German Grand Prix

Position:	Driver:	Team:	Time:
1.	M Hakkinen	Mclaren	1min 41.838secs
2.	D Coulthard	Mclaren	1min 42.347secs
3.	J.Villeneuve	Williams	1min 42.365secs
4.	R Schumacher	Jordan	1min 42.994secs
5.	D Hill	Jordan	1min 43.183secs
6.	E Irvine	Ferrari	1min 43.270secs
7.	A Wurz	Benetton	1min 43.341secs
8.	G Fisichella	Benetton	1min 43.369secs
9.	M Schumacher	Ferrari	1min 43.459secs
10.	HH Frentzen	Williams	1min 43.467secs
11.	J Alesi	Sauber	1min 43.663secs
12.	J.Herbert	Sauber	1min 44.599secs
13.	R Barrichello	Stewart	1min 44.776secs
14.	J Trulli	Prost	1min 44.844secs
15.	T Takagi	Tyrrell	1min 44.961secs
16.	O.Panis	Prost	1min 45.197secs
17.	M Salo	Arrows	1min 45.276secs
18.	P.Diniz	Arrows	1min 45.588secs
19.	J. Verstappen	Stewart	1min 45.623secs
20.	S.Nakano	Minardi	1min 46.713secs
21.	E Tuero	Minardi	1min 47.265secs
**DNQ	R Rosset	Tyrrell	-

** Rosset did not qualify because of and injury in practice which prevented him from taking part

It was a bright sunny day in Germany for the single Qualifying Session of the German Grand Prix. It started quietly in an air temperature of 25C and track of 34C. Of the 22 drivers only 21 took part. The odd man out was the unlucky Rosset whose Tyrell had crashed very heavily in the last few seconds of the morning's Free Practice session. The heavy shock of the crash prevented him taking part this afternoon and in the race tomorrow.

After a quiet first 5 minutes, the Prost of Panis took to the track. His first fast lap was a 1m 46.810s. At the 15 minute point there were just 3 drivers with times: (1) Verstappen, (2) Panis, (3) Tuero. Seconds later Hakkinen was on track with M.Schumacher. The Finn took pole to 1m 43.032s and Schumacher took 2nd at 1m 43.671s. Four minutes later Coulthard took pole to 1m 42.813s and Hill passed Schumacher into 3rd at 1m 43.612s. By the 30 minute point Villeneuve had taken 3rd at 1m 43.358s, Tuero had retired with his engine on fire. In the next 5 minutes most of the top 10 were back on track (M.Schumacher in the spare car after engine problems) and the times changed around a little: Hill improved his 4th time, Alesi jumped to 6th, M.Schumacher did not improve, Villeneuve took pole to 1m 42.737s, Coulthard took pole to 1m 42.347s, Hakkinen took pole to 1m 42.182s, Fisichella took 6th and Irvine took 5th from his teammate. Minutes later Takagi slid off the track, over the gravel and destroyed his car on the tyre wall.

With 15 minutes left, R.Schumacher had just taken 4th from Hill. In the final 15 minutes: Verstappen spins off and rejoins, Coulthard retires on track with electrical problems, Wurz takes 5th, Fisichella takes 6th, Hakkinen pushes pole to 1m 42.011s, Irvine takes 5th, Irvine runs wide over the grass, Takagi (in the spare car) slides off over the gravel again but rejoins. In the last 2 minutes there are 18 cars on track, Hill takes 5th, Hakkinen takes pole to 1m 41.838s (beats Berger's 1997 pole of 1m 41.873s), R.Schumacher takes 4th then retires on the grass.

The final top 10 are: (1) Hakkinen, (2) Coulthard, (3) Villeneuve, (4) R.Schumacher, (5) Hill, (6) Irvine, (7) Wurz, (8) Fisichella, (9) M.Schumacher, (10) Frentzen.
M.Schumacher's 9th place is is his worst this season (previous worst was 3 times 4th) and really due to the two retirements he had early in the morning's two parts of the Free Practice session. Hakkinen's time is over 0.5s in front of Coulthard, Coulthard did go out again after his retirement, but the spare had been set for Hakkinen so there was no improvement. Villeneuve's 3rd equals his season's best in Britain.

