Barcelona, 7 May
BAR came to Barcelona with a stronger engine, new barge boards and a new type of wing. Ricardo ended up 17th in Friday practice.
Friday 1st practice: 12th, 1:24.981
Friday combined practice: 17th, 1:24.461, 27 laps
Ricardo was up to 4th with his first lap of 1:23.494 but then he only managed to do a 1:23.486 dropping to 20th and a 1:22.882 which was good enough for 17th. He failed to improve on his last attempt and admitted he had got himself lost in the set-up.
Saturday practice: 21, 1:23.942, 27 laps
Qualifying: 17th, 1:22.882, 12 laps
Ricardo made possibly the best start of his GP career and moved as usual towards the middle of the track passing car after car. He then moved further left but found the track blocked and tried to the right with same result. He came out from the first corner in 11th position but the momentum had been such that with a bit of luck he could as well have been 4-5 positions higher. Ricardo then followed Salo (Sauber) for the first 24 laps gaining positions as Button (Williams) and Trulli (Jordan) made their first pit stops and Villeneuve retired with a broken throttle.
Ricardo dropped two positions during his pit stop on lap 24 but almost immediately returned to 9th as Verstappen (Arrows) retired. Again following Salo but unable to do something because of tyre problems Ricardo moved up to 7th when drivers started making their second stops until he made his own on lap 45 and dropped to 9th. From there on he pushed hard to catch Salo but was unable to find a way past and took the flag in 8th position.
"I made a really good start and, in fact, I got away so well, I had to brake a bit to avoid hitting a group of cars in front me that included Jacques. I was able to fight a little in the first stint, but then my second set of tyres was not so good and I couldn't do much. The last set was much better and I pushed very hard to catch Salo. I was able to close the gap to him at about a second a lap, but I probably needed another lap to have a chance to pass him."
Warmup: 14th, 1:24.925
Race: 8th, -1 lap
FL: 1:26.241 on lap 26 (+1.771, 13th)
Winner: Mika Häkkinen (McLaren-Mercedes)