Luxembourg Grand Prix

Position:	Driver:	Team:	Time:
1.	M Schumacher	Ferrari	1min 18.561secs
2.	E Irvine	Ferrari	1min 18.907secs
3.	M Hakkinen	Mclaren	1min 18.940secs
4.	G Fisichella	Mclaren	1min 19.048secs
5.	D Coulthard	Benetton	1min 19.169secs
6.	R Schumacher	Jordan	1min 19.455secs
7.	HH Frentzen	Williams	1min 19.522secs
8.	A Wurz	Benetton	1min 19.569secs
9.	J.Villeneuve	Williams	1min 19.631secs
10.	D Hill	Prost	1min 19.807secs
11.	J Alesi	Sauber	1min 20.493secs
12.	R Barrichello	Stewart	1min 20.530secs
13.	J.Herbert	Sauber	1min 20.650secs
14.	J Trulli	Jordan	1min 20.709secs
15.	O.Panis	Prost	1min 21.048secs
16.	M Salo	Arrows	1min 21.120secs
17.	P.Diniz	Arrows	1min 21.258secs
18.	J. Verstappen	Stewart	1min 21.501secs
19.	T Takagi	Tyrrell	1min 21.525secs
20.	S.Nakano	Minardi	1min 22.078secs
21.	E Tuero	Minardi	1min 22.146secs
22.	R Rosset	Tyrrell	1min 22.822secs

A perfect qualifying result was converted into a near perfect race start for the Ferraris with Eddie Irvine away first followed by his team-mate, Championship chaser Michael Schumacher. Fellow title contender Mika Hakkinen got his McLaren off the grid into third place followed by his team-mate David Coulthard.

Michael Schumacher passed Irvine at the end of the first lap to make the order across the start/finish line for the first time.
M. Schumacher - Irvine - Hakkinen - Coulthard - Fisichella - Wurz.
Schumacher pulled away slowly from Irvine to be 3 seconds ahead of his team-mate after 5 laps and 4.5 seconds ahead of Mika Hakkinen.

It took 14 laps for Hakkinen to make the move on Irvine's Ferrari to the applause of his wife watching the action on the pit garage monitor and the chase was on to reduce the German's lead of some 8.5 seconds at that stage.The Finnish driver was able to close slightly over the next couple of laps or so but pushing it to the absolute limit lost the fractions of a second gained sliding over the kerbs at the chicane.By lap 21 Schumacher's lead was still around the 8 second mark but the gap was beginning to close as the Ferrari's Goodyear tyres seemed to going off a little.Irvine had managed to keep ahead of 4th place man David Coulthard but it was obvious he was struggling and having to fight the car.

The first round of pitstops began on lap 23 with Schumacher the first of the top four runners to make a stop and critically regained the track in front of his team-mate Eddie Irvine who had managed to still keep Coulthard behind him. A few laps later Mika Hakkinen came in for his pitstop after putting in some amazingly fast laps. He made up all of the time deficit and was able to get out of the pits and back onto the circuit a car length ahead of Schumacher.
The pitstop sequence was a much happier time for the McLaren team as Coulthard was also able to get ahead of Eddie Irvine.So the order on lap 33 was Hakkinen, M.Schumacher, Coulthard, Irvine, Frentzen, Fisichella. The gap from Schumacher in second to Coulthard in third was 24 secs.After appearing to struggle slightly for the first lap or so after his pitstop Michael Schumacher began to pressure the McLaren just in front of him.Despite some very dark and heavy looking clouds around and about the circuit the surface remained dry with the sun shining intermitantly onto the track.

Irvine continued to struggle with his Ferrari as he fought to keep Frentzen and Fisichella behind him.
On lap 37 the order remained the same but the Benetton of Giancarlo Fisichella was all over the back of Frentzen's Williams and after a dicey moment or two he finally managed to get past the German who then immediately came under enormous pressure from the other Benetton of Alexander Wurz.
Formula One was certainly not letting us down at this stage with a great race in progress. Not one battles down the field but the two title contenders Hakkinen and Schumacher fighting it out at the front.

All the hard work put in by Fisichella was very soon undone when he overdid it and lost two places.The order on lap 42 was Hakkinen, M.Schumacher, Coulthard, Irvine, Frentzen, Wurz, R.Schumacher.At this stage Michael Schumacher was having to fight his Ferrari hard in his attempts to stay with Hakkinen as the Goodyear front tyres did not seem to be working as well as the Bridgestones on the McLarens.During the second round of pitstops Frentzen found himself stuck behind an Arrows as he ran down the pitlane on his way back to the circuit.The German pulled his Williams out from behind the black Arrows car to pass before they regained the track.

Schumacher was the first of the leaders to make a second stop as mika Hakkinen again tried to stretch the lead before coming in himself. The Finn had been two seconds ahead of Schumacher and despite getting held up in traffic on his in-lap the McLaren team did a fantastic job and got their driver out once again ahead of his close rival.
The order on lap 56 was Hakkinen - 4.5secs - M.Schumacher - 33secs - Coulthard, Irvine, Frentzen, Fisichella, Wurz.

So with 10 laps or so to go to the end of the race the gap seemed to remain pretty steady between the drivers in the first two positions with the Championship looking as though it would be decided in the final race of the season in Japan in five weeks time. A couple of laps later the order remained the same but the McLaren of Mika Hakkinen was just beginning to edge out a little from the Ferrari of Michael Schumacher. Although the German didn't lose much ground to the Finn ahead of him it appeared that most likely because of the extra tyre wear there was just nothing left to make any sort of challenge for the ten points.

So with an orderly last couple of laps or so the race victory and with it the ten points went to Mika Hakkinen in the McLaren with the Ferrari of Michael Schumacher taking the six points for second place.

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