The 1997 Brazilian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Autódromo José Carlos Pace near Interlagos, Brazil on 30 March 1997. It was the second race of the 1997 Formula One season. The 72-lap race was won by Williams driver Jacques Villeneuve after he started from pole position. Gerhard Berger finished second for the Benetton team and Prost driver Olivier Panis was third.
Summary
Lola withdrawal Having failed to qualify for the previous race in Australia, things went from bad to worse for Lola as the Huntingdon-based team arrived in Brazil still not having received any money from title sponsor MasterCard. Already several million dollars in debt, the team returned to base without completing a lap of the circuit. As a result of this Lola's driver Ricardo Rosset was unable to compete at his home Grand Prix. A few days later, the team officially withdrew from the championship.
Qualifying Jacques Villeneuve took his third consecutive, and his career fifth, pole position after a 1:16.004, over half a second faster than Michael Schumacher in second. Gerhard Berger and Mika Häkkinen completed the second row.
Race The race was red-flagged after several incidents at the original start. Jacques Villeneuve went off the track at the first corner. Behind him, an incident involved several drivers including Damon Hill, Eddie Irvine, Giancarlo Fisichella and Jan Magnussen. Irvine took some blame for the incident. Additionally, Rubens Barrichello's car failed on the line, and the track blockage was what ultimately caused the red flag. Barrichello took the restart in the spare Stewart, causing Magnussen to miss the race.
The race was restarted with all 72 laps still remaining. Villeneuve had a clean start, as did the rest of the field. At the end of the first lap Villeneuve passed Michael Schumacher to retake the lead. Later before the first pit stops Berger would also pass Schumacher down the pit straight into the first corner. Irvine came into the pits mid-race, having been suffering from enormous pain due to his belts tightening up in the cockpit.
Damon Hill was once again affected by reliability issues, his engine failing with four laps remaining. He was running in fourth place at one point, but had slipped down the field before retiring in the pits with an engine bay fire caused by an oil leak. The winner of the previous race, David Coulthard, was off the pace and finished in 10th place.
Classification
Qualifying
Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap 1 3 Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Renault 1:16.004 2 5 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:16.594 +0.590 3 8 Gerhard Berger Benetton-Renault 1:16.644 +0.640 4 9 Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 1:16.692 +0.688 5 14 Olivier Panis Prost-Mugen-Honda 1:16.756 +0.752 6 7 Jean Alesi Benetton-Renault 1:16.757 +0.753 7 12 Giancarlo Fisichella Jordan-Peugeot 1:16.912 +0.908 8 4 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams-Renault 1:16.924 +0.920 9 1 Damon Hill Arrows-Yamaha 1:17.090 +1.086 10 11 Ralf Schumacher Jordan-Peugeot 1:17.175 +1.171 11 22 Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 1:17.259 +1.255 12 10 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 1:17.262 +1.258 13 16 Johnny Herbert Sauber-Petronas 1:17.409 +1.405 14 6 Eddie Irvine Ferrari 1:17.527 +1.523 15 15 Shinji Nakano Prost-Mugen-Honda 1:17.999 +1.995 16 2 Pedro Diniz Arrows-Yamaha 1:18.095 +2.091 17 21 Jarno Trulli Minardi-Hart 1:18.336 +2.332 18 20 Ukyo Katayama Minardi-Hart 1:18.557 +2.553 19 17 Nicola Larini Sauber-Petronas 1:18.644 +2.640 20 23 Jan Magnussen Stewart-Ford 1:18.773 +2.769 21 18 Jos Verstappen Tyrrell-Ford 1:18.885 +2.881 22 19 Mika Salo Tyrrell-Ford 1:19.274 +3.270107% time: 1:21.324
Race Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 3 Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Renault 72 1:36:06.990 1 10 2 8 Gerhard Berger Benetton-Renault 72 +4.190 3 6 3 14 Olivier Panis Prost-Mugen-Honda 72 +15.870 5 4 4 9 Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 72 +33.033 4 3 5 5 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 72 +33.731 2 2 6 7 Jean Alesi Benetton-Renault 72 +34.020 6 1 7 16 Johnny Herbert Sauber-Petronas 72 +50.912 13 8 12 Giancarlo Fisichella Jordan-Peugeot 72 +1:00.639 7 9 4 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams-Renault 72 +1:15.402 8 10 10 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 71 +1 Lap 12 11 17 Nicola Larini Sauber-Petronas 71 +1 Lap 19 12 21 Jarno Trulli Minardi-Hart 71 +1 Lap 17 13 19 Mika Salo Tyrrell-Ford 71 +1 Lap 22 14 15 Shinji Nakano Prost-Mugen-Honda 71 +1 Lap 15 15 18 Jos Verstappen Tyrrell-Ford 70 +2 Laps 21 16 6 Eddie Irvine Ferrari 70 +2 Laps 14 17 1 Damon Hill Arrows-Yamaha 68 Engine 9 18 20 Ukyo Katayama Minardi-Hart 67 +5 Laps 18 11 Ralf Schumacher Jordan-Peugeot 52 Electrical 10 22 Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 16 Suspension 11 2 Pedro Diniz Arrows-Yamaha 15 Suspension 16 23 Jan Magnussen Stewart-Ford 0 Collision 20
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 David Coulthard 10 2 Jacques Villeneuve 10 3 Gerhard Berger 9 4 Michael Schumacher 8 5 Mika Häkkinen 7Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 McLaren-Mercedes 17 2 Benetton-Renault 10 3 Williams-Renault 10 4 Ferrari 8 5 Prost-Mugen-Honda 6Source:
Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
References
Race Details: