1999 Italian Grand Prix

The 1999 Italian Grand Prix (formally the 70o Gran Premio Campari d'Italia[2]) was a Formula One motor race held on 12 September 1999 at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza near Monza, Italy. It was the thirteenth race of the 1999 Formula One World Championship, and the last held on this layout.

1999 Italian Grand Prix
Race 13 of 16 in the 1999 Formula One World Championship
Autodromo Nazionale di Monza (last modified in 1995)
Race details
Date 12 September 1999
Official name 70o Gran Premio Campari d'Italia
Location Autodromo Nazionale di Monza
Monza, Lombardy, Italy
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 5.770 km (3.585 mi)
Distance 53 laps, 305.810 km (190.022 mi)
Weather Hot and dry with temperatures reaching up to 30 °C (86 °F)[1]
Pole position
Driver McLaren-Mercedes
Time 1:22.432
Fastest lap
Driver Ralf Schumacher Williams-Supertec
Time 1:25.579 on lap 48
Podium
First Jordan-Mugen-Honda
Second Williams-Supertec
Third Ferrari

The 53-lap race was won by Heinz-Harald Frentzen, driving a Jordan-Mugen-Honda, after McLaren's Mika Häkkinen, seeking to defend his Drivers' Championship title, spun off while leading comfortably. Ralf Schumacher was second in a Williams-Supertec, with Mika Salo third in a Ferrari. Häkkinen's rival Eddie Irvine finished sixth in the other Ferrari, thus moving level on points with the Finn at the top of the Drivers' Championship.

Though the victory moved Frentzen to within ten points of Häkkinen and Irvine, it would turn out to be his third and last victory in Formula One, as well as the last for engine suppliers Mugen. It was also the Jordan team's only victory in dry conditions, their others coming in the rain.

Report

Qualifying

Going into the race, McLaren's Mika Häkkinen led the Drivers' Championship by a single point from Ferrari's Eddie Irvine, with Jordan's Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Häkkinen's team-mate David Coulthard also still in contention. Häkkinen was expected to do well on the fast Monza circuit, and duly claimed pole position by half a second from Frentzen. Coulthard was third, while Alessandro Zanardi, who had been having a poor year with Williams, was fourth, just ahead of teammate Ralf Schumacher. On Ferrari's home soil, Irvine had a poor qualifying session and could only manage eighth, behind teammate Mika Salo in sixth and Stewart's Rubens Barrichello – who had just signed with Ferrari to replace Irvine in 2000 – in seventh. Completing the top ten were Damon Hill in the second Jordan and Olivier Panis in the Prost.

Race

At the start, Häkkinen led away while Zanardi shot past Coulthard and Frentzen into second. Frentzen quickly re-passed Zanardi, but Coulthard fell further back, behind Schumacher and Salo. Meanwhile, at the back of the field, Minardi's Marc Gené tangled with Arrows' Pedro de la Rosa at the Roggia chicane and became the first retirement, while on the second lap Benetton's Giancarlo Fisichella and Sauber's Pedro Diniz both spun off at the Rettifilo chicane.

On lap 3, Zanardi ran over a kerb and damaged the underside of his car. He managed to hold on to third place for another 15 laps, while Häkkinen and Frentzen pulled away. Barrichello passed Coulthard on lap 11 and then Salo on lap 19, while Zanardi waved Schumacher past on lap 18. On lap 24, there was more drama at the back as Toranosuke Takagi in the second Arrows tried to overtake Luca Badoer in the second Minardi at the Rettifilo, only to run into the back of Badoer and end his race.

Barrichello overtook Zanardi on lap 26; Salo did the same at the start of lap 28. At this point, Häkkinen led Frentzen by eight seconds, with Schumacher a further two-and-a-half seconds back. But on lap 30, going into the Rettifilo, Häkkinen made a mistake changing gear – selecting first instead of second[3] – and spun off, in a virtual repeat of his unforced error at San Marino earlier in the year. In a rare show of emotion, the Finn burst into tears at the side of the track.

Frentzen thus inherited the lead as the front-runners began to make their pit stops. When these had been completed, Salo had moved back ahead of Barrichello and into third, while Coulthard and Irvine had both leapfrogged Zanardi and were now fifth and sixth.

Over the closing laps, Frentzen retained a comfortable lead over Schumacher – despite the Williams driver setting the fastest lap of the race on lap 48 – while Coulthard tried unsuccessfully to find a way past Barrichello, allowing Salo to pull away from both of them. Frentzen's eventual margin of victory was 3.2 seconds, with a further eight seconds back to Salo and another six back to Barrichello. Coulthard finished half a second behind the Stewart driver, but nine ahead of Irvine, who himself held off Zanardi for the final point.

