Extended Highlights | 1997 Japanese Grand Prix

All to play for at Suzuka, and just look at that massed crowd in the background, with Jacques Villeneuve, as you now well know, starting under suspension. We're going to see the battle of the titans of 1997, the two men who have dominated the championship. The safety car is behind them, they are all lined up, 21 ready to go. As usual, watch for the lights. When the last, the fifth goes out, there will be a pause, and then it will be time for action in Japan. And Villeneuve cuts straight across the front of the track, pushes Michael Schumacher to the side. Hagenen has passed, and he has passed Irvine up into third place. So there's a change already, and really, really robustuous tactics I didn't see where Gerhard Berger was, because he's climbing up towards the left hander, which goes thick corner. Now down to the chicane, which has caused so much trouble in the past. Coming through to complete the first lap, look how close they are. Villeneuve, Schumacher, Hagenen, Irvine, over the line. One lap completed, 52 laps to go. Fourth is Irvine, fifth is Fredsen, sixth is Berger, so Heinz-Harald Fredsen has got past Gerhard. Michael Schumacher away, slightly better than Villeneuve. Villeneuve was thinking on his feet, moved across, said I'm going to put some manners on you right from the beginning, and really a good start there. Not the start Ferrari needed. Schumacher's in second, Irvine's been neutralized, but somehow Irvine has passed Hagenen. Eddie Irvine has got past Hagenen, that's good news for Schumacher, he can now draw him along and make use of him later in the race. I'd like to see a replay of how that happened. Fortunately the director had us looking at a replay of the start, which is fair enough. I'm hoping he'll now show us where the Ferrari passed. Is that Schumacher in third place? It is, Michael Schumacher is third, and Eddie Irvine has got, and we've missed this, the producer has missed it sadly. Eddie Irvine not only got ahead of Mika Hagenen, but he's gone ahead of Michael Schumacher. Maybe, maybe this is the plan, maybe the plan was... Here we go, look this is Irvine going around the outside of, and he's going to take Schumacher too. Irvine taking two cars in one corner. At turn two, now Eddie Irvine really knows this Suzuka circuit. This is where he made his reputation when he drove for Eddie Jordan against Ayrton Senna, and had the temerity to pass the Brazilian, which Ayrton didn't like, one little bit. Eddie Irvine wasn't the least bit bothered, and look at the way he goes now. I wonder how much fuel that car of Irvine's has got in it, because this is absolutely flying, new fastest lap for him. Maybe this is part of the strategy, because, well Michael Schumacher would have been more surprised than anybody to see that Ferrari. That's Irvine closing in, that Ferrari is extremely light, extremely light. It has to be, it's absolutely flying, and no way he can be going that much faster than the front runner without some kind of advance of good weight. Well spotted, that's a beautiful bit of race reading, and Eddie Irvine, we assume, and now Michael Schumacher's having a look at Villeneuve, who knows that it's Schumacher behind him, and look how close it is, because there are two seconds covering the first six at the present moment. Gerhard Berger is sixth, Frentzen is fifth, Hakanen is in fourth position, and then that titanic struggle, and off goes Magnussen. Jan Magnussen's race has ended early in the Stuart Ford, and that's the 12th time he's retired this year. This is Irvine taking the lead from Villeneuve into the chicane, fantastic move. He, Irvine had to defend the, Villeneuve defending the inside line, Irvine said, I don't care, I'll go down the outside then, if that's your problem, and, well, Villeneuve there, really, I would think quite surprised at where Irvine got that kind of speed from, but even if he does have some kind of weight advantage, Irvine is flying. So, Eddie Irvine's got some kind of amazing performance. He must be running it on the smell of an oil road from the way he's streaking off with a lighter car, and Jack Villeneuve now is leading what is in effect the rest, which is in fact the rest of the race, and look at them, they are still on lap 4 out of 53, nose to tail. Is this the first time Irvine's led a Grand Prix? It is indeed. But, I, I, I just, so, so, hang on, let's just stop and think about this. Irvine, maybe Schumacher did slow up Häkkinen to let Irvine pass, I still think he would have been surprised to see Irvine also slicing alongside him, and now Irvine's got in front of Villeneuve, great, so that's great for the strategy. So, why is he flashing off into the distance? He can't help Schumacher there. Well, I can only lamely say that he's building up as much of a lead as he can, so that when he does come in, he will make his pit stop as short as possible, but we'll just have to wait and see. So, Eddie Irvine with a clear track behind him, look at that, and we're still waiting, six seconds later, and it's Villeneuve, Michael Schumacher, Häkkinen, Frentzen, Alessi, one minute 40.6, that is the fastest lap ever of Suzuka, and off has gone somebody, cloud of dust there, it's clearing, who is in it? Who is in it? Let's have a look at the car. I think it's a, is it a McLaren? I think