McLaren and Ferrari each got a  part of the championship cake following a win by Mika
  Hakkinen at the Japanese Grand Prix. Leading from start  to finish his McLaren
  completely dominated what was in effect a rather uninspiring race, the hoped
  for shoot out between the two protagonists was not forthcoming.

  But questions will have to be asked at the Grove headquarters as to why,
  when they held both championship titles in their hand they let the
  constructor's fall through their fingers when David Coulthard in third place,
  spun into the wall losing a nose cone and eventually retiring when he had
  Irvine securely behind him.

  Eddie Irvine was a disappointed man. He took third, following his second
  placed team mate Michael Schumacher home over a minute and a half adrift.
  His aspirations as a world champion disappeared with the Finn's McLaren on
  the first lap.

  It was a great day for Jordan too with Heinz Harald Frentzen taking third
  place in the driver's championship to match the third for his team that he
  secured at Malaysia. The outgoing Hill had ignominiously retired after going
  into the dirt on lap 16 no doubt glad that at last it was all over.

  "I was down in last and I wasn't able to improve," Hill said. "I decided that as
  I was retiring anyway there was little point in carrying on with the race."

  Eddie Jordan will be relieved too that its all over and that next year he will
  have two drivers capable again of delivering points and taking him to even
  greater heights.

  "I think we could win the championship next year," surmised a smiling
  Frentzen after the race. "We will have a little more budget and if Eddie
  doesn't spend the money on a new boat he might have a chance of a
  championship before he goes on his pension!"

  Whilst McLaren boss Ron Dennis might have believed that there could be
  shenanigans afoot as the race unfolded, amongst the drivers it seemed there
  was honour between adversaries. Having spent most part of the season
  badmouthing the McLaren duo of David Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen, Eddie
  Irvine felt it appropriate to offer his respect to the two drivers who were aiming
  to prevent him from collecting the FIA family jewels at the end of the race.

  "Mika's a fair guy," Irvine had said. "I've raced him for year. I've watched Mika
  and I'm a big fan and I'll be driving to the same standards I expect he will be.
  They can screw it up, we can screw it up, it could go either way and we can
  all play games."

  It was only recently that his words had not been as kind to the Finn and his
  constant jibes at McLaren had found little favour with his own team let alone
  the subjects of his derision.

  "Mika has given a lot of presents to our team," he said recently. "We will
  have to see how many more presents he will be handing out at the end of the
  season. I would be very surprised if he continued to make mistakes but we
  are all human and maybe he will and they will cost him the championship."

  Possibly it was the weak position in which he found himself after spinning
  out of his final quick laps at the end of the qualifying session or perhaps he
  feels that an act of contrition now might have gone down well with the lords
  of Formula1. Which ever way you looked at it, neither Hakkinen nor
  Coulthard were returning the compliments.

  The tension was palpable following a surprising qualifying session in which,
  predictably, Michael Schumacher took a brilliant pole position to put him in
  good stead for fulfilling his half of the Ferrari strategy. Irvine looking a lot
  more insecure. With his 5th place grid position he had to finish higher than
  this ensure that if Schumacher won, Ferrari would get both constructors and
  drivers crowns. This scenario of course was shot to pieces within the first
  hundred metres and it was clear from the start that it was not going to go
  Ferrari's way.

  All the races that Hakkinen has won this year he has lead from the front. The
  only way Ferrari could win was for the infamous McLaren gremlins to crop up
  but thankfully when it counted most, they stayed away.

  Coulthard had more of a job to do in backing up his team mate than usual.
  Hakkinen would have to rely on the Scot to act as a firewall against Irvine's
  intervention much the same as Schumacher did to him at Malaysia recently
  and this so nearly worked. But for whatever reason Coulthard lost it, and in
  so doing halved McLarens achievements this season in a single turn of the
  wheel.

  The atmosphere on the grid as drivers donned their helmets and were
  strapped into their cars, was tense. There was little acknowledgement
  between competitors and even conversations with team mechanics and
  personnel were kept to a minimum.

