| 1997 Argentine Grand Prix | |||||
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Race 3 of 17 in the1997 Formula One World Championship
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| Race details | |||||
| Date | 13 April 1997 | ||||
| Official name | XX Gran Premio Marlboro de la Republica Argentina | ||||
| Location | Autódromo Oscar Alfredo Gálvez Buenos Aires,Argentina | ||||
| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||||
| Course length | 4.259 km (2.646 miles) | ||||
| Distance | 72 laps, 306.648 km (190.542 miles) | ||||
| Weather | Partially cloudy and dry, with temperatures reaching up to 21 °C (70 °F)[1] | ||||
| Pole position | |||||
| Driver | Williams-Renault | ||||
| Time | 1:24.473 | ||||
| Fastest lap | |||||
| Driver |  Gerhard Berger | Benetton-Renault | |||
| Time | 1:27.981 on lap 63 | ||||
| Podium | |||||
| First | Williams-Renault | ||||
| Second | Ferrari | ||||
| Third | Jordan-Peugeot | ||||
Lap leaders | |||||
The1997 Argentine Grand Prix was aFormula One motor race held atAutódromo Oscar Alfredo Gálvez inBuenos Aires,Argentina on 13 April 1997. It was the third race of the1997 Formula One World Championship, and the 600th World Championship Grand Prix.
The 72-lap race was won frompole position byJacques Villeneuve, driving aWilliams-Renault.Eddie Irvine finished second in aFerrari, whileRalf Schumacher, in only his third F1 race, finished third in aJordan-Peugeot.
Most of the talk before the grand prix was aboutHeinz-Harald Frentzen andEddie Irvine and their poor starts to the season. Despite going out of business,Lola Team PrincipalEric Broadley was confident that the team could be up and running again by theSan Marino Grand Prix, albeit with a new main sponsor. TheTyrrell team also caused a stir after arriving at the grand prix with four new wings on the car, two on the nose cone, the other two alongside the drivers head. They resembledx-wings and this was soon used as their nickname. The practice session bought no surprises with the two Williams cars first and second.
As with the practice session, both Williams were once again on the front row, withJacques Villeneuve on pole. The first real surprise of the weekend was the performance ofOlivier Panis in the Prost, who managed to qualify third on the grid. Another strong performance was the fifth place of Rubens Barrichello in theStewart. As expected, both McLarens qualified low down the field, complaining of poor handling on the bumpy surface. The slowest qualifier Pedro Diniz's lap time would have still been comfortably fast enough to have put him on pole for the previous year's race.
As the red lights went out, Jacques Villeneuve cleanly navigated the first corner and began to pull away from the other front runners. Michael Schumacher (who was unsighted by oil from Frentzen's car) almost collided with Panis, but the Frenchman moved off line to drop a few places rather than to collide with the Ferrari. Going into the first corner, Michael Schumacher was alongside his teammate Irvine and Rubens Barrichello. However, Michael then understeered and crashed into the back of Barrichello's car causing the Brazilian to spin and getting himself to retire. Barrichello would eventually change his front nose and get going again. But in the melee, Coulthard crashed into the back of Ralf Schumacher's Jordan, ripping of his front wheel and putting him out of the race. The track was unpassable with the back of the field taking to the grass to get round the incident, so theSafety Car was called out.
The biggest improvement was made byPedro Diniz, who climbed eleven places from last to 11th spot on the first lap. At the restart after 4 laps, Villeneuve once again pulled away from Frentzen and Panis, but Frentzen's race ended on lap 6 with throttle problems. The chance of victory forProst ended on lap 18, also with throttle problems. BothArrows drivers showed a strong run on the first third of the race, withDamon Hill chasingJean Alesi for the sixth place and Pedro Diniz in 8th holdingJos Verstappen,Gerhard Berger andMika Häkkinen. When Damon Hill and Jean Alesi tangled braking into Turn 1, Diniz was able to slip by both.
On lap 24 the two Jordans collided withGiancarlo Fisichella retiring from the race. Hill, who was up to 4th at one point, retired with engine failure on lap 33, meanwhile his teammate suffered with a long pit stop, which costed him more than fifty seconds, dropped back and retired with engine failure too. Although in the final few laps Irvine closed the gap to Villeneuve, the Canadian held tight and went on to win his sixth career grand prix. Irvine finished second, the highest finish of his career at that point, withRalf Schumacher scoring his first podium in third.
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On the podium the organisers flew theIrish tricolour for Irvine,[2] instead of theUnion Jack that was usually[citation needed] flown for Northern Irish drivers. Although Irvine identifies himself as Irish despite holding a British passport, his parents' house inCounty Down was targeted byloyalists as they felt they had been betrayed by the Ferrari driver.[citation needed] Irvine subsequently asked for a white flag with a shamrock to be used if he secured another podium finish;[citation needed] however, the FIA insisted that the Union Jack be used in future.[2][failed verification]
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First podium: Ralf Schumacher
Race Details:"1997 Argentine GP".Chicane F1. Retrieved2007-08-06.
| Previous race: 1997 Brazilian Grand Prix | FIA Formula One World Championship 1997 season | Next race: 1997 San Marino Grand Prix |
| Previous race: 1996 Argentine Grand Prix | Argentine Grand Prix | Next race: 1998 Argentine Grand Prix |