it's a McLaren of some sort, it's at the exit of 130R. So, that's both the stewards, that's a nasty place to have an accident, but he's got away with that one very lightly by the looks of it, it looks like he's dropped it on the exit of 130R, it's easy to get up on the kerb there, and it all gets dusty, there it is, yes, wow, he's going to spear across the track, he's losing a lot of speed as he's spinning the car around, and he was very lucky not to slam into that barrow very, very hard, the gravel there doing him proud. Irvine in the pit, his second, Eddie Irvine has been in and comes out behind the second Williams of Heinz-Harald-Frenk's position, so Eddie Irvine has rejoined the race after his short pit stop in fourth position. Michael Schumacher coming in, now my theory is that they will try and get him out at a quicker stop than Villeneuve's, so that he will obviously be in front of him, then obviously they'll have Irvine in front of Schumacher, whether it'll play out that way, I don't know, but some of the Ferrari mechanics, that was very quick, that really was quick, some of the Ferrari mechanics, 7.1 seconds, some of the Ferrari mechanics are a little bit surprised not to see the Williams guys out here as well, so there's a lot of cat and mouse going on down here, it's really interesting. If this stop takes more than 7.1 seconds, Schumacher will be in second place, and the theory will play out, let's see what happens, back to you. Well, you've seen Frentzen going through with Irvine right behind him, out goes Villeneuve, here is Schumacher, Schumacher is just coming out of the last corner, they're going to hit the track virtually together, Villeneuve comes out of the, and there is Schumacher, getting through and passing him, Schumacher passes him, and move, this is the vital move, Schumacher's done what he wanted, he's got past Sankt Villeneuve. Well, we saw the in-car shot there of Michael Schumacher, swerving across the road to slide up the inside of Villeneuve, to take over that position, this is your current leader, making his stop, he's going to resume back in fourth position. Everybody has now stopped except Ralf Schumacher, there's an engine going there, that was Nakano I think, having a little trip across the gravel trap, that's done his front wing no good at all, and he's got some smoke coming off his right rear there too, like he's got some kind of suspension problem. Nakano, not a major player, he's got some kind of failure before he ever arrives into that corner. I think his engine went as he turned in there. No, I think it's the right rear, he's got some kind of right rear suspension problem there, I think the tyre was touching on the bodywork or something like that, or a wheel bearing failure. The gap I remind you was 8.8 seconds, there is Irvine across the road, across the line, they look closer to me. That 46, that was a one minute 46 from Eddie, he's backed off six seconds, but yes you're right Murray, the gap is now three seconds. So from 11 to 8.8, from 8.8 to three, and he's negating. Now this is going to be a bit of synchronised swimming here, how can Irvine seamlessly let pass Schuey, we're now seeing it for ourselves. Yeah, but that was the wrong place, there's a wrong place. But can Irvine keep Villeneuve back? Me time, Michael Schumacher, sensational teamwork, sensational. Schumacher's going to pull away now, Eddie Irvine is going to make his car very very very wide indeed, and Jack Villeneuve is going to struggle to get past. Lap 28, we're riding with brilliant race leader, double world champion Michael Schumacher, who has already won this year at Monaco, in Canada, in France, and of course in Belgium. Four wins, looks as though he's on for a fifth at the present moment. Gerhard Berger has been into the pits for the second time, Eddie Irvine there is still holding off Villeneuve, who is being caught by Frentzen, Hakkinen and Alessi. The make here, there's Frentzen in the background. Now remember that Irvine came in first the last time around, this time Williams are bringing Villeneuve in, so this is obviously part of their plan, and you might be right, they're maybe going to refuel him to the end, but this is really all about the Constructors' Championship, I think part of Ferrari's plan was to get Frentzen to attack Villeneuve, Williams aren't responding to that, and Frentzen of course meanwhile is attacking, going to start attacking Irvine, watch out for that. Well look, Villeneuve shaking his head, the refueling rig didn't appear to go on well, Villeneuve sitting there shaking his head saying, what have I got to do at this racetrack, because there he is behind Micah Hakkinen, and well it all went pear-shaped for Villeneuve here last year in the World Championship, and it's certainly not been a lucky weekend for him again here. Smoothly up to the box of Ferrari mechanics, off come the wheels, on go the new ones, here is Jacques Villeneuve. Well that was Villeneuve in 1.30 hours, so no way Villeneuve is going to be past the pits before Irvine rejoins, so Irvine will definitely rejoin ahead of Jacques Villeneuve, as you can see coming down the hill there, that's one of the cars caught a cone coming in there this morning and ripped his front suspension off, you have to be very careful in this. You watch Frentzen, I'll watch the track, I'm