The 1997 Monaco Grand Prix (formally the LV Grand Prix de Monaco) was a Formula One race held on 11 May 1997 at the Circuit de Monaco, Monte Carlo. It was the fifth race of the 1997 Formula One World Championship. The 62-lap race was won by Michael Schumacher, driving a Ferrari, after starting from second position. Rubens Barrichello finished second in a Stewart-Ford, with Eddie Irvine third in the other Ferrari.
Heinz-Harald Frentzen, driving a Williams-Renault, started from pole position ahead of Schumacher. Frentzen and teammate Jacques Villeneuve made poor starts, and both retired from the race in separate accidents. Schumacher won by some 53 seconds from Barrichello, who scored the first podium for the Stewart team in only their fifth Grand Prix. The race had been scheduled for 78 laps, but rainy conditions meant that only 62 laps were run before the two-hour time limit was reached.
The win enabled Schumacher to take over the lead of the Drivers' Championship from Villeneuve, and Ferrari to move ahead of Williams in the Constructors' Championship.
Background Heading into this race, the fifth of the 1997 season, Williams driver Jacques Villeneuve led the Drivers' Championship with 20 points, followed by Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher on 14. Behind them were five drivers on 10 points each: Villeneuve's teammate Heinz-Harald Frentzen, McLaren driver David Coulthard, Schumacher's teammate Eddie Irvine, Benetton driver Gerhard Berger, and Coulthard's teammate Mika Häkkinen. In the Constructors' Championship, Williams led with 30 points, followed by Ferrari on 24 and McLaren on 20.
Qualifying report Qualifying saw Frentzen take pole position in his Williams by just 0.019 seconds from Michael Schumacher's Ferrari, with Villeneuve third in the other Williams, a further 0.3 seconds back. It was Frentzen's first pole position in Formula One. The Jordans of Giancarlo Fisichella and Ralf Schumacher were fourth and sixth respectively, with Coulthard's McLaren between them. Completing the top ten were Johnny Herbert's Sauber, Häkkinen in the other McLaren, Jean Alesi's Benetton, and Rubens Barrichello's Stewart. Further down the grid, Irvine could only manage 15th in the other Ferrari.
Qualifying classification Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap 1 4 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams-Renault 1:18.216 2 5 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:18.235 +0.019 3 3 Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Renault 1:18.583 +0.367 4 12 Giancarlo Fisichella Jordan-Peugeot 1:18.665 +0.449 5 10 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 1:18.779 +0.563 6 11 Ralf Schumacher Jordan-Peugeot 1:18.943 +0.727 7 16 Johnny Herbert Sauber-Petronas 1:19.105 +0.889 8 9 Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 1:19.119 +0.903 9 7 Jean Alesi Benetton-Renault 1:19.263 +1.047 10 22 Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 1:19.295 +1.079 11 17 Nicola Larini Sauber-Petronas 1:19.468 +1.252 12 14 Olivier Panis Prost-Mugen-Honda 1:19.626 +1.410 13 1 Damon Hill Arrows-Yamaha 1:19.674 +1.458 14 19 Mika Salo Tyrrell-Ford 1:19.694 +1.478 15 6 Eddie Irvine Ferrari 1:19.723 +1.507 16 2 Pedro Diniz Arrows-Yamaha 1:19.860 +1.644 17 8 Gerhard Berger Benetton-Renault 1:20.199 +1.983 18 21 Jarno Trulli Minardi-Hart 1:20.349 +2.133 19 23 Jan Magnussen Stewart-Ford 1:20.516 +2.300 20 20 Ukyo Katayama Minardi-Hart 1:20.606 +2.390 21 15 Shinji Nakano Prost-Mugen-Honda 1:20.961 +2.745 22 18 Jos Verstappen Tyrrell-Ford 1:21.290 +3.074107% time: 1:23.691Source:
Race report The warm-up session was dry, with Williams taking first and second places. About 30 minutes before the start, however, rain began to fall; Williams decided to run both cars with dry tyres, thinking the weather would improve, while Michael Schumacher set the car for intermediate weather conditions. During the warm up lap, the weather worsened, and at the start, Schumacher was quickest. He led by 22 seconds on lap 5. Behind him the Jordans of Fisichella and Ralf Schumacher, which both had the car set for rain, took second and third spots, until they were both passed by Barrichello's Stewart, who benefited from the Bridgestone wet tyres, which were better than Goodyear's under those conditions.
