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1996 Brazilian Grand Prix

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1996 Brazilian Grand Prix
Race 2 of 16 in the 1996 Formula One World Championship
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Race details
Date 31 March 1996
Official name XXV Grande Prêmio do Brasil
Location Autódromo José Carlos Pace
Interlagos, São Paulo, Brazil
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 4.292 km (2.667 miles)
Distance 71 laps, 304.732 km (189.357 miles)
Weather Thunderstorm, then drying with temperatures reaching up to 24 °C (75 °F)[1]
Pole position
Driver Williams-Renault
Time 1:18.111
Fastest lap
Driver United Kingdom Damon Hill Williams-Renault
Time 1:21.547 on lap 65
Podium
First Williams-Renault
Second Benetton-Renault
Third Ferrari
Lap leaders

The 1996 Brazilian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Interlagos, São Paulo on 31 March 1996. It was the second race of the 1996 Formula One World Championship.

The 71-lap race took place in heavy rain, and was won from pole position by Damon Hill, driving a Williams-Renault, with Jean Alesi second in a Benetton-Renault and Michael Schumacher third in a Ferrari.

Race summary

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Two local drivers, Tarso Marques (in his début race) and Pedro Diniz, had their qualifying times disallowed for, respectively, a push-start and missing a weight check. However, they were allowed to start from the back of the grid.

Johnny Herbert started from the pit lane after switching to the backup-car due to electrical problems.

Damon Hill, who loved driving in the rain, took the lead and won the race under these difficult conditions with a comfortable winning margin of 17 seconds. São Paulo saw the 15th GP victory of Damon Hill, who thereby outperformed a record established by his father Graham Hill, who had won 14 races.

Major battles in the race were going on between Barrichello and Alesi, Alesi and Villeneuve, Schumacher and Frentzen and Schumacher and Barrichello.

Barrichello, who had qualified as second, lost ground to Villeneuve and Alesi on the first lap, but he kept sticking to the back of the Benetton and attempted to overtake Alesi three times in the early stages of the race, outbraking him into the first corner only to slide wide on the exit allowing Alesi back through.

After a while, Alesi picked up pace and began to harry Villeneuve for 2nd place. After a battle Villeneuve eventually succumbed to the pressure and spun off. Approaching half-distance, Alesi had a brief off track excursion which finally allowed Barrichello through into 2nd place. However, Barrichello was forced to make what was supposed to be his only fuel stop on lap 35, when the track was still too wet for slick tyres. Alesi, on the other hand, did not have to pit until lap 42, by which time the track was dry enough to switch to slick tyres. This forced Barrichello to make unscheduled pit stop to make the switch to slicks, dropping him back behind Alesi.

To compound his misfortune, Barrichello made the switch too late, three laps later than Schumacher, meaning that he also dropped behind the German when he finally made his stop. With a clearly faster car, Barrichello began to harry Schumacher for the final podium spot. However, the German would not give in and eventually he braked too late and spun off into the gravel at the end of the back straight.

Gerhard Berger had to park his Benetton in the pits after 27 laps. The Austrian had difficulties during qualifying which he could not explain. When the race then started under wet conditions, Berger had to drive carefully because he had never before piloted the Benetton in the rain. Not too unsatisfied with his performance, Berger experienced cut-offs due to hydraulic problems which became worse and worse and finally forced the car back to the garage.

