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The 1996 Formula One Season Statistics





- 10.03.1996: Melbourne, Australia, 58 laps
     Name                  Nat    Race Time     Speed

1.   Damon Hill            GBR  1h32:50.491     198.736
2.   Jacques Villeneuve    CAN       38.020     197.388
3.   Eddie Irvine          IRL     1:02.571     196.528
4.   Gerhard Berger        AUT     1:17.037    	196.025
5.   Mika Hakkinen         FIN     1:35.071     195.401
6.   Mika Salo             FIN        1 lap     194.865
7.   Olivier Panis         FRA        1 lap     194.472
8.   H.-H. Frentzen        GER        1 lap     193.953
9.   Ricardo Rosset        BRA       2 laps     190.816
10.  Pedro Diniz           BRA       2 laps     190.678
11.  Ukyo Katayama         JPN       3 laps     188.411

Not classified:

     Pedro Lamy            POR      16 laps    	176.631
     Michael Schumacher    GER      26 laps     191.971
     Giancarlo Fisichella  ITA      26 laps     187.957
     Rubens Barrichello    BRA      29 laps     194.533
     David Coulthard       SCO      34 laps     191.258
     Jos Verstappen        HOL      43 laps     189.549
     Jean Alesi            FRA      49 laps     196.035
     Martin Brundle        GBR      57 laps     163.865

Not restarted:

     Johnny Herbert        GBR

Not qualified:

     Luca Badoer           ITA
     Andrea Montermini     ITA


Fastest Lap:   Jacques Villeneuve   1:33:421   204.313


The two Fortis did not make it to the starting grid, because of the new 107 percent rule in the qualifying. During the confirmation lap, Heinz-Harald Frentzen had to stop his car. The first race lap was stopped by a red flag: Martin Brundle stepped out of a totally damaged Jordan wreck with no injuries, involved were David Coulthard and Johnny Herbert. A restart was necessary. Heinz-Harald Frentzen, being the first driver of the Sauber team had priority in taking the spare car, so Johnny Herberts race was over before it was (re)started.

The race was dominated by the new F1 driver Villeneuve who was safely ahead of Hill and the later retiring Schumacher. According to technical problems, Villeneuve had to slow down and let Hill pass just a few laps before winning his first grand prix. Schumacher had to give up because of brake problems at the right front wheel. After a good start, Alesi crashed his car in lap 9 in a hurried attempt to overtake Irvine whose car had no remarkable damage. A calm race drove Berger and Hakkinen with whom Barrichello fought for position before retiring. Mika Salo was not awaited to finish ahead of Frentzen and Panis and started the season like in 95 with a remarkable result. A disappointing weekend for Coulthard who seemed to have not yet come together with his car. The Jordans test results in Estoril and the practice times in Melbourne promised better results for both Martin Brundle and Rubens Barrichello. But we can not judge their prospect for this season just by the races outcome.

In Melbourne, the new 107 percent regulation was applied to the Fortis. Their qualifying time was over the time limit and so they were not admitted to the race. We have to see, how the officials will decide, when for the first time a runner from the front rows is not able to establish a qualifying time good enough for the race. It could well be that a car has a spin in his outlap and then he has few chances to get on the grid for the race. I am curious to see how they decide if a Ferrari or a Benetton had to watch the race from the outside...



- 31.03.1996: Interlagos, Sao Paulo, Brasil, 71 laps
     Name                  Nat    Race Time     Speed

1.   Damon Hill            GBR  1h49:52.976     167.673
2.   Jean Alesi            FRA       17.982     167.217
3.   Michael Schumacher    GER        1 lap     165.122
4.   Mika Hakkinen         FIN        1 lap     164.735
5.   Mika Salo             FIN        1 lap     164.480
6.   Olivier Panis         FRA        1 lap     164.289
7.   Eddie Irvine          IRL        1 lap     163.368
8.   Pedro Diniz           BRA       2 laps     162.094
9.   Ukyo Katayama         JPN       2 laps     161.288
10.  Pedro Lamy            POR       3 laps     160.348
11.  Luca Badoer           ITA       4 laps     156.800
12.  Martin Brundle        GBR       7 laps     161.890

Not classified:

     Rubens Barrichello    BRA      12 laps     161.736
     H.-H. Frentzen        GER      35 laps     154.106
     David Coulthard       SCO      42 laps     151.268
     Johnny Herbert        GBR      43 laps     149.513
     Jacques Villeneuve    CAN      45 laps     155.929
     Gerhard Berger        AUT      45 laps     151.270
     Andrea Montermini     ITA      45 laps     144.124
     Ricardo Rosset        BRA      47 laps     152.761
     Jos Verstappen        HOL      52 laps     151.570
     Tarso(sp?) Marques    BRA      71 laps

Not qualified:

All drivers qualified for the race.


Fastest lap:   Damon Hill   1:21.547   190.932


Short before the start of the race, a heavy rainshower came down, so the track was enormouslly slippery for the first part of the race. Damon Hill took advantage of his pole position and managed to open up a gap of about 15 seconds in the first couple of laps and after that he was in control of the race. A group of four, later five was fighting for second position, lead by Villeneuve, chased by Alesi and Barrichello, with Schumacher in the back end of their slipstream and even Frentzen could close up to the back end of that tail. This was the first time Schumacher and Frentzen were fighting for position in Formula One and Frentzen did a superb job in the wet, but he did not succeed in overtaking Schumacher. Frentzen had to stop in the mid part of the race, as Verstappen had to. The flying Dutchman has to be mentioned, as he was the man who put in fastest lap after fastest lap in this early part of the race. He was the second one to step out of the car, after the newcomer Marques giving up after damaging his car in his very first lap in a Formula One car. But his practice performance was more promising and it was there where he justified replacing Fisichella in the Minardi.

While Berger stopped his car in the pit with technical problems, Alesi started another attack on second place man Villeneuve. Alesi stepped out on the straight, braked a little too hard, so his back started to come round, but he recovered. Villeneuve tried to defend his position so they went side by side into the corner, but the Canadian came on the wet part of the track and lost grip; he ended up in the gravel and Barrichello, Schumacher and Frentzen, who have watched the manouver in secure distance could move up one place. At that time the track was partially drying up and Coulthard was the first to take the risk and change to slicks. He was able to run at the speed of the better drivers on wet tyres, but the Scotsman was trapped in the gravel a few laps later after spinning off.

The first top drivers to come to the pits were Schumacher, Frentzen and Barrichello, but they dropped down the order and Frentzen dropped even out. Hill was the first front driver to change to slicks and though Alesi followed him for the rest of the race, the distance between those two remained at about 15-20 seconds, except for the pit stop period of Hill, when Alesi lead the race for a few laps. After all drivers had changed tyres at least once, Barrichello was able to close down on Schumacher. He tried to overtake the reigning world champion but his impatience made him spin off at the same place where Villeneuve did earlier on.

So Hill, Alesi and Schumacher were the podium finishers followed by Hakkinen, who drove a consistent race race as well as the other Finn Salo behind him and Panis inheriting the final point. Irvine again as in Australia brought home the second Ferrari. Final comment on the weekend is that the Jordans again promised a lot more in qualifying than what they could score with Barrichello as well as Brundle spinning off. Villeneuve showed a great wet weather performance until his spin off. The surprising of the weekend was the Arrows team. Verstappen showed great practicing and qualifying times and especially in the race until his retirement, he was one of the fastest drivers on the track. Rumours were heard that Tom Walkinshaw is to come to the Arrows team. The Brit is now involved in the Ligier team that, despite their first championship point scored today by Panis, seems to dissolve a little with Briatore selling his shares and Walkinshaw leaving to Arrows. We will see what is to come...



- 07.04.1996: Buenos Aires, Argentina, 72 laps
     Name                  Nat    Race Time     Speed

1.   Damon Hill            GBR  1h54:55.322     160.013
2.   Jacques Villeneuve    CAN       12.167     159.731
3.   Jean Alesi            FRA       14.754     159.671
4.   Rubens Barrichello    BRA       55.131     158.743
5.   Eddie Irvine          IRL     1:04.991     158.519
6.   Jos Verstappen        HOL     1:08.913     158.429
7.   David Coulthard       SCO     1:13.400     158.327
8.   Olivier Panis         FRA     1:14.295     158.307
9.   Johnny Herbert        GBR        1 lap     155.859
10.  Andrea Montermini     ITA       3 laps     152.433

Not classified:

     Gerhard Berger        AUT      16 laps     157.452
     Michael Schumacher    GER      26 laps     154.594
     Pedro Lamy            POR      33 laps     152.441
     Mika Salo             FIN      36 laps     121.095
     Martin Brundle        GBR      38 laps     151.140
     Tarso(sp?) Marques    BRA      39 laps     151.257
     H.-H. Frentzen        GER      40 laps     151.301
     Pedro Diniz           BRA      43 laps     160.227
     Ukyo Katayama         JPN      44 laps     161.321
     Ricardo Rosset        BRA      48 laps     157.504
     Luca Badoer           ITA      48 laps     155.120
     Mika Hakkinen         FIN      53 laps     162.575

Not qualified:

All drivers qualified for the race.


