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 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 1:25.973 2 8 Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 1:26.075 +0.102 3 3 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:26.437 +0.464 4 4 Eddie Irvine Ferrari 1:26.705 +0.732 5 6 Alexander Wurz Benetton-Playlife 1:27.273 +1.300 6 1 Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Mecachrome 1:27.390 +1.417 7 9 Damon Hill Jordan-Mugen-Honda 1:27.592 +1.619 8 2 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams-Mecachrome 1:27.645 +1.672 9 10 Ralf Schumacher Jordan-Mugen-Honda 1:27.866 +1.893 10 5 Giancarlo Fisichella Benetton-Playlife 1:27.937 +1.964 11 15 Johnny Herbert Sauber-Petronas 1:28.111 +2.138 12 14 Jean Alesi Sauber-Petronas 1:28.191 +2.218 13 11 Olivier Panis Prost-Peugeot 1:28.270 +2.297 14 17 Mika Salo Arrows 1:28.798 +2.825 15 21 Toranosuke Takagi Tyrrell-Ford 1:29.073 +3.100 16 12 Jarno Trulli Prost-Peugeot 1:29.584 +3.611 17 18 Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 1:29.641 +3.668 18 16 Pedro Diniz Arrows 1:29.932 +3.959 19 23 Esteban Tuero Minardi-Ford 1:30.649 +4.676 20 19 Jan Magnussen Stewart-Ford 1:31.017 +5.044 21 22 Shinji Nakano Minardi-Ford 1:31.255 +5.282 22 20 Ricardo Rosset Tyrrell-Ford 1:31.482 +5.509107% time: 1:31.991Source:
Race Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 7 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 62 1:34:24.593 1 10 2 3 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 62 +4.554 3 6 3 4 Eddie Irvine Ferrari 62 +51.775 4 4 4 1 Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Mecachrome 62 +54.590 6 3 5 2 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams-Mecachrome 62 +1:17.476 8 2 6 14 Jean Alesi Sauber-Petronas 61 +1 Lap 12 1 7 10 Ralf Schumacher Jordan-Mugen-Honda 60 +2 Laps 9 8 23 Esteban Tuero Minardi-Ford 60 +2 Laps 19 9 17 Mika Salo Arrows 60 +2 Laps 14 10 9 Damon Hill Jordan-Mugen-Honda 57 Hydraulics 7 11 11 Olivier Panis Prost-Peugeot 56 Engine 13 20 Ricardo Rosset Tyrrell-Ford 48 Engine 22 21 Toranosuke Takagi Tyrrell-Ford 40 Engine 15 12 Jarno Trulli Prost-Peugeot 34 Throttle 16 22 Shinji Nakano Minardi-Ford 27 Engine 21 16 Pedro Diniz Arrows 18 Engine 18 8 Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 17 Gearbox 2 5 Giancarlo Fisichella Benetton-Playlife 17 Spun off 10 6 Alexander Wurz Benetton-Playlife 17 Engine 5 15 Johnny Herbert Sauber-Petronas 12 Puncture 11 19 Jan Magnussen Stewart-Ford 8 Transmission 20 18 Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 0 Spun off 17
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Mika Häkkinen 26 2 David Coulthard 23 3 Michael Schumacher 20 4 Eddie Irvine 11 5 Heinz-Harald Frentzen 8Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 McLaren-Mercedes 49 2 Ferrari 31 3 Williams-Mecachrome 13 4 Benetton-Playlife 7 5 Sauber-Petronas 4Source:
Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
References