Formula One: Schumacher runs away from Hakkinen; Ferrari records historic 1-2 finish
17 May 1999
By Dan KnutsonMONACO--Michael Schumacher outgunned Mika Hakkinen at the start and went on to lead all 78 laps on his way to victory in the Monaco Grand Prix.
Eddie Irvine finished second to give Ferrari its first-ever 1-2 finish in the Formula One's most prestigious race. It was also Schumacher's fourth win in Monaco.
"Monaco is a very special place," Schumacher said. "It's one of these Grands Prix out of the 16 we have that you want to win. It's a great achievement, and considering the championship situation altogether it's just perfect."
With two wins and a second place in four races, Schumacher now leads the World Championship with 26 points. Irvine is second with 18 and Hakkinen third with 14.
Schumacher has now won 16 times for Ferrari, which makes him the marque's most successful F1 driver ever. Niki Lauda won 15 Grand Prix races for Ferrari, and Alberto Ascari won 13 times.
"Being a Ferrari driver already means something very special," Schumacher said. "Winning races with Ferrari is super special. And obviously to be the most successful is one more on top.
"It's great. It doesn't mean a lot to me yet, and more important than being the most successful is less important to me now than winning this race here concerning the championship. But once you may retire, and you look back to that, it may be a nice statistic."
With overtaking being so difficult on the narrow Monaco street course, qualifying well and making a quick start are crucial. But polesitter Hakkinen got too much wheelspin on his West McLaren-Mercedes, and that allowed Schumacher to squeeze ahead into the first corner.
Hakkinen, who had handling problems, may have finished second but for a spin. Although Hakkinen got going again, he had lost enough time to allow Irvine, who had already pitted, to take over second place after his pit stop.
The top four drivers in the World Championship finished in the top four places in the race, with Heinz-Harald Frentzen coming home fourth in his B&H Jordan-Mugen-Honda. The Mild Seven Benetton Playlifes of Giancarlo Fisichella and Alexander Wurz rounded out the top six. Only nine cars were classed as finishers as the grueling race and Monaco's walls claimed their victims.
Two-time CART champ Alex Zanardi finally finished a Grand Prix, in eighth, despite a spin and a broken seat in his Winfield Williams-Supertec. Former Indy 500 winner Jacques Villeneuve, meanwhile, retired from his fourth consecutive Grand Prix, this time with an oil leak on his British American Racing-Supertec.
Winner Schumacher averaged 89.393 mph (143.864 km/h) to complete the 78-lap 163.188-mile (262.626-km) race in one hour, 49 minutes and 31.812 seconds. His margin of victory was 30.476 seconds.
QUOTEBOOK:
MICHAEL SCHUMACHER (Ferrari, winner): "I saw that Mika had too much wheelspin, so I was alongside him almost immediately. He was clever enough not to make it too close otherwise we would have crashed in the first corner. I was able to slip by because I had more speed and the better momentum, and for this reason I was able to take advantage of my strategy, which was obviously to get clear and build up the gap that I needed for the pit stop, to make everything safe. It was a hard race, but mainly the first part up to the pit stop. I was pushing flat out to get the gap I wanted. After that, I just drove it home."
EDDIE IRVINE (Ferrari, second): "Early on, Mika Hakkinen seemed to hit some traffic, but I managed to nip through it quite nicely. That helped me to close the gap, and once I got close to him I could see that I was a lot faster than he was. In fact I was a lot faster than he was all through the race, but when you're behind another driver here at Monaco it is impossible to overtake, especially a McLaren. We therefore had to do (the overtaking) on strategy, which we achieved."
MIKA HAKKINEN (West McLaren-Mercedes, third): "Michael said it exactly right. I got too much wheelspin at the start and was not able to get off the grid well enough to be able to accelerate in first place down to the first corner. Later I spun oil somebody had dropped. If I had tried to turn into the Mirabeau corner itself, I would have lost the back end for sure and gone into the barriers. So I decided to go straight and get back on the track (from the escape road) as quickly as possible. Obviously I lost too much time there. But there was nothing else I could have done in the situation."
HEINZ-HARALD FRENTZEN (B&H Jordan-Mugen-Honda, fourth): "I was gaining on Hakkinen, but getting close to him and overtaking him are two different things."
DAVID COULTHARD (West McLaren-Mercedes, retired from fourth place, Lap 37): "I started to have gear selection problems, and the team advised me that the gearbox had lost oil pressure and told me to pit."
ALEX ZANARDI (Winfield Williams-Supertec, eighth): "I had another black day, even if it was almost funny. My seat broke in the very first part of the race, and I felt like I was floating in the cockpit. I made several mistakes due to this big problem, and I often overshot the corners because I didn't have any more feel on the brake pedal. Sometimes I couldn't even reach the pedals!"
DAMON HILL (B&H Jordan-Mugen-Honda, retired on lap 4 after collision with Ralf Schumacher): "I was being too ambitious. Starting 17th I had to be aggressive, and I decided after two laps that I had to overtake Ralf. He was defending his line, so I do not blame him."
JACQUES VILLENEUVE (British American Racing-Supertec, retired from eighth place on Lap 33): "We decided to start with soft tires, which proved to be a good choice as the car was running really well. Lap after lap, it was getting better and faster. When I came out of the tunnel and braked, I could feel that something was wrong at the rear, and that was the end. It was an oil leak. It's tough because you're there fighting ready to attack, but you don't reach the end. And it's also the fourth race where I have to go home before the finish."
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