1999 Malaysian GP
Round 15 of the 1999 F1 season at Kuala Lumpur.
Category
🚗
MotorTranscript
00:00:00The exotic land of Malaysia is Formula One's newest venue, where Mika HÃ¥konen hopes today
00:00:06to clinch his second consecutive world driving championship.
00:00:10HÃ¥konen's closest pursuer is just two points behind, that's Ferrari's Eddie Irvine.
00:00:17So why isn't Irvine on pins and needles?
00:00:20Because Michael Schumacher is back, and Schumacher hopes to help Irvine and Ferrari in their
00:00:26quest for the championship.
00:00:53In this land, there are many sights and many customs that appear foreign to our western
00:00:58eyes.
00:01:00Like the sight of a brand new Formula One circuit that suddenly raises the bar for state-of-the-art.
00:01:06And some colors and symbols, though, look very familiar.
00:01:11Welcome to the first ever Grand Prix of Malaysia at Sepang, round 15, the penultimate round
00:01:15of the world championship for 1999.
00:01:19five-time Le Mans winner Derek Bell, and Peter Windsor from the London Sunday Times
00:01:24and F1 Racing Magazine.
00:01:26You can get an idea from this shot just how hot it is here, and how humid.
00:01:32Well as the pressure on Mika HÃ¥konen, his lead is just two points over Eddie Irvine.
00:01:37Heinz-Harald Frentzen and David Coulthard are still within striking distance for this
00:01:41driver's championship.
00:01:43And in the constructor's go, it's still close.
00:01:46McLaren Mercedes, eight points up on Ferrari, Jordan solid in third, Williams and Stewart
00:01:53to scrap 4-4.
00:01:55Let's have a look at our last race at the Nürburgring.
00:01:57That was some Grand Prix, the European Grand Prix.
00:02:00Heinz-Harald Frentzen surprised everybody by getting on pole position, somewhat upsetting
00:02:04Mika HÃ¥konen.
00:02:05The first start was aborted when Zanardi didn't quite find the right parking spot at the back
00:02:09of the grid, and they had to restart the whole thing over again.
00:02:12Second time it was clean, certainly to the first corner anyway.
00:02:15Early start from Heinz-Harald Frentzen in the Jordan, just getting ahead of Mika HÃ¥konen
00:02:20as he comes down to Turn 1.
00:02:21But then in Turn 1, Damon Hill's car suddenly slows down.
00:02:25All mayhem breaks out behind of him, and there's a major accident as poor old Pedro Danitz
00:02:29somersaults through the air.
00:02:31Let's just look at this accident from Alexander Wirtz, who's right behind Damon.
00:02:34Look, whoa, Damon slows down, Wirtz swerves out, and over the top of him goes poor old
00:02:38Pedro Danitz in the Sauber.
00:02:40Danitz's roll bar came off.
00:02:41Nonetheless, he wasn't hurt.
00:02:43Chaos then, of course, in comes Eddie Irvine for a pit stop, but where's his fourth wheel
00:02:48on his car?
00:02:49There's one missing.
00:02:50Then Frentzen comes in while he's in the lead, goes out, stops in the same place as Damon
00:02:54Hill with the same problem.
00:02:56David Coulthard takes the lead in the wet on the dry tyres.
00:03:00He slithers off the road into the fence.
00:03:01Does anybody want to win this Grand Prix?
00:03:04Ralf Schumacher comes in in the lead, goes out in third.
00:03:07Audi comes.
00:03:08Meanwhile, the lead's been taken by Fizikela.
00:03:11He loses it.
00:03:12He goes off the road, must be really thumping the steering wheel with frustration, and that
00:03:17is it.
00:03:18Look at this, Schumacher gets back in the lead again, and he loses it when a tyre punctures
00:03:23on a bolt.
00:03:24That lets Jonny Herbert go through.
00:03:26Wonderful bit of strategy from Jackie Stewart.
00:03:28Great stuff.
00:03:29Mika Häkkinen comes in fifth.
00:03:30Eddie Irvine comes in seventh with no points at all.
00:03:34So champagne for the Stewart team.
00:03:35First time Stewart's been up there since he won the German Grand Prix in 73 or 74 or something
00:03:40like that.
00:03:41Really amazing.
00:03:43So here's what could happen today.
00:03:44If Mika Häkkinen wins and Irvine finishes fifth or worse, it's over.
00:03:49If Häkkinen doesn't win, we'll decide the driver's title in Japan.
00:03:53If Frentzen scores three more points than Mika today, his hopes are still alive.
00:03:58Same with David Coulthard if he scores five more than his teammates.
00:04:02So four drivers are in it for the World Driving Championship in this, the next to final round
00:04:09of the 1999 season.
00:04:11Who would have thought we'd still have four drivers fighting it out?
00:04:15Look at the beautiful attire, the native costume of the grid girls as the drivers line up.
00:04:21Let's check with Peter Windsor.
00:04:23Down there sweltering away down in the paddock on the news of these past few weeks.
00:04:28Peter?
00:04:29Thanks, Mike.
00:04:30Well, everybody else is out on the grid sweating.
00:04:32I think I've found the best spot here at the Sepang circuit.
00:04:35Great news for Michael Schumacher fans.
00:04:36He's back for Ferrari and Pedro Diniz back also for Sauber after that horrendous accident
00:04:41at the Nürburgring.
00:04:42The roll hoop broke on his car, it should not have done that, of course, and Pedro very
00:04:46lucky to escape.
00:04:47The FIA are currently looking at the reasons for that failure.
00:04:51Possibly the ground was a bit soft and therefore the roll hoop was subjected to forces it wouldn't
00:04:54normally have seen.
00:04:55And also, of course, there is a camera on the top of most cars at that point, and maybe
00:04:59that had something to do with it as well.
00:05:01Not the fault of the camera, one should add.
00:05:03Great news for Ralph Schumacher, too.
00:05:04He has renegotiated his Williams contract.
00:05:06No length extension there, but a few of the loopholes in the contract have been eliminated.
00:05:11Now, when Ralph signed that last year, perhaps Frank Williams wasn't 100% convinced about
00:05:16Ralph and so there were a few holes there.
00:05:18Ralph thought, well, maybe if the team doesn't come up to scratch, I might want an option
00:05:21here to get out.
00:05:22Well, that option has now been removed, and of course some additional money has been paid
00:05:25to Schumacher.
00:05:26Ron Dennis in the news, is he the man perhaps to take over the Formula 1 industry?
00:05:31Well, the rumors are that he is putting together a consortium to buy into the industry.
00:05:35And finally, if you know the whereabouts of Eddie Irvine's right rear tire that should
00:05:39have been on the car in that pit stop at the Nürburgring, let Ferrari know.
00:05:42They found it in the back of the garage eventually.
00:05:45They don't know how it got there.
00:05:46Back to you.
00:05:47More to the point, it's probably where the mechanic is that threw that wheel away.
00:05:50He's probably not on the job at all this weekend.
00:05:52That's 30 seconds looking for a tire.
00:05:55That was just dreadful.
00:05:57Well, Michael Schumacher is back, and Peter caught up with him and asked him what he missed
00:06:02most these last four months.
00:06:04Driving.
00:06:05Putting the car on the limit, and just get a satisfaction of the drive, and you only
00:06:10do when you feel you're on the limit and you do it properly.
00:06:13And you thought, how many laps did it take you to get to that position?
00:06:16Two or three.
00:06:19Really?
00:06:20Yeah.
00:06:22I mean, you know that even after the first time I came to Mugello, my first flying lap
00:06:30was not so far off the pace.
00:06:33And so it was the second time I came there, my first flying lap was right there.
00:06:37And it doesn't take me long to adapt to things.
00:06:40This is probably one of my strengths.
00:06:42Well, a touch of the Schumacher arrogance, I think, I detected there.
00:06:46But nonetheless, what an amazing man to be able to just go out after three months and
00:06:49go and polish up, fastest times ever on the test track at Fiorano.
00:06:53So I think perhaps a little of that arrogance is deserved.
00:06:57Schumacher is back, and in a big way.
00:07:00The government of Malaysia has spent over $100 million in constructing this beautiful
00:07:04circuit with its pit garages, hospitality suites, and media center.
00:07:08Let's have a little look around the circuit before the cars came out here to run practice
00:07:14at this magnificent architecture in the new state-of-the-art circuit for Formula 1.
00:07:20We'll be right back.
00:07:26Welcome back to CPANG and Fox Sportsnet's Toyota pre-race coverage of the first-ever
00:07:30Grand Prix of Malaysia.
00:07:32Derek, let's have a look, first look at this brand-new circuit.
00:07:36One of the longest circuits, in fact, Mike, 3.44 miles round.
00:07:40Very, very smooth indeed.
00:07:42Not a high downforce circuit, but very, very fast.
00:07:45Let's ride with Damon Hill.
00:07:50As you go down the pits, of course, the circuit has been totally rebuilt, or is totally new
00:07:53circuit, so therefore the surface should be very smooth, but the drivers complain there
00:07:57is very little grip.
00:07:58The circuit is so smooth, in fact, that they can't get any traction or any grip out of
00:08:02it, and so you'll notice in a minute, Damon's having a little bit of problems with the tire.
00:08:05This is the very tight first and second corner that they come to.
00:08:09Second gear corners accelerate out of there in third, fourth, fifth gear as he goes up
00:08:14155 miles an hour to 170 miles an hour as he comes up to turn four, which is a third
00:08:19gear corner.
00:08:20Look, he can't get the tires to grip at all under braking as he turns into that sharp
00:08:24right-hander through this 135-mile-an-hour left-hander.
00:08:27Fourth gear, pulling about 3G.
00:08:29Look at that, slips across the road when these cars break away so quickly indeed.
00:08:33The drivers love the circuit, but it's a little bit too wide.
00:08:36Lots of safety.
00:08:37Very, very interesting track, nonetheless, and very demanding.
00:08:39This corner, really, is turn seven.
00:08:41It's double apex corner.
00:08:43Again, it's vital to get out of that corner with total, total grip so you can speed onto
00:08:48this short straightaway as you come up to probably the tightest corner on the track.
00:08:51Damon, again, having problems slowing it down.
00:08:53Turn nine, 50-mile-an-hour corner.
00:08:55Some very slow-speed corners and some very fast ones, too.
00:08:58He sweeps through 10 and then through 11.
00:09:0011's a little bit tighter, as you can see from that shot, and he slides out quite well
00:09:04on that.
00:09:05He comes through this fast left-hander, number 12, 150 miles an hour and 50 as he goes through
00:09:09there.
00:09:09Down into turns 13, and this leads into 14.
00:09:12The car, actually, inclined to get a little bit out of shape as they come out of there
00:09:17when they're really on it, we noticed during practice and qualifying.
00:09:19It is a very smooth surface.
00:09:21In fact, the cambers are very positive for them, but they have great problem at this
00:09:25last turn, turn 15.
00:09:26They've been doing 185 miles an hour.
00:09:28Even Damon cannot slow the car down.
00:09:29That's where you enter the pits.
00:09:31Here he comes out into the pit straight.
00:09:33That was a lap of Sepang with Damon Hill.
00:09:37A beautiful circuit and a very interesting, demanding, and challenging one.
00:09:41Bernie Eccleston involved in the design parameters of the circuit as we watch Michael Schumacher.
00:09:46He's climbed out of the car after a reconnaissance lap.
00:09:49No trace of a limp for Schumacher, who returns.
00:09:53Let's have a look and see how he and the rest of the field did in qualifying yesterday.
00:09:58Well, it was dry yesterday.
00:09:59One thought it might be wet because there's meant to be a monsoon every afternoon between
00:10:03two and four, but not this time, thank goodness.
00:10:05And of course, it was Schumacher that was back this weekend.
00:10:07A bit of a surprise for everybody, and I don't think Mick Hacker needed him out there to
00:10:11stir the pot, as it were.
00:10:12Heinz-Hauer-Frentzen, well, he ran terribly well the last few races, but he lost it very
00:10:16early on with a problem when his headrest fell on him and upset his balance, lost the
00:10:20car, never quite came back, finished 14th on the grid.
00:10:23Then it was Rubens Barrichello.
00:10:24He was following up his great form of early in the season, sixth place for him, a great
00:10:28showing from Johnny Herbert, fifth place for him.
00:10:31It was Mick Hacker that came out to try and see what he could do about trying to get up
00:10:36on the front row of that grid, but he just didn't seem happy at all this weekend.
00:10:39Mind you, he is the only one that's on the harder tyres.
00:10:41He finished fourth.
00:10:43Then David Coulthard went out, did a super job.
00:10:45He was struggling right at the end again on the softer tyres.
00:10:47He finished third.
00:10:48Eddie Irvine didn't even go out in the last run.
00:10:51He said, there's no way I can beat my teammate, who's Michael Schumacher.
00:10:54Schumacher finished one second ahead of the rest of the field.
00:10:57But let's hear words from that man, Schumacher.
00:10:59I'm not so bad, I have to say.
00:11:01I'm surprised.
00:11:01I did 40 laps yesterday and almost 40 laps today.
00:11:06My neck is nothing.
00:11:08I mean, I'm feeling in shape.
00:11:10If we come to the last lap and you're leading, Eddie is second, will you let him through?
00:11:14We all know the answer, yes.
00:11:16Which is?
00:11:17Yes.
00:11:19Well, let's go to Peter Windsor, who's talking with Alexander Wirtz, who was seventh in qualifying.
00:11:23Been very strong all weekend, virtually from the minute he went out on the circuit,
00:11:26and very, very good qualifying performance from Alexander.
00:11:28You must be pleased.
00:11:29Yeah, very pleased.
00:11:30You see, I've done the whole weekend very well.
00:11:33It's true, I like the circuit a lot.
00:11:34But at the beginning of today, of Saturday, I struggled a little bit with the car.
