The 1997 European Grand Prix (formally the XLII European Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 26 October 1997 at the Circuito Permanente de Jerez, Spain. Originally scheduled as the Portuguese Grand Prix at the Estoril circuit, it was moved when Estoril's management had financial difficulties. It was the 17th and final race of the 1997 FIA Formula One World Championship. The 69-lap race was won by Mika Häkkinen in a McLaren, his first Formula One race victory. His teammate David Coulthard finished second and Williams driver Jacques Villeneuve took third, which was sufficient for him to win the World Championship.
Michael Schumacher, driving for Ferrari, had led the championship by a single point ahead of Villeneuve going into the race. During the race, Villeneuve and Schumacher collided while battling for the lead and the resulting damage to Schumacher's car forced him to retire. The blame for the incident was later attributed to Schumacher by the sport's governing body, the FIA, and he was stripped of his second-place finish in the championship. Schumacher's tactics were widely criticised by the media, including publications based in his home country of Germany, and in Ferrari's home country of Italy.
Following the race, Williams and McLaren were accused of colluding to decide the finishing order. Villeneuve stated that "it was better to let them through and win the World Championship". The FIA determined there was no evidence to support the claims, and dismissed the accusations. This is the last World Championship Grand Prix to be held in Jerez and the last season finale to be held on the European continent to date. Häkkinen's victory was the first victory for a Finnish driver in the Formula One World Championship in 12 years since Keke Rosberg won the 1985 Australian Grand Prix; it also kicked off a series of race wins that saw the Finn win the and championships.
Häkkinen and Coulthard's first and second-place finishes ensured the McLaren team scored their first one-two finish since the 1991 Japanese Grand Prix and made the Woking based team the only team to score a 1-2 finish during any of the 1997 Grands Prix. This was the last race for Gerhard Berger, who had won 10 times and had been competing in Formula One since 1984, and Ukyo Katayama. This was also the last Grand Prix until the 2009 Australian Grand Prix where slick tyres were used, as grooved tyres would be used in the sport from the start of the season until the end of the season. This race was also the only time during the 1997 season that Villeneuve stood on the podium without being the race winner, the other seven of eight podiums Villeneuve achieved that season all being wins.
Background The 1997 European Grand Prix was the final round of the 1997 Formula One World Championship and occurred at the Circuito de Jerez on 26 October 1997. Originally scheduled as the Portuguese Grand Prix at the Estoril Circuit, the race was moved to the Jerez Circuit when Estoril's management had financial difficulties. The race was added to the schedule after Japan because engine suppliers Renault did not want their last Formula One race to be in Japan.
Heading into the final race of the season, two drivers were still in contention for the World Drivers' Championship, despite Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher driving the inferior car, perhaps not even the second-fastest car on the grid. Schumacher was leading with 78 points; Williams driver Jacques Villeneuve was second with 77 points, one point behind Schumacher. Behind Schumacher and Villeneuve in the Drivers' Championship, Heinz-Harald Frentzen was third on 41 points in the other Williams, with Jean Alesi and David Coulthard on 36 and 30 points, respectively. Villeneuve had won two more races than Schumacher during the season, meaning that in the event of a tie on points, the rules stated Villeneuve would be world champion.
Villeneuve had to finish the race in a points-scoring position (points were awarded for drivers finishing in sixth place or higher) and ahead of Schumacher to become World Drivers' Champion. Schumacher would be world champion if he finished ahead of Villeneuve, or if Villeneuve failed to score any points by finishing lower than sixth or not completing the race. In the World Constructors' Championship, Williams led with 118 points and Ferrari were second on 100. Williams had therefore clinched the constructors' title before the race, as even if Ferrari finished first and second in the race, thereby taking 16 points, and both Williams cars failed to score a point, they could not beat Williams.
Following the Japanese Grand Prix on 12 October, the teams conducted testing sessions at various locations around the world. Williams, Benetton, Sauber, Jordan and McLaren conducted at a test session at the Silverstone Circuit. Williams, Sauber and Jordan tested using 1998-spec cars, in preparation for the season. Arrows conducted testing at the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours circuit, performing wet weather tyre development with tyre suppliers Bridgestone with the circuit flooded to simulate wet weather conditions. Prost conducted testing at Circuit de Catalunya and performed tyre testing for Bridgestone, as well as testing their 1998-specification car. Ferrari remained at the Suzuka Circuit testing an electronic differential used by driver Eddie Irvine at the previous race.
Practice and qualifying Four practice sessions were held before the Sunday race—two on Friday from 11:00 to 12:00 and 13:00 to 14:00 CEST (UTC+2), and two on Saturday morning held from 09:00 to 09:45 and from 10:15 to 11:00 CEST. In the first two practice sessions, Prost driver Olivier Panis set the fastest time with a lap of 1 minute and 22.735 seconds, one-tenth of a second faster than Arrows driver Damon Hill. Villeneuve and Rubens Barrichello were third and fourth. Mika Häkkinen and Coulthard respectively set the fifth and eighth-fastest times for McLaren; they were separated by Frentzen and Alesi. Michael Schumacher and Ralf Schumacher completed the top ten. In the final two practice sessions, Coulthard set the fastest lap with a time of 1:20.738; Häkkinen finished with the second-fastest time. The Williams drivers were quicker, with Villeneuve in third and Frentzen in sixth. Panis slipped to fourth ahead of Gerhard Berger, their best times one-tenth of a second apart. They were ahead of Stewart driver Jan Magnussen, Shinji Nakano for Prost, Hill, and Alesi.
