1998 was the start of a new era and rivalry in Formula 1. Willams and Jacques Villeneuve’s decline was as quick as the car that had won the previous two Championships and McLaren were back at the top for the first time since the Aryton Senna and Alain Prost era in the late 80s.

Mika Hakkinen and Michael Schumacher would battle it out for the Championship and heading into the Belgian Grand Prix, the Finn led the standings by seven points with four races to go.

Neither would finish the race that turned out to be one of the most dramatic Grand Prix’s of the last 20 years.

The start

Bad weather always has an effect in Formula 1 and at Spa-Francochamps that day the rain was incessant.

The FIA decided to start without a safety car and in the torrential rain it turned out to be the wrong call as David Coulthard who qualified second behind team-mate Hakkinen spun and hit a wall at the start. It started a chain reaction which caused carnage, taking out more than half the field. The only drivers who emerged without damaging their cars were Hakkinen, Michael Schumacher, Ralf Schumacher, Jacques Villeneuve, Damon Hill and Argentine rookie Esteban Tuero.

With tyres and debris flying all over the place, in hindsight that pile-up could have been far more dangerous than one would have thought at the time… 

25 laps after the restart and all was looking rosy for Michael Schumacher. Title rival Mika Hakkinen had crashed out on lap one of the restarted race.

The German was leading and was only one of 10 drivers left on track. But the conditions were still hazardous and the spray meant visibility was almost nil.

Coming up behind David Coulthard to lap him in heavy spray, the future seven-time champion failed to see Hakkinen’s team-mate ahead and ploughed straight into the back of him, losing his right front tyre in the process and forcing both drivers out of the race.

But that wasn’t the end of it. As both drivers arrived in the garages, Schumacher leapt out of his Ferrari and charged towards the McLaren garage to physically attack Coulthard, accusing the Scot of “trying to f****** kill me”. A fight did not occur as both pit crews held them apart. They would meet one week later and make up, with Schumacher admitting that the conditions, rather than Coulthard, caused the potentially dangerous incident which saw Schumi’s tyre catapult back in the direction of his cockpit. 

From an Irish perspective it was the perfect finish as the Jordans of Damon Hill and Ralf Schumacher earned a one-two finish ahead of Jean Alesi of Sauber, with just five drivers crossed the finish line unscathed.

It was the first ever victory for Eddie Jordan’s team but it wasn’t without controversy.

It later turned out that the team issued team orders which meant that the much quicker Ralf Schumacher was told to stay behind 1996 World Champion Damon Hill in order to preserve the one-two and prevent Alesi from sneaking past.

In the following clip from documentary ‘Driving Ambition Eddie Jordan F1’, one can almost feel Ralf’s internal struggle underneath his helmet as he contemplates the team orders…