The Race That Changed Formula 1 FOREVER..

As the great Murray Walker, an icon of the commentary scene, looked on, he found himself at a loss for words for what he'd just seen.

I don't think many, if any, races can claim to have provided as much drama in the entire history of Formula One

as the 1998 Belgian Grand Prix.

From a 13-car pileup, jaw-dropping crashes, a literal pit lane bust-up, to the spicy Schumacher's going to war, and a maiden win for one of the sport's rising underdogs, this race had everything.

Qualifying was something special right from the start.

The track conditions on Saturday were cool and dry, just perfect, and a thrilling duel between the two McLarens of Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard were taking centre stage.

Every time Coulthard would go faster, Hakkinen would respond by shaving off a few more tenths.

In the end, though, Hakkinen snatched pole position by a mere 1 tenth of a second, securing the front row for McLaren alongside Coulthard.

Meanwhile, Damon Hill also had a fantastic qualifying performance, taking P3 ahead of Michael Schumacher and Eddie Irvine in P4 and P5.

Schumacher's best time, in fact, was under scrutiny due to a waved yellow flag incident, and in the end, Hill managed to beat him by a fraction of a second.

Beyond the top contenders, other drivers had their share of challenges.

Jacques Villeneuve took a very nice sixth place on the grid, despite almost wrecking his Williams the day before.

Mika Salo wasn't as fortunate, though, crashing his arrow during qualifying.

And let's just say he would face some more trouble during the race.

Race day turned out to be quite a roller coaster of events.

Despite the forecast predicting warm and dry conditions, it started raining early Saturday morning.

And boy, was everyone surprised about that one.

I mean, it never rains at Spa, does it?

Rain expert Schumacher showed his skill during the warm-up, setting the pace in his Ferrari, followed by Irvine, Hakkinen, Fisichella, Ralf Schumacher and Hill.

The weather, however, was unpredictable, and as the race began only a few drivers including Villeneuve, Alessi and most notably Michael Schumacher opted for intermediate tyres.

Others like Hakkinen, Coulthard, Hill and Irvine went with full wet tyres to play it safe.

And boy, was this race anything but safe!

When the lights went out, Hakkinen got off to a solid start, but Coulthard struggled to get going.

Villeneuve, on the other hand, had shot up to challenge Hakkinen for the lead.

Hill, experiencing excessive wheelspin, had dropped back to around seventh from third, allowing Michael Schumacher to climb up to P3.

The frontrunners had got away well, for the most part.

But it would be behind them where the real chaos unfolded.

The spray from the cars made it nearly impossible to see what exactly happened at the time, but it was believed that Irvine made contact with Coulthard, sending the McLaren spinning across the midfield on the run-up to Eau Rouge, resulting in a major crash into a concrete barrier.

It was a horrible sight seeing the car spin across the track like that, whilst the drivers behind tried to dodge an oncoming murder machine.

The likes of Barrichello, Rosset, Panis, and Salo would end up being unable to make the restart because their cars were so utterly destroyed.

Thankfully, though, none of the drivers were seriously injured.

It took nearly an hour to clear the wreckage and get the spare cars ready for a restart.

Irvine took Schumacher's spare car, while Coulthard took the spare McLaren.

Jordan's Ralph Schumacher was the only one who managed to escape the initial chaos unharmed, cleverly positioning his car to avoid the mayhem.

As the cars lined up for the restart, only 18 drivers lined up on the grid.

During the restart, Hill seized the opportunity to redeem himself from his earlier poor start.

This time, Hill got it just right and overtook both McLarens as they came around La Source again.

While Hill was in dreamland, Hakkinen would have to endure quite the nightmare.

His McLaren spun 180 degrees as he exited La Source.

Stationary and facing the wrong way, he could only watch helplessly as Johnny Herbert's Sauber collided with him.

Both drivers were out of the race on the spot, prompting the safety car to intervene.

At least this time the race wouldn't be halted.

