David Coulthard Spa 1998

Out of all the David Coulthard's F1 races Belgium GP 1998 is my favorite. Or at least the one I have watched the most times. Why? He didn't even win the race.

The conditions where dreadful because of rain, and after the first turn there was one of the biggest crashes the sport has ever seen. This multiple collision involving 13 cars was caused by none other than David Coulthard. It was a miracle that he or anyone else wasn't seriously hurt.

It took some time to clear the track from the cars and debris, and not all the drivers involved in the crash could participate in the restart.

At the restart world championship contender Mika Häkkinen spun and was hit by Johnny Herbert, and they both had to retire.

David himself had some outside track adventures with Alex Wurz, and dropped to the last place.

Then Michael Schumacher took the lead, and things were quite boring for a while. Who could have thought that biggest event of the race was still yet to come? 

The notorious collision between the race leader Michael Schumacher and David Coulthard, who was being lapped. Schumacher losing the front tire in the crash, and this duo slowly making their way to the pits.

And then angry Schumacher jumping out of his car and storming towards David...

Many years later DC finally admitted that he made a mistake. That maybe he shouldn't have slowed down on the racing line in poor visibility.

 

David Coulthard Spa 1998


Who finally won the race? Who cares? Well it's hard to forget Damon Hill's joy on the podium.

At some point F1's official Youtube channel published the whole race of Spa 1998, but unfortunately they took it down some time later. Why? Are they selling it somewhere? I don't think so. It would have been culturally and historically valuable to keep it online, just like many other past races from the golden era of F1.

I did manage to download the full race of Belgium GP 1998 from somewhere, but the video quality is of course quite bad.

 

F1 Spa Belgium GP 1998