The grand prix of Spain was won ...

Published on 25 May 1997 by Verstappen Info Page

The grand prix of Spain was won by Jacques Villeneuve. After a good start he almost lead from start to finish. Almost because the top 6 all finished within 30 secs. The circuit was very though on the tyres which was crucial for several drivers. So drove Coulthard on second spot at the beginning of the race, but he had to make three stops and finished at position 6. The Bridgestones however were better under the conditions and the teams with Bridgestones only had to stop twice during the race. This was a big advantage for Panis who after his bad qualification of yesterday finished second only 5.8 sec behind Villeneuve. Alesi was very pleased with his third position, in front of Michael Schumacher who got fourth also using three pit stops. Herbert did very well by overtaking Coulthard in the last round and finished fifth. The driving of Frentzen was disapointing. After a bad start he was not able to improve himself anymore and finished at position 8.

Jos found the right setup of his car, just before the race started. While most drivers had large difficulties with the tyres, Jos drove without any difficulties using two pit stops. Thanks to a beautiful start he drove to position 14 in the first corner. he lost one or two spots, due to a lack of motor power. At the end of the race there was a beautiful fight going on between Jos and Irvine both fighting for position 11. Irvine tried for several rounds to overtake Jos, however despite the lack of horse powers Irvine did not succeed. He also did not see the blue flags that were shown to him, telling that Panis wanted to lap Irvine. The result was a stop and go penalty, a few laps before the end of the race for Irvine. Jos finished on a very good 11th position and was very pleased with the result. He felt it was the best race so far he drove for Tyrrell this season. Despite a good start of Salo, bringing him to position 9 in the beginning, he had great difficulties with oversteer causing the tyres to be exchanged already in lap 13. At the end he blow his left rear tyre driving on position 18.

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