Hockenheim 1st August
On the high speed Hockenheim track the badly vibrating Renault Supertec engine was worse than ever and Ricardo was unable to make any decent testing as he was forced to stop out on the circuit in both sessions, the first time with an engine hydraulic leak, and the second time when his engine failed. Ricardo was less than amused. "Today has been difficult. Both practice sessions were cut short, and I need the time to work on getting a good setup for Saturday."
Friday 1st practice:
20th, 1:49.526 +3.030,
Friday combined practice:
20th, 1:48.978 +3.301, 20 laps
Ricardo was in trouble again on Saturday first session when the clutch once again failed. His mechanics replaced the clutch and got him out again five minutes before the end of the second session and he was able to improve his time a bit. During qualifying Ricardo made a 1:45.649 on his first run, later bettering it to 1:45.460. He also used the old trick trying to tow his teammate in the slipstream.
"I want to say 'thank you' to my mechanics. They worked really hard to help me today andFriday, and I'm sorry that I am not higher up the grid, for them, as well as me."
J Villeneuve:
"Ricardo helped me a lot in the straights when I was following him, by giving me a tow, so that was nice of him."
Saturday practice:
17th, 1:45.894 +1.976, 17 laps
Qualifying:
18th, 1:45.460 +2.510, 12 laps
As the lights went out Ricardo got a decent start but in the first corner there was chaos in front of him as Gene (Minardi) pushed Villeneuve into a spin that forced both Villeneuve and an innocent Diniz (Sauber) to retire. Ricardo behind them just managed to avoid the collision even if his front wing also got hit by Gene's Minardi. Ricardo was 16th but soon passed Gene and climbed further up the field as Fisicella and Barricello pitted. On lap 9 Ricardo outbraked Zanardi (Williams) retired. However, on lap 15 Ricardo was forced to do an un scheduled pitstop to replace his front wing and he rejoined last. He continued another five laps until the engine suddenly failed on the straight sending the car into a slide that ended backwards up in the grass.
"I got quite a good start and the car was going well - I overtook Alex Zanardi and everything seemed fine until I started to feel vibration in the front end. Marc Gene had touched me and I thought the front wing was damaged so I called the team to come in. They changed the wing and afterwards the car felt fine until I lost power and then the race was over for me."
Warmup:
17th, 1:47.793 +2.236, 12 laps
Race:
DNF 20 laps, Engine
FL: 1:49.179 on lap 14 (14th, +3.909)
Winner: Eddie Irvine (Ferrari)