  Hakkinen's blistering start was the most crucial move of the race, his
  McLaren leaving Schumacher standing. But even as the he streaked away to
  the first turn it was Olivier Panis who rocketed up on the inside of the track
  to pass both Coulthard and Irvine to settle into third. This left Frentzen
  balked by both McLaren and Ferrari, wondering where his fourth place had
  gone, the last man in the points heading down to the corner already three
  seconds adrift.

  By the end of the first lap Hakkinen had a 4.2 second lead over Schumacher
  and was going like a train. The German held on but despite driving smoothly
  he could not maintain the lead car's pace and began to drop back. Panis in
  third had become the joker in the pack, the uninvited guest at the Ferrari
  party.

  Irvine needed the third slot but the Frenchman in his last race for the Prost
  team would not and seemingly could not, be caught. The writing was on the
  wall for all to see when his team mate Jarno Trulli slowed to a halt with a
  Peugeot engine failure on lap three. The Prosts have a habit like the
  Stewarts and BARs of breaking down in pairs and it would eventually do so
  on lap 20, Panis having pitted himself out of the third slot 3 laps earlier.

  The odd thing was that Irvine although able to stay with Panis, seemed
  unable to bridge the one second gap to take the Prost and remain in
  contention with the two leaders. By lap 10 Hakkinen had pulled out a lead on
  Schumacher of 5 seconds and a massive 20 over the slowing Irvine.

  Ralf Schumacher was maintaining seventh place and looking to catch
  Frentzen but the Jordan driver had loftier intentions. Coulthard just up ahead
  was his main objective. He had to get past the Scot to hold on to his third
  place in the driver's title, Schumacher behind needed to get past both of
  them and also Irvine, to regain the fourth place lost to Stewart at Malaysia.
  This would prove impossible and Williams had to settle for their lowest
  position for ten years.

  The race had begun to fragment into a long procession with positions
  remaining static. Only the distance between Hakkinen and Schumacher
  continued to increase albeit it at a less dramatic pace.

  Way back down the field Hill was on his way down and finally out, thankfully
  for the last time in his illustrious career. Another $6 million would not entice
  him back into a Formula1 car after he stepped for the last time from his
  Jordan 199 not in victory but in defeat disheartened and disappointed.

  Panis was the first to pit and eventually take himself out of the running
  courtesy of the second Peugeot failure, giving Ferrari second and third
  placings and the beginnings of a chance at the constructors crown.

  It was Hakkinen who wisely pitted first on lap 20 taking a little longer than
  expected. But rejoining the race 10 seconds behind Schumacher he set an
  immediate fastest lap and it was only another lap before he was back in front
  when the German pitted.

  After turning Coulthard round and sending him on his way the McLaren
  strategy began to take effect. Irvine, the last of the top four to pit was
  marginally slower in the pits but just slow enough for Coulthard to take the
  all important third slot barely yards in front of the Irishman's nose as he
  exited the pit lane.

  The race seemed to be falling McLarens way. It was exactly what the team
  needed. With Hakkinen rebuilding his lead over Schumacher and Coulthard
  covering Irvine and ensuring that he stayed down in at least fourth place it
  was the perfect strategy that mirrored the Malaysian Grand Prix. The
  Coulthard factor was now being brought into play and he began to slow the
  Irishman down, a victim of the strategy that Ferrari had so successfully used
  against McLaren in Malaysia.

  At the same time both Frentzen in 5th and Schumacher, 6th began to close
  on Irvine boxing his Ferrari in. Coulthard had nothing to lose. He could afford
  to keep the Ferrari behind but Irvine had to tread on eggs if he wanted to get
  past the Scot without incident. Coulthard was lapping three seconds a lap
  slower than the leaders and yet still Irvine held back not wanting to make a
  manoeuvre that could spell his exit.

  To get out of this situation, Irvine pitted early rejoining in front of Jean Alesi in
  fifth leaving Coulthard a little confused but increasing his speed to enable
  him to maintain a five or six second cushion against his Ferrari when the
  Scotsman pitted.

