1999 Malaysian F1 Grand Prix Race Report & Results
Event: Malaysian Grand Prix
Track: Sepang International Circuit
Weather: dry, hot, humid
Eddie IRVINE won his 4th F1 World Championship race at the 1999 Malaysian F1 GP. The Ferrari driver started from 2nd on the grid and won the inaugural Sepang race after team-mate Michael Schumacher, returning from his Silverstone injury, held Mika Hakkinen at bay. It was the 125th win for the Ferrari F1 team.
Schumacher returns and takes an emphatic pole
Michael Schumacher arrived at the inaugural Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang on 17 October 1999 with a titanium plate in his right leg and, from the way he drove on Saturday, no visible loss of his usual authority. Ferrari had rebuilt his cockpit to accommodate the injury, and Schumacher rewarded the team by putting his Ferrari on pole with a 1:39.688 lap that was nearly a full second clear of team-mate Eddie Irvine. It was one of the most emphatic returns from injury the sport had ever seen: a full second in an F1 car at a circuit no one had ever raced on before, after three months out.
The championship consequence of Schumacher's return was immediate. Where the Nurburgring had opened a two-point lead for Hakkinen, Sepang closed it again with the very first flying lap of the weekend. Schumacher's job on Sunday, though, was not to win. Ferrari's title contender was Irvine, and Schumacher's job was to give him every mile of assistance the regulations allowed.
Ferrari execute the season's most disciplined team plan
Schumacher led away from pole, Irvine slotted into second, and for three laps the pair ran nose-to-tail as Schumacher settled the field into the pace he wanted. On lap 4 the German backed off into Turn 1 and let his team-mate through. From that moment Schumacher's only job was to protect Irvine from Hakkinen and the recovering McLaren. He did it with textbook aggression on every out-lap, held the Finn behind him at a pace three-tenths a lap slower than he could actually run, and let Irvine control the front of the race from a comfortable distance.
The pit-stop cycle broke the pattern only briefly. Schumacher took over the lead for laps 26-28 as Irvine stopped, then handed it back. Same on laps 42-52 for Irvine's second stop. Every switch came with millimetric timing and no wasted second. Irvine crossed the flag 1.040 seconds clear of Schumacher, with Hakkinen a further nine seconds behind in third. It was Irvine's fourth Grand Prix win of a career that would end at Jaguar the following year.
The bargeboards scandal, and reprieve
The race result did not survive contact with the FIA scrutineers. On Sunday evening, technical delegate Jo Bauer measured the vertical support pieces on both Ferraris' bargeboards and found them approximately 5 millimetres outside the permitted tolerance in the FIA template. Both Ferraris were disqualified from the results, temporarily handing the win to Hakkinen and, with it, an insurmountable lead in the drivers' championship. Ferrari appealed to the FIA International Court of Appeal in Paris.
The appeal was heard the following Wednesday. The Court found that the bargeboard tolerance question was ambiguous in the regulations as written, and that Ferrari had operated in good faith. The disqualifications were overturned and the original result reinstated. Irvine's ten points came back onto his ledger, and the drivers' championship went to Suzuka with Irvine leading Hakkinen by four points and Coulthard out of the picture.
Championship fallout: Irvine goes to Suzuka on top
After the FIA's reversal, Irvine had 70 points, Hakkinen 66 and Frentzen 54, with only Suzuka remaining. In the constructors' championship Ferrari led McLaren by four points, 118 to 114. Ralf Schumacher's Williams podium hopes had not materialised in Malaysia, and it was Herbert's fourth for Stewart and Barrichello's fifth that kept the mid-order fight interesting. All eyes now turned to Japan. Michael Schumacher, back and fully fit, and Irvine, holder of a lead he had earned in his team-mate's absence, would take on Hakkinen and McLaren at a circuit that had decided the previous three world championships.
Classification 1999 Malaysian F1 GP
Fastest lap: 1:40.267 min. by Michael Schumacher
One F1 fan comment on “1999 Malaysian F1 Grand Prix Race Report & Results”
💬 Join the conversation — see the latest comments from F1 fans →
I justt rewatched this race and I thought I saw Damon Hill spin off on the first lap, instead of the 21st as listed here. :-)