Fastest lap:   Jean Alesi   1:29.413   171.478


After a clean start from everybody, Mika Hakkinen was the first one to retire with the other Finn Mika Salo struggling with engine problems and finding himself out of the race quite a bit later. Like in Brasil, Hill was again comfortable in control of the race with Schumacher, Alesi and Berger following. Villeneuve who fell back to nineth place after a miserable start worked his way up the order to fifth place. The pace car had to catch the field according to one of the Fortis being found upside down in the gravel bed. Badoer climbed out of the car unhurt. During this pace car period, a strange thing happened: While breaking into a corner, suddenly the Ligier of Diniz exhaled a huge amount of fuel. The car was catching fire and slid off the track where it came to a halt. Diniz managed to escape the car "just" with a shock, but nobody could imagine, how this could have happened and where the fuel came from. This is clearly a thing to be examined.

Though Hill lost his advantage over the trio of Schumacher, Alesi and Berger and these three lost their advantage over Villeneuve after being gathered behind the pace car, neither of the lucky ones could take profit of these circumstances. The order remained the same and not even the pit stops changed the positions of the drivers. Marques made it a little further into the Grand Prix than in Brasil, but this time he braked too late in lap 33 and took Martin Brundle with him out of the race.

After the second round of pit stops Schumacher did not make it very far. He has again lost a part of the rear wing, as he has in the qualifying session in Australia. Additionally his engine power suddenly seemed to have dropped and he went back in the pits and stepped out of the car. Jean Alesi had a free road ahead of him and was able to reduce the gap to Hill, but he stalled the engine in the pits and with this he lost all chances to challenge Hill for victory. Berger had to stop the car because of engine problems, so Villeneuve was second place man positioned behind his team mate Hill, who was able to make his way safely to the victory. Barrichello managed to finish behind Alesi and succeeded with his race strategy of just one pit stop. Irvine was able to win the battle for fifth position against Verstappen, Coulthard and Panis.

It is again Verstappen who has to be mentioned. Over the whole weekend he was able to put in fast laps as well as in Brasil, but this time his efforts paid out. He could score his first point in this season for the team now lead by Tom Walkinshaw who surely will bring the team another step further with his experience and let alone his money.

The advantage that Hill has in the championship is tremendous. But it appears not to be so big on the track. To my opinion, the difference between the Williams and the following teams is less than it has been in the last couple of years and even the gap between the following teams down to the last rows of the grid (except the Fortis) has never been so small. It is down to the reliability of the Williams team and their drivers that they can come to the Nürburgring with such an enormous gap and we will see how the cars will perform after three weeks of intense testing...



- 28.04.1996: Nürburgring, Europe, 67 laps
     Name                  Nat    Race Time     Speed

1.   Jacques Villeneuve    CAN  1h33:26.473     196.006
2.   Michael Schumacher    GER        0.762     195.980
3.   David Coulthard       SCO       32.834     194.865
4.   Damon Hill            GBR       33.511     194.842
5.   Rubens Barrichello    BRA       33.713     194.835
6.   Martin Brundle        GBR       55.567     194.083
7.   Johnny Herbert        GBR     1:18.027     193.316
8.   Mika Hakkinen         FIN     1:18.438     193.302
9.   Gerhard Berger        AUT     1:21.061     193.213
10.  Mika Salo             FIN        1 lap     192.740
11.  Pedro Diniz           BRA        1 lap     190.684
12.  Ukyo Katayama         JPN       2 laps     189.982
13.  Ricardo Rosset        BRA       2 laps     189.903
14.  Pedro Lamy            POR       2 laps     188.911
15.  Giancarlo Fisichella  ITA       2 laps     188.195

Not classified:

     H.-H. Frentzen        GER       8 laps     191.506
     Jos Verstappen        HOL      29 laps     193.208
     Olivier Panis         FRA      61 laps     183.512
     Eddie Irvine          IRL      61 laps     182.247
     Jean Alesi            FRA      66 laps     169.797

Not qualified:

     Andrea Montermini     ITA
     Luca Badoer           ITA


Fastest lap:   Damon Hill   1:21.363   201.585


Polesitter Damon Hill made a bad start, enabling other drivers to improve in position in the first meters of the Grand Prix. The Benettons of Berger as well as Alesi did start even worse with Berger having some kind of front lock-up. For this reason he had to steer to the pits at the end of lap one, but the team could fix the problem, so he was given the chance to continue. Alesi was absolutely impatient in returning to his grid position after his bad start. He ran into Salo's car at the beginning of lap two with the result of no result for him at the Grand Prix of Europe. After all the start troubles, Villeneuve was in the lead and he was able to pull away from the rest of the field. Coulthard, who made a tremendous start from the third row found himself in second position leading a tight group of a couple of cars with Barrichello, Schumacher, Hill, Hakkinen and Frentzen following. The second Ferrrari was taken out of the race by Ligier driver Panis who braked too late. But Irvine admitted that he had problems with the engine as well as with the clutch of his Ferrari.

Hill rapidly did make it past Schumacher, but he was stuck behind Barrichello. The Peugeot engine showed an impressive performance disabling Hill to overtake on the straight. At around lap 13, Barrichello even was able to open up a small gap to Hill. The Brit was the first of the front runners to come to the pits where the Williams crew not only was refueling and changing tyres, but they made some adjustments at the wings of Hills car. So he needed more than ten extra seconds for his pit stop coming back to the track in eleventh position. The other drivers made regular pit stops with not much time lost, but even these single seconds changed the order: Villeneuve was still leading ahead of the closing down Schumacher, Hakkinen, his teammate Coulthard and Barrichello.

Mika Hakkinen got a ten second penalty for pit lane speeding. A beginners mistake, one would think, but as he did the same thing after the second pit stop, there had to be a malfunction in his speed-button-system. Bad luck for the Mercedes driver who showed an improved performance compared to the last races. We can just guess how far he could have been up the order with not having to stop twice due to speeding.

Hill was struggling making his way back up the order and after being held up by Brundle, who was fighting for position, I probably should remind, Hill did not have the necessary patience for Diniz and so after having contact, both drivers had to take their way across the gravel with Brundle and other drivers again going past Hill. Meanwhile Schumacher was able to get into the slipstream of Villeneuve, but the World Champion was slower on the straight so there was no chance for him improving in position.

For the rest of the race it was tight between those two, but Schumacher could not overtake on the straight and Villeneuve got it right in lapping the traffic, so the Canadian made it to his first Formula One Grand Prix victory. Hill provided a lot of tension in the last part of the race, because he could overtake a couple of cars, but his often mentioned weakness in dealing with traffic denied him from finishing on the podium. On the last lap he had the chance to get past last year teammate Coulthard, but the McLaren-Mercedes driver knows Hill very well and he knew how to defend his third place.

Though Hill made mistakes this weekend, at least he was able to score points and in doing so constantly, you become a world champion. He still has a safe lead over Villeneuve who will for the first time drive on a circuit known to him next weekend in Imola. The Williams cars can not be beaten by other drivers at the moment except they make mistakes like Hill did today. Behind the Williams cars there is a large group of potential podium finishers. But these teams struggle with the reliability of the cars or of the drivers like in Alesi's case. The Benettons every weekend look strong, but they are not able to get the strength to the checkered flag. The Ferrari appears to better than it is. Due to Schumachers total commitment and his ability to drive the hell out of his car, they are able to follow Villeneuve. Ferrari announced some improvements for next week in Imola and it is there where we will see how Schumacher and Irvine will perform in front of their new Ferraristi-home crowd...



- 05.05.1996: Imola, San Marino, 63 laps
     Name                  Nat    Race Time     Speed

1.   Damon Hill            GBR  1h35:26.156     193.761
2.   Michael Schumacher    GER       16.460     193.205
3.   Gerhard Berger        AUT       46.891    	192.187
4.   Eddie Irvine          IRL     1:01.583     191.699
5.   Rubens Barrichello    BRA     1:18.490     191.141
6.   Jean Alesi            FRA        1 lap     190.106
7.   Pedro Diniz           BRA        1 lap     188.474
8.   Mika Hakkinen         FIN       2 laps     188.829
9.   Pedro Lamy            POR       2 laps    	184.603
10.  Luca Badoer           ITA       4 laps     180.057
11.  Jacques Villeneuve    CAN       6 laps     190.513

Not classified:

     Olivier Panis         FRA       9 laps     188.950
     Ukyo Katayama         JPN      18 laps     189.431
     David Coulthard       SCO      19 laps     191.424
     Ricardo Rosset        BRA      23 laps     186.185
     Jos Verstappen        HOL      25 laps     189.708
     Martin Brundle        GBR      27 laps     189.136
     H.-H. Frentzen        GER      31 laps     189.763
     Giancarlo Fisichella  ITA      33 laps     186.182
     Johnny Herbert        GBR      38 laps     174.809
     Mika Salo             FIN      40 laps     191.307


Not qualified:

     Andrea Montermini     ITA


Fastest Lap:   Damon Hill   1:28.931   198.032


The start of the San Marino Grand Prix was a real cracker. Coulthard who had qualified in fourth position managed to snatch the lead away from everybody. Schumacher was not able to take advantage of his first Ferrari pole and Hill could pass him. Salo did a tremendous start and came up to fourth, Villneuve damaged his left rear tyre in a battle with Alesi resulting in Villeneuve had to let pass the whole field and had to come to the pits for new tyres after lap one. He joined the race in last position and with a 50 second gap to the next runner in front of him.