00:11:38But we found that there was something broken on the rear suspension.
00:11:43So now in qualifying, the car was really good.
00:11:45I didn't touch it the whole qualifying, and I could improve always.
00:11:47So I'm pretty happy with the seventh place.
00:11:50Now, it's the first time this year Benetton have really been consistent in qualifying,
00:11:53looking good.
00:11:54Let's hope for a good race performance.
00:11:55Back to you.
00:11:56They did well in qualifying yesterday.
00:11:58Derek, general strategies today.
00:12:00Yes, well, tyre choice.
00:12:01There wasn't too many options on that.
00:12:02There were two, in fact.
00:12:03And everybody's gone for the softer tyre of the soft tyres, apart from Mika Häkkinen.
00:12:07I think the realism of that is he can probably do one pit stop and get away and save a lot
00:12:11of time, because the pit lane is very long.
00:12:12It's an unfamiliar track, so nobody has any details whatsoever, feedback, as far as what
00:12:17they're going to do in the whole race from a previous year.
00:12:19And of course, it is very, very hot.
00:12:21As you can see, you saw the heaters going on.
00:12:23Sorry, the fans go Michael Chumak's car there to actually cool all the air ducting down
00:12:27and keep the engine as cool as they can.
00:12:28And of course, it puts a lot of stress on the engines.
00:12:30Look at it, feeding all the cold air in to try and keep the whole engine cool.
00:12:35Very, very hot and very humid.
00:12:37And that will take its toll on the drivers as well in this first ever Malaysian Grand
00:12:42Prix.
00:12:42A lot of talk the last couple of weeks.
00:12:44What happened to the Jordans?
00:12:46They both lost fire at Nurburgring.
00:12:47Peter?
00:12:48Yes, three long weeks have passed since the Nurburgring.
00:12:51But still, they're asking about that very strange set of circumstances whereby both
00:12:55Jordans stopped in virtually the same way, in the same place.
00:12:58Damon Hill, obviously, after the start and unfortunately initiating that first corner
00:13:03accident.
00:13:03And Heinz-Harald Frentzen, after his stop for fuel and tyres, stopped in virtually the
00:13:08same place.
00:13:08What are Jordans saying about it?
00:13:10Well, they're saying it was a software failure, but they're being no more specific than that.
00:13:14Some team members, however, were heard to say after the race that it was more than their
00:13:18jobs were worth even to talk about it.
00:13:20The FIA are saying, Charlie Whiting is saying, that they are indeed looking into the matter.
00:13:25The regulations say that you cannot control from the cockpit any sort of start strategy.
00:13:31Well, there's a lot of talk in Formula One about teams using this start strategy or not.
00:13:35What I can tell you is that the Stewart team recently asked Eddie Irvine, their new driver
00:13:40for next year, what sort of start strategy Ferrari are using.
00:13:42Because they've been amazed all year by how little wheel spin Irvine has been getting
00:13:47off the line.
00:13:48Well, Eddie had to reply, nothing more than hard work, Jackie.
00:13:51A lot of work on the engine at 8,000 revs, optimising its performance at the start, and
00:13:55on the clutch.
00:13:56Bit of elbow grease there.
00:13:57Unanswered questions, however, and we wait the next instalment.
00:14:00Back to you.
00:14:01Well, Mike Gascoigne, technical director of Jordan, categorically denied that there was
00:14:05anything untoward with their computer equipment.
00:14:08But that generally means it's completely the opposite, and they were cheating all the way.
00:14:11Well, it certainly means that in Washington.
00:14:13There is Petronas, one of the major backers of Sauber, is the title sponsor of today's
00:14:20race.
00:14:21When we come back, we will chronicle Michael Schumacher's return and detail his comeback
00:14:26with Formula One.
00:14:28We'll be right back.
00:14:29You're watching Formula One on Fox Sportsnet.
00:14:35Welcome back to our Toyota pre-race coverage of the Grand Prix of Malaysia.
00:14:39Looking at Johnny Herbert, Stuart Ford, the most recent winner on the Formula One circuit.
00:14:45Today, 90 degrees is the temperature.
00:14:47The track temperature is near 100.
00:14:49The humidity is thick.
00:14:51And, of course, it will rain.
00:14:53It does every afternoon here, just as it does in Florida.
00:14:58We would like to hear from you, and we answer every email and try to respond to those of
00:15:03general interest on upcoming telecasts.
00:15:05Our email address, formulaoneatfoxsports.net.
00:15:09Drop us an email.
00:15:11Coming up, as the United States Grand Prix and ticket orders are now being processed,
00:15:15call the number on your screen or email the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, ticketsatbrickyard.com.
00:15:22Well, coming up in two weeks' time, you'll see the Grand Prix of Japan live on most Fox
00:15:27Sportsnet affiliates, Sunday, October 31st, just past midnight Eastern time.
00:15:36So, still a lot of activity on the grid.
00:15:38Grandstands filling in nicely as our countdown continues to the start of the first-ever Grand
00:15:44Prix of Malaysia.
00:15:47Well, Michael Schumacher's return is, of course, the story of this race.
00:15:51Let's chronicle his season.
00:15:56It's been a long 20 years since Ferrari's loyal Tifosi cheered Jody Schecter in winning
00:16:02Ferrari's last driver and constructor's world championship.
00:16:06This season, Michael Schumacher hoped to get Ferrari back on top.
00:16:10With back-to-back wins early in the season, Schumacher looked poised to fight for his
00:16:14third world championship.
00:16:17But off the start of the British Grand Prix, Schumacher lost both brakes and steering and
00:16:22slammed into the tire wall.
00:16:26Schumacher broke both bones in his lower right leg, and Ferrari's dream of a world championship
00:16:31turned nightmarish.
00:16:33He had surgery the next day at Northampton General Hospital.
00:16:39Michael particularly asked us to express his thanks and to say how overwhelmed he was to
00:16:47receive all of the best wishes from his fans.
00:16:51It's a very disappointing thing, but you know motorsport is dangerous.
00:16:55It will happen.
00:16:57Fortunately, Michael has an injured bottom leg.
00:16:59Rightfully, the press have said that injuries in a normal person may take, on average, anything
00:17:06from three to four months to heal.
00:17:08Michael is clearly a very determined gentleman.
00:17:14In Austria, Ferrari bounces back.
00:17:17Eddie Irvine wins his second race of the season.
00:17:20Two weeks later, fans get a progress report.
00:17:23It's not only a bone problem.
00:17:25It's as well on my heel where I have a cut, and that is basically more affecting me because
00:17:32of the flexibility of my foot and the healing itself.
00:17:36And I don't really, I'm not able to predict when things will be right.
00:17:43That day, Irvine and Mika Salo score a Ferrari 1-2 finish.
00:17:47In the ensuing weeks, Mika Hakkinen's misfortunes bring David Coulthard and heights Harold Frentzen
00:17:53and Jordan into the fray for the driver's championship.
00:17:58Schumacher first tests the Ferrari at Mugello in late August.
00:18:01Too much pain in his right leg from bouncing over the curbs causes him to sit out the season.
00:18:06Then he tests again and reconsiders and is here in Malaysia to help Eddie Irvine and
00:18:12Ferrari in the championship chases.
00:18:16I must say, seeing Jack Villeneuve sitting there, he was quickest on Friday afternoon.
00:18:20He went extremely.
00:18:21I was very, very happy with the car indeed.
00:18:23But seeing Schumacher back does seem to bring another sort of level to the standard of driving,
00:18:27doesn't it?
00:18:27He does seem to lighten things up a bit.
00:18:29He sure does.
00:18:30And it's pointed out that Villeneuve perhaps has more experience in attacking new circuits
00:18:35in an open wheel race car than many of the F1 drivers do.
00:18:41Well, let's check with Peter Fomore on this really beautiful,
00:18:45just stunning new facility here in Malaysia.
00:18:51Quaint signage, but typical of the detail on this fabulous new circuit in Malaysia.
00:18:55This describes the air-conditioned kitchen and dining areas built here for all the teams.
00:18:59I asked drivers and team owners what they thought about this new circuit here at Sepang.
00:19:03It's a mix of Austria and Suzuka.
00:19:06There's some very slow, ridiculous corners which you feel as if you could walk faster through.
00:19:11You need to have a big heart here to go through a lap.
00:19:15Very humid.
00:19:16That's, I mean, I feel driving is not a problem,
00:19:19but when you come back to the garage, it's so hot, so hot.
00:19:22Finally, a new circuit with the possibility to overtake.
00:19:27It invites you to try to overtake somebody,
00:19:29but at the same time, the line is one and just one.
00:19:33It's now going to be the benchmark for every racetrack in the world.
00:19:36It is simply the best.
00:19:38A couple of negatives, but overall, Formula 1 very much behind
00:19:41this brilliant new purpose-built Grand Prix facility.
00:19:44Back to you.
00:19:45Well, it's a marvelous place and truly a great place to usher in the 21st century of Formula 1.
00:19:51Olivia Penney getting set to roll there for Prost as the grid is set to form up,
00:19:56and here's David Coulthard set to climb aboard from the third starting spot this afternoon.
00:20:06When we come back, we'll go Formula 1 on 1 with the reigning world champion, Mika Häkkinen.
00:20:16The Grand Prix of Malaysia on Fox Sportsnet is brought to you by
00:20:19sealed power engine parts engineered to last by Toyota.
00:20:24Every day belongs to you. Make it count. Toyota every day.
00:20:31John Alacey in his next-to-last drive for Sauber, and as we mentioned, Petronas,
00:20:37the title sponsor of the race and very involved here with the circuit.
00:20:40NC Pang will also get onboard views from Alacey's car today.
00:20:45Earlier, Peter had a chance to sit down with the reigning and perhaps
00:20:49future world champion Mika Häkkinen and go Formula 1 on 1.
00:20:53If 1999 has shown us anything, it is how difficult it is to win back-to-back world
00:20:57championships, something that Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart and Niki Lauda never did.
00:21:01Well, with two races to go, Mika Häkkinen is leading the world championship,
00:21:05head down, looking for that back-to-back series win,
00:21:08and I asked him recently about whether or not he felt he was driving better this year than in 1998.
00:21:13Yes, definitely. I think the general speed, it's no difference compared to last year,
00:21:22but certainly my confidence to drive the car, for example, in the qualifiers, it's much better
00:21:32than before, so I can handle the pressure much better this year than last year, so that has
00:21:40changed, but my speed in terms of compared to last year this year is no difference.
00:21:46What was the feeling like when Eddie won those two races? Was it like
00:21:50complete sort of what's going on here?
00:21:53It was, it was, well, Eddie was there just to, we gave him a gift basically, that's the fact,
00:22:02you know, I had the tyres falling off the car, tyres exploding off the car,
00:22:08an incident with my teammate in Austria, things like that, you know, and obviously Eddie was there
00:22:15collecting points after when we went there, so it was a little shock, I was not, I was not
00:22:23thinking like, wow, now I'm going to lose the championship, I was still thinking three races
00:22:28to go, we know we are quick, we know we are quicker than him, so I was not too worried.
00:22:35Malaysia, a new circuit, is the second last round of the championship, is that a good or a bad thing?
00:22:44Nobody's been there before.
00:22:47I don't know yet really, I don't think, I went there this year doing a promotion for one day
00:22:55and I saw the track and it's fantastic, it's a fabulous circuit,
00:22:59it's spectacular to watch or something like that, it's difficult to say, but certainly it is a beautiful circuit,
00:23:06it's the good thing, looking at the circuit it should perform our car, so I think it's all right.
00:23:16What do you like more, winning or getting a corner perfect and just feeling that?
00:23:20Winning of course, winning is the most important,
00:23:25doesn't matter if the corner doesn't go so well as long as you win the race.
00:23:29He's very sincere and he's very true and I think this year he's been an outstanding world champion,
00:23:36the question is boys, can he win it again? Back to you.
00:23:40Well HÃ¥konen is poised to win it, Irvine is poised to take it away, as Alex Zanardi gets set for the start from 16th position.
00:23:49Coming up is the formation lap and the start of the first ever Malaysian Grand Prix.
00:23:56You're watching Formula One on Fox Sportsnet, we'll be right back.
00:24:10Welcome back to Fox Sportsnet coverage of the Grand Prix of Malaysia.
00:24:15Beautiful new Sipang circuit adjacent the Kuala Lumpur airport.
00:24:19And the formation lap is underway, here's our Toyota starting grid, Michael Schumacher,
00:24:25even Michael was surprised he was a second faster than the field.
00:24:28He didn't look like he had traction control then did he? No, Eddie Irvine,
00:24:32he was very happy with his place on the grid.
00:24:35Second row, David Coulthard says we've got some work to do.
00:24:38Amiga HÃ¥konen, well he's on the harder tire of the two and I think he's quite content to be there.
00:24:42Row three, Johnny Herbert still on a roll from his victory at the Nürburgring and feeling very confident.
00:24:47Rubens, Barrichello, well he got blocked on his last run, a good position nonetheless.
00:24:51Alexander Wurz, very happy with seventh, said his car improved every run.
00:24:55And Ralf Schumacher, he said the run was quite good.
00:24:59Back at ninth, Damon Hill fought understeer the whole session in his Jordan.
00:25:03And Jack Villeneuve, who was quickest in one of the sessions on Friday,
00:25:05said they changed the whole car over.
00:25:07Starting 11th, Giancarlo Fisichella wrestled with a brake problem in qualifying.
00:25:11Frenson, well he had a headrest brake spun off the road and then on the training car he had brake problems and qualified 14th.
00:25:19Ricardo Zonta, a little too cautious in qualifying and he wound up 13th on the grid.
00:25:26And there's Frenson alongside.
00:25:28Let's go back to the eighth row where Jean Alessi, well he's on a roll from his victory at the Nürburgring.
00:25:33There's Frenson alongside.
