1997 Japanese Grand Prix

Report

Practice and qualifying

For each race in the 1997 Formula One season there were four practice sessions; two sessions on Friday and two sessions on Saturday morning. The practice sessions on Friday lasted an hour and the practice sessions on Saturday lasted 45 minutes.

In the first practice session on Saturday morning, an incident occurred 30 minutes into the session. Jos Verstappen in a Tyrrell car pulled over to the side of the track with a fuel pick-up problem. The track marshals as a result waved yellow flags meaning that drivers must slow down at that part of the track. Despite the yellow flags, nine drivers, including Michael Schumacher and Jacques Villeneuve, never slowed down. Villeneuve in the process, set his fastest time of the session on that lap.

Villeneuve set pole position with a time of 1:36.071, half a tenth faster than Schumacher, who was second in the Ferrari setting a time of 1:36.133. Schumacher's team-mate, Eddie Irvine, qualified third, four-tenths behind Villeneuve. McLaren driver Mika Häkkinen rounded out the top four, only three thousands of a second behind Irvine. The Benetton drivers were fifth and seventh; Gerhard Berger ahead of Jean Alesi. Heinz-Harald Frentzen in a Williams split the two in sixth, six-tenths behind Villeneuve.

On the Thursday before practice, the local driver Ukyo Katayama announced his retirement from the category after the next race.

Classification

Qualifying

Race

At the start, Jacques Villeneuve dived to the right and blocked Michael Schumacher, keeping the lead. Behind the frontrunners, Mika Hakkinen passed Eddie Irvine for third. At the final of the first lap, the order was Villeneuve, Michael Schumacher, Hakkinen, Irvine, Frentzen and Berger. Running light on fuel, Irvine started an aggressive climbing of the grid, storming to the lead on lap 3. By lap 5, the Northern Irishman had built a gap of 8.9 seconds from Villeneuve, meanwhile the difference from the Canadian, in 2nd place, to Jean Alesi, in 6th, was less than two seconds. The first casualties were the Stewart duo, retiring with three laps of difference apart. Local heroes Ukyo Katayama and Shinji Nakano soon followed them.

After 13 laps, the drivers started to pit, as did Hakkinen and Berger. At the end of lap 15 Irvine pitted for the lead, 12.7 seconds from Villeneuve in 2nd place. The top-6 were formed then by Michael Schumacher, Frentzen, Johnny Herbert and Giancarlo Fisichella. Schumacher pitted just after his teammate and Villeneuve did the same at the end of lap 19. The Canadian exited the pits just in front of Schumacher, however, with warmer tires, the German stormed to the main straight, dived inside and passed Villeneuve for good. On lap 23, after all the frontrunners had pitted, the order was Irvine, Schumacher, Villeneuve, Frentzen, Hakkinen and Alesi.

The gap from the leader to the second was about 11 seconds on lap 22, but as part of Ferrari's strategy, Irvine soon started to lift his foot and in a couple of laps let Schumacher passed by him to the lead, immediately blocking and holding Villeneuve in third place. The strategy worked perfectly and Villeneuve anticipated his second pit to try to leave the traffic and undercut Irvine. This meant nothing to the Canadian, as he fell down to 6th place and never had the pace to challenge even a podium. After the second round of pits, the major change was in second place, as Frentzen, running heavier on fuel and spending more time on track, passed Irvine for 2nd place. By lap 38 the order was Schumacher, Frentzen (8.5 seconds behind), Irvine, Alesi, Hakkinen and Villeneuve (23 seconds from the leader).

Frentzen eventually charged back and reduced the gap to 5 seconds by lap 45, meanwhile Villeneuve passed Alesi for 5th. The scenario was showing a comfortable leading and eventual winning for Schumacher with 8 laps to go; however, with two laps remaining, the German stuck behind Damon Hill, who was about to be lapped. This meant the gap from him to Frentzen to reduce to one second on final stages, but Schumacher cleaned his way and keep the lead until the chequered flag. As Villeneuve had ended in 5th place, the Canadian initially secured the Championship lead by one point. With his disqualification from the race, he lost two points and the Championship lead to Schumacher, also by one point and one round to go.

Championship standings after the race

Note, only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. ;Drivers' Championship standings

;Constructors' Championship standings

References

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

References

1. "1997 Japanese Grand Prix | Motorsport Database".
2. "2013 Japanese Grand Prix: Official Media Kit". Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile.
3. Domenjoz, Luc. (1997). "Formula 1 Yearbook – 1997–98". [[Parragon]].
4. (5 October 2022). "Formula 1 Honda Japanese Grand Prix 2022 – Media Kit". [[Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile]].
5. Domenjoz, Luc. (1997). "Formula 1 Yearbook – 1997–98". [[Parragon]].
6. Domenjoz, Luc. (1997). "Formula 1 Yearbook – 1997–98". [[Parragon]].
7. (1997-10-13). "Villeneuve in trouble". GrandPrix.com.
8. (1997-10-20). "Williams drops its appeal". GrandPrix.com.
9. "Grand Prix Results: Japanese GP, 1997". GrandPrix.com.
10. Domenjoz, Luc. (1997). "Formula 1 Yearbook – 1997–98". [[Parragon]].
11. "Japan 1997 – Qualifications". StatsF1.
12. "1997 Japanese Grand Prix". formula1.com.
13. "Japan 1997 – Championship • STATS F1".