its wettest, picked up in the final laps to almost make it a Stewart-Ford one-two for the team's first ever race victory since they began almost three seasons ago.

Another 16 seconds back Schumacher managed to take fourth place for Williams with Mika Hakkinen eventually finishing in fifth place, the only one of the four Championship contenders to claim any points from this race. The final point of the day went to the Spaniard Marc Gene, the first point of his career and the first for his Minardi team this year.

The only other driver to finish on the same lap as the leader was Eddie Irvine, an eventual seventh for the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro team and delighted that the team's missed opportunity of finishing higher up had put him only two points away from the Championship lead with just two races to go. Team-mate Mika Salo dropped out of the race after 44 laps with binding brakes which made the car impossible to drive as the track dried out. Jolly Stewarts on the podium, todayHowever, he was well down the field at the time after losing time in the early laps with a pit stop to replace a damaged nose.

A lap behind the winner, Ricardo Zonta (BAR) and Olivier Panis (Prost) were the only other two finishers, Jacques Villeneuve's hopes of scoring the BAR team's first ever points shattered when his clutch failed five laps from the flag while in fifth place, although he was still classified 10th.

This was the final European race of the season, the Championship moving to Malaysia and Japan for the last two races of the season which still promises to be a close fought affair following the surprise outcome of the European GP.

European Grand Prix
World Championship of Drivers, round 14;
Nurburgring, September 26th, 1999;
66 laps, 300,679 kms.
Weather: occasional rain

CLASSIFIED

Pos  Driver        Team                  Time        
 1.  Herbert       Stewart Ford          1h 41.54:314
 2.  Trulli        Prost Peugeot         +     22:618
 3.  Barrichello   Stewart Ford          +     22:865
 4.  R.Schumacher  Williams Supertec     +     39:507
 5.  Hakkinen      Mclaren Mercedes      +   1.02:950
 6.  Gene          Minardi Ford          +   1.05:154
 7.  Irvine        Ferrari               +   1.06:683
 8.  Zonta         BAR Supertec          +   1 Lap   
 9.  Panis         Prost Peugeot         +   1 Lap   
10.  Villeneuve    BAR Supertec          +   5 Laps *

* retired with clutch failure


NOT CLASSIFIED / RETIREMENTS

Driver        Team               On Lap   Reason        
Badoer       Minardi Ford          53     engine    
de la Rosa   Arrows TWR            52     gearbox   
Fisichella   Benetton Supertec     48     spun off  
Salo         Ferrari               44     brakes    
Takagi       Arrows TWR            42     spun off  
Coulthard    Mclaren Mercedes      37     spun off  
Alesi        Sauber Petronas       35     driveshaft
Frentzen     Jordan Mugen-Honda    32     electrical
Zanardi      Williams Supertec     10     accident  
Hill         Jordan Mugen-Honda     0     electrical
Wurz         Benetton Supertec      0     accident  
Diniz        Sauber Petronas        0     accident  


Fastest Lap: M. Hakkinen, lap 64, 1.21:282 (202.786 kmph)

Lap Leaders: Laps  1-32, Frentzen; 
             Laps 33-37, Coulthard; 
             Laps 38-44, R.Schumacher; 
             Laps 45-48, Fisichella; 
             Laps 49-50, R.Schumacher; 
             Laps 50-66, Herbert.


Drivers Points Standings after 14 rounds:

 1. Hakkinen      62        2. Irvine        60
 3. Frentzen      50        4. Coulthard     48
 5. R.Schumacher  33        6. M.Schumacher  32
 7. Barrichello   19        8. Fisichella    13
 9. Herbert       12       10. Salo          10
11. Hill           7        =  Trulli         7
13. Diniz          3        =  Wurz           3
15. Panis          2       16. Alesi          1
 =  de la Rose     1        =  Gene           1

Constructors' Points Championship:

1. McLaren-Mercedes          110
2. Scuderia Ferrari          102
3. Jordan-Mugen Honda         57
4. Williams-Supertec          33
5. Stewart-Ford               31
6. Benetton-Playlife          16
7. Prost Peugeot               9
8. Sauber-Petronas             4
9. Arrows                      1
=  Minardi                     1

All Timing Unofficial


Previous  |  News Index  |  Next   ]

©
Copyright & Terms