00:25:35Let's go back to the eighth row where Jean Alessi would have been higher but got blocked on his last run.
00:25:40And Alex Zanardi, he wasn't blocked but his brakes were.
00:25:43Brake lockup relegated him to 16th on the grid.
00:25:46Pedro Diniz, a sore neck and battling understeer leaves him 17th.
00:25:50Jarno Trulli said his Frost just had no grip at all.
00:25:54And how about Marc Genet?
00:25:56He outqualified his teammate and both of the Arrows.
00:25:59He is 19th ahead of de la Rosa, Luca Badour and Tora Takagi.
00:26:04Still haplessly wrestling with the Arrows.
00:26:07Five seconds off Schumacher's pole winning pace.
00:26:11Well of course Arrows have said they've just completely forgotten about the whole of this year
00:26:14and they're really developing the new car for next year and they have found a sponsor as well.
00:26:17So that looks good for them for next year.
00:26:19They can only go up.
00:26:21Well that's, that is for sure.
00:26:24The world championship hangs in the balance with two races to go.
00:26:27Mika Haakon and Eddie Irvine just two points apart.
00:26:30Heinz-Harold Frentzen and David Coulthard still mathematically in contention.
00:26:35And then the Schumacher brothers sit fifth and sixth ahead of Barrichello,
00:26:39Fisichella, Herbert and Salo the top ten.
00:26:42McLaren Mercedes leads Ferrari by eight points.
00:26:46Jordan solid in third.
00:26:49Williams, Stewart, Benetton the top half dozen.
00:26:53Things just quickly point out here that in fact as far as the points are concerned
00:26:56in both championships it's ten for first, six, four, three, two, one.
00:27:00And that's what it is.
00:27:01So for constructors a maximum of 16 points can be scored here in Malaysia.
00:27:06The fifth longest circuit of Formula One this year.
00:27:08Yes. Bar is the longest as you can see.
00:27:10But nonetheless Malaysia comes in and it's very rare for new circuits to be that long.
00:27:14And I think from the driving point of view very gratifying to have it like that as well.
00:27:18We really need that.
00:27:20They all see trouble here.
00:27:21Looks like there's trouble in the prospit.
00:27:23One of the cars it looked, I think it was a prospit in there.
00:27:26Truly in fact looked like he might have gone off the road as the pace car nearly flies off the road.
00:27:30So Truly's in there changing cars.
00:27:31He's allowed to start from the pit road.
00:27:35The rest of the grid is formed.
00:27:42Ferrari front row.
00:27:43McLaren second row.
00:27:44And here we go with the Grand Prix of Malaysia.
00:27:5017,000 revs and off they go.
00:27:52Not a very good start by the two Ferraris.
00:27:55But they're still in front at least.
00:27:56Certainly Michael Schumacher is as the McLaren's going to have a look around the outside.
00:28:01But it's Schumacher and Schumacher will try to keep that lead.
00:28:03Although Eddie I'm sure would rather have been in front of the two McLaren's follow.
00:28:07Tightly in there with one of the Stuarts and of course one of the Benetton's.
00:28:10Falling very tightly.
00:28:11And a big dust up behind them as Herbert got off for fifth.
00:28:14But it's a ways back and a spin there at the second corner.
00:28:17Now will Michael Schumacher having been a second quicker in qualifying.
00:28:21Managed to really get on the on the pedal here and just managed to pull away.
00:28:24Eddie Owein needs to go with him though.
00:28:26And the spinning car was Damon Hill.
00:28:28Oh poor old Damon.
00:28:29He wasn't that far up the grid as we well know.
00:28:31He was on the fifth row of the grid and he obviously touched somebody there.
00:28:35Or one assumes he did because Damon doesn't make those sort of mistakes.
00:28:38And that was it.
00:28:38And of course remember this he's only got one Grand Prix to go and look his career is over.
00:28:43There's activity already in the Sauber pit.
00:28:47And Yarno Trulli still in the garage.
00:28:52So Iravis, the Ferraris got off well but Derek it didn't look like they really jumped off.
00:28:56Here's a look at what happened to Damon.
00:28:58Oh he got punted.
00:28:59Yes, Damon got punted.
00:29:00The car went out to his right and disappeared off the side of the road.
00:29:03And look mayhem behind him as well as one of the two.
00:29:05Look at that's the Benetton presuming a Fizzi Keller.
00:29:08And he's going to go for it.
00:29:09Behind him as well as one of the two.
00:29:10Look at that's the Benetton presuming a Fizzi Keller.
00:29:13And of course you've got one of the two Arrows getting involved at the back.
00:29:16But Fizzi Keller carried on and so did the Arrows car.
00:29:19Michael Schumacher gradually easing away already.
00:29:21I believe it was the Benetton that got into the back of Damon and sent him spinning.
00:29:25And so for the second race in a row, another spin there.
00:29:28Another spin there.
00:29:29I can see the yellow flag out so somebody else has lost it.
00:29:32Zonta spun off the road but in fact he's back on again so all's well there.
00:29:36And for the second race in a row, Damon Hill hasn't completed three corners in two races.
00:29:42Another car goes backwards into that turn.
00:29:44It is so slippery around that hairpin.
00:29:46You see if you get off line there's marbles there or not marbles but the surface is not
00:29:51the same.
00:29:51It hasn't been raced on.
00:29:52There's only been motorbikes here as they go through turns one and two.
00:29:55That appeared to be the other Benetton.
00:29:57So Michael Schumacher leads from Eddie Irvine.
00:30:00And then the two McLarens.
00:30:03And then a Stewart and it looks like Alexander Burt is right there.
00:30:06So I would suggest that Fisichella had a problem with the instant with Damon.
00:30:10And that damaged the tire.
00:30:11He's got a flat tire and then he created his spin there as he came through that last turn.
00:30:16Flat left rear tire we're told for Fisichella.
00:30:20Well Irvine and Häkkinen are the two drivers locked in the championship.
00:30:23But this is Coulthard putting the pressure on.
00:30:25Yes.
00:30:26Häkkinen of course can't afford to drop back.
00:30:28But my opinion, well we know he's got the slightly harder of the softer tires if that's
00:30:32the right way to look at it.
00:30:34And if he's only going to go for one pit stop as opposed to the others two.
00:30:37He would therefore have a little bit more fuel on board therefore be heavier.
00:30:40Now McLaren has instituted team orders for this race.
00:30:43David Coulthard has accepted that if points hang in the balance he will move aside for
00:30:48Mika Häkkinen.
00:30:49Right now though it appears that Coulthard in this supporting role his job right now
00:30:54is to pressure Eddie Irvine into a mistake.
00:30:57Which we've seen Eddie do before.
00:30:59But at the same time if David was to slacken off to let Mika by it could well be that the
00:31:04Stewart would go by him and they would lose the constructors points that they so valuably
00:31:07need as well.
00:31:08Here's Fisichelli in for the left rear and it looks like a lot more repairs than that.
00:31:13This is a long stop.
00:31:14They're saying that's it.
00:31:15Yep.
00:31:15They're waving it off.
00:31:18Fisichelli of course will be staying with Benetton next year.
00:31:23Two McLarens very close behind Eddie Irvine and you can see Johnny Herbert there as well.
00:31:28They're all pretty darn close.
00:31:30The Barrichello and Herbert both off to a good start.
00:31:36Schumacher got a second half lead each lap so far on the others behind him.
00:31:41Oh look at Eddie go out wide.
00:31:42Wow.
00:31:43Eddie that was silly.
00:31:44But then as I said if you get off that black line we've learned that all weekend the line
00:31:48is wonderful but if you're offline and it's very difficult to brake because the circuit's
00:31:53so wide you lose track of where you're braking and where you're turning in.
00:31:56To get the perfect lap is very very difficult indeed.
00:31:59Let's ride with Johnny Herbert.
00:32:16I always find it very intriguing just how these drivers downshift in the middle of the
00:32:19corner with these sequential electronic gearboxes.
00:32:21Takes three thousandths of a second to downshift.
00:32:24That's something that of course us normal mortals that handle the usual old manual box
00:32:28can't quite comprehend.
00:32:29Nope.
00:32:30That's a Barrichello.
00:32:32Rubens off to off to a good start here.
00:32:35The stewards started side by side on the grid got split in that initial dust up down to
00:32:40turn one but are now again in formation fifth and sixth.
00:32:45Two Ferraris, two McLarens, two stewards lead the field here in Malaysia.
00:32:49Damon Hill spun.
00:32:51Jarno Trulli listed as a stall and Fisichella.
00:32:56After that crash and loss of a left rear tire and more damage on Fisichella's car.
00:33:02He is also in the garage so three cars out without a lap.
00:33:06Quite an interesting situation for Schumacher.
00:33:08There is really no pressure on him at all.
00:33:09There's no championship at stake for him.
00:33:12He's actually lost a lot of time.
00:33:13He lost two seconds that lap to Eddie Irvine which is quite unusual.
00:33:16I thought he looked a lot closer but unless there's some teamwork coming here they're
00:33:20telling him something specific from the pits that he should try and slow the pace down.
00:33:24Who knows what they're saying to him as he goes around to turn one and two.
00:33:27We understand Alex Zanardi has just gone into the pits.
00:33:31Well is there any advantage to Schumacher trying to give Irvine a tow?
00:33:35No, I mean there is on the straight but I mean Irvine's going to tow.
00:33:38Here we go is the work on Zanardi's car going on.
00:33:39Changing tires that's for certain.
00:33:41He obviously, well one assumes he possibly flat spotted them or else he finds something
00:33:45out of balance but that's unlikely to get out of balance situation on the first couple of laps.
00:33:54Both are chasing Irvine and Schumacher in the lead.
00:33:58Now the big question on Michael Schumacher is with the 92 degree temperature.
00:34:02He's letting Eddie go by look.
00:34:04Already?
00:34:05Yes.
00:34:05He's making the break as oh he's going to block out David too.
00:34:08This is this is the team tactics bit that Ron Dennis thinks is absolutely outrageous.
00:34:12The director of McLaren he thinks it's so wrong that they should have this tactics.
00:34:18Well he obviously what's happened here is that he's Michael's been turned back off.
00:34:22Let Eddie get away because Eddie needs those seconds.
00:34:25Let Michael hold the rest up behind.
00:34:26Eddie can get a nice jump so he can get ahead get a nice buffer against him so when he goes
00:34:31in for fuel he can they can take their time and if they do decide to take 28 seconds looking
00:34:35for the spare wheel they have time in hand this week.
00:34:40Well so Michael Schumacher we had expected from Schumacher's comments that he would take
00:34:44off lead as much of this race as he could and then if Irvine was directly behind him
00:34:50let Eddie through.
00:34:51He said as much in the interview after qualifying I'm very surprised this early in the race
00:34:56to see Schumacher let Irvine get out and get away but it's clear that Ferrari did not want
00:35:00Irvine to fall into the clutches of those two McLarens.
