David Coulthard's hopes of closing the championship gap on his McLaren team-mate Mika Hakkinen took another dent in a dramatic Canadian Grand Prix here yesterday as both the Mercedes-engined cars retired with rare mechanical trouble, dragging Michael Schumacher to his second victory of the season.
The Ferrari driver, who beat Giancarlo Fisichella's Benetton after a spirited showing by the young Italian, now splits the McLaren drivers in the standings. The season's seventh race for much of its course was a demolition derby but, when the smoke cleared, Schumacher had closed to within 12 points of Hakkinen and five ahead of the luckless Scot.
The race began on a nerve-jangling note after Ralf Schumacher stalled his Jordan-Honda from
sixth place on the grid. Cars dodged in all directions to avoid the stationary machine, and as Alexander Wurz, in a Benetton, attempted to outbrake Jean Alesi's Sauber going into the tight first turn he clipped the front of the Swiss car.
In a flash Wurz found himself launched into a spectacular series of somersaults, though his car landed on its wheels in the gravel trap on the outside of the corner.
As fewer than two laps had been run, the grid lined up again to compete over the full 69 laps.
It was clearly not Alesi's day. At the restart Ralf Schumacher barged past him going into the first corner, spinning in the middle of the pack and again scattering cars in all directions. This ended with Trulli's spare Prost perched over the back of Alesi's Sauber, while Hakkinen suddenly slowed before limping round to retire at the end of the first lap with gearbox trouble. Out came the safety car and the field formed an orderly queue.
When the pack was finally unleashed at the end of lap five, Coulthard and Schumacher began pulling away from the field. Fisichella held third place ahead of the Williams of Jacques Villeneuve and Frentzen.
On lap 19 Coulthard suddenly slowed and the second McLaren trailed gently round to the pits to retire with an engine problem, allowing Schumacher through into the lead.
Schumacher then emerged from a pit stop to find Frentzen drawing level on the outside racing line. The Ferrari driver simply moved out to the right and pushed Frentzen off and into the gravel trap. It was an astonishing display of reckless driving.
Schumacher was now chasing Fisichella, but on lap 35 the German came in for a 10 second stop-go penalty, his punishment for the Frentzen incident. But he regained the lead when the Benetton made its refuelling stop on lap 44.
By this time Damon Hill had retired the Jordan after a morale-boosting spell in second place, allowing Eddie Irvine's Ferrari into third.
Canadian Formula One Grand Prix (at Montreal): 1 M Schumacher (Ger) Ferrari 1hr 40min 57.355sec, 2 G Fisichella (Ita) Benetton-Mecachrome at 16.662sec, 3 E Irvine (Irl) Ferrari at 1:00.058, 4 A Wurz (Aut) Benetton-Mecachrome at 1:03.232, 5 R Barrichello (Bra) Stewart-Ford at 1:21.512, 6 J Magnussen (Den) Stewart-Ford at one lap, 7 S Nakano (Jpn) Minardi-Ford at one lap, 8 R Rosset (Bra) TyrrellFord at one lap, 9 P Diniz (Bra) Arrows at one lap, 10 J Villeneuve (Can) Williams-Mecachrome at six laps.
Did not finish - E Tuero (Argentina) Minardi 53 laps completed; D Hill (Britain) Jordan 42; O Panis (France) Prost 39; H-H Frentzen (Germany) Williams 20; D Coulthard (Brit) McLaren 18; J Herbert (Brit) Sauber 18; M Salo (Finland) Arrows 18; M Hakkinen (Finland) McLaren 0; R Schumacher (Germany) Jordan 0; J Alesi (France) Sauber 0; J Trulli (Italy) Prost 0; T Takagi (Japan) Tyrrell 0.
World drivers' championship standings: 1, M Hakkinen (Finland) 46 points; 2, M Schumacher (Germany) 34; 3, D Coulthard (Brit) 29; 4, E Irvine (Ireland) 19; 5, G Fisichella (Italy) 13; 6, A Wurz (Austria) 12; 7, equal H-H Frentzen (Germany) 8; 7, equal J Villeneuve (Canada) 8; 9, R Barrichello (Brazil) 4; 10, J Alesi (France) 3 and M Salo (Finland) 3; 12, J Herbert (Britain) 1, P Diniz (Brazil) 1 and J Magnussen (Denmark) 1,
Constructors' championship: 1, McLaren 75; 2, Ferrari 52; 3, Benetton 26; 4, Williams 16; 5, Stewart 5; 6, equal Sauber 4; 6, equal Arrows 4.
