1997 Australian Grand Prix
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| Race details | ||
|---|---|---|
| Race 1 of 17 in the 1997 Formula One season | ||
| Date | March 9, 1997 | |
| Official name | LXII Qantas Australian Grand Prix | |
| Location | Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit, Albert Park, Melbourne | |
| Course | Temporary Street Circuit 5.303 km (3.295 mi) |
|
| Distance | 58 laps, 308.792 km (191.110 mi) | |
| Weather | Partly Cloudy, Dry | |
| Pole position | ||
| Driver | Williams-Renault | |
| Time | 1:29.396 | |
| Fastest lap | ||
| Driver | Williams-Renault | |
| Time | 1:30.585 on lap 36 | |
| Podium | ||
| First | McLaren-Mercedes | |
| Second | Ferrari | |
| Third | McLaren-Mercedes | |
The 1997 Australian Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on March 9, 1997 at the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit in Albert Park, Melbourne. It was the first race of the 1997 Formula One season. It was the second Grand Prix to be hosted in Melbourne.
Contents |
[edit] Summary
[edit] Pre-Race
Two new teams came into Formula One in 1997: Stewart and Lola. Footwork reverted to their old name of Arrows and acquired Yamaha engines, while Ligier were bought by Alain Prost and changed their name to Prost Grand Prix. Tyrrell acquired Ford engines. Damon Hill moved to Arrows after being replaced at Williams by Heinz-Harald Frentzen. Pedro Diniz also joined Arrows, while Sauber signed Italian Nicola Larini. Three teams changed both of their drivers. Prost signed Shinji Nakano and Olivier Panis, Ralf Schumacher and Giancarlo Fisichella joined Jordan, while Jarno Trulli and Ukyo Katayama joined Minardi.
The British television coverage switched to ITV for the 1997 season and beyond, after 18 years of regular coverage for the BBC. Former driver Martin Brundle joined Murray Walker in the commentary box.
[edit] Qualifying
Canadian Jacques Villeneuve took his fourth career pole position after a stunning lap of 1:29.369, while Heinz-Harald Frentzen could only manage a 1:31.121 to fill the remaining spot on the front row. Only 6 drivers managed to qualify within 3 seconds of the pole position time. The session was red flagged with just over two minutes remaining after a collision between Gerhard Berger and Nicola Larini on the straight between turns 10 and 11. This resulted in many of the cars effectively having to complete a one-lap sprint to post a lap time before the end of the session. Damon Hill struggled during the session, only just qualifying inside of the 107% limit due to an oil leak which hampered the lap times. Both of the Lola cars failed to make the qualifying limit and were over ten seconds slower than Villeneuve in their first and only F1 qualifying session, as the team had to withdraw from the next race due to a lack of funds.
[edit] Race
Before the race even began there were problems for the reigning world champion, Damon Hill. On the parade lap his throttle jammed leaving him stranded on the track and causing him to retire from the race. The drama continued into the first corner as Eddie Irvine dived into the first corner and misjudged his braking, hitting both Villeneuve and Herbert - all three were out of the race. Jos Verstappen spun off on lap two while attempting to overtake Ukyo Katayama. Both of the Jordan cars soon retired from the race, Ralf Schumacher suffering a gearbox problem and Fisichella spinning off the track while passing Barrichello. Jean Alesi embarrassingly retired from the race after running out of fuel, despite the Benetton team calling him into the pits 5 laps earlier. At the front David Coulthard continued to keep away from these incidents to lead the race, followed by Michael Schumacher and Frentzen. Schumacher had to make an unscheduled fuel stop towards the end of the race, promoting Frentzen to second. However, large quantities of dust had been coming from Frentzen's brakes for some time and with three laps to go a brake disc failed, sending him into the gravel trap at the end of the start/finish straight. Coulthard went on to take his second career win. It was also McLaren's first win since Ayrton Senna won the 1993 Australian Grand Prix.
[edit] Classification
[edit] Qualifying
[edit] Race
[edit] Notes
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Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (January 2010) |
- Qualifying Note
Both of the Mastercard Lola entries failed to qualify for the grand prix. Neither Sospiri or Rosset managed to keep inside the 107% benchmark time needed to race. Pedro Diniz was also outside of the 107% time, however he was permitted to race, having set a time in practice within the 107% time, something neither of the Lola drivers came near to achieving. It proved to be the only grand prix the team entered.
- First Starts: Jarno Trulli, Ralf Schumacher, Shinji Nakano and Vincenzo Sospiri.
- Last race:Vincenzo Sospiri and Lola.
- New Entries: Stewart, Lola and Prost.
- Milestones: Heinz-Harald Frentzen 50th race entry; Olivier Panis 50th race entry; Johnny Herbert 100th race entry
- Jean Alesi ran out of fuel.
[edit] References
Race Details
"1997 Australian Grand Prix". Chicane F1. http://www.chicanef1.com/racetit.pl?year=1997&gp=Australian%20GP. Retrieved 2007-08-02.
Classification
Qualifying
"1997 Australian Grand Prix Qualifying". Chicane F1. http://www.chicanef1.com/race.pl?year=1997&gp=Australian%20GP&type=qual. Retrieved 2007-08-02.
"1997 Australian Grand Prix Qualifying". Grand Prix Racing. http://www.gpracing.net192.com/races/qualify/598.cfm. Retrieved 2007-08-02.
Race
"1997 Australian Grand Prix". Official Formula One Website. http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1997/147/. Retrieved 2007-08-02.
"1997 Australian Grand Prix". Chicane F1. http://www.chicanef1.com/race.pl?year=1997&gp=Australian%20GP&type=res. Retrieved 2007-08-02.
| Previous race: 1996 Japanese Grand Prix |
FIA Formula One World Championship 1997 season |
Next race: 1997 Brazilian Grand Prix |
| Previous race: 1996 Australian Grand Prix |
Australian Grand Prix | Next race: 1998 Australian Grand Prix |
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by 1996 Australian Grand Prix |
Formula One Promotional Trophy for Race Promoter 1997 |
Succeeded by 1998 San Marino Grand Prix |
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