Mika Hakkinen is the new Formula 1 ...

Published on 01 November 1998 by Verstappen Info Page

Mika Hakkinen is the new Formula 1 World Champion 1998. After Keke Rosberg who did the same in 1982 for Williams Ford he is the second Fin to win the title. McLaren had it's last World Championship in 1991 when Ayrton Senna became World Champion in his McLaren Honda.

The race started nerve wracking with two abandonded starts. The first to cause a restart was Jarno Trulli, the second by nobody less than Michael Schumacher who now had to start from the back. The third start went OK and Mika Hakkinen took the lead in the race and heas never given up this position again. Michael Schumacher came back strong even up to a third position but was forced to abandon in lap 31 by a completely shattered Goodyear tyre.

Jos Verstappen did well in his last performance for the Stewart team but had to give up his battle due to gear box problems. Teammate Rubens Barrichello had to give up several laps after him. Mika Hakkinen won the race as told. Eddie Irvine got a well deserved second place, David Coulthard was third. Damon Hill took over fourth position in the last lap from Heinz-Harald Frentzen who became fifth. Villeneuve completed the top six.

Jos about his race: "This morning we tried out a completely different set-up in the warm-up. We had to little time to be absolutley certain about this set-up so we decided to use the qualifying set-up again in the race."

"De race went reasonably well for me in the beginning. I had a good start but had to let Michael Schumacher pass and so lost a couple of places myself again. During the race I had difficiulties with a sensor in the gearbox causing me to reach the rev limiter a lot of times. Furthermore I had problems shifting back."

"When I came in the pitbox for the second time the gearbox came in neutral when shifting back from five to four and so I even came besided the track for a moment. In the end I had to give up because a cylinder in the hydraulic system had given up. Two laps after me team mate Barrichello had to give up with exactly the same problem."

"During the race I had some problems with the break balance causing the brakes in front and in the back to intermittently malfunction. It is a pity that I haven't been able to finish my last race for Stewart. I will go back to Osaka with Huub Rothengatter in a short while and we will be flying back to Amsterdam tomorrow by KLM. With a little luck I can tell a bit more about my plans for next year during the Speed & Design show from September 11 thru 15 in Utrecht, The Netherlands."

For a complete overview of times and a race report you can take a look at our season page.