YESTERDAY was a day of unbounded joy for the vast Italian crowd at the Autodroma de Monza where it witnessed Michael Schumacher steer his Ferrari to victory his third of the season.
World championship leader Damon Hill was fortunate to leave the Milanese race track with his 13 point lead still intact. Hill crashed while leading the opening laps of the race but rival Jacques Villeneuve could not capitalise on Hill's misfortune due to severe handling problems.
Eddie Jordan recorded his best result of the season with Martin Brundle finishing fourth and Rubens Barrichello fifth, though the Brazilian was far from happy.
Monza is a challenging track and yesterday Schumacher came within an inch of disaster on his way to victory. Everything was going fine. I was leading and then I relaxed a bit too much. I lost my concentration a bit and hit the tyres at the chicane. I was very afraid that I had damaged something. There was a small vibration but it went after a little while."
Schumacher savoured the special atmosphere generated by the Ferrari mad tifosi at Monza. "I've never seen anything like the reaction of the crowd at the prizegiving. It was crazy. But also fantastic.
But while the German escaped after hitting the tyres at the chicane, Eddie Irvine and Damon Hill were not so lucky. The car was moving around a lot," said Irvine who was in third at this time, be fore brushing the tyres at the chicane. "I thought I was OK but then the suspension broke," said the disappointed Ulsterman.
A new, hard man, Damon Hill pushed all comers aside to lead the opening laps. At the start he squeezed Villeneuve - giving the challenger the option of backing off or crashing. Villeneuve opted for the former, like Jean Alesi later in the lap, as Hill went side by side with him into Lesmo.
"I barely hit the tyres," said Hill. "That upset the car and it spun and stalled." He was white with rage at himself when he arrived back in the paddock but cheered up by the end of the race when news came through that Villeneuve had finished seventh leaving his 13 point title lead intact.
Martin Brondle led the Jordans home in fourth place, with his team mate right behind following team orders. Barrichello was annoyed afterwards and called Eddie Jordan aside to discuss the issue. "I was much faster than Martin. I should have been let through and maybe I could have challenged for third," he told the Dubliner.
Jordan quickly refuted this. "Rubens had a problem with the clutch and turned off the ignition switch by mistake and Martin got through. They were running very close and we need the points."
Jordan said he would be making a major announcement in Estoril, Portugal, in a fortnight.
