| 1997 Belgian Grand Prix | |||||
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Race 12 of 17 in the1997 Formula One World Championship
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| Race details | |||||
| Date | 24 August 1997 | ||||
| Official name | LV Belgian Grand Prix | ||||
| Location | Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps Francorchamps,Wallonia,Belgium[1] | ||||
| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||||
| Course length | 6.968 km (4.330 miles) | ||||
| Distance | 44 laps, 306.592 km (190.507 miles) | ||||
| Weather | Wet, then drying out with temperatures reaching up to 28 °C (82 °F)[2] | ||||
| Pole position | |||||
| Driver | Williams-Renault | ||||
| Time | 1:49.450 | ||||
| Fastest lap | |||||
| Driver |  Jacques Villeneuve | Williams-Renault | |||
| Time | 1:52.692 on lap 43 | ||||
| Podium | |||||
| First | Ferrari | ||||
| Second | Jordan-Peugeot | ||||
| Third | Williams-Renault | ||||
Lap leaders | |||||
The1997 Belgian Grand Prix (formally the LV Belgian Grand Prix) was aFormula One motor race held atSpa-Francorchamps on 24 August 1997. It was the twelfth race of the1997 Formula One World Championship.
The 44-lap race was won byMichael Schumacher, driving aFerrari.Giancarlo Fisichella finished second in aJordan-Peugeot, withHeinz-Harald Frentzen third in aWilliams-Renault afterMika Häkkinen'sMcLaren-Mercedes was disqualified due to a fuel irregularity. Schumacher's Drivers' Championship rival,Jacques Villeneuve, finished fifth in the other Williams-Renault, having started frompole position. This was the first Formula One World Championship race to start behind aSafety Car.
With the win, Schumacher extended his lead over Villeneuve in the Drivers' Championship to 11 points with five races remaining.
The race is regarded by many as one of Schumacher's greatest drives. He started from third on the grid after qualifying had been dominated by his World Championship rival,Jacques Villeneuve. In the morning warm-up, which took place in hot, dry weather, Schumacher was only 15th. However, to everyone's surprise, heavy rain started to fall around half an hour before the scheduled race start and continued for around twenty minutes, completely changing the conditions and resulting in the field starting behind thesafety car, the first time this happened in Formula One history.[3]
In the excitement, Schumacher's brotherRalf - who had qualified sixth - spun and crashed hisJordan at Stavelot while going to take his place on the grid. He was forced to start from the pit lane in his spare car. Explaining the incident toITV later, he said: "I had nothing to lose, and I lost it.". Also during the period of cars assembling on the grid Michael Schumacher made exploratory laps (by returning to the pits rather than the grid) in both his race car and the spare Ferrari, enabling him to assess the track situation and choose the spare that had been set-up for intermediate weather conditions.[3]
Of the front runners, bothWilliams drivers andJean Alesi in theBenetton - alongside Villeneuve on the front row - started onfull wet tyres while the others started on intermediates. The safety car circulated for the first three laps, and at the end of lap 4 - the first proper racing lap - Villeneuve continued to lead from Alesi and Schumacher. However, this was where the German driver started to take control of the race. He made a brave pass inside Alesi at the La Source hairpin at the start of lap 5, then overtook Villeneuve at the Rivage loop on the same lap. By the end of the lap he was already 5.8 seconds ahead, and on the next lap he stretched this lead to 16.9 seconds, withGiancarlo Fisichella - whose Jordan had also started on intermediates - moving into second after Villeneuve unexpectedly pitted.[4]
On midfield theArrows Yamaha showed strong pace on Bridgestone intermediate tyres.Pedro Diniz, who had already beaten teammateDamon Hill on qualifying, passedFrentzen,Herbert andCoulthard on track to reach third place. The Brazilian driver pitted alongsideMika Häkkinen for dry tyres, however a sixteen-second pit made him drop to 12th place. He eventually made his way back to 7th place, but lost a potential podium finish.
Schumacher continued to pull further away, and by lap 12 his lead had reached a full minute, while Villeneuve had dropped to 16th following a second pit stop.[4] By now, the track was drying and the drivers were pitting forslick tyres. Schumacher pitted in this manner on lap 14 and thereafter cruised, eventually winning by 26 seconds. Fisichella held off theMcLaren ofMika Häkkinen for second, thus achieving his best finish in F1 at the time; the top six was completed by the second Williams ofHeinz-Harald Frentzen, theSauber ofJohnny Herbert and Villeneuve, who had charged back in the later stages of the race and set the fastest lap. On the last lap, Pedro Diniz outbraked Irvine at Les Combes for 8th place (that would become 7th later), meanwhile the Ferrari driver lost control of his car and collided.
After the race, Häkkinen was disqualified due to a fuel irregularity, thus promoting Frentzen to third, Herbert to fourth, Villeneuve to fifth and the second Benetton ofGerhard Berger to sixth. Nonetheless, Schumacher extended his lead over Villeneuve in the Drivers' Championship to 11 points, while Ferrari led Williams by six points in the Constructors' Championship.
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| Previous race: 1997 Hungarian Grand Prix | FIA Formula One World Championship 1997 season | Next race: 1997 Italian Grand Prix |
| Previous race: 1996 Belgian Grand Prix | Belgian Grand Prix | Next race: 1998 Belgian Grand Prix |
