Schumacher sets up stirring finale
0 Comments | Daily Mail (London, England), The, Sept 14, 1998
Byline: RAY MATTS
SELDOM has a single race mirrored Formula One’s season more graphically or dramatically than yesterday’s Italian Grand Prix.
Ferraris left at the start, the silver-bullets of McLaren-Mercedes shooting away into the distance. But by the chequered flag, Michael Schumacher and Eddie Irvine were grinning from ear-to-ear as Monza rolled out a human red carpet to celebrate their clean sweep.
A championship which many people thought would be a walkover after the curtain-raiser in Melbourne could not now be more delicately, or deliciously, poised with only two races remaining.
Title contenders Mika Hakkinen and Schumacher are neck-and-neck on 80 points apiece and there are just 10 points separating their teams in the Constructors’ Championship.
Not even those cynical observers who wonder whether or not blind eyes have been turned amid dark and unsubstantiated rumours of technical breaches by both McLaren and Ferrari could suspect F1 ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone as being capable of arranging such a remarkable finale.
The season is almost certain to go to the wire in Japan in November because of the brilliance of Schumacher and lady luck smiling on the gifted German.
Yet it is impossible to deny that McLaren-Mercedes’ meticulous attention to detail has become frayed at the edges by the terrier-like attitude of the dependable Ferraris which have snapped so doggedly at their heels.
That is certainly how it was on this occasion.
David Coulthard’s engine blew on the 17th lap when he was cruising in the lead. Hakki-nen’s hopes were shattered by a brake problem when he was closing down Schu-macher late in the race and promising a fight to the finish.
The fight was over when he slithered into a gravel trap and then had to nurse his car home in fourth place, being passed by Irvine and Ralf Schumacher, who claimed third place for the vastly-improved Jordan team.
Hakkinen, just as in Hungary, had to perform a damage limitation job and said: ‘I was lucky not to stall.
As I spun I was thinking: “This will mean zero points”.
‘I am confident we can do a better job in the remaining races. I am still positive and will fight to win the title.’ Michael Schumacher, naturally, claimed he was never worried by Hakkinen’s late surge. He said: ‘It’s one thing to catch-up someone on this track, something else to overtake
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