Though Schumacher did not make a good start, he was able to come back up to second in the first laps and he was right in the back of Coulthard. These two opened up a small gap over Hill, who had more fuel on board and so wasn't quite able to follow. Salo had to let Berger through in lap two, but he was able to hold that fifth position in front of Barrichello. The World Champion was a bit faster than the leader Coulthard, but it was not enough for an attack. So he had to sit and wait the things to develop. And Things did not develop in the favour of Schumacher. The two leaders were not able to increase the gap to Hill, who seemed to have much more fuel on board.

Alesi was the first one of the top cars to come to the pits. He not just refueled and changed tires, but also changed the stering wheel. As Schumacher did stop later than Coulthard, he took the lead for the first time and he gained that necessary second in the pits, so he came back on the track in front of Coulthard. Poor Mika Salo had to give up due to an engine blow-up denying him the reward for a great first part of the race.

Damon Hill was going round and round the track and everybody was wondering when will this guy come in for fuel, how much did he have on board at the start of the race. It was nearly half distance through the San Marino Grand Prix when race leader Hill came in and he went out right in front of Schumacher, who again seemed to be a little bit faster, but not enough to overtake. Again Schumacher had to wait for the pit stops and he decided to come in and try it with that strategy rather than being stuck behind Hill.

During the second round of pit stops, we had to watch pictures we don't want to see. Again like two years ago a mechanic was hurt during a pit stop. It turned out to be a member of the Arrows team and it is said that Verstappen tried to drive off the pits with the refuelling not quite completed. Probably it is bad luck, that such an incident again happened at Imola, but one could also see the very narrow pit lane as a reason for this. Last time they decided only to let the team personel that is working on the car for a very small time span before and after the stop out of the garage to have minimal number of people standing in the way, but you could see very tight incidents several times, when the divers were accelerating very hard out of the pits, swinging the back of theirs cars to one side and/or the other. Luckily the mechanic was not seriously injured, but they have to think about this problem especially in Imola and probably even more for the forthcoming Grand Prix in Monaco, where the pit lane is even narrower.

After these pit stops, Schumacher saw himself struggling in putting laps on the drivers, who were amongst each other fighting for position. For not paying attention to the leading cars, Hakkinen, who had a black weekend and Diniz were given a 10 second penalty for blocking. Later Alesi was the man in the way of Schumacher. In contrast to that, Hill seemed to have a free road ahead of him and so after his last pit stop he had an advantage of about 20 seconds over Schumacher and this gap remained to the checkered flag. Schumacher crossed the line although some hundred meters earlier, suddenly his right front wheel stopped turning and he had to be careful for the last corners.

Meanwhile Coulthard had an electrical problem that made him give up his secure third place which was inherited by Berger. Irvine drove a calm race and scored again points. So did Barrichello in fifth place. Finally ending in sixth position was Alesi who made a couple of mistakes throughout the race including the contact with Villeneuve in the first lap, spinning and a pit lane speeding penalty. But he was not the only one to get that penalty. Several drivers had to come to the pits for an extra ten seconds. Probably some drivers did not recognize that the pit speed was reduced to 80 kph for this Grand Prix. In the closing laps of the race, we had quite a lot retirements with Villeneuve being the most important. He drove a good race after his tire damage in the first lap and managed to go up the classification to the final point scoring sixth position, but with only few laps to go, his job was done and he was not rewarded for his efforts. Among the other retirements was Hakkinen, who stopped the car with a smokey engine in the last lap.

The Arrows team was not able to get one car to the checkered flag and did not repeat their great performances of the last Grand Prixs. The Saubers as well did stop on the track far from the end of the race. As their Ford engine lacks of a lot of power, the team has to run with less wings and the drivers have to go to the extreme. Before the season started one thought that Sauber is among the teams regularly placed in the points, but Ford very early decided to support the Steward team next season and they are already giving much of this years money to the development of that team instead of putting it into the improvement of this years engine. Sauber have to pay the price and so the top driver Frentzen has not yet been able to score some points in this season. Hopefully this team can survive this hard year and go for it next season with a different engine manufacturer.

So we saw a great performance of the Ferrari during qualifying, when the Maranello runners could use the new improved engine. In the reace itself, they did not trust the stability of the new motor and used the old one. They told that in two weeks time in Monaco, the new engine should be ready for the race. With Schumacher at the wheel this is a great prospect...



- 19.05.1996: Monte Carlo, Monaco, 75 laps

Normally the race length would be 78 laps, but due to the track conditions and the two hour limit, the race was stopped after lap 75.
     Name                  Nat    Race Time     Speed

1.   Olivier Panis         FRA  2h00:45.629     124.014
2.   David Coulthard       SCO        4.828     123.931
3.   Johnny Herbert        GBR       37.503     123.375
4.   H.-H. Frentzen        GER        1 lap     122.773
5.   Mika Salo             FIN       5 laps     122.846
6.   Mika Hakkinen         FIN       5 laps     122.836
7.   Eddie Irvine          IRL       7 laps     119.467

Not classified:

     Jacques Villeneuve    CAN       9 laps     122.173
     Jean Alesi            FRA      15 laps     120.819
     Luca Badoer           ITA      15 laps     111.111
     Damon Hill            GBR      35 laps     116.171
     Martin Brundle        GBR      45 laps     109.144
     Gerhard Berger        AUT      66 laps    	106.096
     Pedro Diniz           BRA      70 laps      97.620
     Ricardo Rosset        BRA      72 laps      95.218
     Ukyo Katayama         JPN      73 laps      96.222
     Michael Schumacher    GER      75 laps
     Rubens Barrichello    BRA      75 laps
     Jos Verstappen        HOL      75 laps
     Pedro Lamy            POR      75 laps
     Giancarlo Fisichella  ITA      75 laps


Qualified, but did not start:

     Andrea Montermini     ITA


Fastest Lap:   Jean Alesi   1:25.205   140.611


One thing before I start: The race at Monaco was unbelievable!!

After it had rained between the last practice on Sunday morning and the race, an additional accomodation session of 15 minutes was held at noon in order to enable the drivers to find a wet weather setup. Something must have happened to Montermini during this session, because he did not take his place on the starting grid. At the time of the start of the race, the track was still moist and slippery, but the rain had stopped.

Damon Hill had the better start, so he could overtake pole sitter Schumacher in the first meters of this years grand prix. The field managed to come round the first corner, except for some back markers including both Minardis and Verstappen, who could not wait to get out of their cars. The driving machine Schumacher surprised all the crowd watching the race by misjudging his grip on the inner curb after the Loews hairpin and crashed into the barrier. So after the first lap, just 16 cars were remaining.

Hill, as ever, was able to pull away from the field and nobody really could follow. Second place man Alesi was losing nearly two seconds a lap in the first minutes of the race and Berger followed the Frenchman in a secure distance. In lap 12, Berger stopped his Benetton with gear box problems, ending his weekend that had not started too bad with his qualifying performance, but again ended very early due to technical problems. Till that point of the race only 12 cars were still in the race (if you count the Forti of Badoer as "in the race").

After Bergers bad luck, Irvine and Frentzens battle was for third position. Frentzen was clearly the faster of the two, but as the Monte Carlo circuit is the tightest one, there was no way for Frentzen. The German driver became impatient after a while and tried the impossible. The result was a damaged front wing on Frentzens car. Irvine luckily got away with it. Frentzen rejoined the race in 11th and last position (disregarding Badoer).

As Hill had easily pulled away and was in front quite comfortably, everybody was expecting the race to be over, but a surprising engine blow-up took Hills Williams out of the race and denied Damon Hill from following his father Graham Hill, who had won the race in Monaco several times in the sixties and seventies. Hill has to wait another year to win the worlds most famous grand prix and to get the cup out of the hand of prince Rainier. The first engine failure of a Renault powered Williams in this season took out the leader of the race and more was still to come.

Alesi inherited the lead from Hill and Irvine and Panis were fighting for the second position. Panis got impatient as Frentzen did before and tried it on the inside of the Loews hairpin. Irvine saw Panis very late and tried to shut the door; it could not be seen on television, whether the two touched or if Irvine simply could not come round the corner. The result was Panis in second position and Irvine stopped at the barrier. But neither of the two damaged his car and even Irvine kept his engine running and managed to come back to the race again. The Irishman losened his safety belt in the belief that his race was over, but as the marshalls pushed him out of the dangerous area and his engine was still running he went to the pits and let the team fix his problem. Ironically he came out of the pits right in front of Panis but two laps down. This time he let Panis through.

Meanwhile race leader Alesi stopped his car in the pits after a previous pit stop did not solve the problem with his right rear tyre. Villeneuves weekend ended with Badoer not seeing him when he tried to lap the Brazilian. The Canadian was not successful this weekend; after he qualified way back on the grid, he got stuck in the race in a group of cars around fifth position, but Badoers mistake denied him from scoring points. By that time it was clearly that the race would not be ended by the projected 78 laps, but by the two hour limit.

