Heinz-Harald Frentzen and the Benson and Hedges Jordan team took their second win of the 1999 Formula One World Championship today when the German ace stormed to victory in the Italian Grand Prix. Starting from second place on the grid, Heinz-Harald took the lead when Mika Hakkinen spun his McLaren off the track on lap 30. Thereafter Heinz-Harald maintained a solid lead over the second placed Williams driven by Ralf Schumacher and, helped by a superb pit stop lasting only 7.4 seconds, he went on to dominate the remainder of the race.
The result has consolidated the Jordan team's drive for third in the constructor's championship and incredibly Frentzen is now only ten points behind Hakkinen and Irvine in the race for the driver's title. The reliability of the Jordan J199 must give him a chance with 30 points still up for grabs.
The Race report
The Grid.
Hakkinen is on pole alongside the excellent performance of the Jordan of Frentzen. Coulthard and Zanardi make up the second row with Ralf Schumacher and Salo on the third. Hill is on the fifth row, qualifying ninth.
The Race.
A crowd of 110,000 has gathered under sunny skies. The ambient temperature is 78 degrees F (26C) and track temperature 84F
(30C).
Most teams are exected to run a one stop strategy, staying out for as long as possible on the first stint.
It is thought the larger fuel tank of the Jordan will allow it to stay out maybe five laps longer than the McLaren (Hakkinen expected to pit on about lap 31, Frentzen on lap 36) so Frentzen will try to stay in touch for the first 30 odd laps and then push hard for those extra five, while Hakkinen will have a very heavy fuel load, and hopefully come out from his stop in the lead.
Zanardi gets in front of Heinz-Harald at 1st Chicane.
The Start: Frentzen smokes the rear tires heavily and slides toward Coulthard. He recovers, but not before Zanardi has slipped past them both. The field runs cleanly through the first chicane, except for Gene and De la Rosa, the contact sends Gene off, and out. Frentzen reclaims second spot immediately from Zanardi going into the second chicane. Coulthard gets slightly off the course at the Ascari chicane and loses more positions to Ralf Schumacher and Mika Salo. Schumacher takes some unusual lines to prevent being passed. De la Rosa pits for replacement of the right front track rod.
Lap 1: Hakkinen opens up a 1.2s lead to Frentzen, who in turn is 1.1s ahead of Zanardi. There is a similar gap back to Schumacher, still being pushed hard by Salo, who has pulled a bit out on Coulthard, Barrichello, Irvine, Hill, Villeneuve, Wurz, Diniz and Alesi.
Lap 2: Hakkinen extends his lead to 1.5s over Frentzen, who is still 1.1s ahead of Zanardi, but Schumacher still has Salo close behind him. Coulthard and Barrichello are together, with a gap to Irvine and another to Hill. Diniz retires after a spin, and Fisichella goes off and out to the right at the first chicane.
Lap 4: Hakkinen now has 2.2s on Frentzen, who is a similar distance ahead of Zanardi and Schumacher with Salo, Coulthard and Barrichello following closely. There's a gap of 2.6s to Irvine, Hill and Villeneuve. Behind the Canadian there is a battle with Wurz leading Alesi and now Trulli who has overtaken teammate Panis after a spirited fight.
Lap 8: Hakkinen's lead is 3.9s and increasing at about .5sec per lap. Frentzen is holding 2.6s on the Williams pair, still followed closely by Salo, Coulthard and Barrichello. Further back, Alesi overtakes Wurz for 11th place. The Austrian is suffering gearbox problems due to the electrics, and this is causing the rear end to lock up. He goes straight-on at a couple of chicanes and is reaally struggling.
Lap 9: The lead gap continues to increase leaving Hakkinen 4.5s ahead of Frentzen. Wurz's miserable afternoon continues. He has been overtaken by Alesi, and now loses out to the two Prosts.
Lap 10: Wurz passes Panis. Barrichello is right on Coulthard's tail.
Lap 11: Barrichello overtakes Coulthard for sixth at the first chicane, while Wurz's lively laps come to an end when his gearbox mercifully leaving him with no drive at all.
Lap 12: Hakkinen's lead is 6.2s while the gap from Frentzen to the rest is now over three seconds. The two Williams', Salo, Barrichello and Coulthard are separated by fractions of a second. The gap back to Irvine is 2.5s, and Hill isn't far behind.
