The 1998 Belgian Grand Prix. One of the most amazing races in recent times and personally one of my biggest favourites, the race had everything, action, drama, swearing, team orders and ofcourse rain. After Qualifying, Mika Hakkinen was first in his McLaren Mercedes while Michael Schumacher was a distant fourth at the grid. Around 13 cars crashed out on the 1st lap (LOL) and the race was red flagged to clear the track up. Most teams restarted their drivers in spare cars, however with only a limited number of spare cars, the lesser mortals(the no.2 drivers) had to be content with watching the race from the paddocks rather than driving in it.
Controversy Number 1
The race restarted and the master of wet tracks Michael Schumacher was absolutely unstoppable, he was lapping MUCH faster than the other cars and quickly gained the lead. He was about 2 minutes ahead of rest of the pack. It was looking like a certain victory for Michael. But alas, while overtaking Coulthard, Coulthard brake tested Schumacher , which made Schumacher lose a wheel and lose the race. It could have been a very serious accident also. Coulthard had later admitted that such a move could have had dire consequences for either of them and admitted his fault in June 2003 in an interview. Anyway, both Schumacher and Coulthard headed back into the pits, Schumacher on 3 wheels ofcourse. But as soon as he reached the garage, Schumacher jumped out , tore the race mask off of his face(still remember this, a part of it actually stuck to his face) and almost punched Coulthard in the face. And here is what he allegedly told David Coulthard
Michael Schumacher: Are you trying to f****** kill me?
David Coulthard (blank)
Visibly shaken and stirred, David Coulthard later rejoined the race in the hope that more cars may crash, but only 8 cars crossed the finish line with Coulthard in 7th place failing to score any points (only top 6 used to get points)
Controversy Number 2
It was Damon Hill now in the lead for the Jordan team, with Ralf Schumacher in second place. It was looking like Ralf would actually overtake Damon. But it was Monaco 2007 there too, Ralf was told to back off as the race was pretty much in the bag and they didnt want Ralf to lose control and end his or Damon’s race. On the podium you could see the sadness on Ralf Schumacher’s face just like you could see it on Lewis Hamilton’s face.
There was nothing controversal about Ralf being told not to pass. Nobody cared about it after the race was over – Hill obviously deserved it more – he’d been leading by a good bit until a safety car wiped his lead out.
Don Speekingleesh
1 Jun 07 at 2:05 pm
In a race with uncountable safety car incidents, i dont think thats an excuse. Safety Cars are also a part of F1 and i daresay are often responsible for changing orders. As far as my memory serves , in the end Ralf was much quicker than Damon.
Formula One Addict
1 Jun 07 at 2:07 pm
There were two safety car periods in the race. After the second one Ralf was running a similar pace to Hill.
Hill had been faster than Ralf in every session, bar the warm-up, had set a faster race lap, been ahead of Ralf every single lap and led more laps than anyone else. And
There wasn’t even the slightest bit of controversy about it. The were more complaints about the lack of Irish anthem for the winning constructor than Jordan doing what any other team would have done in the same situation.
Don Speekingleesh
1 Jun 07 at 7:19 pm