The 1999 Belgian Grand Prix (formally the LVII Foster's Belgian Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 29 August 1999 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Francorchamps, Belgium. It was the twelfth race of the 1999 Formula One World Championship.
The 44-lap race was won by British driver David Coulthard, driving a McLaren-Mercedes, after he started from second position. Finn Mika Häkkinen took pole position in the other McLaren-Mercedes, but Coulthard overtook him at the first corner and went on to lead all 44 laps. Häkkinen finished second, some 10 seconds behind, with German Heinz-Harald Frentzen third in a Jordan-Mugen-Honda.
Häkkinen took back the lead of the Drivers' Championship by one point from Eddie Irvine, who finished fourth in his Ferrari, while McLaren moved into the lead of the Constructors' Championship, nine points ahead of Ferrari.
Former world Champion Damon Hill scored his last points at this race.
Report
Background The Grand Prix was contested by 22 drivers, in eleven teams of two. The teams, also known as Constructors, were McLaren, Ferrari, Williams, Jordan, Benetton, Sauber, Arrows, Stewart, Prost, Minardi and BAR.
Before the race, Ferrari driver Eddie Irvine was leading the Drivers' Championship on 56 points; McLaren driver Mika Häkkinen was second on 54 points. Behind them in the Drivers' Championship, David Coulthard was third on 36 points in the other McLaren, with Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Michael Schumacher on 36 and 32 points respectively. In the Constructors' Championship, Ferrari were leading on 94 points and McLaren were second on 90 points, with Jordan third on 42 points.
Following the Hungarian Grand Prix on 15 August, the teams conducted testing sessions at the Silverstone circuit on 17–19 August. Häkkinen set the fastest time on the first, second and final days of testing. Ferrari traveled to their testing circuit at Mugello on 18–20 August, running Schumacher on the final day after being cleared by doctors to test. After completing 20 laps, Schumacher suffered from ankle pain preventing him completing a physical training programme. Ferrari later announced that temporary replacement Mika Salo would continue to race for the team.
Several teams announced changes to their driver line-ups for the following season. Benetton confirmed that the team was retaining their driver line-up of Giancarlo Fisichella and Alexander Wurz, with an option for 2001. Sauber announced that it would sign up Salo on a two-year contract and retain Pedro Diniz. Jordan confirmed that it was signing Prost driver Jarno Trulli on a two-year contract, replacing Damon Hill.
Practice and qualifying
Four practice sessions were held before the Sunday race—two on Friday, and two on Saturday. The Friday morning and afternoon sessions each lasted an hour. The third and final practice sessions were held on Saturday morning and lasted 45 minutes. The Friday sessions were held in dry and sunny conditions. Häkkinen was quickest in the first session, with a time of 1:54.396 that was less than half a second faster than Coulthard. Williams driver Ralf Schumacher was just off Coulthard's pace; Salo, Irvine and Jean Alesi rounded out the top six; within 1.3 seconds of Häkkinen's time. In the second practice session, Coulthard was fastest with a time of 1:53.577, ahead of Häkkinen, Fisichella, Frentzen, Hill and Schumacher.
Saturday's afternoon qualifying session lasted for an hour. During this session, the 107% rule was in effect, which necessitated each driver set a time within 107% of the quickest lap to qualify for the race. Each driver was limited to twelve laps. Häkkinen clinched his tenth pole position of the season with a time of 1:50.329. He was joined on the front row by Coulthard, who was one-tenth of a second behind. Frentzen qualified third, though be believed he could have gone faster due to two separate red flag incidents.
BAR drivers Jacques Villeneuve and Ricardo Zonta both suffered massive, high-speed accidents at the fast Eau Rouge sweep during the qualifying session. Both accidents caused the session to be suspended.
Race The conditions were dry for the race with the air temperature and the track temperature . The drivers took to the track at 09:30 (UTC +2) for a 30-minute warm-up session.
Coulthard took the lead from Häkkinen at the start by going around the outside of La Source, the McLaren team-mates making light contact. After emerging ahead, Coulthard led every lap of the race to claim his second victory of the season, ten seconds ahead of his team-mate. Häkkinen refused to shake Coulthard's hand after the race.
