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  • 21 Aug, 2019

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1998 San Marino Grand Prix

The 1998 San Marino Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Imola on 26 April 1998. The 62-lap race was the fourth round of the 1998 FIA Formula One World Championship and was won by David Coulthard driving a McLaren-Mercedes.

Race summary

It was back to business for McLaren in qualifying, with Coulthard outpacing Häkkinen for pole, and Ferrari's Schumacher and Eddie Irvine keeping things neat by qualifying third and fourth. However, the men in red had hoped for better, and had followed Tyrrell's lead in fitting 'side-wings' - x-shaped wings bolted atop the sideboards. But these appendages did not produce enough of a gain to topple the McLarens and, with Jordan, Sauber and Prost also sprouting these peculiar side-wings the sport's governing body voted to ban them the day after the race, as they felt that they would be unsafe if a driver suffered a side-on impact.

The race was simplicity itself for Coulthard as he controlled proceedings ahead of Mika Häkkinen, with Schumacher split from Irvine by Jacques Villeneuve's Williams. But on lap 17 Häkkinen retired to the pits, and the garage door was immediately rolled down to conceal his problem. It later proved to be a gearbox failure.

Unaware of his teammate's problem, Coulthard motored on ahead of Schumacher until the German emerged from his second stop and started to fly, eating into the Scot's 20-second advantage at a rate of a second per lap. Debris in a sidepod had sent Coulthard's oil cooler temperature soaring, and team boss Ron Dennis kept sprinting from the pit wall to the McLaren garage to check on the telemetry, so that Coulthard could be instructed how much he could afford to ease off to save his engine. Therefore, the Scot could every so often match Schumacher's pace, and he duly recorded the win. Irvine sent the Ferrari fans home happy by taking the final podium place, with the Williams duo of Villeneuve and Frentzen the only other unlapped runners.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos No Driver Constructor Lap Time Gap
1 7 United Kingdom David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 1:25.973
2 8 Finland Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 1:26.075 +0.102
3 3 Germany Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:26.437 +0.464
4 4 United Kingdom Eddie Irvine Ferrari 1:26.705 +0.732
5 6 Austria Alexander Wurz Benetton-Playlife 1:27.273 +1.300
6 1 Canada Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Mecachrome 1:27.390 +1.417
7 9 United Kingdom Damon Hill Jordan-Mugen-Honda 1:27.592 +1.619
8 2 Germany Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams-Mecachrome 1:27.645 +1.672
9 10 Germany Ralf Schumacher Jordan-Mugen-Honda 1:27.866 +1.893
10 5 Italy Giancarlo Fisichella Benetton-Playlife 1:27.937 +1.964
11 15 United Kingdom Johnny Herbert Sauber-Petronas 1:28.111 +2.138
12 14 France Jean Alesi Sauber-Petronas 1:28.191 +2.218
13 11 France Olivier Panis Prost-Peugeot 1:28.270 +2.297
14 17 Finland Mika Salo Arrows 1:28.798 +2.825
15 21 Japan Toranosuke Takagi Tyrrell-Ford 1:29.073 +3.100
16 12 Italy Jarno Trulli Prost-Peugeot 1:29.584 +3.611
17 18 Brazil Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 1:29.641 +3.668
18 16 Brazil Pedro Diniz Arrows 1:29.932 +3.959
19 23 Argentina Esteban Tuero Minardi-Ford 1:30.649 +4.676
20 19 Denmark Jan Magnussen Stewart-Ford 1:31.017 +5.044
21 22 Japan Shinji Nakano Minardi-Ford 1:31.255 +5.282
22 20 Brazil Ricardo Rosset Tyrrell-Ford 1:31.482 +5.509
107% time: 1:31.991
Source:

Race

Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 7 United Kingdom David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 62 1:34:24.593 1 10
2 3 Germany Michael Schumacher Ferrari 62 +4.554 3 6
3 4 United Kingdom Eddie Irvine Ferrari 62 +51.775 4 4
4 1 Canada Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Mecachrome 62 +54.59 6 3
5 2 Germany Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams-Mecachrome 62 +1:17.476 8 2
6 14 France Jean Alesi Sauber-Petronas 61 +1 Lap 12 1
7 10 Germany Ralf Schumacher Jordan-Mugen-Honda 60 +2 Laps 9  
8 23 Argentina Esteban Tuero Minardi-Ford 60 +2 Laps 19  
9 17 Finland Mika Salo Arrows 60 +2 Laps 14  
10 9 United Kingdom Damon Hill Jordan-Mugen-Honda 57 Hydraulics 7  
11 11 France Olivier Panis Prost-Peugeot 56 Engine 13  
Ret 20 Brazil Ricardo Rosset Tyrrell-Ford 48 Engine 22  
Ret 21 Japan Toranosuke Takagi Tyrrell-Ford 40 Engine 15  
Ret 12 Italy Jarno Trulli Prost-Peugeot 34 Throttle 16  
Ret 22 Japan Shinji Nakano Minardi-Ford 27 Engine 21  
Ret 16 Brazil Pedro Diniz Arrows 18 Engine 18  
Ret 8 Finland Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 17 Gearbox 2  
Ret 5 Italy Giancarlo Fisichella Benetton-Playlife 17 Spun off 10  
Ret 6 Austria Alexander Wurz Benetton-Playlife 17 Engine 5  
Ret 15 United Kingdom Johnny Herbert Sauber-Petronas 12 Puncture 11  
Ret 19 Denmark Jan Magnussen Stewart-Ford 8 Transmission 20  
Ret 18 Brazil Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 0 Spun off 17  
Source:

Championship standings after the race

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

References

  1. ^ "San Marino 1998 - Qualifications". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 15 October 2018.
  2. ^ "1998 San Marino Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 5 December 2014. Retrieved 24 December 2015.
  3. ^ "San Marino 1998 - Championship". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 20 March 2019.


Previous race:
1998 Argentine Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
1998 season
Next race:
1998 Spanish Grand Prix
Previous race:
1997 San Marino Grand Prix
San Marino Grand Prix Next race:
1999 San Marino Grand Prix
Awards
Preceded by
1997 Australian Grand Prix
Formula One Promotional Trophy
for Race Promoter

1998
Succeeded by
1999 Malaysian Grand Prix