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SUZUKA, Japan --Mika Hakkinen drove a perfect race Sunday at the Japanese Grand Prix to win the race and his second straight Formula One world drivers' championship.
Hakkinen overtook pole-sitter Michael Schumacher at the start and never trailed in a race that was contested the entire way by the two. Hakkinen also won the season-ending race in Japan a year ago to win his first drivers' championship.
|  | | Mika Hakkinen raises his arms in triumph Sunday upon winning the Japanese Grand Prix and the world drivers' championship. |
"To have won the championship in the last GP is nerve-cracking," Hakkinen said. "It's an experience that I can't recommend to anyone."
Hakkinen finished in 1 hour, 31 minutes, 18.785 seconds at the 3.7-mile Suzuka Circuit. It was the fifth victory of the season for the McLaren driver.
From his spot ahead of the field, Schumacher was in perfect position to help teammate Eddie Irvine become the first Ferrari world champion since Jody Scheckter in 1979, but he failed to accelerate at the start of the race, allowing Hakkinen to fly past.
Irvine finished third, but wound up two points behind Hakkinen in the final standings.
"As soon as the lights changed, I immediately realized I had an advantage," Hakkinen said. "By the time I shifted into second gear, I had a one-car advantage and I knew at that point all I had to do was keep the position."
"I am not sure yet exactly what happened," Schumacher said. "I had a problem when I went off the grid, at the green light (on the parade lap), and I had a similar problem during the race start. Things weren't working normally. I went into wheelspin
and made a mess of it while Mika just got a very good start, without making a mistake."
The 31-year-old Finn would have already been the champion had an appeals court not overruled race officials who disqualified the 1-2 Ferrari finish by Irvine and Schumacher two weeks ago in the Malaysian Grand Prix.
He entered Sunday's race knowing he needed a victory to assure himself of the title, no matter where Irvine finished behind him.
"It's definitely different the second time," Hakkinen said. "The first time is always
the first time. This year was difficult. All the way through from the start of the season when we weren't able to finish races and we lost a lot of points. Everyone knows those
problems we had."
Schumacher, a two-time world champion for Ferrari, was timed in
1:31:23.800, 5.015 seconds behind Hakkinen.
Irvine, bidding for his fifth victory for the season and his
first world championship, finished 36 seconds behind Hakkinen in third.
Ferrari's hopes for its first driver's title in 20 years were
shattered, but the 2-3 finish gave the Italian automaker its first
constructor's title since 1983.
"There's no point crying about it," said Irvine, who will drive for the new Jaguar-Ford team next season. "Sure, we can look back and be (ticked) off about a couple of races this season where we lost points. You've got to say Mika did a fantastic job today and he deserves the title -- it was a fantastic drive."
Hakkinen, who came into the race four points behind Irvine, built on his fantastic start and led by 10 seconds by the 10th lap.
After a poor qualifying session placed him fifth, Irvine moved past Hakkinen's teammate David Coulthard of Britain to take over fourth place on the first turn. However, if Irvine had hoped for a repeat of the Malaysian GP, where Schumacher handed over the lead on the final lap, he was disappointed this time around
as Hakkinen led Schumacher by 8.2 seconds at the end of lap 18.
Hakkinen's pit stop at the 18th lap put him behind Schumacher but he again gained control of the lead on lap 22, when the German made the first of his two stops.
Irvine also pitted but came out of the lane behind Coulthard in fourth place, where he was frustrated by the slow-down tactics of the Scot. A second pit stop put Irvine in fifth place behind Johnny Herbert of Britain in his Stewart-Ford.
Coulthard spun off on lap 34. After coming in to replace his car's nose cone, he managed to hold up Schumacher, who was a lap ahead, before dropping out of the race on the 40th lap. The second McLaren drivers' tactics cost the German about 10 seconds and any chance he had to challenge Hakkinen, who finished the
race five seconds ahead.
"The team should wonder why it asked a driver to do the things
he has done," Schumacher said about Coulthard. "I'd been told
that he had come off but when he came back on he was driving in
front of me from turn 2 to turn 11 really very slow.
"He was zig-zagging, it would have been very easy to let me through but he didn't do that at all -- he actually closed the door to me. It was a very unfair movement particularly when he was lapped and didn't have any chance in the race."
Schumacher and Coulthard exchanged words after the race and race
officials were forced to break up the encounter.
"It just shows Michael holds grudges and can't admit his mistakes," Coulthard said. "If I was weaving in front of him it certainly wasn't intentional. I didn't try and hold him up. I came back on the circuit with difficulties and I responded to the blue flags."
Jordan-Mugen Honda's Heinz-Harald Frentzen of Germany came in fifth place, followed by Ralf Schumacher in a Williams-Supertec, and Jean Alesi of France (Sauber-Petronas).
Former F1 champion Damon Hill of Britain closed out his career with a 19th place finish for Jordan. Hill won 22 races, claimed 20 poles, and won the championship in 1996 while with Williams.
"It would have been fantastic for everyone to have finished
better, but I have lots of good memories of better races," Hill
said.
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