With about fifteen minutes to go, only 7 cars were running and Frentzen who was lapped after his early wing damage was the last one of them, hoping that he could score his first points in this season for the Sauber team, if somebody of the remainders fell out. And so it proved to come: Irvine spun in the Portier corner and got to a halt in the wrong direction. So he tried to turn around with a powerslide, but in that moment, Salo and Hakkinen came round the corner. These two had been involved in a fight for position nearly all race long and did not know what was going on behind the corner. When they saw Irvine doing the donut, it was already too late. Salo could not avoid Irvine and Hakkinen completed a three car rear-end collision known from inner cities. Luckily, this crash was not very far from the finish, so the two Finns were classified and scored points.

Frentzen said thank you and moved up to fourth position behind his teammate Herbert who drove an even race from start to finish and deserved the four points he scored. The Sauber team now finally got into the points and showed a little progress, but the engine still seems to lack power. Especially Frentzen drove a tremendous race until his incident with Irvine, but after the track dried out, he was not able to further improve. So these efforts came more from a very talented (esp. wet-weather) driver that has not yet had the chance to show his real potential in a front row car than from the improving Ford engine.

With only two minutes to go, Panis lead over Coulthard by three seconds and normally this is it. But not so this time in Monaco: On the one hand, Coulthard reduced the gap, on the other hand some raindrops started falling that could provide further confusion and if this was not enough, Panis was very, very low on fuel. So the viewer was under tension till the last meters of the grand prix. Some higher power decided that the race had seen enough drama and so the rain waited till the race and the slow down lap was over, then coming down even more. Coulthard said a second place is better than giving away the points in a risky manoeuver and the fuel of Panis was enough to go round the track waving the French flag to the cheering audience.

So we had a surprise winner, but you can not say that Panis only inherited the victory. He showed strong performances in the practice sessions, but had bad luck in the qualifying so he had to start from fourteenth position. During the race he constantly was one of the quickest cars on the track and he was one of the few cars that were able to overtake on the very narrow track. Therefore he deserves his victory.

After the most exciting qualifying session for a long time with Schumacher and Hill battling for pole, we saw a race that did not excite me less. In order to have more races with such a tension, we need modifications: It must be a wet race on a tight circuit, so Frentzen can cope with the front runners. There must not be a corner named Portier, so probably the Ferraris have better luck. Finally we need accidental, but regular engine failures in Hills car, so we can see at least for a few times a different person on top of the winners podium...



- 02.06.1996: Barcelona, Spain, 65 laps
     Name                  Nat    Race Time     Speed

1.   Michael Schumacher    GER  1h59:49.307     153.785
2.   Jean Alesi            FRA       45.302     152.822
3.   Jacques Villeneuve    CAN       48.388     152.757
4.   H.-H. Frentzen        GER        1 lap     151.081
5.   Mika Hakkinen         FIN        1 lap     150.004
6.   Pedro Diniz           BRA       2 laps     148.142

Not classified:

     Jos Verstappen        HOL      18 laps     150.938
     Rubens Barrichello    BRA      20 laps     150.569
     Gerhard Berger        AUT      21 laps    	151.194
     Johnny Herbert        GBR      45 laps     150.028
     Martin Brundle        GBR      48 laps     149.221
     Mika Salo             FIN      49 laps     136.570
     Damon Hill            GBR      55 laps     147.649
     Ukyo Katayama         JPN      57 laps     137.576
     Eddie Irvine          IRL      64 laps     142.271
     Olivier Panis         FRA      64 laps     114.771
     Giancarlo Fisichella  ITA      64 laps      92.703
     David Coulthard       SCO      65 laps
     Ricardo Rosset        BRA      65 laps
     Pedro Lamy            POR      65 laps


Not qualified:

     Andrea Montermini     ITA
     Luca Badoer           ITA


Fastest Lap:   Michael Schumacher    1:45.517   161.274


He did it!!! The first victory for Schumacher in the Ferrari.

But let's go through the order. The Fortis changed the color outfit of their cars. With a new sponsor, they painted their cars in green and white, but this also did not help them to get their cars on the grid. So just 20 cars started their attempts for victory at the Spanish Grand Prix. It has to be discussed whether the race should have better been started behind the pace car because of the heavy rainfall. Do they always need serious crashs before thinking about reducing the endangerment of the drivers, mechanics and marshalls?!

As in Monte Carlo last time, some cars did not really make it into the race. The two Minardis were again both out before they completed the first lap. Lamy and Coulthard had to step out of their cars as well as Irvine and last time winner Panis. Salo started from the pit lane and probably this was better for him, keeping him out of the mid-field battles with no visibilities.

Hill made a bad start and Schumacher's was much more worse, so Villeneuve and Alesi went into the first corner in front of Hill, Berger, Barrichello and Schumacher. Herbert lost his 7th place due to spinning off, but he got out of the gravel and rejoined the race a little further behind. Schumacher overtook Barrichello in lap three and it was this lap, when Hill for the first time went off track. The championship leader rejoined in fifth position behind the reigning world champion. But he did not see Schumachers red rear light for long. The German drove tremendous, passed Berger and closed up to the leading two cars of Villeneuve and Alesi. The Frenchman was clearly the faster of these two, but there was no room and no vivsibility for a manoeuver.

Hill tried other manoeuvers: While braking, the rear end of his car came round and he had to take a trip through the gravel for the secod time. In lap ten, he spun at the entry to the starting straight. This time he crashed into the pit lane barrier and damaged his car. His race was over. Meanwhile at the front Alesi was stuck behind Villeneuve and Schumacher joined the battle. But Schumacher did not wait for long. He shot in the inside of Alesi at the Seat corner and did the same to Villeneuve a couple of laps later.

He extended his lead by up to five seconds per lap and the first Ferrari-Schumacher win was only endangered by his dare-devilish driving style and his engine that was running only on 8 to 9 cylinders from the middle of the race on. But finally he got through.

Behind Schumacher only the drop-outs and the pit stops provided some action. Villeneuve lost his second place to Alesi during the pitstop period and Berger dropped down the order to the end after he had damaged his car as a result of a driver error. Barrichello made a very late pit stop and till this pit stop, he drove a good race. But soon afterwards he stepped out of his car because of clutch problems. After the mechanics did their best to fix the problem, Barrichellojumped into his car again and rejoined the race though being a couple of laps down, because there were only seven runners beside him and in case of two other retirements he had a prospect to score a point. But the next retirement was he himself.

The last one to step out of the car early was Verstappen, who was one of the few not to recover after a spin-off. So the Dutchman enabled Diniz, who is not known for his extraordinary driving abilities, but for his million dollar sponsor connections, to score his first ever Formula One championship point in his career. Hakkinen was rewarded two points for a equalized race with one sole highlight. He was the last one to come in for the one and only pit stop and surprised the viewers with the tank capacity of the McLaren-Mercedes. Besides Hakkinen seems to have learnt his lesson from Imola, where he got a penalty for not letting race leaders through. In this race, he was very generous, when Schumacher, Alesi or Villeneuve came to put a lap on him. Frentzen scored three points for his calm race that was a big contrast to his furious race in Monaco. The podium finishers were the before mentioned Villeneuve as third, Alesi as second and Schumacher as the winner of this race.

As the Ferrari crew announced some improvements and changes for the next Grand Prix in Canada and as that Grand Prix seems to suit the Ferrari (Alesi won in 95 in a Ferrari), the fans can hope for more tension and who knows what will be the gap between Hill and his championship rival(s) in two weeks time...



- 16.07.1996: Montreal, Canada, 69 laps
     Name                  Nat    Race Time     Speed

1.   Damon Hill            GBR  1h36:03.465
2.   Jacques Villeneuve    CAN        4.183
3.   Jean Alesi            FRA       54.656
4.   David Coulthard       SCO     1:03.673
5.   Mika Hakkinen         FIN        1 lap
6.   Martin Brundle        GBR        1 lap
7.   Johnny Herbert        GBR        1 lap
8.   Giancarlo Fisichella  ITA       2 laps

Not classified:

     Luca Badoer           ITA      24 laps
     Pedro Lamy            POR      24 laps
     Gerhard Berger        AUT      26 laps
     Michael Schumacher    GER      27 laps
     Mika Salo             FIN      29 laps
     Olivier Panis         FRA      29 laps
     Pedro Diniz           BRA      30 laps
     Andrea Montermini     ITA      46 laps
     Rubens Barrichello    BRA      46 laps
     H.-H. Frentzen        GER      49 laps
     Jos Verstappen        HOL      58 laps
     Ukyo Katayama         JPN      62 laps
     Ricardo Rosset        BRA      62 laps
     Eddie Irvine          IRL      67 laps

Not qualified:

All drivers qualified for the race.


Fastest lap:   Jacques Villeneuve   1:21.916


Due to the European Football Championship, I had no time to write my comment on this event and now I'm not delighted to do it. So, this time no comment, just very short: Schumachers car was nto started on time, so he had to follow the field in the parade lap and start from the back. Immediately after a pit stop his drive shaft broke into pieces and ended his race. Easy ten points for Hill!



