Monaco Grand Prix

Position:

Driver:

Team:

Time:

1.

M Hakkinen

Mclaren

1:19,798

2.

D Coulthard

Mclaren

1:20,137

3.

G Fisichella

Benetton

1:20,366

4.

M Schumacher

Ferrari

1:20,702

5.

HH Frentzen

Williams

1:20,729

A Wurz

Benetton

1:20,955

7.

E Irvine

Ferrari

1:21,712

8.

M Salo

Arrows

1:22,144

9.

J.Herbert

Sauber

1:22,157

10.

J Trulli

Prost

1:22,238

11.

J Alesi

Sauber

1:22,257

12.

P Diniz

Arrows

1:22,468

13.

J.Villeneuve

Williams

1:22,468

14.

R Barrichello

Stewart

1:22,540

15.

D Hill

Jordan

1:23,151

16.

R Schumacher

Jordan

1:23,263

17.

J Magnussen

Stewart

1:23,411

18.

O.Panis

Prost

1:23,957

19.

S.Nakano

Minardi

1:23,957

20.

T Takagi

Tyrrell

1:29,024

21.

E Tuero

Minardi

1:29,031

DNQ

R Rosset

Tyrrell

1:25,737

The McLaren Mercedes team once again qualified on the front row of the grid with Mika Hakkinen on pole and David Coulthard in second position.

Giancarlo Fisichella, who lead quite some time, ended up in an outstanding third position in front of Michael Schumacher and Heinz-Harald Frentzen.

Austrian Alex Wurz qualified sixth in front of the second Ferrari driver Eddie Irvine and Mika Salo.

The disappointments of the day were Jacques Villeneuve in 13th position and the Jordan drivers in 15th and 16th.

Eddie Irvine and Rubens Barrichello crashed on the entry to Rascasse, but were able to switch to their t-cars.

Ricardo Rosset in 22nd position did not make it below the 107% rule time and will not start in tomorrow's Monaco Grand Prix.

Position:

Driver:

Team:

Time:/Cause:

Everyone made a clean start with the poleman Hakkinen leading into the first corner. The top six remained unchanged from the grid except for Wurz who had out started Frentzen into 5th. Seconds later Tuero ended his race against the barriers of the Casino.

At the end of lap 7 Hakkinen was 2.8s in front of Coulthard who was 5.1s in front of Fisichella. Right on the tail of Fisichella was the Ferrari of M.Schumacher with Wurz 5s behind him. A further 5s took us back to Frentzen with Irvine right on his tail.

On lap 10 Irvine makes his move down the inside of Frentzen at the Loews hairpin. The cars touch and Frentzen bounces into the barrier and the end of his race.

At the end of lap 17 Hakkinen is 3.7s in front of Coulthard who is 13.6s in front of the Fisichella-M.Schumacher train. As Coulthard comes into the chicane his engine blows and he ends his race in a cloud of white smoke.

M.Schumacher comes into the pit at the end of lap 30, Fisichella comes in on lap 31 but has a longer stop. The result M.Schumacher is now right on the tail of Wurz with Fisichella 9s further back. Wurz is in second place some 34s behind Hakkinen.

Hakkinen has a moment when he bangs his rear wheel against the barriers at the Rascasse. He makes his single pit stop at the end of lap 37 and seconds later M.Schumacher makes his move on Wurz. Like Irvine he takes the inside line into the Loews hairpin, Wurz keeps wide and holds the inside line on the next corner, Schumacher dodges behind the back of Wurz and heads down the inside for the final corner before the tunnel, he passes and leads into the tunnel. Something's wrong though. Schumacher's Ferrari crabs its way around the Swimming Pool and he heads for the pits. In the pits Michael jumps out of the car, but then gets back in. For a long agonising time he sits in the car whilst the mechanics work on the rear. He rejoins the track in last position and 3 laps behind the leader.

Wurz pits at the end of lap 42, then wacks into the barrier coming out of the tunnel and spins and slides into the chicane area. Hakkinen is now 29s in front of Fisichella, who is 9s in front of Irvine. The rest of the top six are Alesi, Salo and DIniz.

By the end of lap 58 Fisichella has closed to within 17s of Hakkinen, when he also touches the inside barrier at the Rascasse. The Benetton spins and by the time it is pointing in the right direction Hakkinen is 31s away. By now both Stewarts, both Prosts and the Jordan of R.Schumacher have all retired in the pits. Just 12 cars left: Hakkinen, Fisichella, Irvine, Salo, Alesi, Villeneuve, Diniz, Herbert, Hill, Nakano, Takagi and M.Schumacher.

As they run to the end Alesi's car stops mid track around the Swimming Pool on lap 75, M.Schumacher passes Takagi into 11th position and then on the last lap has a big moment at the chicane when he touches all sorts of things and limps home with no front wing and assorted dints.

A sad race for Alesi who lost his fifth place in the last few laps after a good consistant run (would have been his joint best result of the year). A good day for the Arrows team who finished with both cars scoring points (first race finish since a 9th place in San Marino). A great drive by Mika Hakkinen who lead every lap and has now increased his championship lead to 17 points in front of teammate Coulthard. Likewise for McLaren who leave Monaco some 36 points in front of Ferrari.

In the interview afterwards Hakkinen said he was really pleased to have won the Monaco Grand Prix as it had been his dream for a long time. He said that he had had not felt as strong as in Spain and was always aware that problems with traffic, concentration or the weather could quickly change the situation. He was quite worried about the car and the tyres after Coulthard's engine blew and he touched the barriers at Rascasse. Fisichella said the second place was a great result for him, he had been hoping for third and was very happy to have improved on that. Irvine said that once he became stuck behind Frentzen he knew he would have to take a risk to make any headway. He took the chance, passed him then had a pretty quiet race with no one really to challenge or challenge him.