How Frentzen won the 1999 French Grand Prix after a lucky fuel load

Heinz-Harald Frentzen won the 1999 French Grand Prix for Jordan from fifth on the grid, his first win of the season. Mika Hakkinen finished second for McLaren and Rubens Barrichello third for Stewart in a race that started dry and finished on a wet track.

What was the championship picture before the race?

Heading into the seventh round, McLaren's Hakkinen led the drivers' championship with 34 points, from Ferrari's Michael Schumacher on 30 and Eddie Irvine on 25. Ferrari led the constructors' table with 55 points, ahead of McLaren on 46 and Jordan on 16.

Frentzen and Fisichella were both on 13 points, behind the leaders. Damon Hill, Jordan's 1996 world champion, had announced on 16 June that he would retire at the end of the season.

Hill said later that the amount of testing undertaken by the teams had been a factor in his decision, along with his own performance during the season. He had considered retiring with immediate effect.

A late fuel load turned a fifth-place start into a first Grand Prix win of 1999 for Heinz-Harald Frentzen.

How did the teams prepare at Magny-Cours?

The teams tested at Magny-Cours between 16 and 18 June, after the Canadian Grand Prix on 13 June. David Coulthard set the fastest time on the first day, and Eddie Irvine was fastest on the second and final day.

Williams changed the suspension of its cars, which caused several spins. Minardi carried out aerodynamic mapping work at the Automotive Safety Center with its test driver Gaston Mazzacane, while Arrows performed shakedown runs at Santa Pod Raceway.

Practice in dry and wet conditions

Practice ran in two sessions before the Sunday race. The Friday session ran from 11:00 to 14:00 local time, and the Saturday morning one from 09:00 to 11:00. The first session took place in dry conditions, at an ambient temperature of 24 C (75 F).

The Saturday morning session was overcast and wet. Track temperature was 19 C (66 F), and ambient temperature 20 C (68 F).

How did qualifying go in the wet?

Saturday's qualifying session ran from 13:00 to 14:00 in wet conditions, with the ambient and track temperatures both at 18 C (64 F). Barrichello took his first pole of the season at 1:38.441 in his Stewart, and Jean Alesi was four-tenths of a second behind in second.

Panis placed third with his Prost. Coulthard recovered to fourth after a late gravel spin, and Frentzen was fifth with Michael Schumacher sixth.

Each driver was limited to twelve laps in the hour, and the 107 per cent rule applied, so every driver had to be within that margin of the fastest time to start.

The wet conditions produced a record five drivers who failed to meet the 107 per cent time: Damon Hill, Marc Gene, Luca Badoer, Pedro de la Rosa and Toranosuke Takagi. Hill missed out by just three milliseconds, the slimmest margin ever recorded.

All five were allowed to race under the exceptional circumstances rule. They were ordered on the grid by their free practice times, so Hill started 18th, de la Rosa 19th, Takagi 20th, Badoer 21st and Gene 22nd.

How did the warm-up go?

The Sunday warm-up took place at 09:30 for 30 minutes, in wet conditions with the track at 15 C (59 F) and the air at 14 C (57 F). Coulthard set the fastest lap at 1:32.091, and Irvine and Michael Schumacher completed the top three.

How did the race start?

Barrichello got away quickly from pole to hold first place. Alesi, starting second, was slower than Barrichello after the start and held up the cars behind him, which let Coulthard pass him on lap two. Hakkinen had started 14th and would climb quickly.

Hakkinen climbed from 14th to ninth by lap two, then caught and passed Panis for sixth before catching Michael Schumacher for fifth on lap five. Herbert retired with a gearbox problem on the same lap.

On lap six Coulthard got by Barrichello at the Adelaide hairpin with a late move, and Diniz retired with transmission failure on lap seven. Hakkinen tried to pass Schumacher on lap nine by slipstreaming him down the straight, and he repeated the move on the inside the next lap.

What happened when Coulthard retired?

David Coulthard suffered a complete electrical failure from an alternator on lap 10 and retired, which gave the lead back to Barrichello. Hakkinen caught Frentzen on lap 12 and then hounded him for three laps before passing him.

Frentzen tried to fight back and pulled alongside, but Hakkinen's inside line through turn six kept the place. Irvine overtook Alexander Wurz in the midfield, and Hakkinen used the slipstream to pull alongside Alesi on lap 19.

Hakkinen and Alesi both locked up at the Adelaide hairpin and only just made the corner. Hakkinen stayed ahead and began to chase Barrichello, who was four and a half seconds in front.

Why did the rain and the safety car change the race?

Rain began to fall on lap 21. Irvine pitted just as it started, but Ferrari was not ready for him, and his stop took 43 seconds (42.9) after his mechanics first put a fresh set of dry tyres on the car.

Alesi spun out of third on lap 25 and retired after beaching his car in the gravel. The safety car was then deployed because of the amount of water on the track.

Four drivers, Villeneuve, Wurz, Gene and Zanardi, spun while following the safety car. Villeneuve pitted for wet tyres on lap 26, shortly after Zonta had spun.

Hill retired with electrical failure while behind the safety car, and the safety car peeled off at the end of lap 35. The restart passed without any change of position among the leaders.

How did the lead change in the closing laps?

On lap 38 Hakkinen dived inside Barrichello, but his inside wheels climbed the kerbing and he spun a full 360 degrees. He fell to seventh, and Schumacher passed Frentzen through Adelaide on the next lap. That left Schumacher and Barrichello battling for the lead.

Schumacher then made a very late braking move on Barrichello on lap 42. He went wide, and Barrichello cut back to retake the lead. Two laps later Schumacher repeated the move, this time without going wide, and took first place.

After 47 laps a long train had formed behind Panis in fourth, with Ralf Schumacher, Irvine and Hakkinen held up behind him. Ralf got past Panis on lap 50, and Irvine came into the pits to stay on wet tyres.

Hakkinen passed Panis for fifth into the Nurburgring corner on lap 51. On that same lap Michael Schumacher had an electrical fault and gave up most of his eight-second advantage over Barrichello. He pitted three laps later, changing his steering wheel as well as his tyres.

Hakkinen passed Frentzen for second on lap 57, after Frentzen ran wide at Adelaide, and then passed Barrichello on lap 60 to take the lead.

Hakkinen and Barrichello pitted for extra fuel on lap 66, which let Frentzen through into the lead. Frentzen made one stop, to change onto wet tyres, and Jordan had fortuitously filled the car with enough fuel to finish the race.

Ralf went by his brother on lap 70, as Michael still appeared to be suffering from car trouble. Frentzen won after 72 laps to secure his first victory of the season.

Final classification

What did the result do to the championship?

As a result, Hakkinen extended his lead in the drivers' championship to eight points over Schumacher, with Irvine a further 14 points behind. Those results followed a race in which the top three finishers appeared on the podium and at the subsequent press conference.

In the constructors' table McLaren reduced its gap to Ferrari to six points, and Williams passed Benetton for fourth place, 43 points behind Ferrari.

Hill hinted after the race that this could have been his last appearance, although he might race at Silverstone in the next round before leaving Formula One.