So was Villeneuve just toying with Irvine at the end or have the competition started to catch-up with Williams Renault?
Once again Villeneuve was in sparkling form on the track. Off track he was feeling decidedly unwell. Frentzen too was not well, having to take oxygen at the end of each practice session. Under the circumstances it was therefore a surprise to see the Williams-Renaults occupying the first two places on the grid.
Frentzens disappointing start to the season continued right from the formation lap when he was late getting away and had to pass back to his original place. There was the, what is not customary, first lap incident when Michael Schumacher nudged Barrichello round putting the Ferrari driver out of the race. Despite red flags being waved the race was not stopped – something that would incur the organisers a fine – instead the “safety-car” made an appearance, the earliest that it has ever been used in F1. For four laps Villeneuve led Frentzen, Panis, Irvine, Fisichella and Hill in short succession until, on lap five, the racing started proper. At then end of the fifth lap Villeneuve led Frentzen by 1.784 seconds. The Williams 1-2 was not to last though as on the very next lap Frentzen rolled to a stop with clutch problems, perhaps something that caused his problem on the grid?
Villeneuve was now expected to stretch his lead from the now second placed Panis. But this did not happen. The gap did open out to about 6 seconds but the domination by Villeneuve was by no mean crushing. It was also expected that Panis would be making one less stop than Villeneuve and so the Prost driver looked in a good position. As it turned out Panis made only one stop and that was a terminal one out on the circuit on lap 19. This gave Villeneuve a breathing space allowing him to make his first of what would be three stops on lap 21, rejoining in the lead followed by Irvine, Herbert, Fisichella, Ralf Schumacher and Diniz. At this stage of the race Schumacher looked the strongest opposition, not the Schumacher that Villeneuve might have been expecting though as the Jordan driver closed in on the Williams. Ralf Schumacher’s challenge was blunted by his second set of tyres and the slight distraction of having to find time to punt his team-mate out of the race!
Having elected for the softer compound Goodyear tyres Villeneuve found himself stopping three times to everyone else’s two stops. His final stop, on lap 56, was completed in 7.2 seconds and was enough to put him back out in front of Irvine but only by a margin of 4,23 seconds. It did not take Irvine long to close the gap but so to the end of the race Villeneuve was not going to let the Ferrari past without a fight. Irvine found that there was no door open to him and so remained behind for a well earned second place.
Only Villeneuve will know whether his was toying with Irvine and had something to spare but whatever the opposition seems to be getting their act together and Williams must make hay while the sun shines. As for Frentzen he proved to more of a worthy Williams driver this time out but was once again sidelined by mechanical problems. Williams cannot win the constructors championship on Villeneuve’s points alone and so mechanical failures must be eradicated and Frentzen must score some points. As he said his season starts in Imola.
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