Mika Hakkinen: Dicing with Schumacher at Spa

August 27, 2000. Lap 41. The silver McLaren-Mercedes driven by Mika Hakkinen closes in on the scarlet Ferrari of Michael Schumacher through Eau Rouge and down the long Kemmel Straight. F1's greatest drivers of the era going head-to-head for Belgian Grand Prix victory.

Schumacher had defended robustly on the previous lap, almost putting the Finn onto the grass. But this time, Schumacher has a decision to make. Ricardo Zonta's ailing BAR-Honda is in the middle of the track. Schumacher goes left, Hakkinen dives right into a gap barely big enough for the McLaren. Moments later, the pass is complete.

"It was unbelievable," said McLaren team boss Ron Dennis of the pass. "I think I would put the move as the best ever seen in F1."

The race situation was simple. After starting ahead, Hakkinen had led before a spin in damp conditions had allowed Schumacher to get past. But with Schumacher having already pitted for slicks, Hakkinen stopped on lap 27 of the 44-lap race and was six seconds behind. He started to catch the Ferrari and 10 laps later was within a second. On lap 40, he attacked, but Schumacher moved over on him on the Kemmel Straight, forcing Hakkinen to abandon the move.

A lap later, Hakkinen was again in the tow as the pair bore down on Zonta. Schumacher went to the outside, Hakkinen to the inside, and the rest is history.

For all the hyperbole, this does remain one of the most dramatic and high-stakes passing moves ever seen in grand prix racing. Double world champion Hakkinen explains how it happened.

MIKA'S PHILOSOPHY OF OVERTAKING

Hakkinen trusted Schumacher in wheel-to-wheel combat © LAT

"There are a few different types of overtaking situations. The important thing is to understand your competitor. Who is your competitor as a person? You need to know them, you need to understand how they think, their behaviour on the track, their driving style.

"You need to understand your own performance, the performance of your car and the strengths and weaknesses of your competitor's car.

"You need to see the whole situation. How many laps to go? You need to build up a plan in your head, not just the overtake, but what is going to happen after. Can they pass me back? And where are they strong? Straightline speed? Acceleration? Braking? You need to know all of these elements.

"It sounds very complicated, you are driving bbbwwwaaaaaaaaaahhhhh at top speed and you have to make this plan in your head. And if the moment of overtaking is very competitive, the differences are only a few tenths of a second, so then you have to learn certain tricks to put pressure on the driver in front of you. But they can see in the mirror who is behind.

"You can start pressuring the driver into a mistake. Some drivers don't care about who is behind them, but some start thinking about you and planning their tactics to defend."

SIZING UP SCHUMACHER

"Spa is a fantastic track and very good for overtaking. There are six places at Spa where, if the driver ahead makes a small mistake, you can overtake easily. Six is quite a big number, but if they don't make a mistake in any of these places, overtaking is very difficult. At Spa, I was battling with Michael and, unfortunately, he did not make any mistakes in these six places!

"But there was one place where our car was simply better and that was through the famous Eau Rouge. My McLaren was very quick through there and it was important to have that speed because you have a massive straight after it and can gain a lot of time if you carry speed through that section. We compromised the car in other areas, but in that corner our car was flying.

"The Ferrari was not so fantastic in Eau Rouge, but in all other areas of the track it was good. So there was no other possibility - it could only be off Eau Rouge on the straight."

SETTING UP THE PASS

"Planning to overtake Michael there was very difficult but it was clear that he knew it was the only place I could do it. So he was defending as much as he could, going to the borderline all the time. So you had to take risks.

Backmarker Zonta would play a key role in the fight for victory © LAT

"Time was on my side at first because there were quite a few laps to go. So if I tried one side and he didn't let me, I tried the other. But I had tried several times and the laps were running out. And he was learning what I was doing.

"I needed to take more and more risks through Eau Rouge. And when I did that, I was wearing the tyres out more, so they were losing performance and that made it more difficult for me in the twisty section of the track because the grip was dropping. Every time I got to Turn 1, the hairpin, the gap was bigger. And when I was catching Michael through Eau Rouge, my gap was not as good as it had been.

"Michael was definitely playing a dirty game [defensively]. But I couldn't do anything. Even if I screamed on the radio 'do something' - and maybe I did, actually - it wouldn't make any difference."

CATCHING THE BACKMARKER

"By pure luck, on lap 41 there was a backmarker on the straight - Ricardo Zonta. Michael could see him going at quite a low speed. And this backmarker was not driving on the racing line but he was also not on the inside line. He was in the middle of the track. In his position, I would definitely make sure that I would not give the driver lapping me the chance to overtake on the outside or the inside as anything could happen.

"Michael decided to go to the outside. He knew that when he got to the braking point for the corner, the track was cleaner. Typical Spa, it was still a bit damp off line so the inside for the corner was not good. When I saw Michael go to the outside, naturally I said to myself: 'That's it, I'm going to go flat out inside'.

"I knew the risk. If he decided to turn to the inside for whatever reason, it would be a horrible experience for me! I was relying on him. I expect a racing driver to decide a line and then stick to it."

COMPLETING THE MOVE

Hakkinen felt that the fight with Schumacher went over the limit at times © LAT

"In F1, you have to take risks. The battle with Michael was so intense that sometimes we both took risks that were not normal. But at Spa, it worked for me. I had the speed through Eau Rouge and without Zonta, it would have been the same game as before. But I didn't show if I was going to go left and right, I waited for him to decide.

"I was in his tow, which was a massive advantage, but then when Michael moved, I also got a tow and some extra speed from Zonta. That was an amazing feeling. After that, the overtake was quite easy because Michael gave up. He saw Zonta, realised he had fought enough and didn't want to push his luck any further. If he had fought in the corner, we could both have ended up in the gravel. And he realised that."

THE GREATEST OVERTAKE?

"When I was about 10 years old and doing go-karting, I did a minimum of 200 races in a year. In F1, you do maybe 17 starts a season. But I did 200 a year in karting. So imagine how many overtaking manoeuvres I have done, and great overtaking manoeuvres, in my career.

"But in F1, at that speed, we were going at maybe 320km/h, with all of that pressure, trying for many, many laps before to pass him. Yes, of course it was a highlight, there is no doubt about it."