The 1998 Luxembourg Grand Prix (formally the Grosser Warsteiner Preis von Luxemburg 1998) was a Formula One motor race held at the Nürburgring, Nürburg, Germany on 27 September 1998. It was the fifteenth and penultimate race of the 1998 FIA Formula One World Championship. The 67-lap race was won by Mika Häkkinen driving for the McLaren team. Michael Schumacher finished second driving a Ferrari car, with David Coulthard third in the other McLaren.
Report With two races remaining of the season, McLaren's Mika Häkkinen and Ferrari's Michael Schumacher were battling for the drivers title; they were level on 80 points with Häkkinen ahead on countback. However the momentum was with Schumacher who had won the previous race at Monza, whereas Häkkinen had not won a race since the German Grand Prix four races earlier.
Ferrari locked out the front row with Schumacher on pole ahead of Eddie Irvine. Häkkinen qualified third. At the start Irvine passed Schumacher to take the lead, however he allowed his team leader past at the end of the first lap and then proceeded to hold up Häkkinen. The Finn passed the Ulsterman at the Veedol Chicane on lap 14 and began to close on Schumacher. The German pitted on lap 24, while Häkkinen stayed out until lap 28, emerging from his stop ahead of Schumacher albeit by less than a second. Häkkinen resisted pressure from Schumacher during the second stint and narrowly held on to his lead during the second round of pit stops. In the final stint Häkkinen pulled away from Schumacher, extending his lead to five seconds before easing off in the closing laps to take victory by 2.2 seconds from Schumacher, with the other McLaren of David Coulthard completing the podium having leapfrogged Irvine during the first round of pitstops. The win gave Häkkinen a four-point lead in the championship heading into the final race in Suzuka, meaning he would only need second place there to clinch his first title.
Classification
Qualifying
Pos. No. Driver Constructor Time Gap 1 3 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:18.561 — 2 4 Eddie Irvine Ferrari 1:18.907 +0.346 3 8 Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 1:18.940 +0.379 4 5 Giancarlo Fisichella Benetton-Playlife 1:19.048 +0.487 5 7 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 1:19.169 +0.608 6 10 Ralf Schumacher Jordan-Mugen-Honda 1:19.455 +0.894 7 2 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams-Mecachrome 1:19.522 +0.961 8 6 Alexander Wurz Benetton-Playlife 1:19.569 +1.008 9 1 Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Mecachrome 1:19.631 +1.070 10 9 Damon Hill Jordan-Mugen-Honda 1:19.807 +1.246 11 14 Jean Alesi Sauber-Petronas 1:20.493 +1.932 12 18 Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 1:20.530 +1.969 13 15 Johnny Herbert Sauber-Petronas 1:20.650 +2.089 14 12 Jarno Trulli Prost-Peugeot 1:20.709 +2.148 15 11 Olivier Panis Prost-Peugeot 1:21.048 +2.487 16 17 Mika Salo Arrows 1:21.120 +2.559 17 16 Pedro Diniz Arrows 1:21.258 +2.697 18 19 Jos Verstappen Stewart-Ford 1:21.501 +2.940 19 21 Toranosuke Takagi Tyrrell-Ford 1:21.525 +2.964 20 22 Shinji Nakano Minardi-Ford 1:22.078 +3.517 21 23 Esteban Tuero Minardi-Ford 1:22.146 +3.585 22 20 Ricardo Rosset Tyrrell-Ford 1:22.822 +4.261107% time: 1:24.060Source:
Race Pos. No. Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 8 Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 67 1:32:14.789 3 10 2 3 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 67 +2.212 1 6 3 7 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 67 +34.164 5 4 4 4 Eddie Irvine Ferrari 67 +58.183 2 3 5 2 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams-Mecachrome 67 +1:00.248 7 2 6 5 Giancarlo Fisichella Benetton-Playlife 67 +1:01.360 4 1 7 6 Alexander Wurz Benetton-Playlife 67 +1:04.790 8 8 1 Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Mecachrome 66 +1 lap 9 9 9 Damon Hill Jordan-Mugen-Honda 66 +1 lap 10 10 14 Jean Alesi Sauber-Petronas 66 +1 lap 11 11 18 Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 65 +2 laps 12 12 11 Olivier Panis Prost-Peugeot 65 +2 laps 15 13 19 Jos Verstappen Stewart-Ford 65 +2 laps 18 14 17 Mika Salo Arrows 65 +2 laps 16 15 22 Shinji Nakano Minardi-Ford 65 +2 laps 20 16 21 Toranosuke Takagi Tyrrell-Ford 65 +2 laps 19 23 Esteban Tuero Minardi-Ford 56 Engine 21 10 Ralf Schumacher Jordan-Mugen-Honda 53 Brakes 6 15 Johnny Herbert Sauber-Petronas 37 Engine 13 20 Ricardo Rosset Tyrrell-Ford 36 Engine 22 12 Jarno Trulli Prost-Peugeot 6 Transmission 14 16 Pedro Diniz Arrows 6 Hydraulics 17
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 90 2 Michael Schumacher 86 3 David Coulthard 52 4 Eddie Irvine 41 5 Jacques Villeneuve 20Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 McLaren-Mercedes 142 2 Ferrari 127 3 Williams-Mecachrome 35 4 Benetton-Playlife 33 5 Jordan-Mugen-Honda 31Source:
Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
References