Japan 1997:
with Murray Walker.
F1 Racing November 1997.

What a fabulous weekend! Japan is always something different - some of it good and some of it not so good - but this
year for me it was all magic. Especially at Suzuka itself. Every year I make the pilgrimage out of walking round every inch of its 5.87 kilometres, and when I do it's easy to see just why the drivers all love the challenge of its combination of sweeping bends and straights so much. I just wish there were more track like it. But let's grasp the nettle. Was Villeneuve's penalty justified? Much as I admire his spirit, guts and ability, I have to say that it was.

With three previous transgressions, what else could the stewards do but rap his knuckles very hard indeed, particularly taking into account that even Jacques admitted he was guilty as charged? From that point on, his hopes of rolling up the championship were in tatters. Ferrari's strategy for Eddie Irvine and Schumacher was a masterly plan which was masterly executed - and once we'd sorted out what the hell was going on, it was a joy to talk about it unfolding. If I had to pick the man of the race it would not be one, but three: Ross Brawn, Ferrari's master tactician, Schumacher and Irvine. A spirited charge by Heinz-Harald Frentzen may have managed to clinch that record ninth constructors' championship for Williams, which rightly means so much to them, but everything is now left to play for at Jerez in the contest the public care about: the drivers' championship. Irrespective of what happens to the Williams appeal, there's just one point separating the two men involved, and that's far too close too call....

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