00:35:03Well that's pretty it's obvious I mean it's great team tactics and I still like team tactics
00:35:08I have to admit I'm sure the McLarens don't like it but as far as oh look at that oh he
00:35:12got punted out Michael got pushed out oh Michael nearly went back and took DC for that one
00:35:18and now Michael's gonna have to work on it but what he's doing of course is he's holding
00:35:21up Hacken no Michael's going really slowly maybe he has got a problem on the car he doesn't
00:35:25see he's braking up he's coming well under braking maybe he's got a problem with the
00:35:29car I'm sure it's nothing physical as far as he's concerned um oh dear Hacken looks down
00:35:34the inside Michael was not very happy but he's streaking away now but of course it's
00:35:38because he spoiled Mika's momentum his car Schumacher's car is not accelerating off the
00:35:43corner nearly as well as the McLarens unless that's by his own action it could well be
00:35:49that he's sent back he's going to let David do what he wants as well let Coulthard go by
00:35:53but don't let Mika exactly no he didn't let David by did he no we'll have to see what the outcome
00:35:59I just don't quite understand the logic of that but maybe he had a problem and you could you have
00:36:03electronic problems welcome back to the race dramas Michael and Michael had two wheels in
00:36:08the grass there and almost put a nose into the back of Coulthard as David completed the pass
00:36:14well we have said that now Mika's dropped back I'm sorry now Mika's dropping back as well
00:36:21it gets curiouser and curiouser four laps are completed the Malaysian Grand Prix
00:36:26Eddie Irvine is the leader from David Coulthard Michael Schumacher Mika Hacken and Rubens
00:36:31Barrichello and Johnny Herbert you're watching Formula One on Fox Sportsnet
00:36:37welcome back to the Grand Prix of Malaysia the brand new Formula One circuit at Sepang
00:36:41Luka Badoer has spun he was attempting to pass Pedro Diniz for 14th position
00:36:46Diniz right front contact or yes right front contact to the left side
00:36:51Badoer's car and Badoer went into a spin he has been able to continue
00:36:56Eddie Irvine is leading David Coulthard and in the positions there because of this Coulthard
00:37:02and in the positions there because of this Coulthard put the right front right into the
00:37:06side of Michael Schumacher and took over second place yes I don't think it was totally intended
00:37:11that Michael didn't want him to go by but I can see the logic of David's desperateness
00:37:15remember David is on the same tires as Eddie therefore when we know that oh and looks like
00:37:20well Santa's off the road but nothing's on fire so that's good just spun off and stopped
00:37:27but we're trying to get back to what was happening is the fact that Michael sorry David had to go
00:37:31with Eddie Irvine he has to push him all the way remember he is on a two-step strategy I assume
00:37:37and Mika Hakkinen probably is only on a once Irvine has to get away and DC's got to go with
00:37:41him if he doesn't run with him then they're going to both be in a mess when it comes to pit stop
00:37:45there's the engine blowing up look at that it really did go didn't it oh and then of course
00:37:51he loses the wheels spin on the oil and round he goes he's a lucky boy there's good runoff areas
00:37:55there for Zonta look at that it really went round that was a fair old runoff
00:38:05that's the third third car today with engine problems both the pros have had engine problems
00:38:09as well Olivier Panis having stopped already that is the 21st DNF for BAR this year
00:38:19Zonta getting oh that's Ralph Ralph's out as well Schumacher's pulled off the road he's in
00:38:24in the kitty litter of course so the car's probably running perfectly but he's actually
00:38:29got in there they've all said it well I've said it everybody's been around the track and said it
00:38:33the track offline is so slippery the marbles because of the new surface is just taking that
00:38:37surface off sort of settling in but it pushes it out it's the fourth fourth not finished for poor
00:38:43old Ralph Schumacher in a row look at Cool Todd right up the back end of the Irvine now Eddie's
00:38:47got to be so cautious that he doesn't make an error here being pushed remember he was pushed
00:38:52before a couple of races ago and he went off the road that wasn't good for Eddie and he lost some
00:38:56points there when he let Mika Hakkinen by we have a slightly different situation here but we don't
00:39:01want Eddie's interest to go off the road that is for sure in the positions they're running right
00:39:07now Eddie Irvine would leave Malaysia with a four-point lead headed for Japan I bet Eddie
00:39:15wishes that that was the form as he was leaving Malaysia right now but he's got a long battle
00:39:18on his hands ahead of him remember that Irvine this man David Coulthard and Michael Schumacher
00:39:27are on the super soft compound Mika Hakkinen is on the soft compound a little bit harder compound
00:39:34but with this brand new racetrack Derek does it really make much difference if nobody's really
00:39:38getting any grip on this brand new race Ralph Ralph Schumacher losing it gets out a bit wide
00:39:44gets out on that dirt as I said the outside of the track offline is so so slippery he's got all
00:39:50he's got the wheels fairly locked up and always in gear at the back that's why the front wheels
00:39:53are still turning but of course in these days unfortunately you can't get out of that stuff
00:39:57it's a very very good safety factor that that shingle they've got there be interesting to see
00:40:02what would happen if Michael Schumacher what Michael's thinking is Takagi cruises down the
00:40:07road very very slow so that means at least he won't be taking any more people off today
00:40:12he's had quite a quiet weekend actually yes but if Eddie was to go out I just wonder how Schumacher
00:40:16would react should something go wrong with Eddie Irvine which still could happen see how Michael
00:40:20was to sort of bring up the show a little bit harder you know with the Nurburgring three weeks
00:40:25ago we had the race that seemed nobody wanted to win nobody could stay in the lead long enough to
00:40:29win and here we may have the race that nobody's able to finish already we have eight cars out of
00:40:37well of course three of them that we know of with engine problems and it is excessively
00:40:41hot there and these engines do take a pounding around they're running 16 000 to 17 000 revs
00:40:46that's very very hard for mechanical components to be shuffling around in there and uh the heat
00:40:53and humidity is oppressive we've told just 92 degrees and uh from the pit lane Peter's found
00:40:57another pyrometer one that reads the track temperature at 130 degrees oh my goodness me
00:41:03that is that that's a difference that is an amazing temperature I think what it's like in
00:41:08the car the only thing one can say is it is open in there and the drivers have said that they are
00:41:12a lot cooler when they're in the car than when they get out of it and uh we did a sports car
00:41:16race there just a few years ago at another circuit in Malaysia and when we got out it was so hot we
00:41:21actually had to put our feet in buckets of ice and we had towels with ice draped over our necks
00:41:25to bring our body temperatures down and that kind of lends a concern as to uh Michael Schumacher
00:41:32who has not driven a race distance uh he's done 40 laps over the weekend but has not run a race
00:41:38distance and in this heat and humidity if Schumacher after four months off can even finish
00:41:43this race that will be just one of the most tremendous comebacks in all of sport here he's
00:41:49fastest qualifier sits on the pole and to go the race distance win or not uh for this man right
00:41:54here would really be just such a tremendous accomplishment he's actually done if i may
00:41:59correctly mike done 40 laps each day i'm sorry which is still not race distance each day but
00:42:04it's a little bit better for him and he said he felt great out of race already Damon Hill spun
00:42:13Jarno Trulli, Fisichella, Zonta and Penney and they should have Ralph there he is Ralph
00:42:21Schumacher and uh Tora Takagi we're not sure the problem with his car
00:42:24Zonta, the attrition very high very early we're not 10 laps into this race
00:42:34Luka Bato was spun and continued Alex Zanardi with an early pit stop and back on track
00:42:41so 15 cars right now running
00:42:43these two are going to stay now here let's ride here with the Coulthard
00:43:02he's coming down to turn i think he's coming down to turns one and two there
00:43:05working out on a new lap
00:43:14interesting to see from his point of view the Ferrari slithering around in front of him and
00:43:19you get the idea how very difficult it is to find any kind of grip on this you can see how
00:43:24wide the track is from these lovely aerial shots and you can see how easy it is to just to sort of
00:43:28get yourself six inches out and slither off the road of course with these long straights there
00:43:34is every ample opportunity should i say for some good overtaking there's two 800 yard straights
00:43:40which you could break on at the end of both them and a short one as well which you could out break
00:43:44so there is that opportunity to get by people when you have to and David Coulthard is working
00:43:49the back of Eddie Irvine right now he's looking to the outside much more difficult of course to
00:43:53cover anybody from overtaking you when the track is so wide
00:43:58Giancarlo Fisichella's Benetton has been repaired he is back in the race
00:44:03uh he is four laps back but the way this race has gone so far don't count him out of the points
00:44:09today just yet these two really are close David Coulthard is just mirroring uh Eddie all the way
00:44:16but then as i say that's all he has to do there's one certainly one if not two definite pit stops
00:44:21here and then those they have the opportunity then to capitalize on the other team's mistakes
00:44:26they've all been making mistakes so part of Coulthard's job is to pressure Eddie Irvine
00:44:30and keep Irvine's pace up as you see Mika Hakkinen has set fastest lap of the race thus far
00:44:35but don't forget Coulthard is also still mathematically in this driver's championship
00:44:40he's 14 points uh back of his teammate Mika Hakkinen but two races to go Dennis the head
00:44:48of McLaren he must be wondering about the Ferrari tactics but then again he's running
00:44:53his tactics as well he wants that constructors champion to want Mika to be the world champion
00:44:58and the odds are obviously that Mika will become the world champion at the end of this
00:45:01but he hasn't had a good weekend but then one might say he's being quiet because they've been
00:45:05setting the car up to win the race or certainly to finish very high up which is really what it's all
00:45:10about well in the post-qualifying press conference uh David Coulthard threw a few jabs at Eddie
00:45:18Irvine uh saying well of course Michael is faster than Eddie and even Michael said well you know
00:45:24Eddie sweats more than I do there was a lot of good-natured ribbing going on back and forth
00:45:29but the fact was that McLaren was unable to account for their performances here Coulthard
00:45:33comes right up the tailpipes of Irvine and Mika Hakkinen is getting closer to Michael Schumacher
00:45:39of course but again when these cars get close you've got to remember that if the track temperature
00:45:44is 130 the ambient must be pretty darn hot as well we know it's up around 100 get close behind
00:45:49the car in front your temperatures which are running pretty critically anyway are certainly
00:45:53going to they're going to accelerate up so you have to back off but let everything to pull down
00:45:57again and they're being told by the pits exactly what to do
00:46:05Ralph Schumacher said his car was just completely uncontrollable and many of the drivers uh have
00:46:12really wrestled with this circuit they'll go out in one session and scuff tires work the best they'll
00:46:17go out in the next session and it seems they need uh sticker tires fresh tires uh to be able to
00:46:22perform well and sometimes you go out the tires just don't grip at all and Schumacher said from
00:46:27the start of the race Ralph said his car was just unmanageable Tora Takagi is out with drive shaft
00:46:33problems we're told in the positions they are running now that's how things would stand headed
00:46:40for Japan we'll be right back to Malaysia after this welcome back to the Grand Prix of Malaysia
00:46:48on Fox Sportsnet Giannulli chasing Alexander Virts and where is David Coulthard he has slowed
00:46:55he was splitting the two Ferraris Irvine and Schumacher but he has slowed on the circuit
00:47:02from second place David's luck has struck yet again although the last few races he'd run
00:47:07exceptionally well Eddie Irvine going through turns one and two the and then starting to go
00:47:12downhill a little bit although the circuit is remarkably flat and Schumacher there he'd pulled
00:47:16up a couple of seconds too on Mika Hakkinen over a couple of laps he's set the fastest lap just now
00:47:21there he is David being wheeled away to the side of the track that must be very disappointing for
00:47:27David he could have well done with some good points in the championship an inglorious end
00:47:32of the race for David Coulthard he will be no help to Mika Hakkinen's championship bid today
00:47:37that's for certain now Mika's got to do it all on his own and we hope for Mika's sake and McLaren's
00:47:42that there's nothing what goes wrong or what went wrong with with Mika sorry what went wrong
00:47:46with David now goes wrong with Mika's car that's what McLaren certainly don't need
00:47:51they've had several occasions this year where with one car with snake bit the same problem might
00:47:55would be fall the other but usually in in practice rather than the race only in Australia did both
00:48:03the McLarens fail to finish this season well that's his sixth did not finish of the year and
00:48:08he only had four did not finish his last year David's been running very well lately but that
00:48:13was very sad for him and not instigated by his own bad driving just one of those mechanical things
00:48:18that happened the other championship contender whom we've not seen much of his heights Harold
00:48:22Frentzen who's currently posted in ninth the man who's had the drive of the day is John Lacey
00:48:28now Lacey said he was blocked on his last runner he would have started far better than 15th he is
00:48:33now up to seventh place in the Sauber and he's challenging Alexander Virts right behind Alexander
00:48:39really pushing him as we see somebody creeping is that David no it can't be David coming along
00:48:43slowly that's one of that's the replay of of David Coulthard going slowly there
00:48:52I'd love to know what went on on the radio between he and Ron Dennis as that took place
00:48:55trying to fathom out what it was 16 laps complete Eddie Irvine now with
00:49:02Michael Schumacher behind him and Schumacher just again set fastest lap of the race Barrichello
00:49:07lowered that standard once more well Michael in a way I think has started got to put a little bit
00:49:14of pressure on Eddie to get him to move along a little bit because of Hacken and being too close
00:49:18behind the gap isn't big enough between Eddie and Hacken at this time to let this pit stop go and
00:49:23here we go let's ride with with uh with John Lacey as he's pushing very very hard on the back of Alexander
00:49:53so
00:50:16well we can see easily Derek as he closed up on Virts in that one low speed left-hander
00:50:20that is a lace he turned in the tires just had no no aerodynamic grip at all once he got that
00:50:25close to Virts now this can do nothing about it and of course the track is very wide as I said
00:50:30and you've just got to keep so immaculate as you're going as you're going through this through
00:50:34the corners you mustn't overcook it you mustn't go in too deep because you push out wide and then
00:50:38you get on the slippery stuff and you've just gone away but look at this he's having a real look here
00:50:42oh he's had a go did he have to go down whoa he locks it up then gets the wrong line
00:50:47meanwhile he's meanwhile further back Pedro Donitz is having a hard time
00:50:51with Weinsauer friends and Donitz is having a real close look at him trying to get by him
