A rain-soaked British Grand Prix at Silverstone ended in mayhem with nobody seeming to know whether Michael Schumacher or Mika Hakkinen had won. It all centred on the interpretation, delivery and timing of a ten-second penalty to Schumacher but when the fuss had died down, it emerged that the German had earned the distinction of becoming the first driver ever to win a Grand Prix in the pit lane.
After a lightning start to the season when they looked destined to sweep all before them, the wheels had come off the McLaren wagon over the previous two Grands Prix. Comprehensive defeats in Canada and France – coupled with two Schumacher successes – had put a different complexion on the championship race. After eight rounds, Schumacher was within six points of Hakkinen with Coulthard – perhaps beginning to regret his largesse in Australia – languishing 14 points behind the German in third. Suddenly there was a real race on. Ferrari could sniff McLaren blood and their drivers, especially the outspoken Eddie Irvine, were making plenty of capital out of the Woking team’s sudden vulnerability. But now McLaren were back on home soil. The British Grand Prix would be the perfect venue to answer their critics.
Hakkinen did his bit, qualifying on pole, but Coulthard was only fourth fastest – behind Schumacher and Jacques Villeneuve. Irvine and Heinz-Harald Frentzen made up row three. Hakkinen was cautiously optimistic but the weather forecast for Sunday’s race was heavy rain, and Schumacher was the acknowledged rain-master.
Hakkinen and Schumacher both made good starts but Villeneuve was away slowly and found himself behind Coulthard and the Sauber of Jean Alesi, who gained four places from his grid position. Irvine also made a poor start and things looked grim for Ferrari when Coulthard eased past Schumacher at Abbey Curve. After a dozen laps light rain began to fall and when it became increasingly persistent, the cars started a mad scramble for the pits. Some didn’t make it in time. To the dismay of the crowd, Damon Hill spun off on lap 14 and was followed two laps later by Frentzen. Only Hakkinen of the leading bunch moved on to wet tyres, the rest opting for intermediates. Coulthard made steady inroads into his team-mate’s advantage until the rain suddenly started to get heavier around lap 26. Soon Johnny Herbert and Mika Salo (Arrows) went off and Esteban Tuero’s Minardi was involved in a shunt with Ricardo Rosset’s Tyrrell. Coulthard, in particular, was struggling in the wet conditions and spun three times in quick succession, finally exiting the race on lap 38. He later expressed his anger at being put on intermediates while Hakkinen had the benefit of wets.
The rain had now reached monsoon level, resulting in further casualties including Rubens Barrichello (Stewart), Olivier Panis (Prost) and Pedro Diniz (Arrows). Even Hakkinen went off on to the grass at Bridge Corner but managed to keep going. Conditions were so treacherous that the yellow flags were brought out, but while lapping the Benetton of Alexander Wurz, Schumacher failed to spot the flags and passed the Austrian. Moments later the safety car appeared. In an instant Hakkinen saw his 38-second lead over Schumacher reduced to nothing. To make matters worse, the McLaren had not emerged unscathed from its excursion on to the grass, although Hakkinen was unsure as to the extent of the damage. Six laps later the rain had eased sufficiently for the safety car to withdraw. Almost immediately Hakkinen went off at Becketts and Schumacher swept through into the lead.
But behind the scenes there was high drama. Schumacher had been awarded a ten-second penalty for passing Wurz under the yellow flags, but the Silverstone stewards took 31 minutes to notify Ferrari of the decision when the rules state that it should be delivered within 25 minutes of the offending incident. Moreover, the piece of paper handed to Ferrari sporting director Jean Todt was, at best, ambiguous and, at worst, illegible. Ferrari were unsure whether it was a stop-go penalty, which would necessitate Schumacher coming into the pits for ten seconds before rejoining the race, or if the ten seconds was simply to be added to his final time. In the absence of any clarification from the stewards, Ferrari let Schumacher continue on his way and then brought him in for the penalty at the end of the final lap, by which time he had a 20-second lead over Hakkinen. So at the end of the sixtieth and last lap, Schumacher came into the Ferrari pit, which was beyond the finish line, and served his ten-second penalty, this being added to his overall time. He thus won the British Grand Prix while stationary.
Not that any of the soaked crowd had any idea who had won at that point, for it was some time before it filtered through that Schumacher had officially been declared the winner. McLaren protested, arguing that as the yellow flag incident had occurred 12 laps before the finish the transgressor was supposed to sit out the ten seconds in the pit in a stop-go penalty rather than have them added to his time. However, the protest was rejected since the delay was deemed to be the fault of the stewards rather than Ferrari.
So Schumacher kept the race. Hakkinen’s championship lead was down to two points. Game on.