Formula One: Villeneuve's flying fourth brings more points for Bar Honda
2 July 2000
FIA Formula 1 World Championship - Round 9 French Grand Prix, Magny-Cours Race Report VILLENEUVE'S FLYING FOURTH BRINGS FURTHER POINTS FOR BAR HONDA Sunday 2 July 2000 A blistering start, slick pit work and excellent race craft earned Jacques Villeneuve and Lucky Strike Reynard BAR Honda a fine fourth place finish in today's French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours. In addition to adding a further three World Championship points to the team's 2000 tally, this result was the most competitive ever for BAR Honda, coming with only Coulthard, Hakkinen and Barrichello ahead. Starting from seventh position, Jacques made another of his now trademark get-aways from the grid. No sooner had the red lights gone out, than the Canadian had passed Eddie Irvine's Jaguar, the Williams of Ralf Schumacher and was on the heels of reigning world champion Mika Hakkinen. With Frentzen pressuring from behind, Villeneuve eased out a comfortable six second advantage over the Jordan Mugen-Honda before the first round of pit stops. After a clean tyre change by his mechanics, the middle section of the race brought more Jordan pressure, this time from Jarno Trulli. Villeneuve's position was never seriously threatened, however, until after the second round of stops when Ralf Schumacher caught up with the BAR Honda driver. The Williams chassis had the advantage through the corners, but the superior straight-line speed of the Honda-powered BAR enabled Jacques to hold his position. When the Ferrari of the other Schumacher expired, Villeneuve's BAR Honda claimed fourth place, equalling the team's best ever result, achieved in Melbourne in the opening Grand Prix of the year. Ricardo Zonta had a disappointing day that ended after only 16 laps. The Brazilian experienced brake balance difficulties in the early laps of the race, although he was still able to make up a couple of places from his starting position. While chasing the Arrows of Verstappen, however, Zonta was unable to stop the car and ploughed straight on through the gravel and into the barriers. Jacques Villeneuve Position: 4th "I am very happy to finish fourth here, especially on a track where we didn't expect to be particularly strong. The start was so good that I even surprised myself! I settled into fifth and was also surprised that the first four didn't pull away from us. We were running throughout the race with more fuel than was necessary to give us flexibility over when to make our stops. I had a good battle with Ralf towards the end; he was better in the corners, but I was quicker on the straights. The only problem was when we came up to lap Diniz; I backed off and braked early to avoid any possible incident." Ricardo Zonta DNF - Accident - Lap 17 "There's not much to say. I was having problems throughout the opening laps with the balance of the brakes. The fronts were locking up a lot and I was having to brake earlier and earlier. On that lap, the car did not slow at all and I went straight across the gravel into the barrier. Not a good day." Takefumi Hosaka - Managing Director, Honda R&D "We are very happy with today's performance. Until now, the technical improvement could not be translated into results, but here we have delivered fourth place, finishing behind only McLaren and Ferrari. Now we can believe that we are moving in the right direction on the technical side and I appreciate the efforts that BAR has made since Canada. This result is thanks to the efforts of the whole team - Honda, BAR and Jacques - the strategy was perfect and Jacques pitted at exactly the right times. Hopefully next time we can get both drivers in the points." Craig Pollock - Managing Director, British American Racing "This has been the most fantastic team work I've seen since the start of British American Racing. Everything our people at the factory have done to develop an effective evolution of our car has paid off in the hands of the drivers. Jacques fought hard today and we are now looking forward to the Austrian Grand Prix. I especially want to add a big thank you to everyone who made this opportunity possible." Jordan Mugen Honda also added to its World Championship points total today, Jarno Trulli finishing sixth after a race-long battle with Villeneuve and Ralf Schumacher to just edge ahead of his team mate in the drivers' standings. Heinz-Harald Frentzen also had a good race, overcoming the challenge of Jenson Button in the other Williams, but seventh place was just outside the points-scoring positions. The Formula One teams head to Austria in a fortnight for the Austrian Grand Prix at the A-1 Ring, Sunday 16 July. BAR Honda is testing this week at Silverstone (5-7 July). Championship Standings after 9 of 17 rounds DRIVERS P. Driver Nat. Pts 1 SCHUMACHER Michael GER 56 2 COULTHARD David GBR 44 3 HAKKINEN Mika FIN 38 4 BARRICHELLO Rubens BRZ 32 5 FISICHELLA Giancarlo ITA 18 6 SCHUMACHER Ralf GER 14 7 VILLENEUVE Jacques CAN 8 8 TRULLI Jarno ITA 6 9 FRENTZEN H-Harald GER 5 CONSTRUCTORS P. Constructor Points 1 FERRARI 88 2 McLAREN-MERCEDES 82 3 BENETTON PLAYLIFE 18 4 WILLIAMS-BMW 17 5 JORDAN MUGEN-HONDA 11 6 BAR HONDA 9 7 SAUBER 3 = JAGUAR 3 = ARROWS 3