00:51:01there's the top six at 17 laps
00:51:06so for the drivers that may make two stops and we expect that would be most of the field we're
00:51:11beginning to come into the window for that first stop the speed of the Ferrari through that right
00:51:16handed corner there is absolutely amazing because Hacken and closed right up here
00:51:21on Michael Schumacher look at Barry Keller right behind Mika Hacken and as well
00:51:35well Eddie Irvine says that the Ferrari has now shown its full potential he says the car
00:51:40is the same as it was at the Nürburgring they haven't made any substantial changes
00:51:45but they weren't able to show its full potential there
00:51:49well I have to state put my little paddle in a bit I believe that we saw Eddie Irvine do so well
00:51:55after Michael's incident and over three or four races he gradually got less and less competitive
00:52:00that to me means the legacy of Michael's testing development expertise didn't carry over long
00:52:05enough for Eddie and Eddie although might be a great test driver isn't necessarily a great
00:52:09race drive a test driver at the racetrack and I think Michael has that much more ability to make
00:52:14a car go quicker at the racetrack at a race meeting than Eddie does and I think it's shown
00:52:18this weekend too well now Irvine has picked up the gauntlet because he has just lowered
00:52:23the standard for fastest lap of the race
00:52:30well the pressure's on him so much he has got to do such an immaculate job here to take this race
00:52:35Suzuka Eddie raced at Japan for many years before he got picked up to come back
00:52:40he'd race in Formula 3000 or the equivalent Formula Nippon I believe it's called in Japan
00:52:45and he was very happy living in Japan earning a lot of money he got quite back to drive in Formula 1
00:52:49and he knows Suzuka terribly well and last year you may well recollect that in fact he did leave
00:52:54Michael Schumacher for a few laps and then backed off for that Schumacher bye so he wants to take
00:52:58this championship to Suzuka
00:53:03Schumacher now holding back Hakanen and Barrichello Johnny Herbert continues in fifth
00:53:09Alessi has passed Alexander Wurtz he's up to sixth
00:53:14in his next to final drive for Sauber isn't it nice to see big cars being able to overtake them
00:53:18yes Jackie Stewart had quite a lot to do with this circuit as did I think Michael Schumacher
00:53:23but nonetheless it's good to see that they all look at Barrichello looking down the inside of
00:53:27Mika Hakanen now that would put the cat among the pigeons if Barrichello was to go past Mika
00:53:32as well it'll be interesting to see this circuit next year when it gets a little more rubber laid
00:53:36down on it and some some more competition on it because it looks like there's such a wide variety
00:53:40of possible lines and the width of this circuit it's uh it's just about roll Barrichello went
00:53:46straight off oh he went in the pits I do apologize but he seemed to go so fast I thought he's gone
00:53:51straight off he didn't seem to slow down at all I'm sorry I apologize for that and there's Johnny
00:53:57Herbert now behind obviously it was quite a good time for Barrichello to come in for one of his
00:54:01pit stops we are on that window right now good time to come in because he's being held up by
00:54:06Michael and Hakanen so now he can go out hopefully with a clean bit of track and make up some time
00:54:11boy from the angle of the shot the hook sorry but it looked like he just went off stuck throttle
00:54:16was the first one we've seen go in the pits on this new circuit it's hardly surprising yeah blame
00:54:20it on the new course folks it really caught us out well you know where to go to get all of your
00:54:25days scores highlights and breaking stories Fox Sports News primetime nightly at 10 on Fox Sports
00:54:32Net Barrichello back out and Benetton's setting up for Alex Virts now that he has surrendered
00:54:43sixth place to Giannulli and here's the pass for sixth
00:54:56now Virts is going to overshoot it because he's trying to out break Giannulli he had all the
00:55:00heat and Giannulli goes by Gianna was on the outside and really out front with Alexander
00:55:05who was trying to hold him off on the inside and then locks his wheel up because he was on that
00:55:11surface that has no grip
00:55:17Hakanen is probably getting very very very frustrated because Michael is just holding
00:55:21him up at every point and at this point is allowing Johnny Herbert now to catch up a little
00:55:25bit having allowed Barrichello to to be right behind him all the way well it's been a horribly
00:55:30frustrating month for Mika Hakanen fifth at the Nurburgring then he comes here thinks he's third
00:55:37in qualifying is out of his car is walking toward the press conference and in the final
00:55:43seconds is pipped by his own teammate for third on the grid so he has to start behind the man
00:55:49that he's battling for the championship Eddie Irvine and then can only watch as the two Ferraris
00:55:54do one of those after you Alphonse no go ahead Gaston deal and here now is Virts in the pits
00:55:59but Hakanen has to be so frustrated at this point little wing adjustment there on the right front
00:56:08a bit slow nine and a half seconds but it's quite a long pit road and this is going to tell when it
00:56:15comes later on to those that go for a one-stop strategy and at the moment I wonder when the
00:56:19Ferraris are going to be they don't look like they're quite ready yet to bring the Ferrari in
00:56:24well Mika Hakanen right now is 10.4 seconds behind Eddie Irvine you see Schumacher is nine and a
00:56:29half seconds back Hakanen again catches up Schumacher under braking and off the corner
00:56:35though Michael squirts away Mika catches him up
00:56:44and Michael shoots away half a street we've just heard that David Coulthard had electronics
00:56:50problems right well it didn't appear to be engine because nothing there's no smoke anywhere but
00:56:55electronics covers a multitude of sins it could be gearbox could be engine who knows it could
00:56:59even be a steering wheel Ron Dennis is going to be absolutely livid about the way Schumacher and
00:57:07the Ferrari tactics are working to hold him up but I'm afraid Ferrari have been racing a long
00:57:12long time and they've battled over the years to try and win championships and to hold people up
00:57:18and that's really what they're doing now team tactics to take this race to the last one at
00:57:22Suzuka Schumacher doesn't appear to be varying his line much as Jean Alessi comes in makes his
00:57:29first stop in the Sauber there's Alessi
00:57:34but as he is he may be varying his cadence in and out of the corners Derek or what what can
00:57:38he be doing to throw Mika off well Mika knows really he can't outbrake him so Dave so Michael
00:57:45is braking a little bit earlier than normal not as hard as he normally would which is allowing
00:57:50of course Mika to catch him up and then Michael gets a perfect line through the corner and off
00:57:55he goes again and of course the car is handling well we saw it in qualifying in practice the
00:57:59Ferrari is very very good Johnny Herbert runs some three seconds behind Schumacher and HÃ¥konen
00:58:06we've completed 20 laps you're watching Formula One on Fox Sports Net
00:58:14welcome back to the Grand Prix of Malaysia as we ride along with Johnny Herbert
00:58:21so
00:58:36upper left look at the top six
00:58:40so
00:58:46into the hairpin second gear
00:58:52it looks like they're crawling through there I know well yeah I think it's intriguing we
00:58:56noticed this yesterday Johnny Herbert's head disappears in the cockpit when he goes down in
00:59:00the brake pedal all right Petter Donitz has made a pit stop so has Jacques Villeneuve
00:59:05in the remaining B.A.R. and Luca Badour has retired his Minardi
00:59:10as we're at 23 laps for race leader Eddie Irvine and Michael Schumacher has just run
00:59:18a minute 40.7 seconds continuing to lower the standard for fastest lap of the race
00:59:28first to third interval now between Irvine and HÃ¥konen is 11.7 seconds it was a little bit more
00:59:33before this but that was before Michael started to get his pedal to the metal as they say also at
00:59:37the same time Schumacher has to consider what happens now if Eddie Irvine was to have a problem
00:59:42and go out of the race and that would leave Michael with HÃ¥konen very close behind so
00:59:46Michael has to think about winning the race as well in certain terms and they are sitting up
00:59:50in the Ferrari pit as we speak now we think it's possible that HÃ¥konen may be on a one pit stop
00:59:55strategy this is why Irvine is trying to get as far out front of HÃ¥konen as possible to minimize
01:00:01the effect of that Fisichella is in here at lap 24 so now both Benetton's have stopped but remember
01:00:10the Benetton of course he was four laps behind or some four laps behind having had that altercation
01:00:14at the start and there's some damage to the car here's one of the Ferraris into the pits
01:00:24Eddie Irvine I imagine
01:00:26well Ferrari could well take the lead in the Constructors Championship as they surrender the
01:00:30lead here with Irvine well it's one thing for sure let's get those wheels on the right this
01:00:35time boys quick stop those seven seconds that is a super stop by Ferrari now McLaren's got to match
01:00:42that of course with Mika when he comes in but I don't believe he'll be coming in for a few laps
01:00:45yet with just a one-stop strategy and interesting Derek Ferrari has all of their tires racked
01:00:51Ferrari has all of their tires racked right out at pit lane there's nothing to chase back to the
01:00:57garage for they're not going to repeat the mistake of three weeks ago at the Nürburgring and they
01:01:01apparently we didn't see too many of them but they did 20 pit stops this morning to make sure
01:01:07that they got it right this time I know Luca Montezemolo the president of Ferrari was so
01:01:11upset he said nobody particularly was to blame but it will not be happening again
01:01:17that was compared to what happened at Nürburgring I'm sorry right and in fairness to the team
01:01:22you'll recall at the Nürburgring that half the track was wet half the track was dry and there
01:01:27was a lot of decision changing going on as to whether to fit dry or wet tires so it was an
01:01:32easy situation for a mistake to be made unfortunately one was that cost Eddie there 28 seconds at the
01:01:38same time I believe what happened too is that Salo came in unexpected the lap before and they only
01:01:42have one crew there you know actually working on the car or one position for it and so when
01:01:48Eddie came in they weren't sure quite what to do and the tires weren't ready for the wrong tires
01:01:51are ready for the wrong car Schumacher a minute 40.26 seconds continues to run faster and faster
01:01:59every lap you will remember Michael now of course he's in the lead of the race and we're going to
01:02:03see him put some pressure on as we know he can do when he's on his own get out there and really
01:02:08give it some and Mika is dropping back one has to say if Mika Hakkinen cannot win this race
01:02:13the title will be decided in Japan in two weeks time
01:02:20David Coulthard is out of the race so he is out of the championship he had to score I believe five
01:02:27points more than Mika Hakkinen to keep his title hopes alive and right now Heinz-Harald Frentzen
01:02:33is sitting in sixth place which pays just one point with Hakkinen currently in third which is
01:02:38worth four in the positions they're running right now Frentzen would be eliminated and it would be
01:02:44Irvine versus Hakkinen for the championship at Suzuka but we're only halfway in this race and
01:02:49a lot can change well it certainly looks to me that looks like Michael Schumacher is going to
01:02:54go for a one-stop strategy because we're virtually halfway through the race at 27 laps two more laps
01:03:01than he'd be able to go he would go on one stop and it logically makes sense they would try and
01:03:05make him carry the heavier fuel load because he had all to gain and really nothing to lose
01:03:14activity at McLaren for Mika Hakkinen who we expected to be on a one-stop strategy Schumacher
01:03:21running this long on that first tank is a little bit of a surprise and now indeed McLaren is out
01:03:27and getting ready for Mika Hakkinen's pit stop so I think this may come as a surprise to Ron Dennis
01:03:33if he expected both Ferraris to be on a two-stop strategy to find himself battling even up the race
01:03:39strategy of Michael Schumacher well it is only going to have a dash and splash that's for sure
01:03:44when he comes in because he won't have much to put on the car one doesn't know just how much
01:03:47fuel they put in at that stop remember they could fill the tanks up if they wanted to or you know
01:03:53to have a required amount so Hakkinen's in the pits at this time so that brings him in just under
01:03:58halfway through the race or right on halfway through the race should I say 28 laps half of
01:04:0356 and here's Hakkinen's stop
01:04:14you see Hakkinen's had seven races with Michael Schumacher out there and he won three of them
01:04:18he's had so many number races without Hakkinen he's only won one of them so he never capitalized
01:04:22on the fact that Schumacher wasn't in the race and that is a real mistake or rear error and just
01:04:27misfortune for McLaren's and as Mika Hakkinen said in an interview this weekend that they gave
01:04:34two races to Eddie Irvum tires blowing wheels falling off and a bit of personal combat between
01:04:40the two teammates and that you know that that sorted it all out well now that Hakkinen's been
01:04:48in Ferrari is setting up for Schumacher whose last lap was a minute 40.5 not quite the fastest lap of
01:04:57the day but considerably faster than Mika Hakkinen was running just before he pitted
01:05:03some two seconds faster and there's activity at Stewart where Johnny Herbert lies in third
01:05:09remarkable piece of driving by Heinz our friends remember he started in 14th place on the grid
01:05:14and he's up to sixth place he hasn't pitted yet but what a stupid
01:05:18stupendous drive in the car of course that he would like to have qualified him but didn't
01:05:21and I'm corrected that uh Johnny Herbert lies second with Hakkinen's pit stop. Mark Genet
01:05:28making a stop. Genet who now holds a championship point
01:05:35comes out and Schumacher comes in
01:05:45that's a good shot of the asphalt as Mika Hakkinen goes by
01:05:48that's a good shot of the asphalt as Mika Hakkinen goes by. Mika on fresh tires and an open bit of
01:05:54road in front and no Michael Schoenberg in front to put him off so he will really be going for it
01:05:58now to try and make up some time so that when Schumacher comes out uh Mika is going to be ahead
01:06:03of him. A long stop for Schumacher making sure they have fuel to go the distance
01:06:18confirming the one-stop strategy
01:06:22for Michael so I believe that leaves us Frenson uh who has not stopped and Herbert
01:06:28you're right Herbert hasn't stopped
01:06:32I'm sorry Frenson was just in I'm sorry Herbert was just in my mistake
01:06:40we only see what's on the screen haven't got any windows here to look out
01:06:49Mika Hakkinen in position he loves to be in on his own and this is when he really shows how good
01:06:53he is and shows just how good that McLaren is I'm just surprised that the car wasn't more positive
01:06:57all weekend it's taken them a long time to get it competitive this weekend seeing as it's the best
01:07:03all-round package out there I thought it would streak away here's uh Zanardi coming in having
01:07:08a rather miserable time down there in 12th place still not really setting the world alight this
01:07:14year Ralph Schumacher has been doing that but poor old uh Alex has not been setting the world
01:07:20alight at all Vega has not scored a point in 14 starts this season
01:07:44so Eddie Irvine shows a five-second lead on Michael Schumacher seven seconds back
01:07:54to Mika Hakkinen will be back to the Grand Prix of Malaysia on Fox Sportsnet after this
01:08:0330 laps complete in the first ever Grand Prix of Malaysia Jackie Stewart there atop the pit box
01:08:08as both of his cars are running well in fourth and fifth Barrichello fourth Johnny Herbert
01:08:14in fifth Eddie Irvine holds a five-second lead on Michael Schumacher and finally
