The 1997 Hungarian Grand Prix (formally the XIII Marlboro Magyar Nagydij) was a Formula One motor race held at Hungaroring, Mogyoród, Pest, Hungary on 10 August 1997. The race, contested over 77 laps, was the eleventh race of the 1997 Formula One World Championship and was won by Jacques Villeneuve, driving a Williams-Renault, with Damon Hill second in an Arrows-Yamaha and Johnny Herbert third in a Sauber-Petronas.
Defending World Champion Hill, who had been having a poor year in the uncompetitive and unreliable Arrows, had led comfortably for most of the race, after qualifying third behind championship challengers Michael Schumacher and Villeneuve. However, a hydraulic failure resulted in Villeneuve passing him on the final lap. It was to be the closest the Arrows team ever came to a Grand Prix victory and would turn out to be their final podium finish.
The win was Villeneuve's fifth of the season and moved him to within three points of Schumacher in the Drivers' Championship, the Ferrari driver having only managed fourth in the race. Shinji Nakano scored his last world championship points at this race.
Report
Background Heading into the eleventh round of the season, Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher was leading the Drivers' Championship with 53 points; ahead of Williams driver Jacques Villeneuve on 43 points, and the two Benetton drivers, Jean Alesi and Gerhard Berger, on 22 and 20 points respectively. The Constructors' Championship was closer at the front, with Ferrari on 71 points leading Williams on 62 points.
Practice and qualifying Hill, as defending world champion, until then had experienced a bad year in the backmarker Arrows-Yamaha car and was 17th in the overall championship standings. But arriving in Hungary, he set the fifth fastest time on Friday practice after just a single flying lap, after sitting for 55 minutes in the garage while his mechanics tore the gearbox off the car, looking for an electronic sensor problem. Later, Hill qualified in 3rd place behind Villeneuve, with Schumacher claiming pole position. Hill's teammate Pedro Diniz qualified in 19th position.
Race Hill made a strong start from his third position, overtaking Villeneuve, and he then caught race leader Schumacher on lap 6. Schumacher had to use a spare car for the race and soon struggled with pace all race long. By then, both drivers had pulled away from the rest of the field. On lap 11, Hill overtook Schumacher, and would eventually be leading the race by over 35 seconds from Villeneuve.
The slow pace of the German driver permitted several drivers to close on him. Mika Häkkinen, one of the drivers chasing Schumacher, retired on lap 12, meanwhile the Ferrari driver would soon pit for the first of three times in the race. The slow Schumacher permitted Hill to open a reasonable gap to the others behind and never was contested for the lead, specially after a slow pit stop for Jacques Villeneuve.
For most of the race, Coulthard chased Villeneuve closely for second place, being denied with another mechanical retiring. On the other hand, struggling Schumacher formed a trail behind him being chased for his brother Ralf, Shinji Nakano and teammate Eddie Irvine. Yellow lights turned on at Arrows when Pedro Diniz retired with mechanical failure.
On lap 74, with three laps left, the hydraulic pump failed on Hill's car, causing it to become stuck in third gear and have an intermittent throttle. As a result, Hill started losing time and was overtaken by Villeneuve part-way through the final lap. Villeneuve won the race with Hill finishing second, and Johnny Herbert took the third place on the podium. Eddie Irvine, who had passed Nakano for the final point, lost it on the last lap to the Japanese driver when his car broke down.
After the race, the problem, which denied Arrows, Bridgestone, and Yamaha their first ever victories (in the case of Arrows and Yamaha, their only ever victories), was diagnosed as a throttle linkage failure, caused by a broken washer worth 50 pence.
Johnny Herbert scored his only podium of the season, while Shinji Nakano equalled his career-best finish of 6th. Gianni Morbidelli returned for Sauber in place of Norberto Fontana after missing three races through injury. Hill's second position also marked the best ever result for Yamaha engines in Formula One.
Classification Qualifying Pos No Driver Constructor Time Difference 1 5 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:14.672 2 3 Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Renault 1:14.859 + 0.187 3 1 Damon Hill Arrows-Yamaha 1:15.044 + 0.372 4 9 Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 1:15.140 + 0.468 5 6 Eddie Irvine Ferrari 1:15.424 + 0.752 6 4 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams-Renault 1:15.520 + 0.848 7 8 Gerhard Berger Benetton-Renault 1:15.699 + 1.027 8 10 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 1:15.705 + 1.033 9 7 Jean Alesi Benetton-Renault 1:15.905 + 1.233 10 16 Johnny Herbert Sauber-Petronas 1:16.138 + 1.466 11 22 Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 1:16.138 + 1.466 12 14 Jarno Trulli Prost-Mugen-Honda 1:16.297 + 1.625 13 12 Giancarlo Fisichella Jordan-Peugeot 1:16.300 + 1.628 14 11 Ralf Schumacher Jordan-Peugeot 1:16.686 + 2.014 15 17 Gianni Morbidelli Sauber-Petronas 1:16.766 + 2.094 16 15 Shinji Nakano Prost-Mugen-Honda 1:16.784 + 2.112 17 23 Jan Magnussen Stewart-Ford 1:16.858 + 2.186 18 18 Jos Verstappen Tyrrell-Ford 1:17.095 + 2.423 19 2 Pedro Diniz Arrows-Yamaha 1:17.118 + 2.446 20 20 Ukyo Katayama Minardi-Hart 1:17.232 + 2.560 21 19 Mika Salo Tyrrell-Ford 1:17.482 + 2.810 22 21 Tarso Marques Minardi-Hart 1:18.020 + 3.348107% time: 1:19.899Source:
Race Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 3 Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Renault 77 1:45:47.149 2 10 2 1 Damon Hill Arrows-Yamaha 77 +9.079 3 6 3 16 Johnny Herbert Sauber-Petronas 77 +20.445 10 4 4 5 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 77 +30.501 1 3 5 11 Ralf Schumacher Jordan-Peugeot 77 +30.715 14 2 6 15 Shinji Nakano Prost-Mugen-Honda 77 +41.512 16 1 7 14 Jarno Trulli Prost-Mugen-Honda 77 +1:15.552 12 8 8 Gerhard Berger Benetton-Renault 77 +1:16.409 7 9 6 Eddie Irvine Ferrari 76 Spun off 5 10 20 Ukyo Katayama Minardi-Hart 76 +1 lap 20 11 7 Jean Alesi Benetton-Renault 76 +1 lap 9 12 21 Tarso Marques Minardi-Hart 75 +2 laps 22 13 19 Mika Salo Tyrrell-Ford 75 +2 laps 21 10 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 65 Electrical 8 18 Jos Verstappen Tyrrell-Ford 61 Gearbox 18 2 Pedro Diniz Arrows-Yamaha 53 Electrical 19 12 Giancarlo Fisichella Jordan-Peugeot 42 Spun off 13 4 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams-Renault 29 Fuel leak 6 22 Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 29 Engine 11 9 Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 12 Hydraulics 4 17 Gianni Morbidelli Sauber-Petronas 7 Engine 15 23 Jan Magnussen Stewart-Ford 5 Accident 17
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Michael Schumacher 56 2 Jacques Villeneuve 53 3 Jean Alesi 22 4 Gerhard Berger 20 5 Heinz-Harald Frentzen 19Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Ferrari 74 2 Williams-Renault 72 3 Benetton-Renault 46 4 McLaren-Mercedes 28 5 Prost-Mugen-Honda 20Source:
Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
References