1997 Japanese Grand Prix Explained

Type:F1
Country:Japan
Flag Suffix:1947
Grand Prix:Japanese
Official Name:XXIII Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix
Date:12 October
Year:1997
Race No:16
Season No:17
Location:Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka, Mie, Japan
Course:Permanent racing facility
Course Mi:3.641[1]
Course Km:5.860
Distance Laps:53
Distance Mi:192.995
Distance Km:310.596[2]
Weather:Sunny[3]
Attendance:317,000[4]
Pole Driver:Jacques Villeneuve
Pole Team:Williams-Renault
Pole Time:1:36.071[5]
Pole Country:Canada
Fast Driver:Heinz-Harald Frentzen
Fast Team:Williams-Renault
Fast Time:1:38.942
Fast Lap:48[6]
Fast Country:Germany
First Driver:Michael Schumacher
First Team:Ferrari
First Country:Germany
Second Driver:Heinz-Harald Frentzen
Second Team:Williams-Renault
Second Country:Germany
Third Driver:Eddie Irvine
Third Team:Ferrari
Third Country:United Kingdom
Previous Round:1997 Luxembourg Grand Prix
Next Round:1997 European Grand Prix

The 1997 Japanese Grand Prix (officially known as the XXIII Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 12 October 1997 at the Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka. It was the 16th and penultimate race of the 1997 Formula One season.[3] The 53-lap race was won by Michael Schumacher for the Ferrari team after starting from second position. Heinz-Harald Frentzen finished second in a Williams, and Eddie Irvine third in the other Ferrari. Irvine led much of the race before moving over to assist Schumacher's championship battle by blocking Drivers' Championship leader Jacques Villeneuve.

Villeneuve started on pole position in a Williams car. Before the race, it emerged that Villeneuve had been put to the back of the grid, for having ignored waved yellow flags on two consecutive laps during a practice session for the race. Williams appealed and Villeneuve started from the pole. He drove a conservative race to finish 5th, gaining two points. After the race, Williams withdrew their appeal, meaning he lost the two points he originally earned.[7] [8] Schumacher's win put him in front of Villeneuve in the championship on 78 points, with Villeneuve on 77 points.[3] However, as a result of Frentzen finishing second, Williams clinched the Constructors' Championship as Ferrari could not pass their points total with only one race remaining.[9] This race was the last for Gianni Morbidelli.

Report

Practice and qualifying

For each race in the 1997 Formula One season there were four practice sessions; two sessions on Friday and two sessions on Saturday morning. The practice sessions on Friday lasted an hour and the practice sessions on Saturday lasted 45 minutes.[10]

In the first practice session on Saturday morning, an incident occurred 30 minutes into the session. Jos Verstappen in a Tyrrell car pulled over to the side of the track with a fuel pick-up problem. The track marshals as a result waved yellow flags meaning that drivers must slow down at that part of the track. Despite the yellow flags, nine drivers, including Michael Schumacher and Jacques Villeneuve, never slowed down. Villeneuve in the process, set his fastest time of the session on that lap.[5]

Villeneuve set pole position with a time of 1:36.071, half a tenth faster than Schumacher, who was second in the Ferrari setting a time of 1:36.133. Schumacher's team-mate, Eddie Irvine, qualified third, four-tenths behind Villeneuve. McLaren driver Mika Häkkinen rounded out the top four, only three thousands of a second behind Irvine. The Benetton drivers were fifth and seventh; Gerhard Berger ahead of Jean Alesi. Heinz-Harald Frentzen in a Williams split the two in sixth, six-tenths behind Villeneuve.[5]

