Nürburgring, 21 May
Nürburgring was a familiar place to Ricardo, having raced both F3000 and FIA GT there, so he was highly optimistic about his chances as shown about his comments about being 8th during Friday practice:
"I'm disappointed not to have finished the day higher up the time sheets. The car is very nice here and we made good progress on a qualifying set-up. We had a small electronic problem that held me up just a little before starting my last run. When I did get out, I couldn't get a clear lap and we just ran out of time. Generally, though, it was a good day and I think we gained some useful information. It was just a shame that I couldn't capitalize on it."
David Lloyd, Ricardo's Race Engineer: "There's no doubt in my mind that Ricardo should have been into the 1 minute 19 second bracket on his last run."
Friday 1st practice: 7th, 1:21.957
Friday combined practice: 8th, 1:20.709, 32 laps
After showing good pace during practice Ricardo's qualifying was a catastrophe. He started off with a 1:20.578 and then did a disappointing 1:19.766 in the crucial second run. After that it started to rain a bit making the track some 2 seconds slower. Almost all cars went out at the very last moments but being back in the queue and trapped when Ralf Schumacher came to an almost standstill in the last corner, Ricardo was one of several drivers that failed to reach the starting line before the flag dropped.
Saturday practice: 11th, 1:19.667, 29 laps
Qualifying: 19th, 1:19.766, 8 laps
If Ricardo's Spanish GP start had been excellent the European GP start proved to be disastrous. The car hardly moved as the lights changed and Gene (Minardi) immediately passed. On the first lap Ricardo found himself struggling side by side with Mazzacane's Minardi before he finally beat him to finish the first lap in second-last position. Around lap 8 the rain started to fall and with conditions deteriorating rapidly drivers were called in to make their stops early. Ricardo pitted for rain tyres on lap 14 dropping from 13th to 17th.The rain created several situations and on lap 24 it was Ricardo's turn when he went wide in a curve and into the gravel. Luckily he was able to return to the track but lost a position to Wurz (Benetton). Ricardo gained three places as there was a collision between Verstappen (Arrows), Irvine (Jaguar) and Ralf Schumacher (Williams) and he continued in 12th position. He then gained another two positions as Alesi (Prost) made a pit stop and Villeneuve retired. Ricardo made is own 9.9s pitstop on lap 49 losing one position. Three laps later Ricardo went wide in the hairpin as his rear wheels locked due to a downshift problem and while he was able to keep the car running though the gravel trap the car got bogged down just as he was to return to the track.
"For some reason, I couldn't get the revs high enough to make a good start and then I was stuck behind Herbert until the first pit stop, when it had started to rain hard. After the change, the car was good and I could race strongly, but then, after my second stop, I started to have problems with the downshift on my car. The rear wheels locked up as I braked and downshifted at one point, I spun off into the gravel and that was it. All in all, a bad weekend."
Warmup: 19th, 1:23.144, 12 laps
Race: DNF 51 laps spun off
FL: 1:24.620 on lap 8 (+2.351, 16th)
Winner: Michael Schumacher (Ferrari)