Lap 14: Hakkinen's lead is 6.7s. The gap from Frentzen to the Williams duo is down to 3.5s.
Lap 15: Zanardi has pulled out 1.2s on Schumacher, who is still being pushed by Salo, Barrichello and Coulthard.
Lap 16: Schumacher has caught Zanardi again, while further back, Panis pits for 6.4s.
Lap 17: Trulli pits.
Lap 18: Going down to the first chicane, Zanardi waves the faster Schumacher past, and by the end of the lap, Schumacher is 1.6s ahead, with Zanardi quickly caught by Salo and the rest.
Lap 19: Salo says later that he was slowed by Zanardi, but whatever the reason, Barrichello overtakes him for fifth place going into the second chicane, after Curva Grande.
Lap 20: Hakkinen is holding his lead at 7.8s ahead of Frentzen but the gap has now stabilised, Frentzen is 3.9s ahead of Schumacher. Zanardi has fallen 2.7s behind his teammate, and is being pushed by Barrichello, the pair having left Salo to cope with Coulthard. Irvine is still out of touch, with Hill fairly close behind, but not threatening.
Lap 22: Hakkinen's lead drops by a second when he's held up by De la Rosa.
Lap 24: Hakkinen's lead over Frentzen is back to 7.6s, but Ralf Schumacher has closed to 2.7s. Zanardi is being pushed hard by Barrichello, who tries to get past on the next lap and tries again on the lap after that, eventually overtaking and then quickly pulling away. Takagi pits for a new nose section after trying to drive over Badoer at the first chicane, but Badoer is done.
Lap 25: Zonta has a very long stop, some 20s, to have the brakes checked as they felt spongy.
Lap 26: With his brakes no better, Zonta retires in a fit of self preservation.
Lap 27: Just after half distance and the pit stops begin, with Herbert.
Lap 28: Zanardi quickly falls into the clutches of Salo and Coulthard, the Finn swooping past on the front straight to move into fifth place. A dark, brownish smoke can be seen at the back of Zanardi's Williams.
Lap 29: Barrichello pits from fourth place. Coulthard is worrying Zanardi increasingly. Hakkinen gets the signal from his pit to 'push'. He is only 7.5s ahead of Frentzen and needs to be ideally 15s before his pit stop.
Hakkinen spins and stalls.
Lap 30: Hakkinen goes down into the first chicane and selects first gear instead of second. That locks the rear wheels briefly, and he shoots across the first half of the first chicane and off the course. The engine stalls in the process. He is furious with himself, and goes for a solitary sit�down in the woods, a policeman maintaining a watch over him from a respectful distance. Frentzen takes the lead. Trulli retires with high temperatures, which affected the gearbox.
Lap 31: Zanardi pits from fifth place. De la Rosa is also in.
Lap 32: Panis pits.
Lap 33: Ralf Schumacher pits, as does Alesi.
Lap 34: Hill comes in but accidently knocks off the ignition switch which stalls the engine. It also turns off the power steering and while the engine is restarted it is not possible to do the same with the power steering so Damon loses a lot of time and has to continue with a car that is a nightmare to drive. He rejoins in eighth.
Lap 35: Frentzen pits in an excellent 7.6s, while Irvine comes in for 6.9s - the best of the day. Salo briefly leads. Villeneuve also pits, he comes out ahead of Hill, pushing the Jordan driver down to ninth.
Lap 36: Both Salo, from the lead, and Coulthard pit. Salo rejoins after a 6.9s stop, easily returning ahead of the remaining McLaren, Barrichello gets between them and into fourth. De la Rosa retires in the pits with handling problems from his earlier collision. Teammate Takagi spins out of the race.
Lap 37: Due to the pit stops, Frentzen's lead over Schumacher has grown by three seconds, to 5.7s. The Williams driver now has Salo 9.5s behind him, and Salo is just ahead of Barrichello, who is being pushed hard by Coulthard. Then comes a gap to Irvine, who has found, in Zanardi, someone he can outrun. Behind Zanardi, there's a gap to Villeneuve, then another to Hill, who is followed by Alesi and Panis.
Lap 41: Herbert retires with clutch failure. Schumacher starts to try to catch Frentzen.
Lap 44: Salo begins to pull away from Barrichello and Coulthard, and closes on Ralf Schumacher with a couple of quick laps.
Lap 48: Schumacher turns up the pressure and continues to close on Frentzen posting the fastest lap of the race reducing the gap to 4.1s. Further back, Hill is caught by Alesi.
