The 1998 French Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Magny-Cours on 28 June 1998. It was the eighth race of the 1998 FIA Formula One World Championship.
The 71-lap race was won by German driver Michael Schumacher, driving a Ferrari. It was Schumacher's third victory of the season. Northern Irish teammate Eddie Irvine finished second, with Finn Mika Häkkinen third in a McLaren-Mercedes, having started from pole position. The result marked Ferrari's first one-two finish since the 1990 Spanish Grand Prix.
Report
Background The race was originally dropped due to a dispute over television broadcasting rights in France. Though TF1 had the rights, rival channel France 3 obtained a judgement from a French court to allow all channels to operate on the grounds of the circuit.
Jos Verstappen replaced Jan Magnussen at the Stewart team for the remainder of the season.
Qualifying Mika Häkkinen of McLaren-Mercedes took pole position, beating Michael Schumacher by 0.2 seconds. David Coulthard qualified third, and Eddie Irvine took fourth place. Throughout the qualifying session, Schumacher and Häkkinen exchanged first place, until Häkkinen finally took the pole.
Race At the beginning of the race, Verstappen stalled his Stewart, the race was stopped on lap 1, and a restart was required. At the second start, Häkkinen was overtaken by Michael Schumacher and Irvine. Schumacher then began to pull away, sometimes at one second a lap, with Irvine holding both the McLarens behind him. On lap 20, Häkkinen tried an ambitious move on Irvine. His attempt failed, and he spun into the gravel trap. However, he managed to keep his car going, pitted for fresh tyres, and rejoined in fourth place. Then he regained third place when Coulthard had problems during his pit stop: Coulthard went into the pits, but due to a fuel filling problem, had to do another lap, and then go into the pits again. After the second set of pit stops, Häkkinen was back behind Irvine, and Schumacher was some way in front. On the final lap, on the final corner, Häkkinen made an attempt to overtake Irvine, after Irvine was very slow through the chicane before the final corner. Irvine just held off Häkkinen to take second, but only by a tenth of a second. However, both drivers were 19 seconds behind Schumacher. After Coulthard's misfortune in the pitlane, he finished sixth, scoring one world championship point. It was Ferrari's first 1–2 in 8 years, the previous being at the 1990 Spanish Grand Prix, with Alain Prost and Nigel Mansell.
Classification Qualifying Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap 1 8 Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 1:14.929 2 3 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:15.159 +0.230 3 7 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 1:15.333 +0.404 4 4 Eddie Irvine Ferrari 1:15.527 +0.598 5 1 Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Mecachrome 1:15.630 +0.701 6 10 Ralf Schumacher Jordan-Mugen-Honda 1:15.925 +0.996 7 9 Damon Hill Jordan-Mugen-Honda 1:16.245 +1.316 8 2 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams-Mecachrome 1:16.319 +1.390 9 5 Giancarlo Fisichella Benetton-Playlife 1:16.375 +1.446 10 6 Alexander Wurz Benetton-Playlife 1:16.460 +1.531 11 14 Jean Alesi Sauber-Petronas 1:16.627 +1.698 12 12 Jarno Trulli Prost-Peugeot 1:16.892 +1.963 13 15 Johnny Herbert Sauber-Petronas 1:16.977 +2.048 14 18 Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 1:17.024 +2.095 15 19 Jos Verstappen Stewart-Ford 1:17.604 +2.675 16 11 Olivier Panis Prost-Peugeot 1:17.671 +2.742 17 16 Pedro Diniz Arrows 1:17.880 +2.951 18 20 Ricardo Rosset Tyrrell-Ford 1:17.908 +2.979 19 17 Mika Salo Arrows 1:17.970 +3.041 20 21 Toranosuke Takagi Tyrrell-Ford 1:18.221 +3.292 21 22 Shinji Nakano Minardi-Ford 1:18.273 +3.344 22 23 Esteban Tuero Minardi-Ford 1:19.146 +4.217107% time: 1:20.174 Source:
Race Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 3 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 71 1:34:45.026 2 10 2 4 Eddie Irvine Ferrari 71 + 19.575 4 6 3 8 Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 71 + 19.747 1 4 4 1 Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Mecachrome 71 + 1:06.965 5 3 5 6 Alexander Wurz Benetton-Playlife 70 + 1 lap 10 2 6 7 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 70 + 1 lap 3 1 7 14 Jean Alesi Sauber-Petronas 70 + 1 lap 11 8 15 Johnny Herbert Sauber-Petronas 70 + 1 lap 13 9 5 Giancarlo Fisichella Benetton-Playlife 70 + 1 lap 9 10 18 Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 69 + 2 laps 14 11 11 Olivier Panis Prost-Peugeot 69 + 2 laps 16 12 19 Jos Verstappen Stewart-Ford 69 + 2 laps 15 13 17 Mika Salo Arrows 69 + 2 laps 19 14 16 Pedro Diniz Arrows 69 + 2 laps 17 15 2 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams-Mecachrome 68 Suspension 8 16 10 Ralf Schumacher Jordan-Mugen-Honda 68 + 3 laps 6 17 22 Shinji Nakano Minardi-Ford 65 Engine 21 21 Toranosuke Takagi Tyrrell-Ford 60 Engine 20 12 Jarno Trulli Prost-Peugeot 55 Spun off 12 23 Esteban Tuero Minardi-Ford 41 Gearbox 22 9 Damon Hill Jordan-Mugen-Honda 19 Hydraulics 7 20 Ricardo Rosset Tyrrell-Ford 16 Hydraulics 18
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Mika Häkkinen 50 2 Michael Schumacher 44 3 David Coulthard 30 4 Eddie Irvine 25 5 Alexander Wurz 14Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 McLaren-Mercedes 80 2 Ferrari 69 3 Benetton-Playlife 27 4 Williams-Mecachrome 19 5 Stewart-Ford 5Source:
References