  It was Coulthard at the end of the day that proved to be the weak link in the
  McLaren chain. Whether it was a lack of concentration or a mechanical
  problem that made him stray we will know later but it looked like he ran wide
  at the entrance to the left hander before the Spoon curve, into the dirt, losing
  a nose in the process. A lengthy pit stop brought him out in front of second
  placed Schumacher and a lap down.

  Obeying the blue flags, he allowed the German to pass but unavoidably held
  the Ferrari at bay for half a lap before he found himself in a position to let the
  German through. Schumacher was incensed by this and suggested that
  Coulthard had done the same thing to him at a rain soaked Spa last year.

  "If you are lapped you should give space," Schumacher grumbled afterwards.
  "David passed many Blue flags. He had a kind of problem but he was really
  zigzagging and actually I am not sure whether I should believe that Spa (last
  year) hadn't been on purpose the way he behaved today. I didn't expect him
  to do such a thing when it was clear he is out of the race when he is
  lapped."

  Coulthard's race was over in any case and he retired on lap 41 from 10th
  place having failed the team just when they needed him most. The final pit
  stop for McLaren in the '99 season gave Hakkinen the edge and eventually
  the championship. He drove along the pit lane parallel to an empty track and
  it was only as he released his power on hitting the circuit that Schumacher
  came into view a whole pit straight away.

  You could almost see the grin on Hakkinen's face as he realised that short
  of mechanical failure he would now be champion for the second time in a row
  and join the elite brigade of Alberto, Ascari, Fangio, Brabham, Senna, Prost
  and of course Schumacher in taking a back to back driver's crown.

  With only 6 laps remaining Schumacher stopped pushing. It is unclear
  whether it was Ferrari's technical director, Ross Brawn's final strategy. That
  is: to take the pressure off Hakkinen in the hope that he would lose
  concentration and make a mistake. But it would have been highly unlikely
  when such an important prize was at stake.

  Mika Hakkinen, 1999 World Champion, crossed the line five seconds clear of
  Schumacher and a devastating minute and a half clear of his main rival Eddie
  Irvine.

  "It didn't seem to be going as well as we'd hoped in Japan," a subdued Irvine
  said later. "It was pretty boring I have to say. I was just driving around
  wondering if anything was going to happen to Mika. But we won the
  constructors championship which is important. We didn't win the one that I
  would like or Ferrari would like for sure, but we did get a consolation prize."

  Hakkinen's grin proved that his reputation as the perennial sour faced Nordic
  blonde is totally misinterpreted. His grin on the podium was a mile wide but
  as usual he was almost lost for words.

  "It's different winning the championship for a second time," he eventually
  managed to say. "This year was a difficult year all the way through we had
  slight problems where we weren't able to finish the races and we lost a lot of
  points so deciding the championship in the last Grand Prix is nerve cracking
  and I really don't recommend the experience to anybody." With a long sigh
  he exclaimed, "But it is brilliant!"

  Formula1 now closes up shop for a month to regroup and smooth out their
  ruffled finery. Hill has finally exorcised the burden of Formula1 failure by
  leaving it all behind and Irvine and Barrichello will be swapping seats for next
  year. The Stewart team switches to the Jaguar name having gained the
  fourth spot that they worked so hard for. Irvine will be in green for 2000.

  Perhaps the most surprising result of all was the fact that whilst British
  American Racing ended the season on zero points winning the wooden
  spoon award, the Japanese Grand Prix marked the first race in which both
  cars crossed the finishing line. Jacques Villenueve in 9th and Ricardo Zonta
  in 12th. Small green shoots of a recovery perhaps.

  There will be a space in McLarens glass showcase in the reception area of
  their Woking headquarters for a trophy that they undoubtedly think should
  have been theirs today and its probably the one that's closer to boss Ron
  Dennis' heart. That bit of silver will however, be resting in a similar case in
  Maranello and it is certain that McLaren will be gunning for it next year
  armed with the experience that a particularly troubled season has brought.
 

© DAVID SCHIAVONE AND D.S. PRODUCTIONS 1999
 
 
 

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