Classification

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Qualifying

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Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap Grid
1 5 United Kingdom Damon Hill Williams-Renault 1:18.111 1
2 11 Brazil Rubens Barrichello Jordan-Peugeot 1:19.092 +0.981 2
3 6 Canada Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Renault 1:19.254 +1.143 3
4 1 Germany Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:19.474 +1.363 4
5 3 France Jean Alesi Benetton-Renault 1:19.484 +1.373 5
6 12 United Kingdom Martin Brundle Jordan-Peugeot 1:19.519 +1.408 6
7 7 Finland Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 1:19.607 +1.496 7
8 4 Austria Gerhard Berger Benetton-Renault 1:19.762 +1.651 8
9 15 Germany Heinz-Harald Frentzen Sauber-Ford 1:19.799 +1.688 9
10 2 United Kingdom Eddie Irvine Ferrari 1:19.951 +1.840 10
11 19 Finland Mika Salo Tyrrell-Yamaha 1:20.000 +1.889 11
12 14 United Kingdom Johnny Herbert Sauber-Ford 1:20.144 +2.033 PL1
13 17 Netherlands Jos Verstappen Footwork-Hart 1:20.157 +2.046 13
14 8 United Kingdom David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 1:20.167 +2.056 14
15 9 France Olivier Panis Ligier-Mugen-Honda 1:20.426 +2.315 15
16 18 Japan Ukyo Katayama Tyrrell-Yamaha 1:20.427 +2.316 16
17 16 Brazil Ricardo Rosset Footwork-Hart 1:20.440 +2.329 17
18 20 Portugal Pedro Lamy Minardi-Ford 1:21.491 +3.380 18
19 22 Italy Luca Badoer Forti-Ford 1:23.174 +5.063 19
20 23 Italy Andrea Montermini Forti-Ford 1:23.454 +5.343 20
107% time: 1:23.579
EX 10 Brazil Pedro Diniz Ligier-Mugen-Honda no time 222
EX 21 Brazil Tarso Marques Minardi-Ford no time 212
Sources:[2][3][4]
  • ^1 Herbert started at the pit lane after switching to his spare car.
  • ^2 Diniz and Marques had their times deleted after receiving outside assistance, but were allowed to start at the back of the grid.

Race

[edit]
Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 5 United Kingdom Damon Hill Williams-Renault 71 1:49:52.976 1 10
2 3 France Jean Alesi Benetton-Renault 71 + 17.982 5 6
3 1 Germany Michael Schumacher Ferrari 70 + 1 Lap 4 4
4 7 Finland Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 70 + 1 Lap 7 3
5 19 Finland Mika Salo Tyrrell-Yamaha 70 + 1 Lap 11 2
6 9 France Olivier Panis Ligier-Mugen-Honda 70 + 1 Lap 15 1
7 2 United Kingdom Eddie Irvine Ferrari 70 + 1 Lap 10  
8 10 Brazil Pedro Diniz Ligier-Mugen-Honda 69 + 2 Laps 22  
9 18 Japan Ukyo Katayama Tyrrell-Yamaha 69 + 2 Laps 16  
10 20 Portugal Pedro Lamy Minardi-Ford 68 + 3 Laps 18  
11 22 Italy Luca Badoer Forti-Ford 67 + 4 Laps 19  
12 12 United Kingdom Martin Brundle Jordan-Peugeot 64 Spun Off 6  
Ret 11 Brazil Rubens Barrichello Jordan-Peugeot 59 Spun Off 2  
Ret 15 Germany Heinz-Harald Frentzen Sauber-Ford 36 Engine 9  
Ret 8 United Kingdom David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 29 Spun Off 14  
Ret 14 United Kingdom Johnny Herbert Sauber-Ford 28 Engine PL  
Ret 6 Canada Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Renault 26 Spun Off 3  
Ret 4 Austria Gerhard Berger Benetton-Renault 26 Hydraulics 8  
Ret 23 Italy Andrea Montermini Forti-Ford 26 Spun Off 20  
Ret 16 Brazil Ricardo Rosset Footwork-Hart 24 Spun Off 17  
Ret 17 Netherlands Jos Verstappen Footwork-Hart 19 Engine 13  
Ret 21 Brazil Tarso Marques Minardi-Ford 0 Spun Off 21  
Source:[5]

Championship standings after the race

[edit]
  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Weather info for the 1996 Brazilian Grand Prix at Weather Underground
  2. ^ "Brazil 1996 – Qualifications". StatsF1. Retrieved 29 December 2023.
  3. ^ "1996 Brazilian Grand Prix Classification Qualifying". Motorsport Stats. Retrieved 29 December 2023.
  4. ^ "Grande Premio do Brasil – Starting Grid". Formula1.com. Retrieved 29 December 2023.
  5. ^ "1996 Brazilian Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 1 November 2014. Retrieved 24 December 2015.
  6. ^ a b "Brazil 1996 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 13 March 2019.


Previous race:
1996 Australian Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
1996 season
Next race:
1996 Argentine Grand Prix
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1995 Brazilian Grand Prix
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1997 Brazilian Grand Prix