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. This was the first Formula One World Championship race to start behind a Safety Car.
With the win, Schumacher extended his lead over Villeneuve in the Drivers' Championship to 11 points with five races remaining.
Report Michael Schumacher 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, 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.
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 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.
On midfield the Arrows Yamaha showed strong pace on Bridgestone intermediate tyres. Pedro Diniz, who had already beaten teammate Damon Hill in qualifying, passed Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Johnny Herbert and David Coulthard on track to reach third place. The Brazilian driver pitted alongside Mika Häkkinen for dry tyres, however a sixteen-second pit made him drop to 12th place. He eventually made his way back to 7th place, but lost a potential podium finish.
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 Herbert, and Villeneuve, who had charged back in the later stages of the race and set the fastest lap. On the last lap, Diniz outbraked Eddie Irvine at Les Combes for 8th place (that would become 7th later), meanwhile the Ferrari driver lost control of his car and collided.
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 Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Renault 1:49.450 2 7 Jean Alesi Benetton-Renault 1:49.759 +0.309 3 5 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:50.293 +0.843 4 12 Giancarlo Fisichella Jordan-Peugeot 1:50.470 +1.020 5 9 Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 1:50.503 +1.053 6* 11 Ralf Schumacher Jordan-Peugeot 1:50.520 +1.070 7 4 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams-Renault 1:50.656 +1.206 8 2 Pedro Diniz Arrows-Yamaha 1:50.853 +1.403 9 1 Damon Hill Arrows-Yamaha 1:50.970 +1.520 10 10 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 1:51.410 +1.960 11 16 Johnny Herbert Sauber-Petronas 1:51.725 +2.275 12 22 Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 1:51.916 +2.466 13 17 Gianni Morbidelli Sauber-Petronas 1:52.094 +2.644 14* 14 Jarno Trulli Prost-Mugen-Honda 1:52.274 +2.824 15 8 Gerhard Berger Benetton-Renault 1:52.391 +2.941 16 15 Shinji Nakano Prost-Mugen-Honda 1:52.749 +3.299 17 6 Eddie Irvine Ferrari 1:52.793 +3.343 18 23 Jan Magnussen Stewart-Ford 1:52.886 +3.436 19 19 Mika Salo Tyrrell-Ford 1:52.897 +3.447 20 20 Ukyo Katayama Minardi-Hart 1:53.544 +4.094 21 18 Jos Verstappen Tyrrell-Ford 1:53.725 +4.275 22 21 Tarso Marques Minardi-Hart 1:54.505 +5.055107% 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 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 44 1:33:46.717 3 10 2 12 Giancarlo Fisichella Jordan-Peugeot 44 +26.753 4 6 3 4 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams-Renault 44 +32.147 7 4 4 16 Johnny Herbert Sauber-Petronas 44 +39.025 11 3 5 3 Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Renault 44 +42.103 1 2 6 8 Gerhard Berger Benetton-Renault 44 +1:03.741 15 1 7 2 Pedro Diniz Arrows-Yamaha 44 +1:25.931 8 8 7 Jean Alesi Benetton-Renault 44 +1:42.008 2 9 17 Gianni Morbidelli Sauber-Petronas 44 +1:42.582 13 10 6 Eddie Irvine Ferrari 43 Collision 17 11 19 Mika Salo Tyrrell-Ford 43 +1 lap 19 12 23 Jan Magnussen Stewart-Ford 43 +1 lap 18 13 1 Damon Hill Arrows-Yamaha 42 Wheel nut 9 14 20 Ukyo Katayama Minardi-Hart 42 Engine 20 15 14 Jarno Trulli Prost-Mugen-Honda 42 +2 laps PL 18 Jos Verstappen Tyrrell-Ford 25 Spun off 21 11 Ralf Schumacher Jordan-Peugeot 21 Spun off PL 10 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 19 Spun off 10 21 Tarso Marques Minardi-Hart 18 Spun off 22 22 Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 8 Steering 12 15 Shinji Nakano Prost-Mugen-Honda 5 Electrical 16 9 Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 44 Fuel irregularity (+30.856) 5
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Michael Schumacher 66 2 Jacques Villeneuve 55 3 Heinz-Harald Frentzen 23 4 Jean Alesi 22 5 Gerhard Berger 21Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Ferrari 84 2 Williams-Renault 78 3 Benetton-Renault 47 4 McLaren-Mercedes 28 5 Jordan-Peugeot 25Source:
References