1996 Japanese Grand Prix

The 1996 Japanese Grand Prix (officially known as the XXII Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held at Suzuka on 13 October 1996. It was the sixteenth and final race of the 1996 Formula One World Championship.

1996 Japanese Grand Prix
Race 16 of 16 in the 1996 Formula One World Championship
Race details
Date 13 October 1996
Official name XXII Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix
Location Suzuka Circuit
Suzuka, Mie Prefecture, Japan
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 5.864 km (3.608 mi)
Distance 52 laps, 304.928 km (189.473 mi)
Scheduled distance 53 laps, 310.792 km (193.117 mi)
Weather Sunny, mild and dry
Pole position
Driver
Williams-Renault
Time 1:38.909
Fastest lap
Driver Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Renault
Time 1:44.043 on lap 34
Podium
First
Williams-Renault
Second
Ferrari
Third
McLaren-Mercedes

The 52-lap race was won by Damon Hill, driving a Williams-Renault. Hill took his eighth win of the season, and with it the Drivers' Championship, after teammate and pole-sitter Jacques Villeneuve made a poor start and then retired when a wheel fell off. Villeneuve had needed to win the race, without Hill scoring, in order to win the Championship himself. Michael Schumacher finished second in a Ferrari, enabling the Italian team to steal second place in the Constructors' Championship from Benetton, with Mika Häkkinen third in a McLaren-Mercedes.

In the UK, this was the last F1 race until 2009 to be broadcast live by the BBC. As Hill crossed the line to win the race and the championship, commentator Murray Walker said, "I've got to stop now, because I've got a lump in my throat." Hill was the first son of a World Champion to win the championship himself, his father Graham having been champion in 1962 and 1968. This was also the final race for Martin Brundle, who had been competing in F1 since 1984 and finished on the podium 9 times since 1992, as well as the last race for Pedro Lamy, Giovanni Lavaggi and Ligier.

Race

This was the first time since 1977 that Japan hosted the final round of the World Championship.

In qualifying, Villeneuve beat Hill to pole position by nearly half a second, with a further 0.7 seconds back to Schumacher in third. On race day, the first start was aborted when David Coulthard stalled his McLaren.[1] At the second start, Villeneuve made a poor getaway and fell to sixth behind Hill, Gerhard Berger, Häkkinen, Schumacher and Eddie Irvine. Meanwhile, Jean Alesi, attempting to make up several places after qualifying ninth, spun off at the second corner and destroyed his Benetton, Alesi was unhurt from the impact. On the third lap, Berger attempted to overtake Hill at the final chicane, only to damage his front wing. Thereafter, Hill gradually pulled away, with Schumacher overtaking Häkkinen for second during the first round of pit stops. Pedro Diniz had lost control of his Ligier at the final chicane and spun off into the gravel trap by lap 14. Hill pitted for his second stop with a 25-second gap to Schumacher, emerging narrowly ahead of the Ferrari, before pulling away gradually once again to lead by 13 seconds with ten laps remaining. Villeneuve, meanwhile, passed Irvine, set the fastest lap of the race and ran fourth before his right rear wheel came off on lap 37 due to a wheel bearing failure (This was the same incident that happened to teammate Damon Hill during the British Grand Prix, according to BBC pit reporter Tony Jardine), putting him out of the race and handing the Drivers' Championship to Hill, already dropped by Williams for the following season. Whilst fighting for 4th place, Gerhard Berger had another collision with the Ferrari of Eddie Irvine at the final chicane causing the Northern Irishman to spin out and retire, but Berger was able to carry on unscathed. A late fightback saw Schumacher close the gap to Hill, but Hill held on to win the race by 1.8 seconds, with Häkkinen a further 1.4 seconds back, while Berger recovered to finish fourth, Martin Brundle came fifth in his final Grand Prix, and Heinz-Harald Frentzen picked up the final point for sixth.