Just like there's no halting the content I'm bringing to you, so if you're enjoying it, make sure you subscribe, will you?

To make matters worse for McLaren, Coulthard had a rough first lap.

struggling to regain control and ending up in the gravel trap after contact with Alexander Wurtz-Benetton.

Fortunately, he managed to rejoin the race at the back of the pack.

As the safety car led the pack, the top ten order was Hill, Michael Schumacher, Irvine, Alessi, Villeneuve, Frentzen, Ralf Schumacher, Fisichella, Diniz, and Verstappen.

No, not that one, although with the way things are going, I wouldn't be surprised if he found a way to win this race, too.

After clearing the stranded Sauber and McLaren, the race resumed just two laps later.

Hills Jordan, on intermediate tires with hopes of a drying track, initially looked confident and assured in the changing conditions.

He managed to keep a small lead of just over a second on Schumacher's Ferrari for the first few intense laps.

However, the rain started getting worse, and it became evident that the Jordan was struggling to cope with the conditions.

It was a bizarre sight to see Hill and the Jordan leading the race, but on lap 7, Schumacher made his move, outbraking Hill into the bus stop chicane and taking the lead of the race.

As the race progressed, Jos Verstappen's Stewart suffered a blown engine, forcing him out on lap 8.

Irvine also had troubles on lap 9, breaking his front wing and bargeboard after missing a chicane and hitting a curb.

He made a lengthy pit stop to fix the damage and switch to full wet tyres.

Ralf Schumacher, on the other hand, would make a strategic tyre change on lap 11, swapping his intermediates for full wets, which would later prove to be a wise move.

On lap 16, most of the leading drivers still on intermediate, such as the likes of Jacques Villeneuve, would pit for full wets, or at least try to.

Yeah, Villeneuve took a happy misadventure into the barriers just before his stop.

Damon Hill's pit stop wasn't entirely smooth either, as the mechanics adjusted the front wing settings,

but they managed to get it done despite a minor hiccup.

By lap 17, Hill found himself sandwiched between the two Schumachers.

Michael had a comfortable lead over Hill, and Ralf was in third place, grateful for the earlier strategic tyre change.

Alessi, Frentzen, Irvine, Diniz, and Fisichella followed in top positions.

Coulthard, though, was a little frustrated with the conditions and urged for the safety car to return.

His intuition would later prove to be correct.

By lap 24, Ralf Schumacher had closed the gap to his teammate Damon Hill to just 10 seconds, while Michael extended his lead over Hill to almost 30 seconds.

On this very lap, Michael would also almost collide with Denise.

And for those of you that know, well, you know how foreshadowing works.

Sometimes foreshadowing is relatively obvious.

He then approached Coulthard, who was about to be lapped, but the situation got tense as Schumacher gestured his impatience with the McLaren in his way.

His impatience would turn into full-boiled anger on lap 26.

Disaster struck as Schumacher's right front wheel hit Coulthard's rear when trying to pass the Scotsman.

...that David Coulthard in these appalling conditions... Oh, God!

Michael Schumacher hits David Coulthard and is out!

...causing severe damage to the Ferrari.

Frustration had gotten the better of the German in these treacherous conditions.

Both cars limped on, but Michael's race was over.

He'd been leading the race by well over 30 seconds.

He was well on his way to solidifying his run at the driver's title, and it was all gone in an instant.

He was so angry that when he got back to the pits,

he threw his steering wheel at his mechanic, got out the car, and headed straight for the McLaren garage.

He confronted Coulthard, who still had his helmet on.

He was totally convinced that Coulthard was the one to blame for whatever just went down on the track.

And let me tell you, the exchange was fiery.

Coulthard later recounted that Schumacher was fuming, accusing him of some pretty serious stuff.

We're talking trying-to-fucking-kill-me kind of accusations.

Things got so intense that the Ferrari and McLaren crews had to step in and physically separate the two hot-headed drivers.

Now this was true drama.

This is what you'd call in cinema terms, pure kino.

