Spain 1997:
with Murray Walker.
F1 Racing July 1997.

Barcelona was Goodyear's 350th grand prix win in a race that dominated by tyres - and Jacques Villeneuve. I said, live
on TV on Saturday, that I'd run around the tyre-sapping 4.67km Catalunya circuit if a Williams wasn't in pole position and I also said that Villeneuve was going to win the world championship. I was glad to be right on the first point and confidently expect to be right on the second at the end of the season.

So hats off to Goodyear, without whom Formula 1 would be in a sorry state. Congratulations to Villeneuve and his engineer Jock Clear, who together set up Williams so well that the result was never in doubt, thanks to a two-stop strategy where others came in three times. There's a long, long way to go in the season, it's true, but now that Jacques has put another 10 points between himself and Frentzen, he is in a very strong position. No offence to Heinz-Harald, who suffered in Spain, but I'm sure it would have been much closer between the Williams drivers if Damon had been in the second seat. But the constructors' contest could well be a different story with Ferrari still a point ahead of Williams. Michael Schumacher told me they were just hanging in there until after France, when he expects developments to make the Maranello team genuinely competitive with Williams. If that's the case, the season from Silverstone onwards will be even better than it has been so far.

Let's hope it is for Damon, too. For the reigning world champion his situation is looking more and more demeaning. Yet another failure at Barcelona after driving the wheels off the Arrows and getting it well into the points must have been very, very hard to take.

-End of Article--

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