1998 French Grand Prix

Report

Background

The race was originally dropped due to a dispute over television broadcasting rights in France. Though TF1 had the rights, rival channel France 3 obtained a judgement from a French court to allow all channels to operate on the grounds of the circuit.

Jos Verstappen replaced Jan Magnussen at the Stewart team for the remainder of the season.

Qualifying

Mika Häkkinen of McLaren-Mercedes took pole position, beating Michael Schumacher by 0.2 seconds. David Coulthard qualified third, and Eddie Irvine took fourth place. Throughout the qualifying session, Schumacher and Häkkinen exchanged first place, until Häkkinen finally took the pole.

Race

At the beginning of the race, Verstappen stalled his Stewart, the race was stopped on lap 1, and a restart was required. At the second start, Häkkinen was overtaken by Michael Schumacher and Irvine. Schumacher then began to pull away, sometimes at one second a lap, with Irvine holding both the McLarens behind him. On lap 20, Häkkinen tried an ambitious move on Irvine. His attempt failed, and he spun into the gravel trap. However, he managed to keep his car going, pitted for fresh tyres, and rejoined in fourth place. Then he regained third place when Coulthard had problems during his pit stop: Coulthard went into the pits, but due to a fuel filling problem, had to do another lap, and then go into the pits again. After the second set of pit stops, Häkkinen was back behind Irvine, and Schumacher was some way in front. On the final lap, on the final corner, Häkkinen made an attempt to overtake Irvine, after Irvine was very slow through the chicane before the final corner. Irvine just held off Häkkinen to take second, but only by a tenth of a second. However, both drivers were 19 seconds behind Schumacher. After Coulthard's misfortune in the pitlane, he finished sixth, scoring one world championship point. It was Ferrari's first 1–2 in 8 years, the previous being at the 1990 Spanish Grand Prix, with Alain Prost and Nigel Mansell.

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 = 1997 French Grand Prix | Next_year's_race = 1999 French Grand Prix

References

1. Calculated based on the qualifying classification shown during TV broadcast
2. "Grand Prix de France". Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile.
3. Calculated based on the race classification shown during TV broadcast: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v60MQJjJZJ0&t=19m17s]
4. Calculated by adding lap length to the race distance
5. (13 December 1997). "Motor Racing: Doubts over Belgian Grand Prix". [[The Independent]].
6. (13 December 1997). "France dropped from F1 season". [[BBC News]].
7. "France 1998 - Qualifications". StatsF1.
8. "1998 French Grand Prix". formula1.com.
9. "France 1998 - Championship • STATS F1".