The tricky and diverse range of corners as well as the unpredictable Ardennes weather makes Spa-Francorchamps one of the most popular venues on the Grand Prix calendar, and is the supreme test for any driver. For Michael Schumacher, of course, it was all child’s play.
Qualifying was dominated by Jacques Villeneuve, his Williams-Renault setting a time three tenths of a second faster than that of second-placed Jean Alesi in the similarly-powered Benetton. Schumacher qualified third. In the early morning warm-up, Schumacher was a lowly fifteenth in warm and sunny conditions, which lasted up until twenty minutes before the start of the race. Then a tropical-style rainstorm descended over the area as the cars were making their way to the grid. Wet cars. Wet pit crews, and – perhaps as important – wet grid girls. The gulf in experience between the Schumacher brothers was beginning to show, as Ralf spun-off with approximately three quarters of his instillation lap left. On Michael’s way to the grid, his intuition told him the rain would soon cease, and instructed his mechanics to fit intermediate tyres.
With conditions now more suited to kayaks than Formula 1 cars, the decision was taken that the race should start under the safety car, at that point unprecedented in F1 history. The conditions were so severe that Mika Hakkinen managed to slide off the circuit at reduced speed, and subsequently lost two places, but the Finn, showing the regard for FIA regulations that a promiscuous Christian shows to the ten commandments, overtook the two cars in-front of him to regain his original fifth spot. After the three laps, the safety car peeled-off into the pits and the race began proper. For a lap, the decision taken by the majority of the drivers to drive with wet tyres seemed like a good idea, but Schumacher’s gamble began to pay-off and by the start of the next lap, the German’s Ferrari out-braked Alesi at La Source, and before start of lap six, he was past Villeneuve and into the lead. What followed next was more an exhibition of Schumacher’s nigh-on superhuman ability in the conditions, as he ended lap five some five seconds ahead of Villeneuve, and by lap twelve, he was just over one whole minute ahead of the cars behind, who quite literally followed his lead and opted, albeit far too late, for a change of tyres. Schumacher changed to dry tyres on lap fifteen, and drove a further fifteen laps before pitting again to tease his rivals a bit closer but not even close enough to see him in the distance. Schumacher was in fact so far ahead he had time to acknowledge the nod of approval from an Ardennes cow in a field behind the barriers. Giancarlo Fisichella was now up to second, largely due to his own choice of tyre, opting to start with V-cut wets as opposed to the 1996-spec wets. Villeneuve’s race was largely about playing catch-up. After making an unscheduled stop after overshooting the Bus Stop chicane, he chose to run on intermediates and dropped as low as sixteenth, but the latter half of his race saw him carve his way through the field and up to the points places.
Schumacher took the flag after 44 laps with enough time to make his way to the top step of the podium before the others even finished. Fisichella scored his best result of his career at that point with an impressive second. Hakkinen recovered from his earlier mishap and completed the podium, fighting off the sister Williams of Heinz-Harald Frentzen at the end. Johnny Herbert stayed out of trouble and brought his Sauber home in fifth, with Villeneuve not far behind.
For Schumacher, it must be ranked as one of his greatest wins, and it gave him an eleven point lead in the World Championship ahead of Villeneuve. Ferrari had a narrow but welcome six point lead in the Constructor’s Championship as the F1 fraternity dried themselves off before heading to Monza for the next round.
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