01:08:19Heinz-Harald Frentzen once again the Jordan is the last car to pit
01:08:26what a superb drive from him right the way through the field a low admittedly a lot of
01:08:30people had stopped he's had some stupendous drives this year and really has been the star
01:08:35of the year in my book just another note on the pit stop Michael Schumacher pitted when he did
01:08:40he put on worn tires in other words slightly scuffed tires so there must be something about
01:08:45the fact that when they're scuffed on this circuit they work a little bit better probably
01:08:48those first couple laps until they bed in and they certainly got in a full load it was a 10.9
01:08:53second stop for Schumacher the two Ferraris lead here in Malaysia Irvine and Schumacher 6.6 seconds
01:09:00back Mika Hakkinen's McLaren the two stewards of Rubens Barrichello and this man Johnny Herbert
01:09:06Frentzen was sixth when he pitted and that will move up Jean Alessi who gets my vote for star of
01:09:12the day Alessi started deep in the field in 15th and now comes up for sixth but he has another pit
01:09:19stop to make as both the Sauber stopped early Alessi at lap 20 and pitted and eats the following
01:09:27lap oh did that car get squirrely then or did the Stewart get squirrely interesting that uh
01:09:33the uh the Jordan team are running a modified Honda engine this weekend and they're going to
01:09:38have what they call an SS engine at the next race called the Suzuka special it'll be 800 horsepower
01:09:44at the next race which is 30 more than they've got had at the last race and about 20 more than
01:09:49they've got today so we're expecting great things in Suzuka remember of course Honda
01:09:53uh do come from Japan and we expect to see some fireworks in Japan and remember as well as that
01:09:59that next year that BAR will be running those Honda incentives as well so Eddie Irvine
01:10:07has led 25 of the 31 laps three lead changes 14 to go here's Jean Alessi who as I said I think
01:10:15he's just had a tremendous drive he's not had the finishes this year uh emblematic of his talent uh
01:10:21only six finishes six times that he's been classified and only one point uh but there have
01:10:28been days he's been up in the top four and just not had the car hang together hopefully
01:10:32today it will I'm very pleased for Petronas as well because they have they have put obviously
01:10:37a tremendous amount of effort into this whole event we've never heard of Petronas let's just
01:10:41ride with Jean Alessi for a couple laps or for a while
01:10:58right down to turn nine second gear
01:11:04got a flat right hander and not quite such a flat right hander coming turn 11
01:11:12short straight to 12 left hander
01:11:19and let's look at look how wide the circuit is it comes on to the back straight behind the pits
01:11:23or behind should I say the grandstands
01:11:31185 mile an hour
01:11:35and into the hairpin second gear in nice and neatly good for you Jean perfect what a beautiful line
01:11:49what a super bit of filming camera work that was but have to get back to Petronas
01:11:53it's so lovely to see Petronas getting their just desserts really after all the effort they put in
01:11:58they've been in Formula One for some years now and here they are at their home circuit
01:12:02basically supporting it and doing a good job as far as the driving is concerned
01:12:10Eddie Irvine leads there's a comparison of his most recent lap times with those of Mika Hakkinen
01:12:15and Eddie has been anywhere from one to six tenths of a second quicker
01:12:20out of the race Damon Hill on the first lap Jarno Trulli never made the start
01:12:25Ralph Schumacher spawned Riccardo Zonta lost an engine so did Olivier Pani
01:12:33Tora Takagi drive shaft problems Luca Badour parked his minority and David Coulthard who was
01:12:38one of the four drivers coming into this race with a chance at the championship
01:12:42electronic troubles with his McLaren Mercedes taking him out of the race and the championship
01:12:47somebody said there's Jean Tocque the director of the Ferrari team but somebody once said
01:12:53if there's any bad luck around David will collect it and it really is unfortunate for him that that
01:12:56has happened you can see right at the back of your picture Michael Schumacher back there with
01:13:02Mika Hakkinen right behind him very close shattering him yeah Jeanet giving way
01:13:09sideline note on Penny he will not be back in Formula One next year the round of musical chairs
01:13:15has left him standing and instead he'll go to is it the German touring car
01:13:19championship and be a test driver probably at McLaren
01:13:27well he certainly has the talent uh unfortunately he has just been not been able in the cross to
01:13:32show the results this year that would would land him a ride he has one or rather two points two
01:13:38finishes yes for him there was talk of him going to to arrows and teams like that i really don't
01:13:43think i mean pennies does have the ability a very fine ability i don't think it'd be fair for him
01:13:48for his own morale to go along to a really back back row team just for the sake of keeping in
01:13:53Formula One as Mika Salo faced this year a very similar decision let's show you our top six or
01:14:01our top point runners coming into this race that's how they were in point standings and on
01:14:05the right side of that graphic you'll see their position in the race right now
01:14:10Ralf Schumacher and David Coulthard out of the race
01:14:17Mika Hakkinen just is not close enough to Michael on that pit stop because Michael had pulled away
01:14:22very tactically very cleverly and now Mika's now held up against him
01:14:27and uh the reports from around the circuit that Hakkinen has been making hand gestures
01:14:33at Michael Schumacher well he's been doing that for some time and i'm sure he's just getting one
01:14:38hand raised vertically in the air with some fingers at various positions
01:14:41quite frankly i can't imagine Michael taking any notice whatsoever of Mika
01:14:46Mika's really got his head in the game he's got his head in the game he's got his head in the game
01:14:50he's got his head in the game he's got his head in the game he's got his head in the game he's got
01:14:54any notice whatsoever of Mika. Mika's right there trying so hard but Michael's trying to
01:14:59big a big enough gap i don't know why he doesn't actually pull up a bit more now and sort of put
01:15:03a bit of speed on to get a bit closer to Eddie unless they're worried about Eddie not having
01:15:08enough fuel and having to make another splash and dash that we did mention earlier
01:15:15here are you Hakkinen looking on at the monitors
01:15:17Ron Dennis is going to be fuming after this i can just imagine it i'll bet Hakkinen's fuming
01:15:22already he's waving his hands around there isn't much room there to wave anything let alone wave
01:15:26your hands around we have not seen a whole lot of the world champion's uh sense of humor in in that
01:15:34this year in that interview with Peter Windsor he had a kind of quiet smile almost a smirk when he
01:15:39said i think this circuit will favor our car but what we have seen from Mika Hakkinen is that
01:15:44when he loses his temper he really does get rattled yes he really does get rattled we've
01:15:49certainly seen that but then i think everybody is the same what we don't appreciate is normal
01:15:54mortals uh working for tv anymore or now should i say is the fact that the tension is so high when
01:16:00you're racing you're so calm when you're racing in many respects but right inside you're boiling
01:16:05ready to burst and when something untoward happens somebody drives you badly or puts you in a bad
01:16:09position you flare up and folks don't think that what i'm saying is a character flaw in Mika
01:16:14Hakkinen to operate at this level in this or any other championship series requires it's just such
01:16:21an emotional level as well as a competitive level it's pretty unbelievable well Ron Dennis looks at
01:16:27the monitor Mika Hakkinen looks at the back of Michael Schumacher's Ferrari as they run second
01:16:32and third in the Grand Prix of Malaysia and the two of them are in the back of the back of the
01:16:37second and third in the Grand Prix of Malaysia we'll be right back
01:16:45welcome back to Fox Sportsnet coverage of the Grand Prix of Malaysia Eddie Irvine leading Mika
01:16:49Hakkinen in third that means the title would be decided in the Grand Prix of Japan in two weeks
01:16:55time 12 30 a.m sunday october 31st on the east coast prime time 9 30 p.m saturday night october
01:17:0330th on the west coast on these Fox Sportsnet affiliates
01:17:10right now in the positions they're running Eddie Irvine would leave Malaysia with a four-point
01:17:16lead in the world championship 70 to 66 for Hakkinen 50 for Frentzen 48 for David Coulthard
01:17:23but this is where they have to be careful they're in traffic now and Michael could get
01:17:27balked by one of these cars I think Zanardi's in front he could get held up just a little bit here
01:17:31allowing Hakkinen to make a break and get by him and that would leave the door wide open up to Eddie
01:17:36obviously Michael is holding Mika up but I think this is a time where Michael should start
01:17:40stretching it a bit to pick up this traffic on his own without Mika ready to pounce should he
01:17:44get slightly balked by anybody
01:17:49what a great drive from Barry Keller and Herbert again I know you already mentioned John Elisey
01:17:54super bit of driving from both the Ford cars which of course will be Jaguars next year
01:18:02we're watching Michael Schumacher hold off Mika Hakkinen and qualifying on the pole beating the
01:18:09field by a second Peter it seems evident that Michael Schumacher's back as if he never left
01:18:15yeah it was great to watch Michael Schumacher getting back into it early on Friday morning
01:18:20it was Schumacher weather the track was wet it wasn't actually raining there was there were wet
01:18:25tires dry tires nobody really knew what to go out on Michael Schumacher went out on his third
01:18:31flying lap headed the times and he stayed atop of those times for a good 25 30 minutes and it was
01:18:37typical Michael Schumacher sliding the car all over the place really having fun wasting no time
01:18:42at all to get right back into it well I think you have to realize the course that Schumacher always
01:18:47does go out there's two or three laps gets in there now let's see what happens in traffic
01:18:51Michael oh what flew off what flew off something looked like a bit of rubber or something
01:18:56he gets by Zanardi now is Zanardi going to hold up Mika for a second or two
01:19:00smoke ahead of him I'll break probably just brake lock up there but there was there was
01:19:04certainly something coming off something flew in the air minus 13. Michael is 13 seconds behind
01:19:11Eddie Irvine that Genet that he's pulling past here giving plenty of room Mika not taking whoops
01:19:17did I say not any chances Mika cannot afford to take chances if he falls out Eddie's going to be
01:19:21or in a very good position for the world championship at Suzuka so it's very very
01:19:26cautious for Mika and he didn't take chances against Michael Schumacher as much as he may
01:19:30well want to now Irvine cannot clinch the championship today he comes in here with a
01:19:37two-point deficit even if he scores maximum points and HÃ¥konen none we still go to Japan
01:19:42to decide the driver's a title this must be tough for Schumacher to drive like this he's never had
01:19:48to do this in his life to drive for his teammate that must really really hurt him to have to drive
01:19:53for his teammate here's what's happening here this is is this where we can see something fly off
01:20:01or is it just the car flying off nothing much flying off anywhere
01:20:06no not clear from the world feed world video feed as to what happened there yeah it's very
01:20:13interesting to see that now who would I've seen comments in the press about how Ferrari really
01:20:19runs a one-car team they run one car and a blocker and and as you say it's always been
01:20:24Schumacher has been the one-car team and Eddie in the supporting role and here it's very funny
01:20:29to find the roles reversed but I must say that Schumacher does as good a job of blocking as he
01:20:34does running away to try to win well he certainly does but for him it must be really quite galling
01:20:39to have to take this role on in this particular instance but one has to hand it to him although
01:20:43I'm sure nobody else is going to but from within the team they'll hand it to him the fact that he
01:20:47is despite all the press comments that Schumacher wouldn't support Eddie Irvine wouldn't do this
01:20:52wouldn't do that that's what really gets me about the media on Formula One or any sport for that
01:20:57matter there's so much supposition as to what goes on and the guy gets in there and within three laps
01:21:02backs off to let his teammate by obviously he's interested in the team he has worked with his
01:21:06team for four and a half years to try and help them win the world championship he's not going
01:21:10to go make a mistake or or screw it up so that that they can't get on to win the championship
01:21:15even if he's not the one that's winning it himself that's it and Schumacher has said all
01:21:19week he says I am here to race for Ferrari, Ferrari wants to win the constructors championship
01:21:24if I am also in a position to help Eddie as long as it helps Ferrari I'll be happy to do so and
01:21:30and that's what's happened maybe a little earlier in the race than we anticipated
01:21:33with Furtz in the pits and also Villeneuve's in the pits we understand for his second stop
01:21:37Alessi only is less than four seconds behind Johnny Herbert he's had really had a charge to
01:21:49the field this race superb friends and back in 10th place obviously having made a pit stop having
01:21:54been up as far as sixth earlier on and John Alessi will have to make one as well Johnny Herbert will
01:22:00not we believe but Alessi up in the points that's uh that's certainly good to see for Petronas
01:22:09and notice a very big Malaysian flag on the engine cover of both the Saubers
01:22:14here and now there's activity in the Sauber pit and also at Stewart
01:22:19there was only 17 laps to go and my goodness won't this turn the world championship leadership
01:22:33around in fact he will turn it right around in fact if it was to finish as it is now
01:22:37Rubens Barrichello's come in for his second pit stop
01:22:44he surrenders fourth place
01:22:46look at that gap Michael's help Eddie he's gone from 11 seconds to 18 in just a matter of a few
01:22:51laps and that must really frustrate Paul Mika Hakkinen back there and remember earlier that
01:22:56Schumacher was lapping at a minute 40 and change his lap times are now up into the 143 bracket
01:23:03while Eddie Irvine is shooting around here at a minute 41 this is a replay as we see
01:23:10this is a replay as we see oh dear did he go out in the dirt out there that's one of the two
01:23:16BARs oh that's uh that's Villeneuve did he go around there he was on the outside I think it
01:23:23was of oh dear on the outside of Wurtz remember they had just both been in the pits for fuel and
01:23:29tires is he still running my gosh after all that well he deserves to be didn't look like it was
01:23:35totally his fault he deserves to be still running Villeneuve looking for only his third finish
01:23:40of the season every lap that goes on I just feel more and more frustrated for Mika Hakkinen
01:23:47must be absolutely making him fume inside probably just as well that he has that Scandinavian
01:23:53Icelandic Swedish Finnish temperament yeah sort of keeps him cool inside otherwise I think he
01:24:00would have nailed Michael by now but he knows that he has to finish the race in third place
01:24:04if he has to to just keep the ball rolling until the next Grand Prix but there's going to be a lot
01:24:09of criticism about this as much as I think it's all part of the racing in my book well after last
01:24:14year's opening round in Australia when clearly David Coulthard pulled over at the end of the
01:24:19race and waved Mika Hakkinen by and that's when all the great furor came out about team orders
01:24:25and team strategies and the FIA decided that decisions like that could be made in the best
01:24:32interest of the team and to support whatever goals the team has that's what Michael Schumacher is