Heinz-Harald Frentzen finished third, with the rest of the top six completed by Eddie Irvine, Ralf Schumacher and Damon Hill. This would prove to be Hill's final points scoring finish in Formula 1. Jacques Villeneuve managed to see the chequered flag for the first time of the season.
Classification
Qualifying Pos No Driver Constructor Lap Gap 1 1 Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 1:50.329 2 2 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 1:50.484 +0.155 3 8 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Jordan-Mugen-Honda 1:51.332 +1.003 4 7 Damon Hill Jordan-Mugen-Honda 1:51.372 +1.043 5 6 Ralf Schumacher Williams-Supertec 1:51.414 +1.085 6 4 Eddie Irvine Ferrari 1:51.895 +1.566 7 16 Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 1:51.974 +1.645 8 5 Alessandro Zanardi Williams-Supertec 1:52.014 +1.685 9 3 Mika Salo Ferrari 1:52.124 +1.795 10 17 Johnny Herbert Stewart-Ford 1:52.164 +1.835 11 22 Jacques Villeneuve BAR-Supertec 1:52.235 +1.906 12 19 Jarno Trulli Prost-Peugeot 1:52.644 +2.315 13 9 Giancarlo Fisichella Benetton-Playlife 1:52.762 +2.433 14 23 Ricardo Zonta BAR-Supertec 1:52.840 +2.511 15 10 Alexander Wurz Benetton-Playlife 1:52.847 +2.518 16 11 Jean Alesi Sauber-Petronas 1:52.921 +2.592 17 18 Olivier Panis Prost-Peugeot 1:53.148 +2.819 18 12 Pedro Diniz Sauber-Petronas 1:53.778 +3.449 19 15 Toranosuke Takagi Arrows 1:54.099 +3.770 20 20 Luca Badoer Minardi-Ford 1:54.197 +3.868 21 21 Marc Gené Minardi-Ford 1:54.557 +4.228 22 14 Pedro de la Rosa Arrows 1:54.579 +4.250107% time: 1:58.052Source:
Race Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 2 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 44 1:25:43.057 2 10 2 1 Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 44 + 10.469 1 6 3 8 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Jordan-Mugen-Honda 44 + 33.433 3 4 4 4 Eddie Irvine Ferrari 44 + 44.948 6 3 5 6 Ralf Schumacher Williams-Supertec 44 + 48.067 5 2 6 7 Damon Hill Jordan-Mugen-Honda 44 + 54.916 4 1 7 3 Mika Salo Ferrari 44 + 56.249 9 8 5 Alessandro Zanardi Williams-Supertec 44 + 1:07.022 8 9 11 Jean Alesi Sauber-Petronas 44 + 1:13.848 16 10 16 Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 44 + 1:20.742 7 11 9 Giancarlo Fisichella Benetton-Playlife 44 + 1:32.195 13 12 19 Jarno Trulli Prost-Peugeot 44 + 1:36.154 12 13 18 Olivier Panis Prost-Peugeot 44 + 1:41.543 17 14 10 Alexander Wurz Benetton-Playlife 44 + 1:57.745 15 15 22 Jacques Villeneuve BAR-Supertec 43 + 1 lap 11 16 21 Marc Gené Minardi-Ford 43 + 1 lap 21 14 Pedro de la Rosa Arrows 35 Transmission 22 20 Luca Badoer Minardi-Ford 33 Suspension 20 23 Ricardo Zonta BAR-Supertec 33 Gearbox 14 17 Johnny Herbert Stewart-Ford 27 Brakes 10 12 Pedro Diniz Sauber-Petronas 19 Spun off 18 15 Toranosuke Takagi Arrows 0 Clutch 19
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Mika Häkkinen60 2 Eddie Irvine59 3 David Coulthard46 4 Heinz-Harald Frentzen40 5 Michael Schumacher32Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 McLaren-Mercedes106 2 Ferrari97 3 Jordan-Mugen-Honda47 4 Williams-Supertec24 5 Benetton-Playlife16Source:
References