watching the track, and here comes Michael Schumacher, Michael Schumacher going through into the lead, followed by Eddie Irvine, there's the new race leader, there is Eddie Irvine coming out of the pit lane behind the Minardi, bad bad news, Hightarrow Frentzen in front of Eddie Irvine, is he going to get through? No, Frentzen just manages to, and Irvine goes for it. Well that amazing pace that Frentzen was putting on just before his pit stop has really catapulted him up, and that is extremely bad news for Ferrari, because if Frentzen can stay second in this race, that's enough points to win Williams their ninth Constructors World Championship. Into the closing stages of the Japanese Grand Prix, a titanic battle between Jacques Villeneuve on the left, Hight and John Alessi in the blue and white Benetton, they are battling for that critical fifth position, which is going to mean two World Championship points for one of them, if it's Villeneuve out to keep them. I heard an amazing story just before the Grand Prix that Nigel Mansell used to sing nursery rhymes across his radio from time to time when he was bored out front of a race, that's the sole remaining Minardi of Marquez, apparently out of the race, don't turn straight across the edge of the pit lane please, because cars come down there at 120kms and you can't see around the edge of the wall, but it didn't seem to stop him. The thought of Nigel, twinkle twinkle little star, makes the mind boggle. If it's Damon, it is Damon, he knows enough to get out of the way of Michael Schumacher, who you will know is the race leader, and ironically it's Michael Schumacher against whom he had so many World Championship battles, and behind Schumacher is the man who displaced Damon Hill in the Williams team, so we're with Schumacher now all the time, Frentzen is gaining on Michael Schumacher, and Damon Hill, that Arrow's engine, the Yamaha engine seems to have plenty of grunt, because Damon is staying ahead, look back and let's see how far Heinz-Harald Frentzen is behind, far enough I think, he doesn't seem to be closing, a bit of a poignant moment here for Damon, he won this race last year, two times winner here, he's about to be lapped this year, he's moving over, no he's not moving over and letting him through, Michael Schumacher will be less than impressed with that, this lap's going to cost him one, one and a half seconds at the absolute least, but then of course Frentzen also has to pass the Arrow's, yeah and this is lap 51 in this 53 lap race now, is Schumacher going to get through at the spoon, that's where Damon went off as I've said before, not in the Arrow's, in the Williams, and you can see that Frentzen is certainly visually closing on Michael Schumacher, who is unable to close on the tail of, now is he going to try and get through, and look at Frentzen, as Schumacher comes up to the chicane, Damon Hill is holding his line, sure he will have him in under braking into the chicane for sure, he's got to, no he doesn't, his tyres are not in very good condition at all, he doesn't have the confidence to barrel up the inside there, and Damon doing the race leader, no favours whatsoever, wouldn't surprise me he doesn't have a discussion with the stewards after that, Schumacher will surely slipstream him down the pit straight, yeah exactly, what are you doing, what do you think you are doing Damon, well is Damon going to do the same thing to Harold Frentzen, I suspect not, is there going to be some loyalty from Damon Hill to Williams, wow straight past goes, this is the last lap for one, the gap has come down to 1.1 seconds from five, obduracy, he may not see it as that, but Michael Schumacher certainly will, and out of the spoon for the last time goes Michael Schumacher, behind him behind Harold Frentzen, 1.5 seconds was the gap, so Michael Schumacher has really got the message, and has increased his lead by four tenths of a second, as he comes for the last time up to the chicane, this is Michael Schumacher's Japanese Grand Prix, out of the last bend for the last time, and in front of the mass Ferrari mechanics, he dives to the wall, waves his fist, victory Ferrari, victory for Michael Schumacher, 10 world championship points, and the world championship is still very much alight, incredible, and look at Eddie Irvine, Eddie Irvine going for third, with Mika Häkkinen right behind him, it's just as close for third as it was for first, and just as Schumacher got that first place, Eddie Irvine gets his third place, and Irvine has had three, four third places this year now, well, victory for Ferrari and Schumacher, second place to Heinz-Harald Frentzen, here is Villeneuve with Alessi right behind him, and as the 135 Formula One crazy Japanese go home from Suzuka, they know they've seen a stunning race, indeed they have, obviously the plan was to look what Villeneuve's plan is, and Villeneuve's plan at the beginning was to hold everyone up, to make life difficult in particular to me, as he probably knows he doesn't score any points out of this race, and so he wanted to make me losing as many points as he can, which meant slowing me down and getting some other cars in front of me, it didn't work in the end, because obviously I got Eddie, or Eddie took the chance to pass in a very good manoeuvre, and then we threw away their plan and used our plan.