01:24:38doing right now giving Eddie Irvine the best possible opportunity to win this race by holding
01:24:43back the McLaren is it pure racing well from a driver's standpoint no but he's doing the job
01:24:49required of him but at the same time if you hold somebody up for too long they put a blue flag
01:24:54out and you can have a penalty now somebody somewhere is deciding that Michael holding
01:24:59Mika up for three seconds a lap isn't in breach of that rule that they've all agreed is a rule
01:25:08Eddie Irvine's last lap minute 41.6 he's coming pit side Schumacher's last lap minute 42.5
01:25:15yeah he has this lap this little dash sort of splash and dash that we mentioned earlier
01:25:21after his previous stop he's probably going to have to make that now oh look at Mika Hakkinen
01:25:24seemed to drop back there but that's exactly what Michael Schumacher and Mika Hakkinen can
01:25:30hang it out to the end of the race and of course Eddie's got to come in and he's coming in right
01:25:34now so it's a matter of this 18 seconds is it enough that he has a lead over 19 second lead
01:25:39over Mika Hakkinen is it going to be enough well that's the effect of all this Schumacher
01:25:43has helped give Eddie Irvine a 19 second lead this may be the most important pit stop of Eddie
01:25:49Irvine's career it certainly is four five second stop they didn't check I don't think I don't even
01:25:54notice them change tires 6.7 is he going to go out it's a very long pit road remember
01:25:59god that must be just take a night let's take hours here they go he's lost it no he's behind
01:26:05so the world championship is still not over now will the fresh tires give Irvine any kind of
01:26:12advantage not enough to get by if Michael's being hold now what's Michael gonna do Michael now
01:26:17he's probably going to streak away
01:26:22so Eddie Irvine comes back on track in third behind Michael Schumacher and Mika Hakkinen
01:26:28and under the whole complexion of this race has just changed we'll be right back
01:26:37welcome back to Malaysia third stop of the day for Fisichella comes at lap 41
01:26:4117 laps since his last pit visit he was in at lap two after spinning off the track
01:26:47and now makes his second scheduled stop
01:26:51John Lacey also made a stop surrendered fifth place to do so
01:26:55and has come back out well this race has completely changed it's now Schumacher's Ferrari in the lead
01:27:01Mika Hakkinen with the length of Eddie Irvine's pit stop which was a quick one it moves Hakkinen
01:27:06up to where he can garner six points to Eddie Irvine's four for third place which puts him
01:27:13four points ahead in the championship I'm very much mistaken were it to stop now now is Schumacher
01:27:18going to go like a crazy thing and pull away from Mika Hakkinen drawing with him or is he going to
01:27:23keep it a little bit modest and help that Eddie can stay right behind Mika and maybe conjure up
01:27:28some magic to get by Mika Hakkinen I can hardly believe it's going to happen if Mika couldn't
01:27:32get by Michael then I don't think it's going to be possible for Eddie to do much about it
01:27:36well Ferrari's strategy was based on Schumacher and Irvine
01:27:42running one two or two three or in any case one directly in front of the other
01:27:48so we asked Michael Schumacher early on about his plan for the race and how he and Eddie would
01:27:57interact if it comes down to helping one another for the title we will have a certain strategy and
01:28:01my plan is to go flat out until the end and then we see what is the positions of who and then we
01:28:07will make whatever decisions is necessary but uh it will be interesting interesting just doesn't
01:28:16seem a grand enough word for what we have right here because we have Mika Hakkinen splitting the
01:28:20two Ferraris and for champions for drivers championship purposes they're in the wrong order
01:28:26but for constructors championship purposes this would do just fine because Ferrari in the positions
01:28:32they're running now would get 14 points today McLaren would get six and they would go to Suzuka
01:28:38tied for the constructors championship which is very very important 13 laps to go Michael
01:28:43Michael Schumacher picking up the pace a little bit a second and a bit quicker than they were
01:28:47running before the same time he's no need to stress the car too much the same time he wants
01:28:54to finish ahead of of Mika and he wants Eddie to be quite close in case there is anything
01:28:59untoward happening to Mika Hakkinen's car unless Rai was on a lazy
01:29:04he's back on track in seventh place
01:29:13so
01:29:33Lacey is six seconds back of Heinz-Harald Frensen
01:29:37for the final championship point there's that Malaysian flag over the engine cover
01:29:41of the Sauber's this weekend Sunday nights at nine on Fox Sports Net Chris Myers hosts the
01:29:46show that critics call the 60 minutes of sports TV that's going deep check your local listings
01:29:54activity I believe that's Williams
01:30:05he's he's so far down it doesn't really matter he's still in 12th place one lap behind
01:30:09lapping in 155s on his last lap which is pretty dramatically slow as opposed these guys are
01:30:14lapping 141s and we'll add Pedro de la Rosa to the cars that are out of race that puts both of the
01:30:22arrows in the garage a great surprise there I'm afraid to say but Tom Walkinshaw has said that
01:30:30he has a major sponsor back for next year which is very very satisfying they've signed a company
01:30:36called BAN B-A-N a business software developer as a sponsor and they're developing of course their
01:30:41new car and the whole product for next season so Tom has really resigned himself to a disaster this
01:30:47year with a view to getting with it next season Hackerman's pulled away four seconds away from
01:30:51Eddie Irvine at this time Eddie Irvine possibly also resigning himself the fact that he's not
01:30:56going to do much about getting by Hacken in any way can you believe this so Schumacher comes back
01:31:02from his injury which wasn't obviously a major major injury but
01:31:06first race back and there he is pole position and actually totally controlling this race
01:31:13but like the drivers meeting afterwards the drivers briefing or press conference should
01:31:17be quite interesting to see just what Mika Hackerman has to say if he does say anything to Michael at all
01:31:26if we get a chance to if we get a chance to look at those beautiful grandstands again
01:31:30they are quite beautifully designed they're designed around the leaf section they're designed
01:31:35around the hibiscus plant which is the national plant of Malaysia and in fact if you study it
01:31:39closely you can see the beauty of all those leaves of the roof it's really interesting how they've
01:31:46tried to integrate the culture of the country into the design of the track here Mika Hackerman
01:31:52cares little of that as he sits just one car length back of Michael Schumacher and the laps
01:31:59wind down still a steering drive again from Johnny Herbert who happens to be still ahead of Rubens
01:32:06Barrichello remember Rubens Barrichello is leading the Stewart team at the end of this year and he's
01:32:10going to drive for Ferrari in place of Eddie Irvine who's going to drive in place of of Barrichello
01:32:16at Jaguar or at Stewart so it's going to be quite a change around there but Johnny Herbert is yet
01:32:21again ahead of Rubens and I'm a little surprised that Schumacher and Hacken and lapping in the 141s
01:32:27have been able to open up five seconds now and it'll be five seconds next time round on Eddie
01:32:32Irvine who's lapping in the 142s that Irvine after that stop they added enough fuel for Irvine to
01:32:38finish the race but he has just not been able to run the same pace as these two Pedro Denise has
01:32:45just spun off which is a pity he was having a fine race today and there is speculation around here
01:32:50that they might have to make a splash and dash with the McLaren before the end of the race I
01:32:55found that a bit hard to believe but there is a whisper going around I don't know who's been sent
01:32:59out by probably somebody at Ferrari well that would be disastrous Hockenden was in at lap 26
01:33:03and that was just shy of halfway Schumacher's last lap 141.6 Hockenden's last tour of the circuit
01:33:21now 141.6
01:33:25oh and there's Denise's car being lifted off and that's a shame because Sauber
01:33:28was one of only two constructors Ferrari being the other that had both their cars running
01:33:34all running Ferrari engines let me tell you albeit an old engine in the Sauber they call
01:33:38it Petronas but it is actually a Ferrari engine Ferrari's running what they call their 48c the
01:33:44048c engine at this race and yet again so far one has to touch wood for Ferrari's sake that is
01:33:52they have been incredibly reliable
01:33:57so there's a look at the gap Schumacher leads Hockenden Irvine in third Johnny Herbert Rubens
01:34:02Barrichello and Heights Harold Frentzen in the points positions we'll be back to Malaysia right
01:34:07after this welcome back to Fox Sportsnet coverage of the Grand Prix of Malaysia Mike
01:34:14Joy with Derek Bell watching Jack Villeneuve apparently that brush that he had with Alexander
01:34:19Virts and that big slide off the track did not hurt his fortunes he's running in ninth position
01:34:29we'd like to hear from you so drop us an email formula1 at foxsports.net
01:34:35we'd appreciate your comments McLaren pit guys are getting ready for a pit stop and it ain't for
01:34:40David Coulthard no and this is going to turn it around now after that what will happen to splash
01:34:45and dash is going to have to put him obviously put him 12 seconds or so behind Eddie and that
01:34:49will then Michael have to back off to let Eddie get maximum points well they have to get Hocken
01:34:55into the finish and here he is in look at that I can't believe they bought him in two laps early
01:34:59before half distance he must have they must have fouled up the start bit oh my goodness me my
01:35:05goodness me McLaren what a mistake that could cost them so dearly in the world championship
01:35:11Irvine's gone past he will likely come out ahead of Johnny Herbert no Herbert's gone well the
01:35:18points he's losing he comes out in is that fifth yeah but is that Barrichello are both the Stewarts
01:35:24in front of him because that isn't the Stewart behind and the Stewarts are very close indeed
01:35:29they were in fact no they weren't very close they're 18 seconds apart for some reason so
01:35:34no he's out there right he's back there in fourth place dear oh dear oh dear what went wrong with
01:35:40McLaren strategy today well Ferrari now is in position to score maximum 16 points I don't
01:35:49believe it now Michael will have to back off of course to uh let Eddie get maximum points
01:35:55I'm sure he'll do that he's done it once today I've ready to wreck you twice in a race
01:35:59what a Schumacher said it's going to get it it's going to be interesting that's for sure
01:36:03now those are constructor points coming in in the positions they're running right now
01:36:08Ferrari would move to 118 McLaren would come to 113
01:36:17wow wow what a turnaround but this guy couldn't care a damn about the constructors nor could
01:36:22Michael Schumacher it's only the teams that care about it's the world champion that's at stake and
01:36:27somebody at McLaren has really made it wrong I mean if you run out of gas too well you have
01:36:31to go in for fuel two laps before half distance somebody has made an error in my book I ain't no
01:36:37mathematician well they had I guess they had little choice Derek because Hockennan has to finish he
01:36:45has to score some points running out of the course or running out of fuel on the course
01:36:49would do them no good at all but what a oh I'm not a blunder yeah I mean I'm not saying that
01:36:54they should let him run out but uh I mean just the fact that he didn't run to half distance like
01:36:59Schumacher well I want to assume Schumacher we know he ran to half distance one assumes he got
01:37:04enough fuel in nine laps to go or eight laps to go and he'll have to press to get by Johnny Herbert
01:37:11Herbert has had a tremendous race what a role Herbert's been on the surprise winner at the
01:37:17Nurburgring three weeks ago now he finds himself uh right up here in third place he's been written
01:37:22off mid-season as well that's Johnny's career finished with where's he gonna go I thought he
01:37:25might not even be back he had so much bad luck everything was going wrong for him all through
01:37:29the early part of the season whenever there was bad luck around apart from Coulthard getting it
01:37:32Johnny got it and here he is doing a stirring job Barry Kello doing a great job as well but for some
01:37:38reason he's 19 seconds behind Johnny Frenzen is another seven seconds behind Barry Kello he's had
01:37:43a good day considering he started 14th and John Lacey 7th yeah Lacey even further back managing
01:37:51to stay ahead of Wurtz and Jacques Villeneuve and Marc Genet rounds the top 10 then Alec Zanardi
01:37:57Pedro Donitz Giancarlo Fisichella after that spin at the beginning of the race
01:38:03back at 13th Donitz he'll overpass Donitz before this uh this race is through
01:38:08Donitz's car has gone off on the hook amazing to see Schumacher there's Eddie Irvine Michael's
01:38:14going a bit slower to let Eddie catch him up as you can see but amazing for Schumacher to having
01:38:19been virtually leading the world check oh look here's the dice going on back here between Johnny
01:38:23Herbert and Mika Hakkinen but uh for Schumacher to have to contend with the fact that he could
01:38:30have won the world championship gets injured comes back and has to hand over a victory to his teammate
01:38:35here's Mika going to pull out of the slipstream and go by yes he's having a look down the inside
01:38:40is Johnny letting him go no he said I want that fourth place thank my third place it's a rostrum
01:38:45that's what I need Johnny says I won the last race I want to be on the rostrum again thanks Mika
01:38:50throws a little dust in Mika's face now they're running about 20 seconds behind the leader
01:38:56good times though Johnny did a 41.9 that lap
01:38:59and that's Alex's second stop he stopped at lap 28 he's back in at lap 48
01:39:16and that will move him from 11th to 11th
01:39:23what a way the Stewart team have gone in the past
01:39:26well three seasons I mean just fantastic the way they've just come on up that must be who's that
01:39:31Vilna must be off it looks like it's jammed in the gear how frustrating he was in ninth place
01:39:38he went so well on Friday and said it was really wonderful just to feel the car up front and going
01:39:43so well and we all thought he's got a breakthrough on here but of course it we don't forget it was
01:39:47the first time everybody had been at the track Jack always goes well on new circuits that's
01:39:52exactly what he did you still can't see just what happened can you
01:40:00well what happened is Villeneuve has suffered his 13th DNF of the year they are by far the most
01:40:08badly successful most unsuccessful team of the year and I can't believe they're behind Minardi
01:40:12and that's with a 350 million pound 500 million dollar budget for uh over I think something like
01:40:19five years and they can they can't even beat Minardi and that's the point we should make is
01:40:24as we look toward Suzuka there's more at stake than just the drivers and constructors championship
01:40:28but the the payout the garage and pit positions all of the hierarchy of Formula One is determined
01:40:35by constructor points so there are battles all the way back through Minardi has a point Arrows
01:40:41has one point BAR has none they could move up three spots in the pecking order perhaps even
01:40:47four spots uh in in Japan but they're going to have to finish in the points and that's something
01:40:54that just hasn't been possible for them to do it's going to cost them a lot of money next year
01:40:57look at the way Herbert is streaking away or certainly streaking and holding his own
01:41:01against Mika Hakkinen that Stuart Ford is going so well today
01:41:08I'd have to rate Stuart as the most improved team of the season and I'd
01:41:12put Jordan just a nose behind absolutely but I think I'd put also I put
01:41:19Heinz our friends and it's probably the the most outrageous driving of the year
01:41:24very closely followed by Ralph Schumacher I have to admit yep I'd agree well we're coming
