The 1998 Formula One season had already experienced more than its fair share of drama, but the Belgian Grand Prix was something else: a first corner pile-up involving 13 cars, an explosive confrontation between Michael Schumacher and David Coulthard and, at the end of it all, Jordan’s first Grand Prix win at the 127th attempt. Who says motor racing is dull? Since Silverstone, Mika Hakkinen had notched back-to-back wins in Austria and Germany and, although Schumacher rallied with victory in Hungary, the Finn held a seven-point lead coming to round 13 at Spa. After Jacques Villeneuve had emerged unharmed from a 186mph (299.3km/h) practice crash – ‘the best accident I’ve had in Formula One so far’, he joked – qualifying gave little hint of the excitement to come. Hakkinen and Coulthard put the super-fast McLarens on the front row of the grid for the third successive race and the ninth time in all that season. But the happiest man was Damon Hill who, following two fourth-place finishes in the last two races (his first points of the year), conjured up extra speed from the Jordan to go third fastest, ahead of Schumacher, Eddie Irvine and Villeneuve. Hill was ecstatic, declaring the qualifying performance to be almost as good as a race win. ‘At the start of the season our car was a disaster,’ he said, ‘and now we have completely turned the situation around.’
If qualifying had been a triumph for McLaren, the start of the actual race was anything but. Hakkinen got away best in the wet to lead into La Source hairpin from Villeneuve and Schumacher, but behind them Coulthard and Irvine touched, causing the McLaren to hit the wall of the old pits and rebound into the middle of the track. With visibility reduced considerably by the spray, the cars behind had no chance of taking evasive action. Car upon car crashed into one another, the track quickly becoming littered with red, white, silver and blue wreckage. As wheels bounced in slow motion down the hill towards Eau Rouge, the race was stopped. Fortunately the mass collision had occurred at the slowest point on the circuit, with the result that none of the drivers suffered anything more serious than bruising.
The cars were not so lucky. No fewer than 13 of the 22 starters were involved – Coulthard, Irvine, Johnny Herbert (Sauber), Alexander Wurz (Benetton), Shinji Nakano (Minardi), the Tyrrells of Ricardo Rosset and Tora Takagi, the Prosts of Olivier Panis and Jarno Trulli, the Arrows of Pedro Diniz and Mika Salo, and the Stewarts of Rubens Barrichello and Jos Verstappen. Since their teams only had one spare car, Panis, Barrichello, Salo and Rosset were unable to take part in the restart, leaving just 18 hoping for better luck next time around.
Following a 50-minute delay for the track to be cleared, they set off once more. Hill got a flier, leaving the McLarens and the Ferraris in his wake as they rounded La Source. This time it was Hakkinen’s McLaren that didn’t make it, clipping Schumacher on the exit from the hairpin and sliding along the track before being shunted by Herbert. Both Hakkinen and Herbert were out of the race. McLaren misery was compounded 30 seconds later when Coulthard had a coming-together with Wurz and dropped back to the rear of the field. The safety car came out for one lap while Hakkinen’s broken car was towed away, and this enabled Coulthard to make up a little of the lost ground.
By lap five out of 44 the rain was getting heavier and Schumacher used his expertise in wet conditions to sweep past Hill into the lead. Elsewhere the slippery surface was taking its toll. Tagaki spun out of the race on lap 11, Villeneuve on lap 17 and Irvine from third place on lap 26. Schumacher now had a 37-second advantage over Hill. Victory – and with it, the lead in the championship – appeared a mere formality.
Then Schumacher came up to lap Coulthard, who slowed on the straight to allow the Ferrari to pass. But through the clouds of spray, Schumacher failed to detect Coulthard’s reduction in speed and ploughed into the back of him. The front wheel of the Ferrari was ripped off and both cars limped back to the pits where Schumacher had no choice but to retire. In a blind fury, he headed straight for the McLaren garage where he had to be restrained by mechanics of both teams from hitting Coulthard, whom he blamed unreservedly for the accident. Schumacher even went so far as to suggest that it was deliberate. ‘He slowed down at a point where we are normally flat out,’ raged Schumacher. ‘I was not expecting it at all. David has enough experience to know that in this rain there was no way I would realise he was slowing down and have enough time to react.’ Coulthard, who accused Schumacher of behaving ‘like an animal’ when he stormed into the McLaren pit, argued: ‘My engineer told me over the radio to let Michael through, so I stuck to the right-hand side of the track. All I know is he drove into me. What was I supposed to do? I cannot drive looking behind me all the time. It was not my responsibility to watch him. It was up to him to be careful.’
Meanwhile, in what was almost a carbon copy incident, Giancarlo Fisichella failed to spot Nakano’s Minardi through the rain and spray and slammed into it. The safety car made another appearance while the remains of the Benetton were cleared from the track. When the safety car turned off, there were only 12 laps left and, with the field bunched up, Hill was just ahead of team-mate Ralf Schumacher and the Sauber of Jean Alesi. Ralf immediately tried to attack Hill at the next corner, only to be warned off by the Jordan team. The orders from the team were that Hill was to win the race. So for the remaining laps, Ralf sat frustrated in second place. It had not been a good day for the Schumacher family.
But for Damon Hill, Eddie Jordan and all those who watched this remarkable race unfold, it had been a day to remember.