Heinz-Harald 11th

Despite what the weather forecasters were predicting, the fine and dry weather continued all Sunday in Austria. OrangeArrows continued to have another strong weekend, finishing a very competitive warm up in 4th and 6th fastest positions.

Both cars got away cleanly at the start of the race with Heinz-Harald still ahead of his team mate. The two came very close to each other at the first corner but appeared to be none the worse. At the next tight corner, Heinz-Harald received a sideways nudge from the BAR of Jacques Villeneuve pushing him into the gravel. The German was able to continue but his gravel trip cost him dear and he finished lap one 18th. Later in the race it emerged that Villeneuve was penalised with a drive thru penalty for the incident.

Meanwhile Enrique Bernoldi is seen touring into the pit lane with a broken front wing. He is retired from the race outside the garage with a broken wishbone. A replay of the first corner, shows that Enrique did actually tap the back of Heinz's car and that was probably the reason for the wing and suspension breakage.

Over the next few laps Heinz makes up a few places due to retirements, and rapidly catches the Jaguar of Eddie Irvine. He follows the Irishman for a few laps, but makes a mistake at the last corner and ends up spinning onto the pit straight, ending up pointing the wrong way. Heinz manages a quick controlled power spin to correct the direction of his car and he is back on his way, but back again in 18th.

The race is then interrupted by two safety car periods, the first for Olivier Panis's BAR to be recovered from the middle of the pit straight and the second for Jordan's Takuma Sato to be ambulanced away after a terrifying crash involving Nick Heidfeld. Fortunately neither driver is seriously hurt.

Frentzen pits on lap 33, and returns to the track in 15th place. By lap 41 his position had improved to 13th, and as a result of more retirements Heinz-Harald eventually finished the race in 11th place. The UK TV coverage has a great deal of sympathy for Frentzen in this race, and predicted that if it were not for the Villeneuve push then the German would probably have been in 5th or 6th position.

Technical Director, Mike Coughlan, was disappointed with the result today, but the team are going to fight on ! "Both drivers had good starts but unfortunately Enrique knocked into Heinz at the first corner," he said after the race. "This damaged the diffuser on Heinz’s car and resulted in ultimate retirement for Enrique with a broken wishbone. Heinz was then pushed off my Villeneuve at the second corner and we didn’t stand a chance after that. We’re going to go home and lick our wounds and look forward to a better weekend in Monaco."

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