1999 Japanese GP: Häkkinen wins and claims second world title

At the season finale at Suzuka Circuit, Mika Häkkinen won in his McLaren ahead of Michael Schumacher and Eddie Irvine, both driving for Ferrari. The race was effectively decided in the opening metres: Häkkinen started from 2nd place, got past polesitter Schumacher and only briefly gave up the lead during the first round of pit stops. With the win, the Finn defended his title. You can find all the times and data on our race page for the 1999 Japanese GP.

Going into the 16th and final round of the season, Irvine led Häkkinen in the championship. The McLaren driver therefore had to act: a win would have given him the title in any case. With 2nd place he could have become world champion if Irvine finished no higher than fifth. 3rd place would only have been enough if Irvine failed to score. Shortly before the weekend, the FIA Court of Appeal had declared the Ferraris legal after they had initially been disqualified following the race in Malaysia. That kept Irvine in the lead heading into the finale.

In qualifying, Schumacher took pole, with Häkkinen alongside him and David Coulthard starting from 3rd. Saturday went badly for Irvine: he had a heavy crash at the hairpin and had to start the race from grid position 5. According to Atlas F1, he raced on Sunday with a stiff neck.

The start decided the win. Schumacher got away poorly; according to McLaren, Häkkinen was already ahead by the time he shifted into second gear. Häkkinen said later that he knew he only had to hold that position from there. Behind them, Olivier Panis caused a surprise in the Prost, climbing from grid position 6 to 3rd, ahead of Irvine, Coulthard and Heinz-Harald Frentzen. According to Atlas F1, Panis was on a three-stop strategy.

The front-runners planned two stops. McLaren lists laps 19 and 38 for Häkkinen. During the first stops, Schumacher led for three laps from lap 20, before Häkkinen retook the lead on lap 23 and held it to the end. According to Häkkinen, the Ferrari could not keep up with the McLaren, and he was able to keep extending his lead. At the chequered flag he was 5.015 seconds ahead of Schumacher, according to Atlas F1. Irvine, in third, was already 1:35.688 minutes behind and described the closing laps himself as “boring”.

During the first stops, Coulthard got past Irvine into 3rd place. Later he made a mistake: according to Wikipedia, he spun on lap 34 and hit the wall nose-first. McLaren records a pit stop on that lap. Coulthard rejoined a lap down, directly in front of Schumacher, who was chasing Häkkinen. The accusation that the Scot had deliberately held up the Ferrari sparked a row after the race, and Schumacher criticised him publicly. Coulthard's race ended after 39 laps, officially due to a hydraulics failure. According to McLaren team principal Ron Dennis, the team called him in because a fault had left the car barely driveable.

Nine drivers failed to finish:

• Alessandro Zanardi (Williams) pulled into the pits without completing a classified lap due to an electrical fault.
• Jarno Trulli (Prost) retired after 3 laps with engine failure.
• Panis retired after 19 laps while running in a podium position. The official reason was the alternator.
• Damon Hill (Jordan) returned to the pits after going off and parked his car after 21 laps. He cited mental exhaustion as the reason, explaining: “I decided there was little to gain and too much to lose by carrying on.” (Atlas F1). It was the final Formula 1 race for the 1996 world champion.
• Marc Gené (Minardi) retired after 31 laps with gearbox failure.
• Coulthard (McLaren) retired after 39 laps with a hydraulics failure.
• Toranosuke Takagi (Arrows) stopped after 43 laps with gearbox failure. Luca Badoer (Minardi) also retired after 43 laps with engine failure.
• Giancarlo Fisichella (Benetton) suffered engine failure after 47 laps but was still classified 14th.

Suzuka was also the farewell for the Stewart team. Johnny Herbert and Rubens Barrichello finished 7th and 8th. It was also the final Formula 1 race for Zanardi and Takagi.

Behind the podium, Frentzen finished 4th from grid position 4, and Jordan ended the season 3rd in the constructors' championship. Ralf Schumacher in the Williams climbed from grid position 9 to 5th. Jean Alesi took the final point for Sauber in 6th, having started from grid position 10.

The biggest gainer was Pedro de la Rosa in the Arrows, who climbed from grid position 21 to 13th, making up eight places. Pedro Diniz (Sauber, 11th) and Ricardo Zonta (BAR, 12th) each gained six places. Alexander Wurz finished tenth after gaining five places, with Jacques Villeneuve ninth. That meant BAR ended its first season without a single point. Among the losers were Coulthard, Panis and Trulli, who on paper each lost 14 places after their retirements.

With the win, Häkkinen moved back ahead of Irvine in the championship. He finished the season on 76 points, with Irvine on 74. Frentzen was third with 54 points, ahead of Coulthard (48) and Michael Schumacher (44), who had missed six races after breaking his leg at Silverstone. Häkkinen said a title decided only at the final race is nerve-racking and that he would not recommend it to anyone.

Even so, Ferrari had something to celebrate too: Irvine's third place secured the Scuderia the constructors' title ahead of McLaren by 128 points to 124. It was Ferrari's first title in this championship since 1983. Irvine praised the world champion: “Mika won it in great style.” (Atlas F1). You can find the full table in the 1999 standings.