Germany 1997:
with Murray Walker.
F1 Racing September 1997.

All too often Hockenheim is a boring high-speed procession with car after car expiring from the heat with the
engine-sapping straights. But not this year! Bernie's script would have been rejected as ludicrously fanciful before the race, but it certainly had Martin and I on our toes and, I'll bet, you on the edge of your seat. It was exactly what we needed. Something different, something new, something exciting, with all the drama of the rejected veteran making a sensational comeback by defeating the new whizzkid. My heart went out to Gerhard, who underlined what a great racer he is by overcoming the mind-numbing effects of his father's tragic death and his sinus miseries to give his team boss Flavio Briatore one in the eye for announcing his replacement by Giancarlo Fisichella in 1998. A statement which Eddie Jordan vigorously refutes, incidentally. Stand by for controversial fireworks.

How things change! Benetton back with a bang with both drivers in the points. None for Williams though (again) in what is turning out to be a season from hell. Wonder-man Jacques Villeneuve well beaten for the whole weekend. Frentzen making another dismal hash of it. Fisichella driving out of his skin to impress mightily and Jarno Trulli doing the same with a fine drive to score his first points.

But after Berger and Fisichella, the man of the race for me was Michael Schumacher with yet another high-points finish to extend his and Ferrari's championship leads - in spite of that extra pitstop. Like Benetton, the prancing horse is on a charge, and Maranello's 50th anniversary is increasingly looking like being its best since 1983, unless Williams regain their lost momentum.

-End of Article--

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