Indianapolis, 24 September
It was the first visit by the F1 teams to Indianapolis (even if Indy 500 had been included in the 1950-1960 World Championships) and Friday was spent by the teams to come to grip with the track and make initial set ups.
"My car was suffering from understeer from the first run this morning and, despite trying a number of different chassis set-ups, we didn't really improve it significantly during the day. I found the track very slippery in the infield, but then the final two corners are just flat - you don't have to do anything in them at all."
Friday 1st practice:
11th, 1:16.699
Friday combined practice:
15th, 1:16.656, 50 laps
Rain was expected and Ricardo headed the queue of 19 drivers who went out as soon as qualifying started Ricardo made a 1:16.289 putting himself in 11th position. Rain was starting to fall in some places - but not much - but Ricardo failed to improve on his second attempt. He then did a 1:15.784
Saturday practice:
12th, 1:16.180, 29 laps
Qualifying:
12th, 1:15.784, 12 laps
The track was wet but there was no rain as the race started. Ricardo immediately passed Wurz (Benetton) to gain a position and then moved up to 8th as Trulli (Jordan) and Button (Williams) made early pit stops. Ricardo made his own stop for dry weather tyres on lap 7 falling back to 13th. Ricardo gained a few places as others stopped as well but with too much down force Ricardo had to see himself passed by de la Rosa (Arrows) on lap 11, Irvine (Jaguar) on lap 17 and and Coulthard (who was suffering from a penalty for a false start) on lap 23. Ricardo gained positions when Häkkinen (McLaren) retired and Herbert (Jaguar) made a stop and continued in 11th position until Verstappen slid off on lap 34.
Ricardo gained further positions as the pit stops started and was 6th when he finally made his own stop on lap 47. Dropping to 7th for a while Ricardo climbed back to 6th on lap 58 as Diniz made his stop. With Coulthard 20s in front and Irvine 20s behind Ricardo could cruise to the flag to finish 6th, being in the points for the second time in a row.
"We started with too much down force at the beginning of the race, and so we lost positions. But then we did a pit stop that was OK and allowed us to stay in the sixth position. The car was a lot better than it was in qualifying but the big problem was the down force - but overall the race was quite fun."
Warm up:
11th, 1:24.692, 11 laps
Race:
6th, 1:37:22.577 (+51.694) 1 point
FL: 1:15.812 on lap 48 (+1.101, 11th) - Two pit stops (lap 7: 24.1, lap 49: 24.1)
Winner: Michael Schumacher (Ferrari