- 30.06.1996: Magny Cours, France, 72 laps
     Name                  Nat    Race Time     Speed

1.   Damon Hill            GBR  1h36:28.795
2.   Jacques Villeneuve    CAN        8.127
3.   Jean Alesi            FRA       46.442
4.   Gerhard Berger        AUT       46.859
5.   Mika Hakkinen         FIN     1:02.774
6.   David Coulthard       SCO        1 lap
7.   Olivier Panis         FRA        1 lap
8.   Martin Brundle        GBR        1 lap
9.   Rubens Barrichello    BRA        1 lap
10.  Mika Salo             FIN       2 laps
11.  Johnny Herbert        GBR       2 laps
12.  Ricardo Rosset        BRA       3 laps
13.  Pedro Lamy            POR       3 laps

Not classified:

     H.-H. Frentzen        GER      15 laps
     Ukyo Katayama         JPN      38 laps
     Luca Badoer           ITA      42 laps
     Pedro Diniz           BRA      43 laps
     Jos Verstappen        HOL      61 laps
     Eddie Irvine          IRL      66 laps
     Andrea Montermini     ITA      69 laps
     Giancarlo Fisichella  ITA      69 laps
     Michael Schumacher    GER      72 laps

Not qualified:

All drivers qualified for the race.


Fastest lap:   Jacques Villeneuve   1:18.610


Again only a short overview: Schumacher drove his Ferrari in the qualifying to the pole, but already in the warm up lap he blew his engine. With Irvine as well dropping out in the early laps, a view on the laps per team-chart down at this page becomes a nightmare for Ferraristi! Again an easy victory for Hill. It's gettin kinda boring...


- 14.07.1996: Silverstone, Great Britain, 61 laps
     Name                  Nat    Race Time     Speed

1.   Jacques Villeneuve    CAN  1h33:00.874     199.576
2.   Gerhard Berger        AUT       19.026    	198.898
3.   Mika Hakkinen         FIN       50.830     197.775
4.   Rubens Barrichello    BRA     1:06.716     197.218
5.   David Coulthard       SCO     1:22.507     196.669
6.   Martin Brundle        GBR        1 lap     195.711
7.   Mika Salo             FIN        1 lap     194.998
8.   H.-H. Frentzen        GER        1 lap     194.257
9.   Johnny Herbert        GBR        1 lap     194.229
10.  Jos Verstappen        HOL        1 lap     194.055
11.  Giancarlo Fisichella  ITA        1 lap     190.868

Not classified:

     Jean Alesi            FRA      17 laps     197.481
     Olivier Panis         FRA      21 laps     188.803
     Pedro Diniz           BRA      23 laps     191.031
     Damon Hill            GBR      35 laps     199.706
     Pedro Lamy            POR      40 laps    	190.219
     Ricardo Rosset        BRA      48 laps     191.432
     Ukyo Katayama         JPN      49 laps     191.499
     Eddie Irvine          IRL      56 laps     194.344
     Michael Schumacher    GER      58 laps     142.885

Not qualified:

     Luca Badoer           ITA
     Andrea Montermini     ITA


Fastest Lap:   Jacques Villeneuve   1:29.288   204.497


Both Ferraris out in the early laps. Hill out because of his back stepping sideways. Villeneuve getting easy 10 points. Hakkinen on the podium for the first time after his crash in Melbourne last year.



- 28.7.1996: Hockenheim, Germany, 45 laps
     Name                  Nat    Race Time     Speed

1.   Damon Hill            GBR  1h21:43.417     225.410
2.   Jean Alesi            FRA       11.452     224.884
3.   Jacques Villeneuve    CAN       33.926     223.861
4.   Michael Schumacher    GER       41.517     223.517
5.   David Coulthard       SCO       42.196     223.486
6.   Rubens Barrichello    BRA     1:42.099     220.812
7.   Olivier Panis         FRA     1:43.912     220.732
8.   H.-H. Frentzen        GER        1 lap     220.070
9.   Mika Salo             FIN        1 lap     218.646
10.  Martin Brundle        GBR        1 lap     216.826
11.  Ricardo Rosset        BRA        1 lap     216.006
12.  Pedro Lamy            POR       2 laps     214.284
13.  Gerhard Berger        AUT       3 laps     225.395

Not classified:

     Eddie Irvine          IRL      11 laps     221.912
     Johnny Herbert        GBR      20 laps     204.791
     Pedro Diniz           BRA      26 laps     221.368
     Ukyo Katayama         JPN      26 laps     218.416
     Mika Hakkinen         FIN      32 laps     223.281
     Jos Verstappen        HOL      45 laps

Not qualified:

     Giovanni Lavaggi      ITA

Did not take part in qualifying:

     Luca Badoer           ITA
     Andrea Montermini     ITA


Fastest lap:   Damon Hill   1:46.504   230.628


Bad start from Hill, so Berger and Alesi managed to overtake him. Hakkinen had a gearbox problem in lap 13, so his promising new engine did not make it very far. Hill was stuck behind the two Benettons and so he decided to make an early pit stop. Berger and Alesi as well as Schumacher and Villeneuve were on a one-stop race, Hill and the McLarens planned to do two. When Berger came in, Hill was able to overtake and managed to pull away, but he had to stop once more. Meanwhile Irvine's engine spit out a lot of oil and took him out of the race. Does anyone remember when Irvine saw the checkered flag for the last time? It was way back on the fifth of May in Imola when he finished fourth. After Hill made his final pit stop he was able to catch up to Berger quite rapidly, but Berger did all to defend his leading position. Hill had no chance to overtake, but luck was on his side: Berger had a massive engine blow-up in lap 43. So Hill again finished first and only thanks to his bad start the race became quite tight. If he got away cleanly from the grid, he would have been miles ahead of the field. Alesi finished second and Villeneuve were the other podium finishers and Schumacher did save his fourth place in front of Coulthard. The Scotsman pushed Schumacher all race long and even after his second pitstop, he let the gap between Schumacher and himself vanish in a couple of laps. But Schumacher knew how to defend his three points in front of his home crowd. Barrichello was theone to score the final point.



- 11.08.1996: Hungaroring, Hungary, 77 laps
     Name                  Nat    Race Time     Speed

1.   Jacques Villeneuve    CAN  1h46:21.134     172.372
2.   Damon Hill            GBR        0.771     172.351
3.   Jean Alesi            FRA     1:24.212     170.127
4.   Mika Hakkinen         FIN        1 lap     169.538
5.   Olivier Panis         FRA        1 lap     168.046
6.   Rubens Barrichello    BRA       2 laps     167.544
7.   Ukyo Katayama         JPN       3 laps     164.914
8.   Ricardo Rosset        BRA       3 laps     164.464
9.   Michael Schumacher    GER       7 laps     170.872
10.  Giovanni Lavaggi      ITA       8 laps     161.608

Not classified:

     Gerhard Berger        AUT      13 laps     170.411
     H.-H. Frentzen        GER      27 laps     166.529
     Johnny Herbert        GBR      42 laps     169.678
     Eddie Irvine          IRL      46 laps     169.669
     Pedro Lamy            POR      53 laps     163.852
     David Coulthard       SCO      54 laps     170.186
     Jos Verstappen        HOL      67 laps     166.252
     Martin Brundle        GBR      72 laps     164.855
     Pedro Diniz           BRA      76 laps     163.376
     Mika Salo             FIN      77 laps

Not qualified:

All drivers qualified for the race.


Fastest lap:   Damon Hill   1:20.093   178.352


Schumacher managed to qualify in pole position, 55 thousandths ahead of Hill. In the second row stood Villeneuve and Irvine. The Benettons filled the third row. Also remarkably that the Saubers with their revised engine managed to qualify both in the top ten.

Schumacher took advantage of his grid position and Hill on the dirty inner line fell back behind Villeneuve and even Alesi, who both came from the cleaner outer line. Schumacher and Villeneuve managed to pull away from Alesi, who held up the clearly quicker Hill. The first round of it stops saw Schumacher come out directly behind Berger and in the following lap, Vileneuve was slightly faster and could come out in front of these two. Hill had bad luck and again was stuck behind Alesi. So we had Villeneuve pulling away from Schumacher, Alesi holding up Hill and Berger coming nearer.

Then came a short camera appearance of Coulthard, who was wobbling down the starting straight with a car that was beyonds his control. His differential had broken. The second Ferrari of Irvine drove a suitable race till lap 31, when his engine again refused to work. Quite a losing streak of 7 races since the San Marino Grand Prix, where he saw the checkered flag for the last time. The next retirements were the two Saubers. Especially Herbert showed a clearly improved competitiveness, but the reliability was not on their side.

The following laps saw Hill passing Alesi, whose second set of tires was not the best and he also was struggling with brake problems. So Hill was able to hunt down Schumacher, Berger catched up to Alesi. Hill got ahead of Schumacher and his aim was Villeneuve and the victory in Hungary. Berger as well managed to pass Alesi, but he was denied success by again a major blow-up of the Renault engine. Bad luck for Berger, who suffered the same problem in the last Grand Prix.

Hill reduced the gap to Villeneuve in the remaining laps until he was in the gearbox of Villeneuve, but that was the end of his efforts. The Hungarian circuit is not designed for overtaking maneuvers and Hill prefered to secure the constructors championship for Williams and not to take the risc. Schumacher's Ferrari stopped with only seven laps to go, so he could not step on the winners podium. Alesi inherited the third place with Hakkinen, Panis and Barrichello being the other point scorers.

