The race that unearthed Schumacher's greatest rival

The 1997 European Grand Prix at Jerez can be seen as a defining race in one of Michael Schumacher's great rivalries - but not the one you may think. While it was the final, futile act in Schumacher's fight against Jacques Villeneuve, the race also gave rise to the man he would later call "the best opponent I've had".

Mika Hakkinen had been at risk of fading into F1 'nearlyman' territory nearing the end of the 1997 season. Seven years on from his titanic tussle with Schumacher at the Macau Grand Prix, the Finn had enjoyed a solid grand prix career as a podium regular for McLaren.

But he had enjoyed nothing like the success of Schumacher, who arrived in Jerez targeting a third world title and a first with Ferrari, its own drought dating back to Jody Scheckter's championship win in 1979.

Hakkinen was looking to end a difficult year on a high at Jerez. The McLaren MP4/12 had certainly been quick, but a lack of reliability had dashed his win hopes on a number of occasions. An engine failure at Silverstone put Hakkinen out of the race he had been leading with just seven laps to go, while he was nearly 20 seconds clear of the field at the Nurburgring, having led the first 40 laps from pole, before suffering a similar demise.

In the penultimate round at Suzuka, Hakkinen surpassed the 95 races Thierry Boutsen had waited before taking his first win at the 1989 Canadian Grand Prix, then a record. The 96th attempt let Hakkinen take over that perhaps unwanted place in the F1 history books.

But in doing so, it would light the blue-touch paper for his success, re-establish his dormant rivalry with Schumacher, and, importantly, establish the status quo within McLaren.

Schumacher arrived at Jerez leading Villeneuve by a single point, and would lock out the front row of the grid after setting identical lap times in qualifying. Hakkinen had been just 0.297 seconds off the pace, but was all the way back in fifth ahead of team-mate David Coulthard. Before the race weekend, Williams had sought to help its bid by striking an agreement with McLaren.

"[Coulthard] was finally pushed to the point where his job was put in jeopardy, and he unwillingly moved over and let Mika pass" Jo Ramirez

"Ron Dennis and Frank Williams had apparently made an agreement that McLaren would not get in the way of the lead Williams," Coulthard wrote in his autobiography It Is What It Is.

"In return for this 'gesture', if Williams were in a position to win the title by the end of the race without having to cross the line first, they would let a McLaren driver win."

The agreement had little impact in the early stages of the race as Schumacher and Villeneuve pulled clear of the pack, first and second respectively, while Hakkinen and Coulthard sat fourth and fifth behind Heinz-Harald Frentzen in the sister Williams.

Schumacher emerged from the pits after his first stop between the two McLarens, giving the team an opportunity to try and assist Williams. Hakkinen was kept out longer than Coulthard so he could hold Schumacher up and give Villeneuve the opportunity to close up on the Ferrari.

The plan worked, but by the time Hakkinen had pitted, Coulthard - who had come in one lap earlier - had managed to get the undercut and jump his team-mate.

Williams had kept Frentzen out even longer to hold up Schumacher and returned to the track after his stop trailing both McLarens - which now sat third and fourth, Coulthard leading Hakkinen by only a couple of car lengths. With a gap close to 20 seconds to the front nearing the second round of stops, it seemed unlikely either would factor again in the duel between Schumacher and Villeneuve.

Hakkinen was given priority for the second round of stops, coming in on lap 44 before Coulthard pitted one tour later. But Hakkinen was unable to make the undercut work, Coulthard emerging just a second ahead.

Then, on lap 48, the race turned for McLaren. After Villeneuve gained rapidly on Schumacher and dived up the inside at Curva Dry Sack, Schumacher turned in, resulting in contact. The move backfired as Schumacher was bumped into the gravel, beaching his car in the process.

Villeneuve continued, and so long as he could pick up a point, he would be crowned champion. The McLarens were now in the frame for an unlikely victory. Villeneuve was slowing with damage to his bargeboard, costing him a couple of seconds per lap.

Hakkinen remained glued to Coulthard's gearbox as the duo ate into the advantage to the front - but on the pit wall, McLaren was beginning to set the wheels in motion for a controversial swap.

