1997 Hungarian Grand Prix

Report

Background

Heading into the eleventh round of the season, Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher was leading the Drivers' Championship with 53 points; ahead of Williams driver Jacques Villeneuve on 43 points, and the two Benetton drivers, Jean Alesi and Gerhard Berger, on 22 and 20 points respectively. The Constructors' Championship was closer at the front, with Ferrari on 71 points leading Williams on 62 points.

Practice and qualifying

Hill, as defending world champion, until then had experienced a bad year in the backmarker Arrows-Yamaha car and was 17th in the overall championship standings. But arriving in Hungary, he set the fifth fastest time on Friday practice after just a single flying lap, after sitting for 55 minutes in the garage while his mechanics tore the gearbox off the car, looking for an electronic sensor problem. Later, Hill qualified in 3rd place behind Villeneuve, with Schumacher claiming pole position. Hill's teammate Pedro Diniz qualified in 19th position.

Race

Hill made a strong start from his third position, overtaking Villeneuve, and he then caught race leader Schumacher on lap 6. Schumacher had to use a spare car for the race and soon struggled with the pace all the race long. By then, both drivers had pulled away from the rest of the field. On lap 11, Hill overtook Schumacher, and would eventually be leading the race by over 35 seconds from Villeneuve.

The slow pace of the German driver permitted several drivers to close on him. Mika Häkkinen, one of the drivers chasing Schumacher, retired on lap 12, meanwhile the Ferrari driver would soon pit for the first of three times in the race. The slow Schumacher permitted Hill to open a reasonable gap to the others behind and never was contested for the lead, specially after a slow pit stop for Jacques Villeneuve.

For most of the race, Coulthard chased Villeneuve closely for second place, being denied with another mechanical retiring. On the other hand, struggling Schumacher formed a trail behind him being chased for his brother Ralf, Shinji Nakano and teammate Eddie Irvine. Yellow lights turned on at Arrows when Pedro Diniz retired with mechanical failure.

On lap 74, with three laps left, the hydraulic pump failed on Hill's car, causing it to become stuck in third gear and have an intermittent throttle. As a result, Hill started losing time and was overtaken by Villeneuve part-way through the final lap. Villeneuve won the race with Hill finishing second, and Johnny Herbert took the third place on the podium. Eddie Irvine, who had passed Nakano for the final point, lost it on the last lap to the Japanese driver when his car broke down.

After the race, the problem, which denied Arrows, Bridgestone, and Yamaha their first ever victories (in the case of Arrows and Yamaha, their only ever victories), was diagnosed as a throttle linkage failure, caused by a broken washer worth 50 pence.

Johnny Herbert scored his only podium of the season, while Shinji Nakano equalled his career-best finish of 6th. Gianni Morbidelli returned for Sauber in place of Norberto Fontana after missing three races through injury. Hill's second position also marked the best ever result for Yamaha engines in Formula One.

Classification

Qualifying

Race

Championship standings after the race

;Drivers' Championship standings

;Constructors' Championship standings

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

References

| Previous_year's_race = 1996 Hungarian Grand Prix | Next_year's_race = 1998 Hungarian Grand Prix

References

1. "1997 Hungarian Grand Prix". [[Motor Sport (magazine).
2. "Grand Prix Results: Hungarian GP, 1997". grandprix.com.
3. Medland, Chris. (2012-08-20). "The Broken Arrow". [[ESPN]].
4. (2008-07-30). "Hungarian GP factfile". [[ITV F1]].
5. F1, STATS. "Hungary 1997 - Qualifications • STATS F1".
6. "1997 Hungarian Grand Prix". formula1.com.
7. "Hungary 1997 - Championship • STATS F1".