Japanese Grand Prix, October 1999

Japanese Grand Prix, Suzuka, October 1999

Mika wins when it counts	Mika Hakkinen kept his nerve to produce an outstanding drive at the Japanese Grand Prix in Suzuka to retain his world championship for McLaren. This was the Mika of last year, no mistakes, no tantrums, just ice cold efficiency when the pressure was on. Eddie Irvine took third, and that was enough to give Ferrari the consolation prize of the constructors championship, which many felt was an equitable end to a disjointed season. The debacle of the Ferrari disqualification and reinstatement at Kuala Lumpur cannot have helped the psychological preparation of either driver, and both Irvine and Hakkinen spun off during qualifying.
However, when Michael Schumacher put his Ferrari at the front of the grid it looked like an uphill struggle for Hakkinen, who qualified second but had to win to be certain of the prize. Schumacher is not usually easy to pass at Suzuka when a championship is at stake, as several can testify. McLaren team mate David Coulthard lined up third followed by the reliable Heinz-Harald Frentzen in the Jordan. Irvine could only manage fifth with Olivier Panis a surprise sixth in the Prost. However, from the start Hakkinen blitzed away and left Schumacher swerving defensively in his wake, allowing Panis to slip through into third and Irvine into fourth whilst Coulthard and Frentzen were delayed. By the end of lap 1, Hakkinen had a four second lead over Irvine with two cars between them. Barring mistakes or mechanical failure the championship was decided. Schumacher was unable to challenge Hakkinen, indeed some felt he would rather not, although his times were respectable and he was faster than Irvine. In a race in which most teams would two stop, Panis came in early on lap 17 and dropped to twelfth. Three laps later he suffered mechanical failure and retired, his last race for the team ending in disappointment after running third. Ralf Schumacher in the Williams now moved into sixth place. Three years after winning the world championship in Suzuka, this was Damon Hill's last drive in Formula 1. His Jordan was 12th on the grid but he had troubles early on and retired on lap 21 whilst running last. The promise of good times ahead shown at the end of last season never materialised and this was a disappointing finale to a memorable career. Meanwhile, the pitstops proper had begun. Hakkinen came in early on lap 19 to avoid looming tail-end traffic, a nice tactical move although the 8.8 second stop seemed a touch slow. Schumacher came in on lap 22, but his 6.3 second stop was not enough to make up the deficit and Hakkinen remained well ahead. The only man to lose out during the stops was Irvine, who pitted on lap 23 one lap after Coulthard. Despite identical stops of 7.1 seconds the Irishman's in lap cost him time, and Coulthard managed to get his nose in front. This now gave Coulthard the thankless task of delaying Irvine, hopefully to put him within the sights of Frentzen and Schumacher Jr.
In the event, nothing much happened until Frentzen began the second round of pitstops on lap 31, followed by Irvine on lap 32. Coulthard began pushing to build up a gap for his own stop but pushed too hard on lap 34 and spun off, losing his nose cone. Although he made it back to the pits the long 15 second stop put him out of contention and the constructors championship was out of McLaren's reach.	Hakkinen - ice cold efficiency
Coulthard rejoined for a few laps but retired on lap 40, although not before incurring the wrath of Michael Schumacher who claimed he was held up whilst lapping him. The delay, such as it was, did not seem to have any material effect on the race as Schumacher was never really close enough to Hakkinen to apply pressure. Once again, Coulthard seems to be Schumacher's scapegoat. The other pitstops passed without incident and Hakkinen maintained a healthy lead over Schumacher. Irvine moved up to third following Coulthard's demise, Frentzen to fourth, Ralf Schumacher fifth and Jean Alesi in the Sauber inherited sixth. The race then played itself out to the flag in a rather dull climax to the season. If Schumacher had allowed Irvine to pass him it would have made no difference to the championship, only by beating Hakkinen could Schumacher influence events. However, this never looked likely although you wondered if the Ferrari man would have found something extra had it been his own championship at stake. So Mika Hakkinen took his second, back to back championship and Ferrari lifted the constructors crown. At least Mika's drive was worthy of a champion. In a season where mistakes, breakdowns and accidents have dominated we should be grateful for that.