"Patrick Head from Williams came to our pits to say that Jacques wasn't going to put up any resistance," remembered team manager Jo Ramirez (pictured below in 1998) in Memoirs of a Racing Man. "Third would be fine, because he just wanted the championship.

"We radioed this to our drivers and at the same time, we asked David to let Mika pass. This was a long and colourful conversation, with David not happy at all."

"I just said, 'why?'," wrote Coulthard. "We had a fairly heated conversation that lasted for many laps. I was initially vehement, refusing to move over. Then [engineer Dave Ryan] said words to the effect of, 'David, the team has given an instruction and if you don't move over, you are seriously compromising your position with the team...'"

"[Dennis'] justification for me moving over was that the timing of Mika's pit stops helped Williams, as he had agreed, but to the detriment of Mika as it also allowed me to pass him" David Coulthard

Ramirez acknowledged the threat was both genuine and severe: "He was finally pushed to the point where his job was put in jeopardy, and he unwillingly moved over and let Mika pass."

With Villeneuve now in view, Coulthard slowed crossing the start/finish line three laps from home to allow Hakkinen through, yielding any hopes of a third win for the Scot in 1997. Hakkinen bore down on Villeneuve before being waved past into the chicane on the last lap, the same treatment being given to Coulthard at the final corner.

McLaren had a 1-2. Villeneuve had his world championship, and Hakkinen was, at long last, a grand prix winner.

"The more I realise what has happened today, the happier I feel," Hakkinen said after the race. "After all the ups and downs of this year, today's result is fantastic. The race was interesting from start to finish, at least it was for me.

"I never thought that we would win. Then I got the opportunity to pass David. I don't know exactly what happened, because it was a strange place to overtake David, but for my benefit, it was fantastic."

Coulthard toed the party line after the race, saying Hakkinen "deserves his victory" and adding: "You have to have the team's interests at heart, even if the racer in me wanted the victory myself."

Privately though, Coulthard was seething: "I remember going to see Ron after the race," he wrote. "I asked him directly why he'd done that, and he said, 'You don't understand, we made an agreement beforehand.'

"His justification for me moving over was that the timing of Mika's pit stops helped Williams, as he had agreed, but to the detriment of Mika as it also allowed me to pass him.

"So he took the decision as team principal to return Mika to the front, which he felt was more honourable. I was aware of none of this."

But the decision was also fuelled by a feeling that Hakkinen badly needed his first win, having suffered so many near-misses through the year.

"I think Ron mainly felt that on many occasions, the car had let Mika down, so he felt justified in giving Mika his first overdue win," said Ramirez. "In addition, it would be psychologically better for the team to start 1998 with two race winners."

The victory did wonders for Hakkinen entering 1998, when the first Adrian Newey-designed McLaren proved to be the class of the field. The team dominated the opening round in Melbourne, but Coulthard was again asked to wave Hakkinen past to honour a pre-race agreement that whoever led into the first corner would win the race.

Hakkinen took the world championship that year with eight wins, while Coulthard could only manage a single victory at Imola.

Jerez 1997 appeared to set the status quo at McLaren and confirmed that Hakkinen was the man it would rally around

There was a certain level of irony in Hakkinen's first win coming in the circumstances it did. It was a far cry from the crushing displays he would later produce, given he had looked destined for fourth place upon completing his final pit stop.

But few could dispute that he was deserving of some success that year. There was certainly credit to Dennis' justification for using team orders.

Even more significantly, it appeared to set the status quo at McLaren and confirmed that Hakkinen was the man it would rally around.

"This under-current of favouritism persisted and, because of what happened at Jerez, it had become acute," Coulthard wrote.

The win opened the floodgates for Hakkinen. He won 17 races in the following three years, twice beating Schumacher to the world championship before finishing as runner-up in 2000.

Jerez 1997 may be remembered as the standout moment in Schumacher and Villeneuve's battle, but its significance in re-establishing the Schumacher-Hakkinen rivalry - one both looked back on with enormous fondness - cannot be ignored.

Watch Mika Hakkinen recount his amazing Formula 1 career in Motorsport Heroes on Motorsport.tv. Subsrcibe to access the full film for just £3.99 per month.