The qualifying performance of the Ferraris was quite promising, but they have to work on the reliability of their cars. It can not be that teams like the Tyrrells with their former "Spin Doctor" Katayama manage to finish more Grand Prix laps than the multi million Scuderia team. The Saubers as well seemed to have improved engine performance on the cost of reliability. You can decide for yourself which outcome is better: Finishing inbetween the back markers or not finishing but being competitive for the points for half a race distance. The Fortis seem to have left the Grand Prix stage of 1996 reminaing only twenty cars on the grid, presuming that Lavaggi stays within the 107%. Rumours are that three cars per team are to be allowed, but will there be a team that makes use of this posibility? Or will the top teams not taking the additional work, but the backmarker teams use the third car as bonus advertising surface...



- 25.08.1996: Spa, Belgium, 44 laps
     Name                  Nat    Race Time     Speed

1.   Michael Schumacher    GER  1h28:15.125     208.442
2.   Jacques Villeneuve    CAN        5.602     208.222
3.   Mika Hakkinen         FIN       15.710     207.826
4.   Jean Alesi            FRA       19.125     207.692
5.   Damon Hill            GBR       29.179     207.300
6.   Gerhard Berger        AUT       29.896     207.272
7.   Mika Salo             FIN     1:00.754     206.078
8.   Ukyo Katayama         JPN     1:40.227     204.570
9.   Ricardo Rosset        BRA        1 lap     203.442
10.  Pedro Lamy            POR        1 lap     202.789

Not classified:

     David Coulthard       SCO       7 laps     205.348
     Martin Brundle        GBR      10 laps     201.314
     Eddie Irvine          IRL      15 laps     201.094
     Rubens Barrichello    BRA      15 laps     187.794
     Pedro Diniz           BRA      22 laps     196.843
     Jos Verstappen        HOL      33 laps     208.994
     Olivier Panis         FRA      44 laps
     Johnny Herbert        GBR      44 laps
     H.-H. Frentzen        GER      44 laps

Not qualified:

     Giovanni Lavaggi      ITA


Fastest lap:   Gerhard Berger   1:53.067   221.857


Villeneuve took profit of his second pole position of this year and went first in the first corner. Hill had to let Schumacher through and found himself third heading down towards Eau Rouge. Behind him the two McLarens, the two Benettons, Martin Brundle and Eddie Irvine.

In the midfield, there was a crash at the entry of La Source hairpin bend resulting in the two Saubers and Panis out of the race and Barrichellos car damaged so he had to steer to the pits after the first lap.

Hill did lose his third position to Coulthard on the flat out way to Les Combes; the Scot went the long way round and gained one place. Schumacher pushed Villeneuve hard so these two were pulling slightly away. Surprisingly Hill was not able to follow Coulthard and one thought he might have problems. This theory seemed to be proved by some smoke coming out of Hills car through the Bus Stop Chicane.

In lap 11, Jos Verstappen came to the pits and as it later turned out, he had problems with a stuck throttle. He rejoined the track, but it would have been better if he had not. Half a lap later he suffered a horrible accident at Stavelot. The remains of his car looked terrifying, but he was able to step out of his car on his own. He stumbled away and had to be guided by a marshall. It is not yet known whether he suffered severe injuries; let's hope the best for the Dutchman, who did not finish many grand prixs this year, but it seems as it is not his fault this time.

As a result of the debris of Verstappen's car lying on the track, the safety car came out and Schumacher was the one with the most luck. It was this lap, when he planed anyway to come to the pits and in contrast to Villeneuve and most the other drivers, he went in and out before he catched up with the safety car. He rejoined the track in sixth position. Villeneuve had to come a lap later and all the cars that were gathered behind the safety car could easily pass by. The one with the least luck was again Hill. Somehow he managed to miss the pit lane entry and rejoined behind Hakkinen as third, but he finally came in one lap later and then rejoined in eleventh position. When the safety car left the track, we had the following line-up: Coulthard and Hakkinen who still did not stop, Schumacher, the lapped Barrichello, Alesi and Villeneuve. On the way to La Source, Barrichello moved well out of the way so Alesi could get passed, but Villeneuve tried to overtake these two. Three cars side to side into the hairpin, Villeneuve came in first, but he was too fast, so Alesi could recapture fourth position for the moment. The Canadian decided this battle for himself on the straight after Eau Rouge. Salo was another man to take maximum profit of the safety car period. He found himself in sixth position. Berger lost another position when he was overtaken by Irvine who, believe it or not, was still in the race. Brundle in ninth, Katayama, Hill, Lamy, Diniz, Rosset and Barrichello were the other remaining drivers at this point.

Berger became too impatient behind Irvine and spun into the Bus Stop Chicane, so he had to continue in 11th position. As the McLarens had to be refuelled as well, Schumacher lead the race by a few seconds to Villeneuve. Coulthard came back to the track behind, Hakkinen in front of Hill. At that time Mika Salo found himself in fourth position, but not for long. At that time even Irvine in the second Ferrari was racing, but not for long. In lap 29 again smoke exited his engine and he had to give up for the eighth time in a row. Well, it really is time for him to finish again!!!

The second round of pit stops saw Schumacher come in first and when Villeneuve came back on the track after his pit stop it was a really tight fight. He came out right in front of Schumacher, but the Ferrari did not have to accelerate from a stand still, so the red runner had a greater momentum and took the first place from the Canadian. Schumacher could defend this position till the checkered flag. Alesi lost his third place to Hakkinen who did not have to stop for a second time. Hill and Berger took the last championship points from Salo who had to leave Belgium without scoring a point. Coulthard crashed only 7 laps before scoring points; he would have finished fifth in front of Hill.

The Saubers did not make it very far this time and it is even more bitter, as Frentzen as well as Herbert showed better performances during the practice sessions. One must wonder how irvine manages to motivate himself for every Grand Prix when he again and again sees the smoke in his mirrors coming out of his engine. But noone will ask for him, because all Ferraristi are glad and happy of winning the second Grand Prix this year. Especially after such an unawaited victory like the one of this weekend. Schumacher could not really compete with the Williams during the qualifying session of Saturday and furthermore he suffered a heavy crash on the Friday free practice. The drivers championship still is not decided between the Williams drivers, the battle for third place is as well very tight between Alesi and Schumacher.

One man that has deserved to be mentioned is Kai Ebel. You do not need to watch comedy shows anymore if you see this guy with his pre- and post-race interviews for RTL Television. This time Jean Todt was his victim. Todt was hurrying to the podium, but Ebel did not let him escape. He and his camera man had to ask another of Ebels so important questions. He asked: When did you start thinking about the victory? The response of Todt was brilliant. He replied: Fantastic, beautiful! An absolutely stoned voice translated this important sentence into German and Ebel was satisfied that he did another one of his never beaten interviews...



- 08.09.1996: Monza, Italy, 53 laps
     Name                  Nat    Race Time     Speed

1.   Michael Schumacher    GER  1h13:43.632     236.064
2.   Jean Alesi            FRA       18.265     235.143
3.   Mika Hakkinen         FIN     1:06.635     232.738
4.   Martin Brundle        GBR     1:25.217     231.820
5.   Rubens Barrichello    BRA     1.25.475     231.815
6.   Pedro Diniz           BRA        1 lap     230.951
7.   Jacques Villeneuve    CAN        1 lap     230.079
8.   Jos Verstappen        HOL        1 lap     228.833
9.   Johnny Herbert        GBR       2 laps     230.837
10.  Ukyo Katayama         JPN       2 laps     222.922

Not classified:

     Ricardo Rosset        BRA      17 laps     223.925
     Eddie Irvine          IRL      30 laps     233.451
     Pedro Lamy            POR      41 laps    	221.212
     Mika Salo             FIN      44 laps     225.751
     H.-H. Frentzen        GER      46 laps     225.473
     Damon Hill            GBR      48 laps     231.297
     Giovanni Lavaggi      ITA      48 laps     213.712
     Gerhard Berger        AUT      49 laps    	225.089
     Olivier Panis         FRA      51 laps     210.246
     David Coulthard       SCO      52 laps     211.786

Not qualified:

     All drivers qualified


Fastest Lap:   Michael Schumacher   1:26.110   241.226


Ferrari win at Monza
The greatest victory for Ferrari in the last years is complete. They win their home Grand Prix thanks to Michael Schumacher. Bad luck kept Alesi and Berger from winning the Ferrari Home Grand Prix year after year and in his first try Schumacher succeeded. Though his car is obviously not the best on track, he took the winners trophy.

Polesitter and championship leader Hill made a slightly worse start than his teammate Villeneuve and he concentrated on defending his first position against the Canadian. This opened enough space for Alesi, who had a dream start to slip through and take the lead. Behind him, Hill and Villeneuve were fighting for secons position, but Villeneuve did not make it on the right way through the first chicane. In doing so, he damaged his car, resulting in dropping back and having not won this Grand Prix. Behind this trio came the two McLarens who had overtaken Schumacher and Berger overtook the other Ferrari of Irvine. Surprisingly the field made its way through the first chicane without greater damage to any car.

Still in the first lap, Alesi took a wrong line into the first Lesmo corner enabling Hill to slip through again. But the Frenchman did not give up his strive for the lead. On the way to the Ascari chicane, he pulled out and going side by side with Hill through the first part of the chicane, but Hill was determined to win and take the world championship, so he defended. Before the first lap was completed, Villeneuve had to pay for missing the first chicane. He dropped back behind Hakkinen. McLaren teammate Coulthard missed on the second lap the second chicane and he had to forget about his hopes for this race. He had been fastest in the Sunday morning practice.

