1996 Japanese GP
In the 1995 season finale, Hakkinen sustained a near-fatal injury. Despite his severe injuries, he recovered completely in 1996 and participated from the start. Hakkinen outpaced his new partner David Coulthard during the qualifying sessions and races. Hakkinen's most nuanced performance came at the season-ending Japanese Grand Prix. The Finn qualified fifth for the Japanese Grand Prix after outperforming his teammate by nearly eight-tenths of a second in qualifying.
Hakkinen made a good start and moved up to fourth due to Villeneuve's poor start. When Berger had to pit to repair his front wing, he moved up to third. Hill could close the distance on Schumacher, who was racing second, but Hakkinen was putting pressure on the German. It was a surprise duel, given that Schumacher and Ferrari were faster than Hakkinen in their McLaren throughout the season. Despite this, the Japanese Grand Prix was unique. Hakkinen stayed close to Schumacher throughout the race. Ultimately, he could not overtake his competitor, but he finished the season in third place.
1997 Luxemburg GP
Apart from the Brazilian GP, Hakkinen had a pretty terrible first half of 1997, when his colleague Coulthard had the better of him.Things changed in the British GP, and from then on, it was Hakkinen who was the fastest of the two. He was unlucky to withdraw from first place in both the British and Austrian Grand Prix. He was also disqualified from third place in the Belgian GP.
As the season continued, the McLarens gained form and appeared to be becoming faster and faster. Coulthard easily won the Italian GP, while Hakkinen almost grabbed pole in Austria and was leading when he was forced to withdraw due to a vehicle malfunction.
At the Luxemburg GP, Hakkinen outqualified Villeneuve and took the pole position. Hakkinen got out to a good start and held on to first place, while David Coulthard's quick-starting overtook Villeneuve.
After the first lap, the leading three were Hakkinen, Coulthard, and Villeneuve. Hakkinen was far faster than his competitors, and he swiftly pulled out a 10+ second lead when the first pit stops came around. After the first of two scheduled pit stops, Hakkinen had a comfortable lead over Coulthard and Villeueve. The Finn appeared to be on his way to his first victory until calamity hit the McLaren squad. Coulthard retired on lap 42 due to engine failure, while Hakkinen followed suit on the following lap.
1999 Austrian GP
The Finn won pole position from his teammate in the Austrian GP and appeared to be on his way to a comfortable victory on Sunday. He got off to a good start and led the race away, but an overly exuberant push from Coulthard forced a collision, sending Hakkinen into a spin and dropping him to the last position.
Nonetheless, the entire race was designed to make up for lost ground and return to a point-scoring position. Overtaking in F1 has always been challenging, and 1999 was no exception.
The A1 Ring was one of the more accessible tracks to overtake on, and Hakkinen used some stunning late-breaking moves to climb from 22nd to 3rd. Finn's recovery drive was incredible, and he deserves a lot of credit for it. It was also evident that, unlike his partner, who Eddie Irvine edged out for the victory, Hakkinen was getting the most out of the vehicle since he was the quickest guy on the track by a country mile.
1999 Japanese GP
Despite being the quickest driver in 1999, terrible luck with accidents and unreliability and some unforced errors in the two Italian GPs put Hakkinen in second place behind Ferrari's Eddie Irvine when the two landed in Japan for the season finale.
Nonetheless, because Hakkinen was lightning quick around Suzuka and had the upper hand on Irvine throughout the season, many regarded him as the favorite. Some Ferrari supporters expected Irvine to win the championship with Michael Schumacher in the rearguard position, as he did in the Malaysian GP.
Schumacher earned the pole position from Hakkinen, whose penultimate qualifying effort was hampered by accident. Irvine, Hakkinen's championship challenger, finished sixth.
Hakkinen had a fantastic start and quickly passed Schumacher. In the first session, the Finn was significantly lighter than his German competitor and pulled out a significant lead over him, leaving the rest of the field in the dust.
Following the first set of pit stops, Schumacher began to move in on the Finn when David Coulthard wrecked his vehicle and decided to hold up Schumacher, attempting to lap him. Coulthard interrupted Schumacher's momentum, and from that point on, the little danger Schumacher provided to Hakkinen vanished, allowing Hakkinen to earn a critical win that clinched him the 1999 world championship title.
2000 Hungarian GP
Image by Alexander Lesnitsky from Pixabay
McLaren experienced several reliability issues at the start of the 2000 season, causing them to fall far behind Michael Schumacher in the standings.
As is typical in F1, things evened out as the season continued, and a few mechanical issues and tragic occurrences saw Schumacher's lead vanish. By the time the teams arrived in Hungary, Hakkinen had closed the gap on the German in the driver's standings.
Schumacher won the pole position with a flawless lap. Coulthard and Hakkinen trailed him on the grid. Hakkinen appeared befuddled during the weekend, and his teammate seemed to be a safer option to challenge Schumacher.
That is not how it turned out. Hakkinen got out to a flying start and moved from third to first instantly.
The Finn had pulled ahead of Schumacher and teammate Coulthard by the end of the first lap.
After a few circuits, Hakkinen began to distance himself from his competitors rapidly.
His pace was so fast that commentators speculated that he might be much lighter than his competitors.
On the other hand, Hakkinen was the heaviest of the top three. As the tactics became apparent, it became clear that the race was very much in Hakkinen's favor, who was pleased throughout the second part of the race by simply controlling the distance to his opponents and strolling to victory.
