On Saturday night Mika Hakkinen, just two races from retiring from Formula One, confided to friends that his wish list of race victories had always been Monaco, Silverstone and a recently added third of Indianapolis. Monaco swung his way in 1998, he stood atop the Silverstone podium in July of this year and yesterday, despite being harshly penalised with a starting grid demotion by the race stewards before the race, the Finn completed his dream trio with a faultless performance at Indianapolis.
But while Hakkinen was celebrating Jordan's Jarno Trulli endured yet more misery as, after the race, he was stripped of the fourth place he had battled hard for all afternoon.
The Italian had overcome difficulties with his intractable EJ11 on Saturday to qualify a solid eighth and bettered that performance in the race, stealing through the pack with the sort of resolve and aggression that many had imagined would fade as he counted down the days to his transfer to Benetton.
But it was all for nothing as, two hours after he had swung his EJ11 across the finish line and towards his celebrating pit crew, the Italian was called before the stewards to explain a technical infringement.
During the race Trulli's car had lost two fasteners from the rear of the skid block mounted underneath the car. The fasteners are designed to also reduce wear rate on the block which under FIA rules must be of a certain width. After losing the fasteners the 'plank' was worn to 1.5mm below the acceptable width and Trulli was adjudged to be in breach of regulations.
The penalty was exclusion from the official race classification and yet another shot of misfortune for Formula One's unluckiest driver. The blow was doubly severe as the three points for Trulli would have moved the Irish squad two points clear of BAR in fifth place in the constructors' table.
Trulli's exclusion now means that although Jordan's Jean Alesi moves to sixth and levels Jordan with BAR, sixth placed Nick Heidfeld of Sauber now takes fifth and two points, which move the Swiss team into a five point lead over Jordan in the table.
Jordan, though, have the right of appeal and with points at a premium as the season comes to a close the team may choose to pursue the matter in an FIA court of appeal.
The decision was good news for Eddie Irvine however. The Irishman has denied the rumours surrounding his future with Jaguar but the pressure was clearly telling as Irvine battled hard to beat out team-mate Pedro De la Rosa in qualifying on Saturday. And yesterday he rubber-stamped his superiority with a superb drive to an eventual fourth place from 14th on the grid - a late, late splash and dash pit stop on lap 52 rewarding him with his first points since Monaco in May.
But at the front it was Hakkinen's day and his run to the chequered flag was made all the more satisfying by his triumph not only over his better fancied rivals at Ferrari and Williams but also by his victory over race organisers who, just two hours before the race start had stripped the Finn of his front row starting spot after Hakkinen had exited the pit lane while the red lights were showing.
The Finn was justifiably incensed at the penalty and sat stony-faced in his McLaren as the countdown to the start began. And when the race got underway Hakkinen looked to be out of the picture as the twin Ferraris of pole-winner Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello and the Williams of Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher set up a four way fight for the lead.
But Hakkinen kept pace and as both Williams expired, the Finn began to stalk the Ferrarris. When Michael Schumacher pitted on lap 39, Hakkinen inherited second place and then on lap 50 his chance came. Barrichello, on a two-stop strategy had developed a 22 seconds lead over the McLaren pilot but with a 30 or more second delay to come from his second visit to pitlane, Hakkinen had the upper hand. Sure enough as Barrichello blasted his way out of the pits after his second stop, it was only to see Hakkinen sweeping into turn one and on to victory.
"That was the definitely one of the highlights of this season for me," said Hakkinen afterwards. Michael Schumacher, who finished second ahead of David Coulthard agreed that the result was the right one. "Mika won fair and square and I'm pretty happy for him. There is a bit of poetic justice after what happened to him this morning. I can live with the result. I'm disappointed for Rubens."
The day belonged to Hakkinen. "This weekend I've been really impressed with the team and the mechanics and what they have done. That kind of thing is extremely motivating. They're at the maximum level performance at the moment. They are pushing very hard and I'll go to Suzuka that way too." After yesterday, Mika Hakkinen will surely feel that he has delivered the perfect farewell.
