A Trip Down Memory Lane: The Belgian Grand Prix 1998

Spa Francorchamps always has been notorious for rampant unpredictability, chaos and rain-fuelled excitement (commodities sadly lacking in Formula One of the 21st Century). 1998 was no exception. After Michael Schumacher's imperturbable romp to victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix two weeks before, Mika Hakkinen's seemingly overwhelming championship lead was being eroded away, and the title race began to hot up.

Qualifying for the race was certainly an indicator of things to come. Both Mika Salo's Tyrrell and Jacques Villeneuve's Williams careered spectacularly off the circuit and into the scenery at the intimidating Eau Rouge uphill drag. Meanwhile Hakkinen coolly took his ninth pole position of the year, eclipsing the rest of the field by a whole second.

Race-day brought, in true Ardennes Forest fashion, torrential rain. Nevertheless the cars took the start, a marked contrast to the safety car aided first few laps of the previous year. The decision immediately proved to be a mistake. Having negotiated the La Source hairpin, David Coulthard unfathomably slid the sister McLaren into the pit wall, causing a maelstrom of chaos in the ensuing rooster-tail mist. Once the dust settled, twelve cars were confirmed to have been involved in the melee. Remarkably only four drivers, including the luckless Salo, did not take the restart (either on account of injury or spare car priority) an hour later.

If one were to think a second start would produce less chaos, one would be wrong. Damon Hill's Jordan rocketed up from 3rd to take the lead into the first corner, leaving Hakkinen and Schumacher to scrap. It only took the smallest of touches for the German to leave the "Flying Finn" in a spin; moments later Johnny Herbert's out of control Sauber made sure it was game over for Hakkinen.

Having passed Hill at the Bus Stop on lap 8, Schumacher began to eke out an ever increasing lead ahead of Irvine, until the Ulsterman destroyed his chances by spinning and cracking a wing at Les Combes. As the pitstops came and went, Villeneuve, Tuero, Verstappen and Takagi fell foul of the treacherous conditions, causing the field to shrink to just ten.

Then came the controversy. Whilst lapping 8th place Coulthard, whose first lap collision with Wurz had rendered him purely a spectator, Michael Schumacher noticed the Scot slowing and, without time to react, plowed into the back of the McLaren. His chances of overhauling Hakkinen's 7 point championship lead with victory were gone, and this seemed to go to the irascible German's head as he stormed down to the McLaren garage, alleging Coulthard of "trying to kill him".

This left Hill in the lead once more, followed by teammate Ralf Schumacher; a dream situation for team boss Eddie Jordan. Meanwhile Giancarlo Fisichella attained individual accident of the day award, smashing sickeningly into the back of Shinji Nakano's innocent Minardi and bringing out the safety car again whilst the debris of the front-wheel less Benetton was cleared up.

It was now down purely to Hill who, despite his apparent nerves at the inexperienced Ralf buzzing around his gearbox, crossed the line in the streaming wet to take the last, and most emphatic, win of his career. Jean Alesi crossed the line seconds later to notch up his and the team's first podium of the year.

It was joy all around at Spa, so long as one was not a Ferrari or McLaren fan. However the Belgian Grand Prix of 1998, now shrouded in a certain enigma, was soon to become a part of Formula One legend.