1997 rewritten

Two time champion Damon Hill's retirement opened up a spot at current champions Williams, which was taken by Mika Hakkinen. After years of doing testing roles and the odd Grand Prix for various teams, David Coulthard would get his first full time shot at Mclaren. And he repayed the teams trust in him with a spectacular debut win. Villeneuve was on pole, but carnage at the start saw many major contenders get eliminated, like Villeneuve, Berger and Sospiri. Michael Schumacher lead the majority of the race, but a pitstop problem dropped him to second, and Hakkinen later passed him on track to take second. He was quickly closing up to leader Coulthard, but a spin dropped him behind Schumacher and Senna to fourth. Schumacher took only his second pole for Mclaren in Brazil, but a technical issue for the start meant for the second consecuetive race the pole sitter would not finish the first lap. Coulthard would lead Villeneuve to take the lead, whilst Senna followed him going into the Ferradura. On lap 3, Senna would overtake the Scottish driver to take the lead at his home race at the Senna S, and he would maintain the lead to take the win, whilst an excellent drive from Sospiri saw him take a podium for Benetton. In Argentina, Senna would take his first pole of the season, but Coulthard in third passed Villeneuve and would ram Senna into the first corner, taking them both out of the race, meaning the pole position curse would continue. Villeneuve struggled with graining in the hot and humid weather, whilst Hakkinen would take better care of his tyres, meaning he would win his first ever race after passing Villeneuve in the pitstops.

Villeneuve would take his second pole position of the season in San Marino, but a gearbox issue in the race meant that he would once again lose out to Hakkinen in the pitstops, and with Senna and Schumacher's retirement, Hakkinen would take the lead of the championship. Hakkinen would get his first pole position in Monaco, and in a wet race was able to maintain the lead over Senna in what was a brilliant performance until on lap 36 he aquaplaned into the barriers, denying him his third straight win and giving Senna his 9th Monaco Grand Prix win. At Spain, Villeneuve would take Williams' third consecuetive pole position, but Schumacher would get him off the line. Villeneuve would repass him on lap 5, but some scintillating laps by Schumacher retook him the lead and gave him finally his first win of the season. Villeneuve fith consecuetive 2nd place finish saw him get a strong lead over Senna who had a tough race in 4th. Pedro Diniz would replace Shinji Nakano at Tyrell. Hakkinen got another pole position in Canada from Senna, but in a wet race the Ferrari would clip the Williams going into turn 2, giving Hakkinen a puncture and Senna front wing damage. A great start from Berger would see him move up into 4th, behind Villeneuve, and the collision between the leaders meant Villeneuve would lead his home race with Berger in second. However, Schumacher would rapidly close in on Berger and take second place off him, and he began challenging Villeneuve, which became the lead when the Canadian crashed out. An engine failure for Schumacher meant that Berger would inherit a strong lead, but Senna had comeback from his pitstop and was moving up the field. However, due to the spray, he collided with Coulthard, taking the Mclaren out of the race and requiring another front wing change for the Brazilian, the team hurriedly removing the no. 6 from Bergers sapre front wing to the no. 5 of Senna. This gave Berger a clear view, and he would win his first race since Germany 1995.

Berger fell ill, so he would miss the French Grand Prix and be replaced Ricardo Zonta. Schumacher took the second pole position of the season for him, and would be engaged with a duel with Senna throughout the race. Senna started 5th, behind the two Williams and Frentzen, but a strong start saw him move up to third, and a pass on Hakkinen at the Adaliade hairpin would see him move to second. A repeat of the move on Schumacher the following lap saw him take the lead, but a mistake on lap 3 at the same hairpin saw Schumacher take it back. Senna would hang on to the Mclaren, until the second round of pitstops when he got a 4 lap undercut on Schumacher and took the lead. Senna would ruthlessly defend in the final laps at the Adalaide hairpin, but with 5 laps to go he comprimised his exit too much and the quicker Schumacher took the lead and the win in an incredible fight between the two giants of F1. At Silverstone, Berger returned and Villeneuve took a pole and won he race in domainant fashion as his three title contenders all retired. The Arrows improved much in pace and Herbert took the teams joint best result of the season in 7th. Villeneuve took another pole position in Germany, and would lead the opening stages of the race until he spun out, sensationally giving the lead to Heinz Harald Frentzen in the Jordan, hoping to finally end his long wait for an F1 win. However, heartbrakingly, on the last lap his engine blew, handing the lead to Berger, who won his second race of the season. A small constollation for Jordan was that Irvine took a podium finish, but it would not really suffer the huge blow that had happened. In Hungary, another shock would happen as remarkably, Juan Pablo Montoya would take his first ever pole position in the Arrows, who had been 6 seconds off the pace in Australia, but improvements meant the car could now really fight where Bridgestone tyres worked well. Juan would lead the whole race, and a strong performace from Herbert would make it an Arrows 1-2 for most of the race, but a charging Schumacher would pass Herbert with 6 laps to go, but with a 15 second lead, surely nothing could stop Montoya from taking a remarkable win. However, in a cruel twist of fate, the race would be decided once again on the last lap, as an engine failure for Montoya handed Schumacher his third win of the season to leap him into championship contention, as he was just two points behind Villeneuve.

