Classic Belgian GP

When it came down to sitting down to write about a classic Belgian Grand Prix, there was quite a large selection to choose from. Schumi's first win back in 1992? The 1966 race where Jackie Stewart so nearly lost his life? 1995 where Schumi came from 16th on the grid and won after a fantastic battle with Damon Hill?

These were all great contenders, but in the end I went for probably the most obvious one, and which sticks in the memory of many.

The 1998 Fosters Grand Prix Del Belgique, to give it its full title, is remembered for so many reasons.

Going into the race, Michael Schumacher was on a real high, having won the previous race in Hungary after a masterstroke three-stop strategy from Ross Brawn, while his title rival Mika Haikkinen could only manage to score one point following engine problems.

But qualifying turned into a McLaren battle—Haikkinen taking pole in the last seconds from team-mate David Coulthard. You would expect Michael Schumacher to line up third, but he was pipped at the post by Damon Hill in the ever-improving Jordan.

The practice sessions before qualifying had also seen two massive accidents at Eau Rouge, with Jacques Villeneuve going into the tires on the exit of the corner on Friday afternoon, before Mika Salo went off midway through the corner and hit a tire barrier head on, luckily escaping serious injury.

At the start Damon Hill made a terrible start and was back down to ninth by the time the cars reached La Source. But as the cars exited La Cource, David Coulthard lost the back end of his car and spun right across the track, colliding head-first with the support-race pit wall before sliding back across track and onto the grass.

This then triggered a chain-reaction back through the field, with a further 12 cars being caught up and crashing into each other. These included Eddie Irvine (Ferrari), Alex Wurz (Benetton), Rubens Barrichello (Stewart), and Johnny Herbert (Sauber). With the circuit completely blocked, the race was red-flagged straight away, with only Jordan and Williams not having a car involved or damaged.

After an hour, the race was finally re-started, minus Barrichello, Riccardo Rosset, Olivier Panis and Mika Salo. The second start was much cleaner, and Hill caused a major surprise by getting ahead of everyone to lead into La Source.

On the exit, Haikkinen and Schumacher were side by side when Haikkinen spun his McLaren in front of the whole field, causing cars to move everywhere. He managed to get away with no contact until Johnny Herbet, with nowhere to go, went over his front wheel and eliminated both of them from the race.

As the cars headed up to Les Combes, Hill led from Schumacher, Irvine, Alesi, Ralf Schumacher and Frentzen. Meanwhile Coulthard, who had a terrible start, went off after a collision with Wurz. DC managed to continue, but the Austrian was out. The safety car was then deployed for two laps to allow the marshals to clear the sdebris from the Haikkinen-Herbet crash, with racing resuming on lap three.

The order remained until lap eight, when Schumacher got a run on Hill coming out of Blachimount and took the lead under braking into the Bus Stop chicane. He then pulled out a massive lead and was ahead by 40 seconds when he came up to lap the recovering Coulthard.

Then the controversial incident happened. As the both of them headed towards Pouhon, DC lifted to let Schumacher through. Michael, unaware that DC had lifted, tried to pull out from behind the McLaren, but wasn't able to pull out in time and went into the back of him, ripping off his front wheel and suspension and damaging the back of Coulthard's car. Both cars then toured back to the pits to retire, but it wasn't the end of the matter.

Once Schumacher parked his car, he jumped out of his car and headed towards the McLaren garage, accusing Coulthard of trying to kill him in no uncertain terms. Schumacher was then led away by his mechanics, looking very emotional as he knew a chance of leading the title race was gone.

This left Damon Hill in the lead with teammate Ralf Schumacher second, Jean Alesi third and Heinz-Harald Frentzen fourth. But the safety car was to close the field up once again, after Giancarlo Fisichella slammed into the back of Shinji Nakano's Minardi trying to enter the pits, causing debris to go everywhere. Jordan reacted to this, pulling Hill in for a pit stop followed by Ralf, ensuring that they would remain first and second when the safety car pitted.

When the safety car came in, the two Jordans pulled away, with Alesi in third and Frentzen still fourth. But one more controversial incident was to occur, only this one didn't emerge until after the race.

It later emerged that the Jordan team had placed team orders on their drivers in order for them to guarantee a one-two finish. But when Ralf was ordered to stay behind Damon to achieve a one-two finish, it took several attempts before Ralf responded to confirm the order.

There was even a rumour that Michael Schumacher went to see Eddie Jordan and asked for him to let his brother win, only for Eddie Jordan to turn it down! This rumour has never been denied or confirmed, but certainly added to the drama of the day.

Damon Hill emerged to take his 22nd and final win, his first since leaving Williams and Jordan's first-ever F1 win after seven years of trying. Ralf Schumacher finished second, making Jordan the first-ever team to take a one-two finish on their debut win.

Jean Alesi took the final podium finish in third, with Frentzen fourth, Jarno Trulli fifth and Pedro Diniz taking the final point in sixth. Coulthard and Nakano both rejoined the race, but finished six laps down.

Final Result:

1. Hill

2. R.Schumacher

3. Alesi

4. Frentzen

5. Trulli

6. Diniz