Häkkinen wins in Brazil.

Published on 11 April 1999 by Charles Webster

Mika Häkkinen has won the Grand Prix of Brazil. Although Hakkinen had a perfect start, he came in trouble at the opening stage of the race. Because of gearbox trouble, he dropped back to a 3rd place. Ruben Barrichello was on his home Grand Prix the star of the day when he drove a long time on the first position. After his pitstop he was pulled back to 4th place and was competitive enough to overtake Irvine for third position. Unluckily he had to withdraw on lap 43 when his engine failed. The second place was for Michael Schumacher who was unable to close in at Häkkinen in the final stage of the race. Heinz-Harald Frentzen became third. The most unlucky person today was David Coulthard. After a terrible start and three laps behind the rest of the field, he had to end the race as a spectator. The luckiest driver today was newcomer Stéphane Sarrasin. He spun of the track very hard en smashed into the tire barrier. He bounced back like a carousel onto the track and luckily, no one hit him. Sarrasin was unhurt and stepped out of his Minardi without injures. At the end, there were only nine cars who finished the race.

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