Perhaps Ferrari did win in Canada because ...

Published on 28 June 1998 by Verstappen Info Page

Perhaps Ferrari did win in Canada because of the car problems of Mclaren, but here in France they were the real winners. It was the first double for Ferrari since long with Michael Schumacher in front of Eddie Irvine, who had to fight hard for his second place with Mika Hakkinen towards the end of the race.

Jos Verstappen did an excellent first race finishing with his Stewart Ford in 12th position. Everybody had a good look at him when he couldn't get his car in first gear and consequently stalled his engine at the start of the race. Because of the recent troubles in Canada no risk was taken and the race was stopped immediately. Lucky for Jos, so he could start again.

The middle part of the race was a little bit boring with the two Ferrari's leading the McLaren's. The dominance of McLaren seemed to be replaced with a dominance of Ferrari. At the end of the race the duel between Hakkinen and Irvine made it a nice spectacle.
At last Villeneuve could drive a good race finishing fourth before Alexander Wurz who was on three stops instead of the two stops that the most teams did. On four long stops was David Coulthard who had problems with his fuel entrance and therefore only could finish 6th. For a complete race report and overview of all times you can take a look at our season page.

After the race Jos told: "The race wasn't very easy for me. I didn't get the set up of the car completely right for the race. The car skidded away at the back, so I wasn't able to push real hard. For a first race I can't really complain though since my first goal was to finish the race without problems. Now we are going to work on making the car go faster. The team will go for it so it will most certainly happen."

"I had to get used to the car's behaviour during the race. On the whole I am very satisfied that I finished the race. Also my lap times didn't differ that much from those of Rubens. I am looking forward to work together with Rubens in improving the car so that we will get more overall speed. The only drawback of the car I have noticed so far is my different position in the car. My knees are bent a little and that still bothers me a bit."