1999 European GP: Herbert wins the rain lottery for Stewart

At the 1999 European GP at the Nürburgring, Johnny Herbert won from grid position 14. In doing so, he gave Stewart the first Grand Prix win in the team's history. Joining him on the podium were Jarno Trulli in the Prost and Herbert's teammate Rubens Barrichello.

The race was decided by shifting rain showers. Four drivers led in turn, only to retire or drop back. Herbert, by contrast, almost always made the right call on tyres.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen had taken pole position in the Jordan in a wet qualifying session. Alongside him was David Coulthard in the McLaren. The very first start attempt went wrong: Alessandro Zanardi in the Williams and Marc Gené in the Minardi were not in their correct grid positions. The start was therefore aborted and an extra formation lap was added.

At the second attempt, Damon Hill came to a halt in the other Jordan shortly after the start. Officially, it was an electrical failure. Alexander Wurz in the Benetton swerved to avoid the slow Jordan and hit the Sauber of Pedro Diniz. The Sauber rolled over and came to rest upside down, with much of its roll hoop torn off. Diniz escaped relatively unscathed. Hill, Wurz and Diniz therefore didn't even make it past the first lap. According to Wikipedia, the Safety Car was then deployed.

After the restart, Frentzen led from Mika Häkkinen, Coulthard, Ralf Schumacher, Giancarlo Fisichella and Eddie Irvine in the Ferrari. On lap 17, Irvine got past Fisichella. Zanardi retired after lap 10, officially following a collision.

Then the rain arrived for the first time. World champion Häkkinen pitted for wet tyres around lap 20. But the shower soon stopped. On the drying track Häkkinen was much slower, dropped back to 13th according to Wikipedia and had to come in again for dry tyres. Irvine was caught out too: there was confusion over the tyre change at his stop for dry tyres, and according to Wikipedia he was stationary in the pits for around 28 seconds.

Herbert stayed out on dry tyres during this phase. He was still twelfth around lap 15 and, according to Motor Sport, already up to seventh by lap 22.

Frentzen led up to and including lap 32. He and Coulthard then made their pit stops on the same lap, and the Jordan emerged just ahead of the McLaren. Shortly afterwards, Frentzen came to a halt. Officially, the cause was electrical. According to Motor Sport and Wikipedia, however, he had forgotten to switch off the anti-stall system and the engine died.

Coulthard now led from lap 33 to 37. When the rain returned, he stayed on dry tyres, slid off the track and ended up in a tyre barrier. His race was over after lap 37. That meant both title contenders who had started from the front row that day were out.

From lap 38, Ralf Schumacher led. When he came in to switch to wet tyres, Fisichella took the lead from lap 45, still running on dry tyres. After lap 48 he spun, his engine stalled and a possible first win was gone. Ralf Schumacher was back in front from lap 49, but then suffered a right-rear puncture and had to crawl back to the pits. On lap 50, Herbert took the lead.

There were several retirements further back too: Jean Alesi (Sauber) retired after lap 35 with a driveshaft failure, Toranosuke Takagi (Arrows) spun off after lap 42, and Mika Salo (Ferrari) parked his car after lap 44 with brake problems.

Herbert won above all through his tyre calls. In the first shower he stayed on dry tyres. When heavy rain set in around lap 35, he asked for wets over the radio, even though the team already had dry tyres ready. Looking back, he said: “It's worth a gamble – Wets, Wets, Wets!” (Motor Sport). By his own account, he was then five to eight seconds a lap quicker than the leaders on wet tyres. About two laps after Ralf Schumacher's stop, Herbert switched back to dry tyres. From then on, he didn't give up the lead until the chequered flag.

At the finish, Trulli was 22.618 seconds behind, with Barrichello just 0.247 seconds further back in third. According to Motor Sport, Barrichello had stayed on dry tyres during the heavy shower when Herbert switched to wets, losing a lot of time as a result. Without that loss, a Stewart one-two might even have been possible.

There were still retirements in the closing stages: Pedro de la Rosa (Arrows) retired after lap 52 with a gearbox failure, as did Luca Badoer (Minardi) after lap 53, losing what would have been his first championship points. Jacques Villeneuve in the BAR was running fifth when his clutch failed after lap 61. That moved Gené into the points. Häkkinen passed Irvine and Gené late on to finish fifth. Irvine, on the other hand, couldn't get past Gené and finished seventh without points. Behind them, Ricardo Zonta (BAR) and Olivier Panis (Prost) finished one lap down.

Winners:

• Marc Gené gained the most places: he started 20th and finished sixth, 14 positions up. According to Atlas F1, it was the first championship point of his career and Minardi's first of the season.
• Johnny Herbert gained 13 places and took the win.
• Rubens Barrichello gained 12 positions on his way to third.
• Jarno Trulli went from grid position 10 to second. According to Wikipedia, it was his first podium in Formula 1.

Losers:

• Heinz-Harald Frentzen led 32 laps from pole and then retired.
• David Coulthard retired while leading.
• Damon Hill and Alexander Wurz were out on the very first lap.
• Ferrari failed to score with either car – in a tight title race, no less.

Häkkinen was the only one of the four title contenders to score. Level on points with Irvine before the race, he now led the 1999 standings outright on 62 points, two more than Irvine (60). Frentzen (50) and Coulthard (48), by contrast, lost ground. Ralf Schumacher moved up to fifth on 33 points, ahead of his brother Michael Schumacher (32). Herbert climbed four places to ninth (12 points). In the constructors' standings, McLaren led on 110 points ahead of Ferrari (102). Stewart were fifth with 31 points, just two behind Williams. Heading into the Malaysian GP and the Japanese GP, the title race was therefore wide open.

It was Herbert's first win since Monza 1995. Stewart won in only their third season, and team founder Jackie Stewart stood on the podium at the Nürburgring, 26 years after his last win there as a driver. According to Wikipedia, it was also the first win for a Ford engine since 1994. By this point, the team had already been sold to Ford. Context from today's perspective: It would remain Stewart's only win, as the team raced as Jaguar from 2000. For Herbert, it was the third and last Grand Prix win of his career.