Race Summary
On the gridstart, Mika Häkkinen raced off with the lead, while his McLaren teammate David Coulthard stalled with engine failure. McLaren at this point had been reeling from a double-DNF at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, and Coulthard's failure raised eyebrows at the team.
On lap 3, local hero Rubens Barrichello took the lead of the race from Häkkinen. He kept it for most of the early part of the race until he pitted on lap 27. It was the first time a Stewart car had led a race. The crowd of roughly 80,000 cheered wildly as "Rubinho" built a lead of about 5 seconds over Michael Schumacher.
However, after dropping to 3rd due to his stop Barrichello's race ended with a blown engine.
Michael Schumacher took over the lead until stopping for fuel, and it was then that Häkkinen took the lead for the remainder of the race.
During the race, Alexander Wurz and Damon Hill collided, ending Hill's race.
The race also marked the debut for Stéphane Sarrazin, who drove the Minardi for an injured Luca Badoer. Badoer had injured his hand in a testing accident, and Sarrazin– then the test driver for Prost– was drafted in to Minardi. Sarrazin notably had a wing failure midrace and as a result had a dramatic spin in the corner section approaching the start/finish line. Sarrazin spun the car more than six times in the middle of the track.
As Badoer returned for the following race, and he was still the test driver for Prost, it was Sarrazin's only entry in Formula One.
Häkkinen won the race, with Schumacher second. Frentzen was able to be classified third despite running out of fuel on the final lap, as the next car was a lap down.
Read more about this topic: 1999 Brazilian Grand Prix
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