But the German wasn't done yet.

He stormed off to the steward's office to officially lodge a protest against Colthard.

Later, David Coulthard shared his thoughts on Michael Schumacher's antics, saying, "'It's disgusting behavior for someone who's got such a fantastic record for driving in this sport.

He really needs to get some sort of help for controlling his anger after such an event.'"

Yeah, I wasn't kidding when I said the spice was off the charts with this one.

With 19 laps remaining, Damon Hill now found himself back in the lead, except there would be a twist in the tale yet.

Despite Michael's accident, there was still hope for a Schumacher victory.

Ralph Schumacher, proving that wet weather skills ran in the family, had been climbing through the field and was sitting in third place before his brother's mishap.

He had managed to reduce Hill's lead from 22 seconds to just over 10 at one point, and when the safety car was deployed following a crash between Giancarlo Fisichella and Shinji Nakano, Ralf got a chance to restart the race rightly behind Hill as the safety car came in with 12 laps to go.

Jordan now saw the possibility of not only a victory, but also a 1-2 finish.

a first in the history of the team in a season where they hadn't finished higher than fourth ralph encouraged by his engineer sam michael quickly found a good rhythm on the restart and piled pressure on hill as the race entered its closing stages with the rain still pouring down hill started to feel the pressure and made his status as world champion clear to the team over the radio

Jordan, slow to make a decision, was considering all factors, including Ralph's contract negotiations for the following year.

Eventually, he decided to use team orders, instructing Ralph not to overtake Damon.

Ralph's engineer Sam Michael tried to get the message through to him several times, and let's just say Ralph wasn't a happy camper about it.

Despite the clear instruction, Schumacher continued to push.

Still, there was no response.

Silence.

It was his fourth attempt, but he finally got through to the German driver, who responded with a two-word reply.

Despite the team orders, there was a sense that Ralph might ignore them, especially since he was suing Jordan to be released from his contract and join Williams next year.

Eddie Irvine's race was over, too, as his Ferrari spun off the track into the gravel after clipping a curb.

Now, both Ferraris were also out.

Ralf was showing dedication to the team's orders, but Alessi was applying some pressure from behind, albeit unsuccessfully.

Frentzen and Denise would end up being unable to keep up with the leading trio, and Jarno truly managed to secure a valuable point for Prost.

albeit two laps behind the leaders.

Slow and steady comes sixth in the race, I suppose.

The race concluded on lap 44, with Damon Hill celebrating his historic victory for Jordan, their first-ever Grand Prix win and in a remarkable 1-2 finish.

Eddie Jordan's joy was evident as he performed a now-famous jig in the paddock.

Schumacher's frustration was apparent,

Much like his brother's anger in the McLaren garage earlier, he was denied a possible first win, and despite waving his cap and spraying champagne during the celebrations, he felt aggrieved.

So aggrieved that he even crashed Jordan's post-race celebrations, saying that Ralph would never drive for Jordan again.

If any of you were wondering, yes, he did actually follow up on that threat.

Ralph would achieve one final podium for Jordan at Monza,

before leaving the team for Williams, where he spent six years.

Michael missed out on a third world title, losing to Hakkinen in the final race.

Had he won at Spa, he would have gone into the title showdown at Suzuka with a six-point lead instead of a four-point deficit.

In the end, only eight out of 22 cars would finish the race,

with 13 out of 14 DNF in cars bowing out of the race due to some sort of collision or damage.

The only man that retired on track due to a mechanical failure was Esteban Twero in the Minardi Ford.

And boy, would he have been thanking his guardian angels for that.

So, not only was Spa 1998 a gift from the F1 scriptwriters, but it also had huge implications for the Drivers' Championship.

I quite doubt we will ever see a race like this again, mostly because the FIA would rather run two laps in the wet and then cool the race off these days.

That being said, if you enjoyed this video, why don't you check out the one I made about the greatest Formula 1 season of all time.

Something tells me you'll like that one.