1997 Argentine Grand Prix

Summary

Pre-race

Most of the talk before the grand prix was about Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Eddie Irvine and their poor starts to the season. Despite going out of business, Lola Team Principal Eric Broadley was confident that the team could be up and running again by the San Marino Grand Prix, albeit with a new main sponsor. The Tyrrell team also caused a stir after arriving at the grand prix with four new wings on the car, two on the nose cone, the other two alongside the drivers head. They resembled x-wings and this was soon used as their nickname. The practice session bought no surprises with the two Williams cars first and second.

Qualifying

As with the practice session, both Williams were once again on the front row, with Jacques Villeneuve on pole. The first real surprise of the weekend was the performance of Olivier Panis in the Prost, who managed to qualify third on the grid. Another strong performance was the fifth place of Rubens Barrichello in the Stewart. As expected, both McLarens qualified low down the field, complaining of poor handling on the bumpy surface. The slowest qualifier Pedro Diniz's lap time would have still been comfortably fast enough to have put him on pole for the previous year's race.

Race

As the red lights went out, Jacques Villeneuve cleanly navigated the first corner and began to pull away from the other front runners. Michael Schumacher (who was unsighted by oil from Frentzen's car) almost collided with Panis, but the Frenchman moved off line to drop a few places rather than to collide with the Ferrari. Going into the first corner, Michael Schumacher was alongside his teammate Irvine and Rubens Barrichello. However, Michael then understeered and crashed into the back of Barrichello's car causing the Brazilian to spin and getting himself to retire. Barrichello would eventually change his front nose and get going again. But in the melee, Coulthard crashed into the back of Ralf Schumacher's Jordan, ripping of his front wheel and putting him out of the race. The track was unpassable with the back of the field taking to the grass to get round the incident, so the Safety Car was called out.

The biggest improvement was made by Pedro Diniz, who climbed eleven places from last to 11th spot on the first lap. At the restart after 4 laps, Villeneuve once again pulled away from Frentzen and Panis, but Frentzen's race ended on lap 6 with throttle problems. The chance of victory for Prost ended on lap 18, also with throttle problems. Both Arrows drivers showed a strong run on the first third of the race, with Damon Hill chasing Jean Alesi for the sixth place and Pedro Diniz in 8th holding Jos Verstappen, Gerhard Berger and Mika Häkkinen. When Damon Hill and Jean Alesi tangled braking into Turn 1, Diniz was able to slip by both.

On lap 24 the two Jordans collided with Giancarlo Fisichella retiring from the race. Hill, who was up to 4th at one point, retired with engine failure on lap 33, meanwhile his teammate suffered with a long pit stop, which costed him more than fifty seconds, dropped back and retired with engine failure too. Although in the final few laps Irvine closed the gap to Villeneuve, the Canadian held tight and went on to win his sixth career grand prix. Irvine finished second, the highest finish of his career at that point, with Ralf Schumacher scoring his first podium in third.

Post-race

On the podium the organisers flew the Irish tricolour for Irvine, instead of the Union Jack that was usually flown for Northern Irish drivers. Although Irvine identifies himself as Irish despite holding a British passport, his parents' house in County Down was targeted by loyalists as they felt they had been betrayed by the Ferrari driver. Irvine subsequently asked for a white flag with a shamrock to be used if he secured another podium finish; however, the FIA insisted that the Union Jack be used in future.

Classification

Qualifying

Race

Championship standings after the race

;Drivers' Championship standings

;Constructors' Championship standings

First podium: Ralf Schumacher

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

Race Details:

Year_of_race = 1997 | Previous_year's_race = 1996 Argentine Grand Prix | Next_year's_race = 1998 Argentine Grand Prix

References

1. [http://classic.wunderground.com/history/airport/SABE/1997/4/13/DailyHistory.html?req_city=Buenos+Aires&req_state=&req_statename=Argentina&reqdb.zip=00000&reqdb.magic=1&reqdb.wmo=87582 Weather info for the 1997 Argentine Grand Prix] at Weather Underground
2. McCarthy, Martin. (13 May 1997). "Irvine refuses to make issue of flag choice". [[The Irish Times]].
3. "1997 Argentine GP Qualifying". Chicane F1.
4. "1997 Argentine Grand Prix". formula1.com.
5. "Argentina 1997 - Championship • STATS F1".