The qualifying session was held on Saturday afternoon and lasted one-hour between 13:00 to 14:00 CEST, each driver was allowed up to twelve timed laps, with their fastest lap used to determine their grid position. Cars were timed using a TAG Heuer timing system, which measured to an accuracy of one-thousandth of a second. At the end of the session, the three fastest drivers had all set the same laptime, the first time this had happened in the history of the World Championship. Jacques Villeneuve was first to set a time of 1:21.072, fourteen minutes into the one hour session. A further fourteen minutes later, Michael Schumacher posted an identical time. With nine minutes of the session remaining, Heinz-Harald Frentzen crossed the line, again with a time of 1:21.072. Under the regulations, in the event of drivers setting equal times in qualifying, the order in which the times were set is considered, with the first driver to set the time given precedence. Villeneuve was awarded pole position on the starting grid for the race, with Schumacher second and Frentzen third. Fourth place on the grid went to the reigning World Champion, Hill, in his Arrows, with a time of 1:21.130, 0.058 seconds behind the time of the leading three. Hill had been on course to get pole position but had to slow towards the end of the lap because of yellow flags due to an incident involving Ukyo Katayama's Minardi. Villeneuve's pole position was the last for a Canadian driver in Formula One until Lance Stroll at the 2020 Turkish Grand Prix.
Qualifying classification Driver Constructor Time 1 3 Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Renault 1:21.072 2 5 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:21.072 +0.000 3 4 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams-Renault 1:21.072 +0.000 4 1 Damon Hill Arrows-Yamaha 1:21.130 +0.058 5 9 Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 1:21.369 +0.297 6 10 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 1:21.476 +0.404 7 6 Eddie Irvine Ferrari 1:21.610 +0.538 8 8 Gerhard Berger Benetton-Renault 1:21.656 +0.584 9 14 Olivier Panis Prost-Mugen-Honda 1:21.735 +0.663 10 7 Jean Alesi Benetton-Renault 1:22.011 +0.939 11 23 Jan Magnussen Stewart-Ford 1:22.167 +1.095 12 22 Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 1:22.222 +1.150 13 2 Pedro Diniz Arrows-Yamaha 1:22.234 +1.162 14 16 Johnny Herbert Sauber-Petronas 1:22.263 +1.191 15 15 Shinji Nakano Prost-Mugen-Honda 1:22.351 +1.279 16 11 Ralf Schumacher Jordan-Peugeot 1:22.740 +1.668 17 12 Giancarlo Fisichella Jordan-Peugeot 1:22.804 +1.732 18 17 Norberto Fontana Sauber-Petronas 1:23.281 +2.209 19 20 Ukyo Katayama Minardi-Hart 1:23.409 +2.337 20 21 Tarso Marques Minardi-Hart 1:23.854 +2.782 21 19 Mika Salo Tyrrell-Ford 1:24.222 +3.150 22 18 Jos Verstappen Tyrrell-Ford 1:24.301 +3.229107% time: 1:26.747Source:
Warm-up A half an hour warm-up session took place on Sunday morning for teams to set-up their cars for the race later that day. A majority of the teams appeared to use the soft compound tyres except for Jordan who were using the harder tyre compound. Häkkinen lapped fastest with a time of 1:23.016 ahead of Berger in second position and Panis in third. The top ten was completed by Coulthard, Villeneuve, Herbert, Michael Schumacher, Frentzen, Nakano, and Hill. There were no incidents during the session.
Race The race took place in the afternoon, starting at 14:00 CET (UTC+1), in dry and sunny weather. Villeneuve started the race in pole position, with Schumacher in second. Just a few moments before the start of the race, a blue liquid came out of Villeneuve's Williams; however, this did not influence his car during the race. Schumacher's getaway at the start was better than Villeneuve's and he had taken the lead by the time they reached the first corner. Schumacher led 40 of the first 47 laps of the race. Frentzen also got a better start than Villeneuve and overtook him for second position. Under the orders of the Williams team, Frentzen let teammate Villeneuve past on lap eight. On the 12th lap, Pedro Diniz's race ended early when he spun and stalled. Schumacher made his first pit-stop on lap 22 and Villeneuve made his first stop the following lap. Both retained their positions. During the first round of pitstops the McLarens swapped places with Coulthard leading Häkkinen and Frentzen dropped to fifth position behind both of them. The order of the leaders after the second round of pit stops on lap 43 and lap 44 remained the same but with Villeneuve closer to Schumacher.