The start of the race was catastrophic for the Arrows team, as Pedro Diniz, who had opted to start the race on slick tyres, spun out after the hairpin on the opening lap, while his teammate Damon Hill was involved in a collision with Irvine's Ferrari on the second lap, breaking his suspension. Both McLarens also retired on lap two as Coulthard hit the wall exiting the tunnel, and Häkkinen ran into the back of Alesi's Benetton as they passed Coulthard's car.
Both Willams drivers went out of the race after they had to pit to change their tyres. Villeneuve hit a wall on lap 17, while Frentzen hit a barrier at the chicane on lap 39. Schumacher continued to build his lead until he had about 30 seconds advantage over Barrichello; then he backed off and began to maintain the gap. He made an error on lap 53 at the Sainte Devote corner, going down the escape road and losing 10 seconds, but did not lose his lead. Only 62 of the scheduled 78 laps were run as the two-hour time limit was reached, and Schumacher won with a 53-second margin over Barrichello. Irvine finished third after overtaking Olivier Panis, exacting some measure of revenge for Panis' overtaking manoeuvre that had seen him get past Irvine a year earlier. After losing third place to Irvine, Panis backed off in the closing stages and settled for fourth place. Mika Salo finished fifth despite denting his front wing on debris left from Häkkinen's accident early on, and also despite not making a single pit stop during the race. He also took Tyrrel's last points. Fisichella, who at one point was running as high as second place, finished in sixth. The race was the first win for a Ferrari driver at Monaco since the 1981 running of the race.
On the podium, the flag displayed for Eddie Irvine was that of the Republic of Ireland, instead of the Union Jack of the United Kingdom (Irvine being from Northern Ireland, a country within the UK). This was due to a complication regarding the Superlicence that a driver is required to have in order to race in Formula One (Irvine's licence having been issued by an office in Dublin, thus resulting in the Irish tricolour being flown).
This was the final F1 race for Sauber driver Nicola Larini.
Race classification Pos No Driver Constructor Tyre Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 5 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 62 2:00:05.654 2 10 2 22 Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 62 + 53.306 10 6 3 6 Eddie Irvine Ferrari 62 + 1:22.108 15 4 4 14 Olivier Panis Prost-Mugen-Honda 62 + 1:44.402 12 3 5 19 Mika Salo Tyrrell-Ford 61 + 1 lap 14 2 6 12 Giancarlo Fisichella Jordan-Peugeot 61 + 1 lap 4 1 7 23 Jan Magnussen Stewart-Ford 61 + 1 lap 19 8 18 Jos Verstappen Tyrrell-Ford 60 + 2 laps 22 9 8 Gerhard Berger Benetton-Renault 60 + 2 laps 17 10 20 Ukyo Katayama Minardi-Hart 60 + 2 laps 20 4 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams-Renault 39 Accident 1 15 Shinji Nakano Prost-Mugen-Honda 36 Accident 21 17 Nicola Larini Sauber-Petronas 24 Accident 11 7 Jean Alesi Benetton-Renault 16 Spun off 9 3 Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Renault 16 Accident damage 3 11 Ralf Schumacher Jordan-Peugeot 10 Accident 6 16 Johnny Herbert Sauber-Petronas 9 Accident 7 21 Jarno Trulli Minardi-Hart 7 Accident 18 10 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 1 Accident 5 9 Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 1 Collision 8 1 Damon Hill Arrows-Yamaha 1 Collision 13 2 Pedro Diniz Arrows-Yamaha 0 Spun off 16
Notes Last points for a V8-powered car until the 2006 Bahrain Grand Prix.
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Michael Schumacher 24 2 Jacques Villeneuve 20 3 Eddie Irvine 14 4 Heinz-Harald Frentzen 10 5 David Coulthard 10Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Ferrari 38 2 Williams-Renault 30 3 McLaren-Mercedes 20 4 Benetton-Renault 13 5 Prost-Mugen-Honda 9Source:
References