Fortunes ebbed and flowed finally turning in Tampa’s favour when Mike Allstott scored on

Fortunes ebbed and flowed, finally turning in Tampa’s favour when Mike Allstott scored on a six-yard run with less than six minutes remaining. “We have eight more games to make it feel a lot better, but this is a good first step.”The league’s only other team without a win, the Carolina Panthers, ended their barren spell at the same time with a 31-17 success over the New Orleans Saints, masterminded by their quarterback, Steve Beuerlein, who threw touchdowns to Muhsin Muhammad and Raghib Ismail.While the Redskins and the Panthers were breaking their ducks, the Minnesota Vikings were relieved of their unbeaten record by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Ferrari salvaged credit and self-esteem from a season they promised would be theirs yet might have subjected them to humiliation.The field, of course, is cluttered with contrasting emotions. To his dismay, Hakkinen produced perhaps the performance of his life and regained the initiative.That we were denied the final showdown by a rule that stipulates a driver who stalls on the grid must start at the back is the abiding disappointment of the season. The abiding memories are of the stirring, fluctuating duel, the bravado of Schumacher and the growing stature of Hakkinen.

The Finn has moulded innate speed and courage into consistent racing potency. He has disproved the theories about a lack of cunning and nerve with a series of masterly, authoritative drives. Eight grand prix wins is testimony to his season’s work.McLaren, despite their blips, have had a superb year, and are restored to the top of the pile for the first time since 1991, a tribute to the unflinching resolve of Ron Dennis and his charges. Schumacher squandered the opportunity to lead the championship when he ran into the back of Coulthard at Spa, but drew level in Italy.It appeared the balance had shifted Schumacher’s way, the more so as he claimed pole position at the Nurburgring for the penultimate race.

He won in Canada, France and Britain to hoist himself up to Hakkinen’s shoulder.The challenge brought the best out of McLaren and Hakkinen, who countered with emphatic victories in Austria and Germany. They were adamant an improvement in their tyres had contributed substantially to their progress.A combination of gremlins in the works at McLaren, Ferrari’s remarkable reliability, and Schumacher’s incomparable ability to exploit weaknesses and capricious weather conditions, changed the complexion of the championship. Instead, Schumacher muscled him out of that row, quite literally, in Argentina, and although Coulthard won at Imola he soon became resigned to a bit part.Ferrari took a significant step forward in early summer, raising suspicions about the legality of their car. Hakkinen won in Australia, albeit with the compliance of his team-mate, David Coulthard, and won again in Brazil.It seemed the only hope for the show was that Coulthard might get his act together and give us a domestic squabble. Their car, created by Adrian Newey, who defected from Williams, and powered by an engine long developed and refined by Ilmor, was simply a class above the rest. He, and his team, closed it sufficiently to create a spectacle that not only went the distance but also left the audience craving the opening of the next production, in the spring.McLaren emerged this past spring as dominant as many inside the sport feared.