Hill managed to pull away from Alesi and Hakkinen, followed with a slight gap by Schumacher, who has overtaken Villeneuve. But more drama was to come: In lap three, Hakkinen touched the tyre stacks in the second chicane, damaged his front wing and caused trouble for the following cars who struggled avoiding tyres of the stack rolling all over the track. But noone except the Finn himself got damaged. He tried to go on for another lap, but then decided to come to the pit for a wing change. Lap 5 saw Berger stopping his car on the side of the road due to hydraulical problems and meanwhile, about a kilometer ahead psycho-Hill justified his nick-name. On the exit of the first chicane, he clipped a tyre stack and as a result spun. Though he managed to come to a halt on the track in the right direction still in the first position, he could not continue because his right front suspension was broken. Therefore we saw not for the first time a Damon that made unforced errors under pressure. He wanted to win, but he was not pushed from second placeman Alesi. As his teammate and championship rival Villeneuve had damaged his car earlier and could not anymore run at the pace of the leaders, the decision for the drivers championship 1996 was postponed.

The '97 Williams driver Frentzen followed his predecessor and gave up as well after touching the tyre stack. Schumacher closed down to Alesi lap for lap, but later he was stuck in the slipstream of Alesi with no chance to overtake. After all the trouble of the first lap settled down, Ediie Irvine found himself in a fabulous third place. Until short before the first round of pit stops he held this position, but then he made a drivers error that was very popular in Monza: he touched the tyre stacks. The last time he saw the checkered flag within a F1 racecar is now over four months ago. He can only hope for the last two grand prixs. I hope he can at least once more prove that he earns to drive for Scuderia.

Alesi came in for his pitstop first. Everything went right and he rejoined in second position in front of Hakkinen, who has made his way up again after his early unscheduled pitstop. Schumacher had enough fuel on board to come in two laps later. He nearly missed to reduce his speed to 120km/h at the pit lane entry, needed two tenths less for refuelling and nearly hit mechanics of the neighbouring pitcrew by nailing the throttle and sliding his back around. This commitment made him come out again in first position. In the following laps, he easily increased the gap to Alesi and it was clear that only technical problems could stop him. But it was he himself, who took the breath of all the viewers. Like the aforementioned, he touched the tyre stack at the entry of the first chicane. It was some extraterrestrial force, you can say, that made him get away with it. Or simply it was the day of Michael Schumacher. In a pre-start interview with RTL's beloved Kai Ebel, he announced that he and his wife Corinna are going to be parents. It was his first drive in Monza for Ferrari and he profited of several competitors dropping out. Why not then hitting the tyres with no damage.

Nothing and nobody could stop him and a huge crowd celebated him afterwards. Jean Alesi, who has tried for several years to win in Monza for Ferrari and was so close to it, but never succeeded, came in second in the Benetton. Mika Hakkinen came third and finished for the tenth time in this season in the points. Brundle and Barrichello, the two Jordans, came next. Diniz did score the last remaining point and his efforts should be mentioned this time. In this year, he developped from a nameless driver that was in Formula One because of the sponsor dollars of his dad to a driver that has to be respected. Though he took a shortcut through the gravelbed in the first lap, he fought with Herbert and Verstappen for a long time, succeeded and kept a constant distance to the Jordans.

I want to finish with another episode of Kai Ebel's amazing interviews. Before the start he spotted Berger sitting at the side of the track and he was the one for today's magic interview. Kai Ebel asked about the crash in the morning practice and finished the interview with the question by asking what the bandages on Bergers hands are for. Berger answered with a twinkle in his eye: It simply looks good...



- 22.09.1996: Estoril, Portugal, 70 laps
     Name                  Nat    Race Time     Speed

1.   Jacques Villeneuve    CAN  1h40:22.915     182.423
2.   Damon Hill            GBR       19.966     181.820
3.   Michael Schumacher    GER       53.765     180.809
4.   Jean Alesi            FRA       55.109     180.769
5.   Eddie Irvine          IRL     1:27.389     179.814
6.   Gerhard Berger        AUT     1:33.141     179.645
7.   H.-H. Frentzen        GER        1 lap     178.311
8.   Johnny Herbert        GBR        1 lap     178.215
9.   Martin Brundle        GBR        1 lap     178.095
10.  Olivier Panis         FRA        1 lap     177.711
11.  Mika Salo             FIN        1 lap     177.607
12.  Ukyo Katayama         JPN       2 laps     176.401
13.  David Coulthard       SCO       2 laps     175.427
14.  Ricardo Rosset        BRA       3 laps     173.968
15.  Giovanni Lavaggi      ITA       5 laps     169.098
16.  Pedro Lamy            POR       5 laps     168.212
11.  Luca Badoer           ITA       4 laps     156.800

Not classified:

     Mika Hakkinen         FIN      18 laps     177.494
     Jos Verstappen        HOL      23 laps     177.112
     Pedro Diniz           BRA      24 laps     173.720
     Rubens Barrichello    BRA      29 laps     178.466

Not qualified:

All drivers qualified for the race.


Fastest lap:   Jacques Villeneuve   1:22.873   189.398


Hill did not make it! Irvine did it!

Though Hill did take a very good start and Villeneuve lost two places at the start, he could not take advantage of his lead in the beginning of the race. Villeneuve was trapped behind Alesi and Schumacher and in this position, a driver has only two possibilities that could help out of this situation: 1. traffic (This trio came up to lap Lavaggi. Alesi could pass him before the tight uphill chicane and Schumacher was stuck. So the smart German knew that there is no easy and secure way around Lavaggi until the starting straight and wanted to back up slightly just to know that he will not have to brake in the middle of the "Parabolica" corner and that he will be coming at full speed out of the corner with Villeneuve behind him. But the Canadian did not want to play that game. He surprised Schumacher with a courageous move, so they went side by side through the fast corner with Villeneuve on the outside nearly losing it and Schumacher on the inside struggling for speed and grip. Probably Lavaggi came again into play when he gave a little bit of slipstream to Villeneuve, but more likely it was down to the power of the Renault engine that Villeneuve left Schumacher behind him.) 2. pit stops (Alesi obviously lost out with his two stop strategy compared to Villeneuve).

So we found a Villeneuve in the second position who was racing at enormous speed and you could clearly see that he had not given up the battle for this years world championship. Lap per lap he catched up to his teammate until he was within a second to Hill. Then, he again was stuck and he again used possibility two. He made a faster pitstop and came back onto the track right in front of his rival Hill. He pulled away from Hill who secured his second position.

This leaves us with the following situation for the last Grand Prix at Suzuka: Hill leads with 9 points. That means Villeneuve has to win and Hill must not score a point. This sounds to be a quite secure thing for Hill, but what if Hills car will have a failure and the track in Japan does not fit to Schumachers Ferrari, who is the most likely one to interfere in the all Williams battles for Grand Prix victories. Is there anyone to really challenge a troublefree Williams? I think not. So Hill must set his hopes in the reliability of his car and his mental strength :-)

Back to the race in Estoril. The last podium position remained to be fought out. It was won by Schumacher, in fact by Schumachers pit crew. The German drove his Ferrari directly behind the rear wing of Alesis Benetton into the pits and came back out first. Schumacher was clearly faster on the track, but Alesi made one pit stop less, so Schumacher had to make up this additional 30 seconds. Unbelievable but true: Next came Irvine. Yes, he finished!! He showed clearly better performance all weekend long and was rewarded not only with a finish, but with fifth position and two points. Let's hope that Ferrari will involve Irvine more into their testing programme next year and not only rely their main attention to Schumacher. Berger scored the last point in front of the Saubers of Frentzen and Herbert. Lamy was 16th and the last classified driver with five laps down as his team mate Lavaggi. Only that lamy could not get away from the starting grid and had to start with the race being in its second lap.

Remarkable that there was no major crash in this years Grand Prix as everyone can recall the pictures of the last years. Patrese doing a salto mortale at 150 mph on the starting straight after he touched Bergers back wheels, or Katayama flying and spinning through the air above the heads of the other drivers at the start of last years Grand Prix. This year we had only minor bumps with Hakkinen running in the back of his teammate Coulthard at the chicane, Schumacher kissing the back of Alesi and the Frenchman himself missing the pitlane entry and running over the curbs there.

The contract negotiations for next year are being held in these days. Confirmed are Villeneuve and Frentzen for Williams, Schumacher and Irvine for Ferrari, Hakkinen and Coulthard for McLaren, Herbert for Sauber, Panis for Ligier, Ralf Schumacher for Jordan and very likely Jörg Müller for Arrows. Berger and Alesi will stay with Benetton, but you never know. Now it is up to Hill to decide whether he will take a seat in either Jordan (to help Schumacher, the younger one and fight Schumacher the older one) or the new Steward Racing team or whether he will retire from Formula One. Rumours say that Renault wants to keep the world champion and tries to free up a seat for him in the Benetton team, but it is only rumours. So now is the time for you to go and get your sponsor millions to secure your seat in one of the teams...