01:41:29now to the closing laps as Michael Schumacher will he let Eddie Irvine through oh you gotta
01:41:34stay with us we'll be right back welcome back to the Grand Prix of Malaysia on Fox Sports Net
01:41:41Michael Schumacher has a 6.7 second lead over his teammate Eddie Irvine look at the running order and
01:41:52that was as of a lap ago and now you can see that Schumacher has allowed Irvine to catch up
01:41:58by some four seconds in a lap and team orders come into play well they most certainly do I mean
01:42:04Michael I'm sure he wants to win another Grand Prix because it's a major record in the book
01:42:09for him but he wants to help Eddie Irvine and Ferrari win the championship obviously
01:42:13then if he doesn't help him Eddie might still go on and win the championship without him and
01:42:17think just what bad publicity that would be for Michael Schumacher well Schumacher has done
01:42:23everything as Irvine has come to the front and here's a look at Frentzen who is catching up
01:42:28Barrichello better than a second a lap so Irvine is at the lead Schumacher is second and Schumacher
01:42:36has done it all he sat on the pole he sprinted away with the lead he gave it to his teammate
01:42:42Irvine then he held back Mika Hakkinen for more than half the race went to the front sprinted away
01:42:49opened up a lead again and then is handed off the lead again to Eddie Irvine what more could you ask
01:42:53him to do you couldn't really ask him to do much more and I'm sure he can ask much more of himself
01:42:57on his first race back after three months
01:43:02and it's funny that he should be on a different obviously a different fuel strategy
01:43:05of course to Eddie Irvine and I find that interesting when you consider that
01:43:09Michael was pulling away at a second and a half a lap on the first three laps got a substantial lead
01:43:14on a heavier fuel load than anybody else in the race I think that's well not anybody else but
01:43:18certainly quicker than more than Eddie now we've checked at the McLaren pit and we are told that
01:43:23Mika Hakkinen's pit strategy went according to the pre-race plan bring him in at lap 26 bring him
01:43:30back in with more fuel to finish the race at about a lap 47 or 48 that it was a planned pit stop
01:43:37but it seems a blunder in the context of the way Ferrari ran their race so McLaren kept the
01:43:43strategy it just didn't seem to be a good one well not also the fact that Mika ran on the harder
01:43:48of the softer compounds there's two soft compounds soft and super soft
01:43:52Mika ran on the soft and everybody else in the field including his teammate Goulthard
01:43:56ran the super soft and you have to commit yourself before qualifying to run that tyre and after that
01:44:01you're committed and I think they probably blundered that into thinking that was the way to
01:44:05go and it has not worked and it backfired on them it's the way they do things when you're going for
01:44:09a championship you take you think what is the coolest route to go and in fact it was the wrong route
01:44:14because it's worth it we reckoned yesterday about 0.4 of a second a lap
01:44:17all those soft touch super soft over the soft this is a real battle going on here of course
01:44:22between Frenzen and Barrichello Frenzen has come up something like 10 seconds and he's
01:44:27right behind now behind Rubens yeah he's catching up Rubens at one second per lap
01:44:36well Ferrari can leave Malaysia with a five-point lead in the constructors championship
01:44:43and Eddie Irvine can leave here with the lead in the drivers championship as well
01:44:50what a turn of events and fortunes for McLaren this season and I say what a turn of events for
01:44:57Eddie Irvine because I don't believe he really thought well I certainly didn't think the way
01:45:01the last three races are gone and they got slower and less competitive less competitive that they'd
01:45:06be so quick today two laps to go Hockennan has passed Johnny Herbert so Mika Hockennan moves up
01:45:13to third that is one additional point for Mika and one for McLaren so Ferrari would leave here
01:45:19with a four-point lead in the constructors championship Hockennan said earlier he said
01:45:25we gave two races to Eddie Irvine this one was no gift Michael Schumacher may have delivered
01:45:33it wrapped and bowed but not McLaren not today even delivered it first class didn't he yes
01:45:42so coming up on Fox Sports net in two weeks time join us
01:45:46in most markets you'll see the Grand Prix of Japan live Sunday October 31st 12 30 a.m. in the east
01:45:53prime time Saturday night 9 30 p.m. on the west coast
01:45:57amazing to see those two Ferraris at this stage and also I think shatteringly unfortunate for
01:46:03McLaren that things just didn't go their way that's the team that in my opinion the
01:46:08my team the best car out there the best team out there and they've let it slip from their
01:46:12grasp this year I can't get over it Ferrari have been allowed to come up on that as they
01:46:17go on their last allowed to come up and really just take take hold of the championship and even
01:46:23take hold of the championship and even at this stage even running in formation right now the
01:46:29Ferraris are four to five tenths of a second faster than Mika Hockennan on this last lap
01:46:38just just incredible and it points of course Derek to how much Ferrari missed Michael Schumacher
01:46:45not just as a race driver but as a race weekend development driver well that is what I basically
01:46:52I felt for a long time that he is so good on the race weekend at setting the car up for that
01:46:57circuit Eddie is a great test driver and Eddie says I'm good at setting the at running the cars
01:47:02at the test track but I think that is it they put a component on the car and it works really well
01:47:06and it is good at defining whether it's quicker or slower but Michael can tell him what component
01:47:10to put on the car to make it go faster this is the last lap memorable moment for Eddie Irvine
01:47:18Eddie Irvine is going to drive into the lead of the drivers championship Ferrari into the lead
01:47:23of the constructors championship very very fine tactics there by Ferrari rather sullen depressed
01:47:30looking faces in the McLaren pit and I'm not surprised because I don't understand their
01:47:35tactics at all I'm sure somebody would explain it but of course in the case of Mika Hockennan
01:47:39being able to get ahead of Michael Schumacher it could have been a bit different but I still
01:47:42think two stops is still a little bit much to expect Hockennan picks up the pace a minute 41.1
01:47:52Irvine and Schumacher's last lap minute 42.4 for both of them last corner here they come in
01:47:58formation Eddie Irvine will get his fourth victory of 1999 and take the championship lead
01:48:06Michael Schumacher did everything asked of him by Ferrari and Moore comes home second Ferrari
01:48:13leads the constructors championship Mika Hockennan will have to settle for third
01:48:19Johnny Herbert will be fourth Rubens Barrichello fifth a great day for Stewart as well and Heinz
01:48:25Harald Frentzen picks up the final championship point today we'll be back to Malaysia after this
01:48:36the Grand Prix of Malaysia on Fox Sportsnet has been brought to you by MCI 10 10 220
01:48:41five cents a minute every evening and all weekend long and by Bridgestone the next revolution in
01:48:48tires a Ferrari 1-2 finish McLaren salvages third Stewart's fourth and fifth and Jordan
01:48:56six taking the points the rest of the finishers Alessi, Wurtz, Gennese, Zanardi and Fisichella
01:49:03driver points Eddie Irvine takes a four-point lead on Hockennan
01:49:07everyone else is mathematically eliminated a late change around Ferrari take the lead
01:49:13from McLaren with an 18 to 140 and Stewart move up into fourth place
01:49:17so let's join the celebration on the podium
01:50:14so
01:50:24well Hockennan looking rather spent there bent over on the podium and Ferrari engineer Agostino
01:50:28Complimenti singing along with the Italian national anthem as the prime minister of Malaysia
01:50:33makes the trophy presentations yes you can see the exhaustion that Mika has he was trying so
01:50:39hard to get by Michael Schumacher the whole race a really hard job but it shows that that I think
01:50:46the finish Scandinavian temperament and sort of upbringing in the cold isn't quite the same as
01:50:50when you're in southern parts of Europe look at him he's absolutely had it 92 degree ambient
01:50:57temperature 130 degree asphalt temperature and humidity nearly 90 percent and that will that
01:51:04will take a lot out of anyone but it seems very clear that the two Ferrari drivers came through
01:51:09this day a lot less beaten up than did Mika Hockennan and those all the trophies were presented
01:51:14by the prime minister of Malaysia who incidentally has been prime minister for 16 years through a
01:51:19big 800 person gala Thursday night and there's a good bit of champagne being spilled and swilled
01:51:28and we'll be back for the podium finishers press conference in a moment
01:51:32welcome back to Malaysia let's join the podium finishers at the unilateral press conference
01:51:38welcome gentlemen the top three finishers in the inaugural Malaysian Grand Prix
01:51:42Eddie Irvine Michael Schumacher and Mika Hockennan Eddie Irvine you've been saying for a couple of
01:51:47races that Ferrari need Michael back Michael's back you've got the perfect result how do you
01:51:51feel it's fantastic this guy's depressing not only is he the best number one he's also the best
01:51:57fantastic this guy's depressing not only is he the best number one he's also the best number two
01:52:04you know i don't know what we got to do with him um but uh it's going to be more difficult next
01:52:08year when i got a fight against him um but uh no i just had to make sure i didn't make any mistakes
01:52:12and and run a pace that i could run at my car was very sharp on the on the turning and um i just was
01:52:19very very worried i was going to spin especially to his fast section so i just had to be very
01:52:23careful and make sure i didn't make any mistakes and Michael basically did the hard work for me
01:52:28now when you came out after your second stop and you were a few seconds behind Mika and
01:52:31slowly losing pace did you know Mika was going to stop again or do you think it was all over
01:52:35well we thought we knew he was going to stop if he hadn't done we would have been very surprised
01:52:40but that's you know he went so long but we knew that's probably the strategy he was going to have
01:52:44to do um he probably thought he was quicker than us but he was going to have to stay out longer so
01:52:48we assume we pretty much assumed that and we read it correctly thanks eddie michael a unique
01:52:54strategy a one stop on the softer tires was that decided from the start or changed as you went along
01:52:59um we had the option to be honest and we we took the option of of the one stop even so i actually
01:53:07thought we would go for a two stop but uh afterwards i'd say it worked out just perfectly
01:53:13to do the one stop now you played the perfect number two but about a few a few laps in you let
01:53:17eddie through and then david got passed as well was that an accident or part of the plan no it
01:53:23wasn't part of the plan because i knew i had to go for a very long first in and somehow i wanted to
01:53:28protect my tires and i didn't want to wheel spin them too much so i went fairly slow out of the
01:53:33first corner not expecting david to dive down to the inside but he did and we touched each other
01:53:40which had some consequence for me later on i had a bit of a damaged car but after he stopped
01:53:47obviously situation was a lot more easy now when you came in at the end of your first stop your
01:53:51tires seemed completely destroyed how did you manage to control the pace so well a good question
01:53:56i mean first of all uh i'd say the team has done a great job i mean everybody criticized the team
01:54:02of not developing the car but uh it never green things could have been proven this time we were
01:54:08able to prove how good our car is and therefore uh it's it's thanks to the team i mean we we want to
01:54:13finish i don't know how different were our lap times but i guess they were pretty much together
01:54:18and it's simply the car is doing well thank you michael mick you're on the podium you looked
01:54:22absolutely exhausted are you feeling okay yeah i feel now okay i did feel a couple minutes ago you
01:54:27know it was it was so you can imagine it was hardest race would ever done in my my life and
01:54:36it was the race where you have to just go flat out you know and those guys obviously
01:54:40they did the brilliant tactics you know i cannot blame them
01:54:46and they did a good job and they won the race and michael was second so obviously for me it was
01:54:52just pushing fast as i could and try to overtake michael was always risky because it was
01:54:58very slow actually in high speed corners and and uh and then when we went to a straight line it
01:55:05was quite quite easy to easily accelerate in the exit of the corner so it was impossible to overtake
01:55:10now we saw you on the inboard camera gesticulating a couple of times behind michael how
01:55:15frustrating was to be stuck behind him for lap after lap after lap it's just a hard job you know
01:55:20you can imagine you know your car is sliding all the time and and and i experienced that michael
01:55:26was not consistent all the time in a different corner so it was always be careful what's going
01:55:31to happen is it going to break there or surprising places and and that's why obviously you have to
01:55:36put the maximum concentration not to run back into him and overtaking maneuvers i suppose
01:55:44i did not have even a chance to try to overtake him now you scored a very important overtaking
01:55:49maneuver when you got past john it means you're just four points behind eddie going into the next
01:55:53next race the last race of suzuka for the championship do you still feel confident you
01:55:57can win yeah why not i mean i suppose it would be crazy not to think about that where we have
01:56:03i'm confident in suzuka and went well last year over there uh so i'm not i'm not uh feeling at all
01:56:10we lost the championship is there is still one race to go mika thanks eddie looking forward to
01:56:17suzuka it's well known it's your favorite track i mean how many times you won there before in
01:56:21previous uh formula um it was never actually a great circuit for me when i was in japan i think
01:56:25only one there once bridgestone uh were always a big strong tire at uh so can i was on it always
01:56:32on yokohamas or dunlop so um it was always a really tough circuit for us to win on and i remember
01:56:37we won once and it was it was a bonanza to be honest to win there because normally we won't
01:56:41want the really slippery circuits like mini and places in sugo and places like that now looking
01:56:46for both championships now for your four points ahead ferrari four points ahead you've got michael
01:56:50back you must think you're going to win them both we have a potential to you know as michael says
01:56:54the car has improved um big time um we might go back it's a big bonus um you know we we have all
01:57:03the places you know we have all the right pieces we just got to put them in the right place you
01:57:07know it's up to us now we made the start today that's what we needed to do and then we we
01:57:11controlled the race um if we can do the same in suzuka it'll be a great day for the tifosi that's
01:57:18for sure well you'll see it decided here on fox sports net the grand prix of japan sunday october
01:57:2531st 12 30 a.m eastern time we'll be right back welcome back to sipang malaysia as we look at
01:57:34some of the highlights of this ferrari sweep we look forward to japan in two weeks time you'll
01:57:39see it live here on fox sports net drop us an email with your comments or questions formula
01:57:45one at foxsports.net what an interesting day derek yes an amazing day i i submit before the
01:57:53weekend i had no impression that ferraris were going to win this i thought it'd be mclaren's
01:57:56but it's completely opposite way around and it takes us to a fight for the championship in japan
01:58:02we'll see you in two weeks time for derek bell and peter windsor i'm mike joy you've been watching
01:58:06formula one on fox