This point moved Irvine level with Häkkinen in the Drivers' Championship on 60 points apiece, while the win put Frentzen just ten points behind on 50, with Coulthard on 48. In the Constructors' Championship, Ferrari cut McLaren's lead to six points, 108 to 102.

Classification

Qualifying

PosNoDriverConstructorLapGap
1 1 Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 1:22.432
2 8 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Jordan-Mugen-Honda 1:22.926 +0.494
3 2 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 1:23.177 +0.745
4 5 Alessandro Zanardi Williams-Supertec 1:23.432 +1.000
5 6 Ralf Schumacher Williams-Supertec 1:23.636 +1.204
6 3 Mika Salo Ferrari 1:23.657 +1.225
7 16 Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 1:23.739 +1.307
8 4 Eddie Irvine Ferrari 1:23.765 +1.333
9 7 Damon Hill Jordan-Mugen-Honda 1:23.979 +1.547
10 18 Olivier Panis Prost-Peugeot 1:24.016 +1.584
11 22 Jacques Villeneuve BAR-Supertec 1:24.188 +1.756
12 19 Jarno Trulli Prost-Peugeot 1:24.293 +1.861
13 11 Jean Alesi Sauber-Petronas 1:24.591 +2.159
14 10 Alexander Wurz Benetton-Playlife 1:24.593 +2.161
15 17 Johnny Herbert Stewart-Ford 1:24.594 +2.162
16 12 Pedro Diniz Sauber-Petronas 1:24.596 +2.164
17 9 Giancarlo Fisichella Benetton-Playlife 1:24.862 +2.430
18 23 Ricardo Zonta BAR-Supertec 1:25.114 +2.682
19 20 Luca Badoer Minardi-Ford 1:25.348 +2.916
20 21 Marc Gené Minardi-Ford 1:25.695 +3.263
21 14 Pedro de la Rosa Arrows 1:26.383 +3.951
22 15 Toranosuke Takagi Arrows 1:26.509 +4.077
107% time: 1:28.202
Source:[4]

Race

PosNoDriverConstructorLapsTime/RetiredGridPoints
1 8 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Jordan-Mugen-Honda 53 1:17:02.923 2 10
2 6 Ralf Schumacher Williams-Supertec 53 + 3.272 5 6
3 3 Mika Salo Ferrari 53 + 11.932 6 4
4 16 Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 53 + 17.630 7 3
5 2 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 53 + 18.142 3 2
6 4 Eddie Irvine Ferrari 53 + 27.402 8 1
7 5 Alessandro Zanardi Williams-Supertec 53 + 28.047 4  
8 22 Jacques Villeneuve BAR-Supertec 53 + 41.797 11  
9 11 Jean Alesi Sauber-Petronas 53 + 42.198 13  
10 7 Damon Hill Jordan-Mugen-Honda 53 + 56.259 9  
11 18 Olivier Panis Prost-Peugeot 52 Engine 10  
Ret 17 Johnny Herbert Stewart-Ford 40 Clutch 15  
Ret 15 Toranosuke Takagi Arrows 35 Spun Off 22  
Ret 14 Pedro de la Rosa Arrows 35 Withdrew 21  
Ret 1 Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 29 Spun Off 1  
Ret 19 Jarno Trulli Prost-Peugeot 29 Overheating 12  
Ret 23 Ricardo Zonta BAR-Supertec 25 Wheel Bearing 18  
Ret 20 Luca Badoer Minardi-Ford 23 Collision 19  
Ret 10 Alexander Wurz Benetton-Playlife 11 Electrical 14  
Ret 12 Pedro Diniz Sauber-Petronas 1 Spun Off 16  
Ret 9 Giancarlo Fisichella Benetton-Playlife 1 Spun Off 17  
Ret 21 Marc Gené Minardi-Ford 0 Collision 20  
Sources:[5][6]

Championship standings after the race

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

References

  1. Weather info for the 1999 Italian Grand Prix at Weather Underground
  2. "Motor Racing Programme Covers: 1999". The Programme Covers Project. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
  3. F1 Racing. October 1999.
  4. "Italy 1999 - Qualifications". StatsF1. Retrieved 29 March 2016.
  5. "1999 Italian Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 9 January 2015. Retrieved 24 December 2015.
  6. "1999 Italian GP: Classification". ChicaneF1.com. Retrieved 2 August 2007.
  7. "Italy 1999 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
Previous race:
1999 Belgian Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
1999 season
Next race:
1999 European Grand Prix
Previous race:
1998 Italian Grand Prix
Italian Grand Prix Next race:
2000 Italian Grand Prix
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