- 13.10.1996: Suzuka, Japan, 52 laps
     Name                  Nat    Race Time     Speed

1.   Damon Hill            GBR  1h32:33.791     197.520
2.   Michael Schumacher    GER        1.883     197.453
3.   Mika Hakkinen         FIN        3.212     197.405
4.   Gerhard Berger        AUT       26.526     196.581
5.   Martin Brundle        GBR     1:07.120     195.161
6.   H.-H. Frentzen        GER     1:21.186     194.674
7.   Olivier Panis         FRA     1:24.510     194.559
8.   David Coulthard       SCO     1:25.233     194.534
9.   Rubens Barrichello    BRA     1:41.065     193.989
10.  Johnny Herbert        GBR     1:41.799     193.964
11.  Jos Verstappen        HOL        1 lap     192.019
12.  Pedro Lamy            POR       2 laps     189.027
13.  Ricardo Rosset        BRA       2 laps     187.868

Not classified:

     Eddie Irvine          IRL      13 laps     195.813
     Ukyo Katayama         JPN      15 laps     190.241
     Jacques Villeneuve    CAN      16 laps     196.125
     Mika Salo             FIN      32 laps     190.092
     Pedro Diniz           BRA      39 laps     191.192
     Jean Alesi            FRA      52 laps

Not qualified:

     Giovanni Lavaggi      ITA

Fastest lap:   Jacques Villeneuve   1:44.043   202.900


Hill is World Champion
With a retard of nearly four weeks you can now view the comment on the last race of the season. You might have come across it before, but it has to be said again: Damon Hill, former all-time loser or Mr. Bad Luck (depends on point of view) is the Formula One World Champion of the year 1996.

After Villeneuve made a horrible start, only a miracle could help from Hill winning the championship. Villeneuve fought hard to come back, but on the one hand, the other drivers could not be overtaken by him, on the other hand he had a tire coming off the back of his car, so his performance didn't make any difference. And despite everything around him, Hill kept cool, won the race and crowned his career.

Schumacher, the 1995 champion came in second and Hakkinen was third. Berger finished fourth although he had a pit stop more, because of a front wing damage. Brundle was next and Frentzen was able to hand over a goodbye present to his employer, Mr. Sauber, in form of one championship point.

The only major highlights of this race was Villeneuve's bad start and Villeneuve being overtaken by his rear wheel. But nevertheless the bad luck of Villeneuve, Hill without any question deserves the title. He won eight races, he showed a more stable mind compared to last year and he improved his approach to backmarkers that are to be lapped (but still he can improve a lot in this last point). People say that he shows his deficits if he's under pressure and he only won, when he was leading by miles, but I say it is not easy to get in the position of being in the first spot and miles in front of the rivals. This deserves respect. He might not be the best driver, but he is not one of the worst either.

His rival and teammate Villeneuve finished an impressive first season and came very close to winning the title. He is one of the men of the future. Schumachers first year with Ferrari was excactly what he predicted: About three wins, some finishes in the points and a lot of problems. The engine lacked of a couple of horsepower but in contrast to the last years, it was not the centre of Ferraris problems. If they want to score more points in 1997, they have to improve the reliability of the parts around the engine and if they want to fight for the championship, there is nothing else, but dragging more horsepower out of the engine. Lets hope they can start testing before the first race in 1997 and probably even with two cars.

The Benetton team lost ground to Williams compared to last year in two ways: the reliability and the quality of chasis. Their new drivers had problems in this season and often were denied an earned victory (Berger in Hockenheim or Alesi in Monte Carlo). The McLarens did come close to the Benettons and made up ground to the teams ahead, but how did an Autralian rock band say: It's a long way to the top. I don't think they will fight for the title in 97, but probably in 98 when Renault retires and Williams and Benetton have to start a cooperation with a different engine manufacturer (provided that Mercedes stays with them and can improve and provided the drivers develop as well and will be able to test during the winter (remember Hakkinens crash last year in Australia?!)).

The Jordan chasis seemed to be the major deficit of the Jordan team. Although the Peugeot engine delivered overall straight line top speeds above all others, the laptimes were clearly down. They lost ground to the top teams as well as Ligier. Though they had their first win for a long time with Panis winning Monaco this year, they dropped further back this season. Their reliability was promising in the first races, but they only had six finishes in the last nine races. As Ford concentrated more on preparing for the next season, Sauber had a great lack of power all season long. They could have scored more points with a better engine. Tyrrell showed a promising performance in the first races, but with the other teams gaining reliability, they could not score anymore points. With Tom Walkinshaw taking over the lead of the Arrows/Footwork team in the middle of the season, we hoped that could help the team, but if at all, it will be next year.

The Minardi team fought its way through the season with one constant reliable driver and the other seat being taken by four different drivers throughout the season. They should get a reward for their strive, but at least they should find enough sponsors for next year. Forti was struggling with financial problems and had to give up in July. They could not afford taking the risc of damaging cars in untimed sessions and were miles from being competitive.

Next year will see at least one new team. Paul Steward was engaged in the British touring car trophy and now tries to take the step to the top class of motorsport. With Ford on their side, they have a experienced manufacturer, provided Ford is more engaged than this year with Sauber. Lets wait for things to come...



Drivers Championship:
1.   Damon Hill            GBR     97 pts
2.   Jacques Villeneuve    CAN     78 pts
3.   Michael Schumacher    GER     59 pts
4.   Jean Alesi            FRA     47 pts
5.   Mika Hakkinen         FIN     31 pts
6.   Gerhard Berger        AUT     21 pts
7.   David Coulthard       SCO     18 pts
8.   Rubens Barrichello    BRA     14 pts
9.   Olivier Panis         FRA     13 pts
10.  Eddie Irvine          IRL     11 pts
11.  Martin Brundle        GBR      8 pts
12.  H.-H. Frentzen        GER      7 pts
13.  Mika Salo             FIN      5 pts
14.  Johnny Herbert        GBR      4 pts
15.  Pedro Diniz           BRA      2 pts
16.  Jos Verstappen        HOL       1 pt

No points for (best finish in brackets):

     Ukyo Katayama         JPN        (7)
     Giancarlo Fisichella  ITA        (8)
     Ricardo Rosset        BRA        (8)
     Pedro Lamy            POR        (9)
     Andrea Montermini     ITA       (10)
     Luca Badoer           ITA       (10)
     Giovanni Lavaggi      ITA       (10)
     Tarso Marques         BRA        (-)

Points in the championship season by driver


Constructors Championship:
1.   Williams Renault             175 pts
2.   Benetton Renault              70 pts 
3.   Ferrari                       68 pts
4.   McLaren Mercedes              49 pts
5.   Jordan Peugeot                22 pts
6.   Ligier Mugen                  15 pts
7.   Sauber Ford                   11 pts
8.   Tyrrell Yamaha                 5 pts
9.   Footwork Hart                   1 pt

No points for (best finish in brackets):

     Minardi Ford                   (8)
     Forti Ford                    (10)


Laps completed by driver:
(out of a possible 1014 laps)
Counting the Monaco Grand Prix with the 75 laps completed by the winner)
1.   Jacques Villeneuve           937 laps    92.4%
2.   Mika Hakkinen                899 laps    88.7%
3.   Damon Hill                   841 laps    82.9%
4.   Jean Alesi                   814 laps    80.2%
5.   Rubens Barrichello           784 laps    77.3%
6.   Gerhard Berger               769 laps    75.8%
7.   David Coulthard              738 laps    72.8% 
8.   Olivier Panis                729 laps    71.9%
9.   Michael Schumacher           721 laps    71.1%
10.  Johnny Herbert               717 laps    70.7%
11.  Heinz-Harald Frentzen        711 laps    70.1%
12.  Martin Brundle               705 laps    69.5%
13.  Mika Salo                    693 laps    68.3%
14.  Pedro Lamy                   645 laps    63.6%
15.  Pedro Diniz                  617 laps    60.8%
16.  Ukyo Katayama                616 laps    60.7%
17.  Ricardo Rosset               614 laps    60.6%
18.  Eddie Irvine                 575 laps    56.7%
19.  Jos Verstappen               480 laps    47.3%
20.  Luca Badoer                  283 laps    67.1%
21.  Giancarlo Fisichella         257 laps    48.5%
22.  Giovanni Lavaggi             139 laps    69.5%
23.  Andrea Montermini            119 laps    41.9%
24.  Tarso(sp?) Marques            33 and 3/4 of a lap    23.6%

The percentage displays how much of the races they qualified for was completed by the respective drivers.
Laps completed by drivers


Laps completed by team:
(out of a possible 2028 laps)
 
1.   Williams Renault            1778 laps
2.   McLaren Mercedes-Benz       1637 laps
3.   Benetton Renault            1583 laps
4.   Jordan Peugeot              1489 laps
4.   Sauber Ford                 1428 laps
6.   Ligier Mugen                1346 laps
7.   Tyrrell Yamaha              1309 laps
8.   Ferrari                     1296 laps
9.   Footwork Hart               1094 laps
10.  Minardi Ford                1074 3/4 laps
11.  Forti Ford                   402 laps

Laps completed by teams


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© sucks, so no © by Oliver Schubert, but noone would like to copy that anyway . . .
begonnen am 10.3.1996
last modified on 24.1.1997