In Belgium, rain desceneded in qualifying, and Senna masterfully took pole position for the third time in the Ferrari. Villeneuve was in second, but in the race, also wet, he struggled, even taking a trip into the gravel trap at Les Combes, and only finished 6th. However, Hakkinen would have a stunning performance, qualifying 4th he passed Schumacher on the opening lap and closed passed Villeneuve into the Bus Stop chicane. In the wet, Senna was unstoppable, but with 13 laps to go it started to dry up. Using the pace advantage of the Williams, Hakkinen destroyed Senna's 17 second lead to come up right close to him with just two laps to go. However, Senna forced him off the track at Les Combes, handing him a drive through penalty and dropped him behind Frentzen and Sospiri, meaning for the third time in a row he failed to finish on the podium. At Monza, Villeneuve took pole for the 6th time of the season, and lead the race, until an engine failure handed the lead to Hakkinen, who won from Senna and Berger to take the championship lead from Villeneuve and Schumacher. Villeneueve took another pole in F1's return to the Osterreichring, and would convert it into the second victory of the season, with Senna in second and Hakkinen in third. Schumacher would finish fourth after Coulthard was ordered to swap over on the last lap of the race, handing Schumacher two more points in his bid for the championship.

A big moment for the championship would happen at the Nurburgring, as Senna would be taken out by Eddie Irvine at the first corner. This time however, Senna didn't punch him, but stiill had some words to say to him. After the safety car peeled in, Villeneuve jumped polesitter Schumacher to take the lead, but Schumacher's pace advantage was clear, and on lap 10 Schumacher dived down the inside of Mullenbach, causing Villeneueve to be distracted and sent him into a spin into the gravel. Due to being in a dangerous spot, the stewards were allowed to remove him, and he got back in the race but only managed fourth, whilst an engine failure for Hakkinen and Senna's crash meant Schumacher looked very good for the championship. In Japan, Villeneuve ignored yellow flags in practice, meaning he was banned for the race, pretty much ending his championship hopes. Senna took pole position for the third time in the season, and got the victory he desperately needed, but with Schumacher in second, it was still looking like a tall order for Senna. However, Berger would swoop past both of them in the S-Curves, taking the lead but he handed back the lead to Senna the next lap. He did everything he could to keep Schumacher behind, but on the last lap he was caught napping and the German passed the Austrian into the hairpin, meaning he would have a 15 point advantage over Senna and a 16 point advantage over Hakkinen. For the second season running, it was a four way fight for the World Championship, although Villeneuve was 24 points down and for all intents and purposes was out of the championship race. It was him though, who would take pole from Senna in second, although it looked like it was going to be Johnny Herbert taking pole position until he had to back out of his lap due to Katayama's spin, meaning Hakkinen would be third and Schumacher fourth, with Herbert taking 5th place. Villeneuve would have a poor start and would drop to third behind Senna and his teammate, who would chase Senna for the title. Williams tactically backed up Villeneuve in hopes of making Schumacher lose 4th place, which is all he needed to be World Champion. The Mclaren driver tried a move around the outside of turn 1 after Villeneuve got a poor exit, but would be forced wide, and Sospiri, who would be driving for Ferrari next year after Begrer's retirement after some impressive performances throughout 1997, slipped past. Senna meanwhile, was controlling the race. Hakkinen had no answer for his pace, and with Schumacher in 5th, meant Senna would be champion. Hakkinen would need Schumacher to slip down to 6th to be champion, but with Coulthard behind this probably wasn't going to happen. Schumacher tried everything he could to get past his childhood karting hero, but Sospiri was simply too fast to pass, and he would later pass the polesitter Villeneuve to take a podium place. Senna would  win the race and also finally win his long awaited 4th World Title to match his adversary Alain Prost and move within one title of Fangio, after being level on points with Schumacher with the same amount of wins (4), the same amount of second places (3), and the same amount of third place finishes (1), but an additional fourth place finish for Senna meant he won on countback.

Senna would finally win not only his long awaited 4th title, but ended Ferrari's almost 30 year wait for a drivers title, in the closest season in Formula One history. New stars David Coulthard, Mika Hakkinen and Vincenzo Sospiri all rised to the top in 1997, with Coulthard taking an incredible debut victory, Hakkinen fighting for the title and beating Villeneuve, and Sospiri getting 6 podiums and beating a teammate for the first time. With new grooved tyres and narrower cars for 1998, would we see the Schumacher/Senna dominance finally end, or would they continue for another epic battle in 1998?