Classification

Qualifying
PosNoDriverConstructorTimeGap
1 6 Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Renault 1:38.909
2 5 Damon Hill Williams-Renault 1:39.370 +0.461
3 1 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:40.071 +1.162
4 4 Gerhard Berger Benetton-Renault 1:40.364 +1.455
5 7 Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 1:40.458 +1.549
6 2 Eddie Irvine Ferrari 1:41.005 +2.096
7 15 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Sauber-Ford 1:41.277 +2.368
8 8 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 1:41.384 +2.475
9 3 Jean Alesi Benetton-Renault 1:41.562 +2.653
10 12 Martin Brundle Jordan-Peugeot 1:41.600 +2.691
11 11 Rubens Barrichello Jordan-Peugeot 1:41.919 +3.010
12 9 Olivier Panis Ligier-Mugen-Honda 1:42.206 +3.297
13 14 Johnny Herbert Sauber-Ford 1:42.658 +3.749
14 18 Ukyo Katayama Tyrrell-Yamaha 1:42.711 +3.802
15 19 Mika Salo Tyrrell-Yamaha 1:42.840 +3.931
16 10 Pedro Diniz Ligier-Mugen-Honda 1:43.196 +4.287
17 17 Jos Verstappen Footwork-Hart 1:43.383 +4.474
18 20 Pedro Lamy Minardi-Ford 1:44.874 +5.965
19 16 Ricardo Rosset Footwork-Hart 1:45.412 +6.503
107% time: 1:45.833
DNQ 21 Giovanni Lavaggi Minardi-Ford 1:46.795 +7.886

Race
PosNoDriverConstructorLapsTime/RetiredGridPoints
1 5 Damon Hill Williams-Renault 52 1:32:33.791 2 10
2 1 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 52 + 1.883 3 6
3 7 Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 52 + 3.212 5 4
4 4 Gerhard Berger Benetton-Renault 52 + 26.526 4 3
5 12 Martin Brundle Jordan-Peugeot 52 + 1:07.120 10 2
6 15 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Sauber-Ford 52 + 1:21.186 7 1
7 9 Olivier Panis Ligier-Mugen-Honda 52 + 1:24.510 12  
8 8 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 52 + 1:25.233 8  
9 11 Rubens Barrichello Jordan-Peugeot 52 + 1:41.065 11  
10 14 Johnny Herbert Sauber-Ford 52 + 1:41.799 13  
11 17 Jos Verstappen Footwork-Hart 51 + 1 Lap 17  
12 20 Pedro Lamy Minardi-Ford 50 + 2 Laps 18  
13 16 Ricardo Rosset Footwork-Hart 50 + 2 Laps 19  
Ret 2 Eddie Irvine Ferrari 39 Collision/Spun off 6  
Ret 18 Ukyo Katayama Tyrrell-Yamaha 37 Engine 14  
Ret 6 Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Renault 36 Wheel bearing 1  
Ret 19 Mika Salo Tyrrell-Yamaha 20 Engine 15  
Ret 10 Pedro Diniz Ligier-Mugen-Honda 13 Spun off 16  
Ret 3 Jean Alesi Benetton-Renault 0 Spun Off 9  
DNQ 21 Giovanni Lavaggi Minardi-Ford   107% Rule  
Source:[2]

Championship standings after the race
  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
gollark: I think because the main advantage was that it wouldn't produce neutrons in some sort of fusion reaction, and neutrons cause problems, except it still would because of the fuels each fusing with themselves.
gollark: I think I read somewhere that it wasn't very useful (he3) but i forgot why.
gollark: I too want vast swathes of land to be covered in generators which will not even work half the time because of "night" and "poor weather", which are hilariously energy-expensive to produce in the first place, and which will break after 40 years.
gollark: I mean, in a sense, maybe it is.
gollark: Also, anticentrism seems to imply you'd prefer, say, an extreme ideology in the opposite direction to yours over a generic middling centrist one, which is... odd?

References
  1. "F1 News - Grandprix.com > GP Encyclopedia > Races > Japanese GP, 1996". Grandprix.com. Retrieved 2011-04-05.
  2. "1996 Japanese Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 1 November 2014. Retrieved 24 December 2015.
  3. "Japan 1996 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
Previous race:
1996 Portuguese Grand Prix		 FIA Formula One World Championship
1996 season		 Next race:
1997 Australian Grand Prix
Previous race:
1995 Japanese Grand Prix		 Japanese Grand Prix Next race:
1997 Japanese Grand Prix
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.