Not a good start to the afternoon for Giancarlo Fisichella whose Benetton developed an oil leak on the grid. He still had time to drive the spare car around and onto the grid to start the race but it was set up for Fisichella's team-mate Alexander Wurz. So as the two men are of very different heights it would not be the most comfortable of Grands Prix for Fisichella A few drops of rain began to fall as the race got underway with the two McLaren's making a good start with Hakkinen into the lead. The rain however amounted to nothing and the Grand Prix took place in the dry. Jacques Villeneuve did not get away well allowing both Jordan's to get past into third and fourth although Villeneuve did manage to regain fourth spot from Damon Hill during the first lap.

Alexander Wurz made a very slow getaway from his grid position and owes much to Michael Schumacher's skill in leaping out sideways from his position behind the Benetton to avoid hitting him up the back. Wurz also happy that everyone else managed to avoid him fell almost to the back of the field. The order at the end of lap one was Hakkinen, Coulthard, R. Schumacher, Villeneuve, Hill, Irvine, M. Schumacher. The order stayed the same for the first few laps with the exception of Michael Schumacher gaining a place when taking advantage of his team-mate Eddie Irvine outbraking himself.

The two McLaren's were unable to pull away as they have been accustomed to this year with Ralf Schumacher in the Jordan hanging on to David Coulthard's Mclaren and even closing on most laps. However while most drivers were on a one stop strategy Ralf Schumacher came into the pits for the first of his two planned stops. Although Hakkinen had pulled a slight lead on Couthard in the early stages by lap 25 Coulthard was right up with his McLaren team-mate.

The pitstops made during the laps mid to late twenties allowed Fisichella in the Benetton to get past Eddie Irvine's Ferrari. Hakkinen pitted first with Coulthard a lap or two later to rejoining right up behind Hakkinen. If he hadn't overshot his pit slightly causing his pitcrew the need to reposition the tyres and fuelrig it may have been side-by-side. After the round of pitstops the order on lap 29 was Hakkinen, Coulthard - 6secs - Villeneuve, R. Schumacher - 8secs - Hill, M. Schumacher.

However on lap 30 Ralf Schumacher came in for his second stop rejoining the race in sixth place.With some concern in the McLaren camp over Mika Hakkinen and his fuel situation the order on lap 35 was Hakkinen, Coulthard - 4secs - Villeneuve - 6secs - Hill -3secs - M. Schumacher, R. Schumacher. At this stage Villeneuve was visibly catching the two McLaren's ahead of him. So with ten laps to go the excitement was building for a much closer finish than had ever been expected for Hockenheim especially with a William's involved.

Eddie Irvine was all over the back of the Benetton of Fisichella fighting for seventh spot locking his wheels on the approach to corner after corner until he overdid it and took an excursion across the grass giving Fisichella a bit of breathing space but not for long. With just six laps to go and as Villeneuve was being held up by traffic, Villeneuve's pit crew got ready for an apparent tyre stop but after a lap or two the crew went back in.

The activity had been as a result of Villenuve getting on the radio saying that he was experiencing some problems with the back end. He stayed out but seemed unable to push quite so hard.The two fastest men on the track with 3 laps to go was Michael Schumacher in the Ferrari in pursuit of Damon Hill in the Jordan. But the places were maintained until the end with Mika Hakkinen taking the victory ahead of team-mate David Coulthard and perhaps most impressive of all the Williams of Jacques Villeneuve taking the third podium spot.

It may not have been a great day for Ferrari but the Jordan team were delighted with both their cars finishing in the top six. Damon Hill in fourth and Ralf Schumacher in sixth. That's three races in the points in a row for Jordan and the first points for Damon Hill. But it was a great day for Mercedes with their first German GP victory since 1954 but some mixed emotions for the passionate German crowd with Michael Schumacher in the Ferrari only managing to finish in fifth place one spot ahead of his brother Ralf.

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