The European GP of 1999 had everything a real Formula 1 fan could possibly dream of: action, speed, tension, winners and losers. When the GP started at 2pm nobody really believed that Minardi was up to a small miracle that day. Luca Badoer departed from the 19th position and Marc Gene from the 20th spot. They had left Arrows behind them in the qualifying already, thanks to the continuing hard work of Gustav Brunner and his crew. The gap between the "big guys" and Minardi had been shrinking every single race since Australia.
At Hockenheim Marc Gene had already shown that he was top ten material (free practice) and Germany proved to be successful ground for Minardi once more. After a restart and a spectacular crash by Diniz and Wurz, Minardi had already gained some positions. As it started raining for a short time a lot of teams made pitstops and connected with these pitstops they made mistakes (Hakkinen selected rain tyres even though it had stopped raining, Ferrari only prepared three tyres for Irvine's car...).
On the track it was pretty much the same; a lot of drivers drove in number one position but they lost it as they made mistakes themselves or just had bad luck. Minardi didn't make mistakes at all but Luca Badoer who was driving in 4th position (5 positions ahead of Hakkinen!) had real bad luck as his engine blew up shortly before his 2nd pitstop.
Gabriele Rumi "My first words are for Luca who did an excellent race climbing very high up the classification. His lap times were unbelievable, among the fastest and he, therefore, deserved really much more. His retirement, on such a favourable day, ruins a little joy a bit."
But Marc Gene was able to pick up this result as he was even able to stay ahead of Eddie Irvine. It was a great race by Marc Gene who showed us that he is a great driver who is able to handle the Minardi very well. Marc Gene said "I am very happy for the team because this is the result of a whole year's work. The car was very good. Gustav Brunner and the technical staff made a very competitive car. Today Cesare Fiorio's strategy proved excellent. Also my engineers did an extraordinary job setting up the car in the best way. I, therefore, feel truly satisfied especially for the Team. They have been waiting for this outcome for a long time. They all did an extraordinary job.
Marc Gene after crashing in Australia
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