JACQUES VILLENEUVE underlined his position as the favourite for the 1997 World Formula One championship with a brilliantly judged victory in the Brazilian Grand Prix yesterday, a success which propelled him into the joint lead in the title stakes alongside Australian Grand Prix winner David Coulthard.
The Canadian driver held the race in the palm of his hand from the moment he slip streamed past Michael Schumacher's Ferrari to take the lead at the end of the opening lap. Thereafter he only briefly relinquished his advantage to Gerhard Berger's Benetton when he came in for his second refuelling stop, but the Austrian driver never gave up the chase and was only 4.1 seconds behind in second place at the finish.
Villeneuve's excellent showing came at the end of a weekend during which there had been speculation that he might be planning a move in 1999 to an all new Formula One team to be established by the British Reynard company, one of the top Indycar constructors, although this was strenuously denied by his manager Craig Pollock.
Oliver Panis did a brilliant job to take third place for the Prost Ligier team, a result which proved that new tyre suppliers Bridgestone were highly competitive in only their second Formula One outing against the established Goodyear opposition.
Mika Hakkinen's McLaren, Michael Schumacher's Ferrari and Jean Alesi's Benetton completed the points' scoring top half dozen on a day which saw Damon Hill's Arrows Yamaha run as high as fourth place before retiring with an engine bay fire.
Yet again it was a Grand Prix marred by a first corner collision. Villeneuve's Williams was moving first from pole position, but Schumacher's Ferrari came hurtling up on the inside of the Canadian as they went into the first tight left hander. Villeneuve attempted to sit it out on the dirty outside line and went sliding away across a gravel trap, allowing the German driver to make good his escape round the opening lap.
Further back in the pack Damon Hill, who had qualified superbly in ninth place, collided with Giancarlo Fisichella's Jordan at the first turn and, with Rubens Barrichello's Stewart Ford also left stranded on the startline in the middle of the track, the race was red flagged to an immediate halt.
Schumacher repeated his superb getaway when the race finally got underway at the second attempt, but Villeneuve's Williams was scrambling all over the Ferrari by the time they started the uphill sprint towards the pits at the end of the opening lap. As they approached the timing line, the Williams ducked out of Schumacher's slipstream and neatly outbraked his rival into the first corner.
Hakkinen's McLaren held third place for the first four laps before the hard charging Berger's Benetton moved ahead to take up the chase of the fast disappearing leaders. Hakkinen then fell back to be challenged by Alesi's Benetton.
Hill, meanwhile, had made a terrific start and had the Arrows up to seventh behind Olivier Panis's Prost Ligier with David Coulthard's McLaren and the Jordans of Fisichella and Ralf Schumacher right on his tail.
With the handling problem which bugged the Benetton team in Australia now firmly behind him, Berger was in cracking form in the early stages. He closed relentlessly on Schumacher's Ferrari and after 11 laps ducked through into second place just over 10 second behind the fading Williams. But Villeneuve had his measure and, after allowing his lead to slip briefly back to 8.5 seconds, eased open his advantage and stabilised the gap at just over nine seconds with 20 of the race's 72 laps completed.
Berger closed in relentlessly during the closing stages of the race, but Villeneuve was under no real pressure and paced himself perfectly through the slower traffic to keep control right up to the chequered flag. But with HeinzHarald Frentzen trailing home a disappointing ninth, Frank Williams's wisdom in dispensing with Hill's services will surely come under even closer scrutiny in the weeks to come.
