Hakkinen wins Japanese GP for title

K.P. Hong

Sunday, Oct. 31, 1999 | 1:07 a.m.

SUZUKA, Japan - Mika Hakkinen won the season-ending Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday to retain the Formula One drivers' championship he won at the same race a year ago.

Hakkinen overtook pole-sitter Michael Schumacher at the start and never trailed in a race that was contested the entire way by the two.

"To have won the championship in the last GP is nerve-cracking," Hakkinen said. "It's an experience that I can't recommend to anyone."

Hakkinen finished in 1 hour, 31 minutes, 18.785 seconds at the 3.7-mile Suzuka Circuit. It was the fifth victory of the season for the McLaren driver.

The 31-year-old Finn would have already been the champion had an appeals court not overruled race officials who disqualified the 1-2 Ferrari finish by Eddie Irvine and Schumacher two weeks ago in the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Schumacher, a two-time world champion for Ferrari, was timed in 1:31:23.800, 5.015 seconds behind Hakkinen.

Irvine, bidding for his fifth victory for the season and his first world championship, placed a distant third in 1:32:54.473.

Ferrari's hopes for its first driver's title in 20 years were shattered, but the 2-3 finish gave the Italian automaker its first constructor's title since 1983.