1997 Argentine Grand Prix

Championship standings

After two rounds, talk in the paddock centres on the poor starts made by Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Eddie Irvine, both yet to score significant points from their respective positions at Williams and Ferrari.

Previous race

Villeneuve won Brazil after the race was restarted following a multi-car incident at the original start. The Canadian led from the restart and passed Gerhard Berger for the lead on lap 49. Berger finished second, Panis third. Damon Hill ran as high as fourth before his engine failed four laps from the end.

Between-race developments

Despite Lola officially withdrawing from the championship after Brazil, team principal Eric Broadley is still publicly confident the team could return by the San Marino Grand Prix with a new main sponsor.

Milestones

This is the 600th World Championship Grand Prix.

Practice

Both Williams cars finished first and second in practice. In qualifying, Villeneuve takes pole for the third consecutive time. Panis qualifies an impressive third for Prost, and Barrichello fifth for Stewart. Both McLarens are low down the grid, struggling with the car’s handling on the bumpy Buenos Aires surface. Even the slowest qualifier — Pedro Diniz — would have been comfortably fast enough for pole position in the 1996 race.

Tyrrell arrives with a striking new aerodynamic configuration: two wings on the nose cone and two alongside the driver’s head, quickly nicknamed “x-wings” by the paddock.