On the Thursday before practice, the local driver Ukyo Katayama announced his retirement from the category after the next race.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap
13 Jacques VilleneuveWilliams-Renault1:36.071
25 Michael SchumacherFerrari1:36.133+0.062
36 Eddie IrvineFerrari1:36.466+0.395
49 Mika HäkkinenMcLaren-Mercedes1:36.469+0.398
58 Gerhard BergerBenetton-Renault1:36.561+0.490
64 Heinz-Harald FrentzenWilliams-Renault1:36.628+0.557
77 Jean AlesiBenetton-Renault1:36.682+0.611
816 Johnny HerbertSauber-Petronas1:36.906+0.835
912 Giancarlo FisichellaJordan-Peugeot1:36.917+0.846
1014 Olivier PanisProst-Mugen-Honda1:37.073+1.002
1110 David CoulthardMcLaren-Mercedes1:37.095+1.024
1222 Rubens BarrichelloStewart-Ford1:37.343+1.272
1311 Ralf SchumacherJordan-Peugeot1:37.443+1.372
1423 Jan MagnussenStewart-Ford1:37.480+1.409
1515 Shinji NakanoProst-Mugen-Honda1:37.588+1.517
162 Pedro DinizArrows-Yamaha1:37.853+1.782
171 Damon HillArrows-Yamaha1:38.022+1.951
1817 Gianni MorbidelliSauber-Petronas1:38.556+2.485
1920 Ukyo KatayamaMinardi-Hart1:38.983+2.912
2021 Tarso MarquesMinardi-Hart1:39.678+3.607
2118 Jos VerstappenTyrrell-Ford1:40.259+4.188
2219 Mika SaloTyrrell-Ford1:40.529+4.458
107% time

1:42.796

Source:[11]

Race

At the start, Jacques Villeneuve dived to the right and blocked Michael Schumacher, keeping the lead. Behind the frontrunners, Mika Hakkinen passed Eddie Irvine for third. At the final of the first lap, the order was Villeneuve, Michael Schumacher, Hakkinen, Irvine, Frentzen and Berger. Running light on fuel, Irvine started an aggressive climbing of the grid, storming to the lead on lap 3. By lap 5, the Northern Irishman had built a gap of 8.9 seconds from Villeneuve, meanwhile the difference from the Canadian, in 2nd place, to Jean Alesi, in 6th, was less than two seconds. The first casualties were the Stewart duo, retiring with three laps of difference apart. Local heroes Ukyo Katayama and Shinji Nakano soon followed them.

After 13 laps, the drivers started to pit, as did Hakkinen and Berger. At the end of lap 15 Irvine pitted for the lead, 12.7 seconds from Villeneuve in 2nd place. The top-6 were formed then by Michael Schumacher, Frentzen, Johnny Herbert and Giancarlo Fisichella. Schumacher pitted just after his teammate and Villeneuve did the same at the end of lap 19. The Canadian exited the pits just in front of Schumacher, however, with warmer tires, the German stormed to the main straight, dived inside and passed Villeneuve for good. On lap 23, after all the frontrunners had pitted, the order was Irvine, Schumacher, Villeneuve, Frentzen, Hakkinen and Alesi.

The gap from the leader to the second was about 11 seconds on lap 22, but as part of Ferrari's strategy, Irvine soon started to lift his foot and in a couple of laps let Schumacher passed by him to the lead, immediately blocking and holding Villeneuve in third place. The strategy worked perfectly and Villeneuve anticipated his second pit to try to leave the traffic and undercut Irvine. This meant nothing to the Canadian, as he fell down to 6th place and never had the pace to challenge even a podium. After the second round of pits, the major change was in second place, as Frentzen, running heavier on fuel and spending more time on track, passed Irvine for 2nd place. By lap 38 the order was Schumacher, Frentzen (8.5 seconds behind), Irvine, Alesi, Hakkinen and Villeuve (23 seconds from the leader).

Frentzen eventually charged back and reduced the gap to 5 seconds by lap 45, meanwhile Villeneuve passed Alesi for 5th. The scenario was showing a comfortable leading and eventual winning for Schumacher with 8 laps to go; however, with two laps remaining, the German stuck behind Damon Hill, who was about to be lapped. This meant the gap from him to Frentzen to reduce to one second on final stages, but Schumacher cleaned his way and keep the lead until the chequered flag. As Villeneuve had ended in 5th place, the Canadian initially secured the Championship lead by one point. With his disqualification from the race, he lost two points and the Championship lead to Schumacher, also by one point and one round to go.

Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
15 Michael SchumacherFerrari531:29:48.446210
24 Heinz-Harald FrentzenWilliams-Renault53+1.37866
36 Eddie IrvineFerrari53+26.38434
49 Mika HäkkinenMcLaren-Mercedes53+27.12943
57 Jean AlesiBenetton-Renault53+40.40372
616 Johnny HerbertSauber-Petronas53+41.63081
712 Giancarlo FisichellaJordan-Peugeot53+56.8259 
88 Gerhard BergerBenetton-Renault53+1:00.4295 
911 Ralf SchumacherJordan-Peugeot53+1:22.03613 
1010 David CoulthardMcLaren-Mercedes52Engine11 
111 Damon HillArrows-Yamaha52+1 lap17 
122 Pedro DinizArrows-Yamaha52+1 lap16 
1318 Jos VerstappenTyrrell-Ford52+1 lap21 
Ret21 Tarso MarquesMinardi-Hart46Gearbox20 
Ret19 Mika SaloTyrrell-Ford46Engine22 
Ret14 Olivier PanisProst-Mugen-Honda36Engine10 
Ret15 Shinji NakanoProst-Mugen-Honda22Wheel bearing15 
Ret20 Ukyo KatayamaMinardi-Hart8Engine19 
Ret22 Rubens BarrichelloStewart-Ford6Spun off12 
Ret23 Jan MagnussenStewart-Ford3Spun off14 
DSQ3 Jacques VilleneuveWilliams-Renault53Ignored yellow flags during practice1 
DNS17 Gianni MorbidelliSauber-Petronas0Injury18 

Championship standings after the race

Note, only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

Drivers' Championship standings
PosDriverPoints
1 Michael Schumacher78
2 Jacques Villeneuve77
3 Heinz-Harald Frentzen41
4 Jean Alesi36
5 David Coulthard30
Source: [12]
Constructors' Championship standings
PosConstructorPoints
1 Williams-Renault118
2 Ferrari100
3 Benetton-Renault64
4 McLaren-Mercedes47
5 Jordan-Peugeot33
Source:

Notes and References

  1. Web site: 1997 Japanese Grand Prix | Motorsport Database.
  2. Web site: 2013 Japanese Grand Prix: Official Media Kit . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20140307111513/http://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/external_archive/node4131/jpn_media_kit_en_2013.pdf . 7 March 2014 . 2022-09-19 . FIA.com . Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . 31 . PDF.
  3. Book: Domenjoz, Luc. Formula 1 Yearbook – 1997–98. 1997. 8th. Parragon. 0-7525-2386-4. 209. Internet Archive. registration.
  4. Web site: Formula 1 Honda Japanese Grand Prix 2022 – Media Kit . . 5 October 2022 . 5 October 2022.
  5. Book: Domenjoz, Luc. Formula 1 Yearbook – 1997–98. 1997. 8th. Parragon. 0-7525-2386-4. 204. Internet Archive. registration.
  6. Book: Domenjoz, Luc. Formula 1 Yearbook – 1997–98. 1997. 8th. Parragon. 0-7525-2386-4. 205. Internet Archive. registration.
  7. Web site: Villeneuve in trouble. GrandPrix.com. 1997-10-13. 2008-05-09.
  8. Web site: Williams drops its appeal. GrandPrix.com. 1997-10-20. 2008-05-09.
  9. Web site: Grand Prix Results: Japanese GP, 1997. GrandPrix.com. 2008-05-09.
  10. Book: Domenjoz, Luc. Formula 1 Yearbook – 1997–98. Parragon. 1997. 0-7525-2386-4. 8th. 220. Internet Archive. registration.
  11. Web site: Japan 1997 – Qualifications . StatsF1 . 27 March 2016.
  12. Web site: Japan 1997 – Championship • STATS F1. www.statsf1.com. 18 March 2019.