Lap 49: Alesi moves up to ninth place, pusing Damon to tenth.
Lap 50: Coulthard outbrakes himself into the first chicane, but stays on Barrichello's tail. Further back, Zanardi is closing on Irvine.
Lap 52: The lead gap is down to 3.2s but Frentzen seems to be in control. Barichello continues to fight to hold off what is obviously a very much faster Coulthard. Irvine is now less than a second ahead of Zanardi.
Lap 53: Chequered flag. Frentzen takes his second victory of the year, his third ever and the team's third ever. Panis retires on the final lap with engine failure.
Post Race Comments
"This victory here is tremendous for me and the team, " said Heinz-Harald,. "and I do not have enough words to express how I feel. The Championship battle is now really close - I cannot believe it. These 10 points mean a lot to me and the team, especially the team as they're looking at their biggest ever success. It's also my biggest ever success in Formula One and I'm absolutely delighted."
"I didn't really have any problems after the pit stop," Frentzen admitted. "I was just calculating the gap to Ralf and doing what was needed to hold it. I didn't push like hell, I just wanted to bring my baby safely home."
"The team and Mugen-Honda have done a fantastic job to make the car fast and reliable. When I saw Mika go off I thought 'bad luck for him, good luck for me'. We have used every opportunity this year to score points when we can and today we made use of a fantastic opportunity. If this happens in the next races it will give Eddie (Irvine) and me a chance in the Championship.
Regarding his chances for the drivers championship, Heinz said, "I really do have a chance with three races to go. I am only 10 points behind, they have to watch out for me now.
"You have to say the McLarens at the moment are not using their potential and if they start to use it, it will make it hard for us. We are not as quick as them but we are reliable and we are running in the points consistently.
Heinz-Harald celebrates.
"If at the beginning of the season Eddie Jordan had told me that I would be winning races like this I would have told him he was crazy. It is hard to lead a race because you are in control and you are trying to maintain the gap, save the car and you can lose concentration - which is perhaps what happened to Mika. It is a lot easier to push someone from behind. Once I was in the lead I was trying to save the brakes, tyres and engine to finish the race without any problems and it is difficult when you are thinking about all these things."
Heinz-Harald finished by saying that what makes this victory extra special to him is the fact that his girlfriend Tanja Nigge is expecting. "The victory here was tremendous," he said. "But I also have another reason to celebrated as Tanja and I are expecting our first baby. So there's a lot of celebrating to do."
Mike Gascoyne, Technical Director, said, "This win is very special, perhaps better in many ways than the victory in Magny Cours this year or the win in Spa a year ago. We ran a good strategy and Heinz drove extremely well all weekend. We took the fight to McLaren and we won, so it is a great feeling. We have beaten Ferrari fair and square yet again, and that is good too - we have to keep pushing like this. It is also a great win for Mugen-Honda because this is a power circuit and I think they are very happy. It shows how much work they have put into this."
Ian Phillips, Commercial Director commented, "I have always dreamed of winning here in Monza. It's a very special place. It's the first circuit I ever heard about, and to win here in front of the 'tifosi' is something to relish. Fantastic."
Managing Director Trevor Foster added, "It's very satisfying. Heinz drove very well today, he did just what was needed and it's a good win. The whole team worked well all weekend."
Damon Hill commented afterwards, "Naturally I am disappointed, but the problem with the stop was critical and afterwards I slipped back. I am very happy for the team, and Heinz deserves the win today - he really worked hard for it."
As if the day couldn't get better for Eddie Jordan, he won �28,000 after a successful �2,000 gamble on Frentzen at odds of 14-1. "We were powerful all weekend," he said. "We were quick in the qualifying, we came here very optimistic. I had a nice bet with Ladbrokes before I came - I never do that. The last time I did that was in Spa would you believe. I'm very lucky like that so I had a bet on Frentzen.
"I thought we could win another race this season and I believe we have done it in style," he continued, "It was another great day and a great victory for Heinz. We put a little pressure on Mika - not a lot, but enough - and he made a mistake because he had to push harder.
"Those laps prior to the pit stop that Heinz drove were really crucial and he did exactly what was expected of him. We always knew we had a good strategy and we knew that if we were leading at the pit stop we would be OK. The team did a fantastic job in the pits. I thought we could win another race this season, and I believe we have done it in style."
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