Summary

Jacques Villeneuve took the fastest time in the poker game of sunshine wet. It was just a matter of where you were on the track to set a fastest time.

Notes

• Coulthard and Hakkinen were not going anywhere in the warmup. Hakkinen was third last with a time of 2m 23.659s. Coulthard was second last with a 4m49.079s. Even though the McLaren team promised higher positions in the warmup.

• Weather during session
  • Sunny
  • Drying up drying the session. Very wet in the beginning.
  • No wind
  • Warm

1. J. Villeneuve 1m 48.666s
2. R. Barrichello 1m 48.937s
3. J. Alesi 1m 49.373s
4. D. Hill 1m 51.390s
5. U. Katayama 1m 52.013s
6. O. Panis 1m 53.537s
7. M. Schumacher 1m 53.679s
8. M. Salo 1m 53.957s
9. P. Diniz 1m 54.526s
10. P. Lamy 1m 54.781s

The World Champion is finally for Damon Hill. He took it in style by winning at Suzuka(Japan), and leading the race from start to finish, today. Hill could not even take Jacques Villeneuve off in the first corner, as speculated over the last few days, because Villeneuve made an appalling start and dropped back a few places from pole position. However Villeneuve really showed today, as he has done during the season, that he is a man who takes everything out off the closet the give his best and that is sure a hell of a lot and it is too bad to see Villeneuve go out with technical problem.

Notes

• Coulthard stalls his engine on the start which causes another formation lap and the Scot to start from the back of the grid.
• Alesi spins off on lap 1 and hits the tyre wall pretty hard but he walks away unhurt.
• Berger damages his front wing when he tries to overtake Hill on lap 3. He has his nose replaced in a record 9.8 seconds.
• Diniz spins off on lap 13. He commented: "I'm looking forward to next year. This Grand Prix wasn't very good for me."
• Salo retires in the pits with yet another engine problem on lap 20. He commented: "We have got problems this year with Yamaha. I knew it was going to blow up any minute."
• Rosset and Katayama received a stop and go penalty for 'blokking'.
• Katayama damages his front wing in his pursuit of Verstappen.
• Villeneuve sees his chances of the championship go by in the form of his right-hand rear wheel on lap 36. He commented: "There were problems many many problems during the whole race." It looked as if the wheel was going into the crowed but luckily it was stopped by the second fence.
• Katayama retires with technical difficulties in the pits on lap 37.
• Berger takes Irvine out in the Casio chicane on lap 39.

• Weather during Race
  • Sunny
  • Dry
  • No wind
  • Warm

1. D. Hill 1h 32m 33.791s
2. M. Schumacher + 1.883s
3. M. Hakkinen + 3.212s
4. G. Berger + 26.526s
5. M. Brundle + 1m 07.120s
6. H.H. Frentzen + 1m 21.186s
7. O. Panis + 1m 24.510s
8. D. Coulthard + 1m 25.233s
9. R. Barrichello + 1m 41.065s
10. J. Herbert + 1m 41.799s
11. J. Verstappen 1 lap
12. P. Lamy 2 laps
13. R. Rosset 2 laps

• Fastest lap: J. Villeneuve 1m 44.043s

Quotes

Hill : "It's all too much. I can't put it into words how I feel. When I got the word that Jacques was out it threw me for a while. I couldn't take it all while I was driving. I wanted to win this race for Williams. I like to dedicate the win to the team but if you don't mind I take the championship for myself."

Hill on the incident with Berger: "I heard an engine noise and when I looked in the mirror he was a long way back."

Newey: "Leading the race from start to finish. You can't have it better then that."

Schumacher: "I would say that everything went pretty well, especially the race strategy. For my part, I tried everything I could to take Damon Hill. I was counting on the pit-stops and at the second one I very nearly did it. Damon deserves to win the title and I must congratulate him on doing it. He waited a long time and never gave up, winning eight races this season, which puts his worth beyond doubt. As for Ferrari, we have hit our targets: second place in the Contractors' title, third place for me in the Drivers', three wins and four pole positions. A step forward compared with last year, which is down to the whole team. Now we must improve still further."

Hakkinen "There are a lot of great circuits in the world of Formula One but Suzuka is one of the best. Whoever designed this circuit should design all the Formula One circuits."

A Final Look at the Standings

Drivers championship

1. Hill 97
2. Villeneuve 78
3. Schumacher 59
4. Alesi 47
5. Hakkinen 31
6. Berger 21
7. Coulthard 18
8. Barrichello 14
9. Panis 13
10. Irvine 11
11. Brundle 8
12. Frentzen 7
13. Salo 5
14. Herbert 4
15. Diniz 2
16. Verstappen 1

Constructors championship

1. Williams-Renault 175
2. Ferrari 70
3. Benetton-Renault 68
4. McLaren-Mercedes 49
5. Jordan-Peugeot 22
6. Ligier-Mugen-Honda 15
7. Sauber-Ford 11
8. Tyrrell-Yamaha 5
9. TWR 1