The 1998 Italian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Monza on 13 September 1998. The race was won by Michael Schumacher driving a Ferrari. Schumacher's teammate Eddie Irvine finished second in the other Ferrari and his brother Ralf finished third in a Jordan-Mugen-Honda. , this was the last win for tyre manufacturer Goodyear in Formula One.

Background In August 1998, the organisation of the sporting event was characterised by complications linked to the seizure of several stands and some underpasses by the magistrate's court due to alleged irregularities in the testing certifications. The affair continued until the beginning of September, when the use of the stands for the match was allowed. The event was organised by the Automobile Club of Milan and SIAS, the company in charge of managing the racetrack. For the occasion, new giant screens were installed and the car parks and camping areas were expanded.

Heading into the 14th round of the season, Mika Häkkinen led the championship with 77 points. Michael Schumacher was in second place, seven points behind. Häkkinen's teammate David Coulthard was in third position on 48 points, making these three the only drivers who could mathematically win the title. In the constructors championship, McLaren led on 125 points, ahead of Ferrari on 102. Williams were third with 33 points, one point ahead of Benetton and seven points ahead of Jordan in fifth. Jordan had just achieved a 1–2 finish at the 1998 Belgian Grand Prix, where neither Häkkinen nor Schumacher scored any point; when lapping Coulthard, Schumacher had crashed into the Scot's McLaren, which had not moved off the racing line, obscured by spray. Although he received no penalty or sanction, many were convinced that Coulthard had intentionally caused the collision with Schumacher in order to help his teammate.

Report Qualifying While the free practice on Friday was dry, by the afternoon session it had rained. In a wet qualifying session, Michael Schumacher took pole position ahead of Jacques Villeneuve, who had achieved the team's best qualifying start. Mika Häkkinen, David Coulthard, and Eddie Irvine followed them in third, fourth, and fifth position.

Race Mika Häkkinen made a blinding start from third on the grid, pushing his way past Jacques Villeneuve and Michael Schumacher on the front row; at the same time, it was a dreadful start for Schumacher, who fell down to fifth but then passed Villeneuve for fourth and then Eddie Irvine for third. Häkkinen was struggling with a developing brake issue soon after and he waved his teammate David Coulthard through. Soon after, Coulthard's engine blew and seconds later Schumacher, who had caught Häkkinen, passed the Finn when Häkkinen had adjusted his brake bias forwards to cope with the brake problem and ran wide due to the smoke from Coulthard's engine.

Villeneuve, who was running very low downforce, soon spun out of the race, and Häkkinen started catching Schumacher again. Häkkinen was just three seconds behind with a handful of laps remaining when his rear brakes failed, sending him into a wild spin at the Roggia chicane. Although he was able to keep his engine running and kept going, at the beginning of the next lap he went off again at the first Rettifilo chicane, and Irvine reeled him in and took second off him. Ralf Schumacher then caught and overtook Häkkinen, who was able to limp home in fourth.

It was a jubilant scene for the Italian crowd as Schumacher came home first and Irvine, his Ferrari teammate, took second, with the younger Schumacher third. It was Jordan's third podium finishes in two races. Johnny Herbert retired in unusual circumstances; prior to the start, a Sauber mechanic accidentally left a spanner in the cockpit. During the race, the spanner became jammed under the foot pedals, which caused Herbert to crash. Schumacher was now level on points with Häkkinen going into the Nürburgring, the penultimate round, although Häkkinen still led the championship on countback as both drivers had six wins but Häkkinen had two second places against Schumacher's one. This race was Ferrari's 600th start in a World Championship event as a team.

Classification Qualifying Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap 1 3 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:25.289 2 1 Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Mecachrome 1:25.561 +0.272 3 8 Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 1:25.679 +0.390 4 7 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 1:25.987 +0.698 5 4 Eddie Irvine Ferrari 1:26.159 +0.870 6 10 Ralf Schumacher Jordan-Mugen-Honda 1:26.309 +1.020 7 6 Alexander Wurz Benetton-Playlife 1:26.567 +1.278 8 14 Jean Alesi Sauber-Petronas 1:26.637 +1.348 9 11 Olivier Panis Prost-Peugeot 1:26.681 +1.392 10 12 Jarno Trulli Prost-Peugeot 1:26.794 +1.505 11 5 Giancarlo Fisichella Benetton-Playlife 1:26.817 +1.528 12 2 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams-Mecachrome 1:26.836 +1.547 13 18 Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 1:27.247 +1.958 14 9 Damon Hill Jordan-Mugen-Honda 1:27.362 +2.073 15 15 Johnny Herbert Sauber-Petronas 1:27.510 +2.221 16 17 Mika Salo Arrows 1:27.744 +2.455 17 19 Jos Verstappen Stewart-Ford 1:28.212 +2.923 18 20 Ricardo Rosset Tyrrell-Ford 1:28.286 +2.997 19 21 Toranosuke Takagi Tyrrell-Ford 1:28.346 +3.057 20 16 Pedro Diniz Arrows 1:28.387 +3.098 21 22 Shinji Nakano Minardi-Ford 1:29.101 +3.812 22 23 Esteban Tuero Minardi-Ford 1:29.417 +4.128107% time: 1:31.259 Source:

Race Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 3 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 53 1:17:09.672 1 10 2 4 Eddie Irvine Ferrari 53 +37.977 5 6 3 10 Ralf Schumacher Jordan-Mugen-Honda 53 +41.152 6 4 4 8 Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 53 +55.671 3 3 5 14 Jean Alesi Sauber-Petronas 53 +1:01.872 8 2 6 9 Damon Hill Jordan-Mugen-Honda 53 +1:06.688 14 1 7 2 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams-Mecachrome 52 +1 Lap 12   8 5 Giancarlo Fisichella Benetton-Playlife 52 +1 Lap 11   9 21 Toranosuke Takagi Tyrrell-Ford 52 +1 Lap 19   10 18 Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 52 +1 Lap 13   11 23 Esteban Tuero Minardi-Ford 51 +2 Laps 22   12 20 Ricardo Rosset Tyrrell-Ford 51 +2 Laps 18   13 12 Jarno Trulli Prost-Peugeot 50 +3 Laps 10   19 Jos Verstappen Stewart-Ford 39 Gearbox 17   1 Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Mecachrome 37 Spun off 2   17 Mika Salo Arrows 32 Throttle 16   6 Alexander Wurz Benetton-Playlife 24 Gearbox 7   7 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 16 Engine 4   11 Olivier Panis Prost-Peugeot 15 Vibrations 9   22 Shinji Nakano Minardi-Ford 13 Engine 21   15 Johnny Herbert Sauber-Petronas 12 Spun off 15   16 Pedro Diniz Arrows 10 Spun off 20  

Championship standings after the race Bold text indicates who still has a theoretical chance of becoming World Champion.

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Mika Häkkinen 80 2 Michael Schumacher 80 3 David Coulthard 48 4 Eddie Irvine 38 5 Jacques Villeneuve 20Source:

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 McLaren-Mercedes 128 2 Ferrari 118 3 Williams-Mecachrome 33 4 Benetton-Playlife 32 5 Jordan-Mugen-Honda 31Source:

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

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