| 1997 Japanese Grand Prix | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Race 16 of 17 in the1997 Formula One World Championship
| |||||
.svg) | |||||
| Race details | |||||
| Date | 12 October 1997 | ||||
| Official name | XXIII Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix | ||||
| Location | Suzuka Circuit,Suzuka,Mie, Japan | ||||
| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||||
| Course length | 5.860 km (3.641[1] miles) | ||||
| Distance | 53 laps, 310.596[2] km (192.995 miles) | ||||
| Weather | Sunny[3] | ||||
| Attendance | 317,000[4] | ||||
| Pole position | |||||
| Driver | Williams-Renault | ||||
| Time | 1:36.071[5] | ||||
| Fastest lap | |||||
| Driver |  Heinz-Harald Frentzen | Williams-Renault | |||
| Time | 1:38.942 on lap 48[6] | ||||
| Podium | |||||
| First | Ferrari | ||||
| Second | Williams-Renault | ||||
| Third | Ferrari | ||||
Lap leaders | |||||
The1997 Japanese Grand Prix (officially known as theXXIII Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix) was aFormula One motor race held on 12 October 1997 at theSuzuka Circuit,Suzuka. It was the 16th and penultimate race of the1997 Formula One season.[3] The 53-lap race was won byMichael Schumacher for theFerrari team after starting from second position.Heinz-Harald Frentzen finished second in aWilliams, andEddie Irvine third in the other Ferrari.[7] Irvine led much of the race before moving over to assist Schumacher's championship battle by blockingDrivers' Championship leaderJacques Villeneuve.
Villeneuve started onpole position in a Williams car. Before the race, it emerged that Villeneuve had been put to the back of the grid, for having ignoredwaved 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.[8][9] 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 theConstructors' Championship as Ferrari could not pass their points total with only one race remaining.[10] This race was the last forGianni Morbidelli. It was also the last time that twoGerman Formula One drivers finished first and second until the1999 Italian Grand Prix.
For each race in the1997 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.[11]
"I clearly saw the yellow flag. If they had been waved in a corner, I would have slowed down. But on a straight it was not necessary."
In the first practice session on Saturday morning, an incident occurred 30 minutes into the session.Jos Verstappen in aTyrrell car pulled over to the side of the track with a fuel pick-up problem. Thetrack marshals as a resultwaved yellow flags meaning that drivers must slow down at that part of the track. Despite the yellow flags, nine drivers, includingMichael Schumacher andJacques Villeneuve, never slowed down. Villeneuve in the process, set his fastest time of the session on that lap.[5]
Villeneuve setpole 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 driverMika Häkkinen rounded out the top four, only three thousands of a second behind Irvine. TheBenetton drivers were fifth and seventh;Gerhard Berger ahead ofJean Alesi.Heinz-Harald Frentzen in a Williams split the two in sixth, six-tenths behind Villeneuve.[5]
On the Thursday before practice, the local driverUkyo Katayama announced his retirement from the category after thenext 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 Villeneuve (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.
Note, only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Previous race: 1997 Luxembourg Grand Prix | FIA Formula One World Championship 1997 season | Next race: 1997 European Grand Prix |
| Previous race: 1996 Japanese Grand Prix | Japanese Grand Prix | Next race: 1998 Japanese Grand Prix |
