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| 1996 Belgian Grand Prix | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Race 13 of 16 in the1996 Formula One World Championship
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| Race details | |||||
| Date | 25 August 1996 | ||||
| Official name | LIV Grand Prix de Belgique | ||||
| Location | Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps Francorchamps,Wallonia,Belgium[1] | ||||
| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||||
| Course length | 6.968 km (4.330 miles) | ||||
| Distance | 44 laps, 306.592 km (190.507 miles) | ||||
| Weather | Overcast and dry with temperatures reaching up to 17 °C (63 °F)[2] | ||||
| Pole position | |||||
| Driver | Williams-Renault | ||||
| Time | 1:50.574 | ||||
| Fastest lap | |||||
| Driver |  Gerhard Berger | Benetton-Renault | |||
| Time | 1:53.067 on lap 36 | ||||
| Podium | |||||
| First | Ferrari | ||||
| Second | Williams-Renault | ||||
| Third | McLaren-Mercedes | ||||
Lap leaders | |||||
The1996 Belgian Grand Prix (formally theLIV Grand Prix de Belgique) was aFormula One motor race held on 25 August 1996 atSpa-Francorchamps. It was the thirteenth race of the1996 FIA Formula One World Championship.
The 44-lap race was won byMichael Schumacher, driving aFerrari. Schumacher had crashed heavily in Friday practice,[3] but recovered to qualify third before taking his second win of the season.Jacques Villeneuve, who had started frompole position, finished second in hisWilliams-Renault, withMika Häkkinen third in aMcLaren-Mercedes. Villeneuve's teammate and Drivers' Championship leader,Damon Hill, finished fifth.
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Time | Diff. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 |  Jacques Villeneuve | Williams-Renault | 1:50.574 | |||
| 2 | 5 |  Damon Hill | Williams-Renault | 1:50.980 | +0.406 | ||
| 3 | 1 |  Michael Schumacher | Ferrari | 1:51.778 | +1.204 | ||
| 4 | 8 | David Coulthard | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:51.884 | +1.310 | ||
| 5 | 4 | Gerhard Berger | Benetton-Renault | 1:51.960 | +1.386 | ||
| 6 | 7 |  Mika Häkkinen | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:52.318 | +1.744 | ||
| 7 | 3 |  Jean Alesi | Benetton-Renault | 1:52.354 | +1.780 | ||
| 8 | 12 | Martin Brundle | Jordan-Peugeot | 1:52.977 | +2.403 | ||
| 9 | 2 | Eddie Irvine | Ferrari | 1:53.043 | +2.469 | ||
| 10 | 11 |  Rubens Barrichello | Jordan-Peugeot | 1:53.152 | +2.578 | ||
| 11 | 15 | Heinz-Harald Frentzen | Sauber-Ford | 1:53.199 | +2.625 | ||
| 12 | 14 | Johnny Herbert | Sauber-Ford | 1:53.993 | +3.419 | ||
| 13 | 19 | Mika Salo | Tyrrell-Yamaha | 1:54.095 | +3.521 | ||
| 14 | 9 | Olivier Panis | Ligier-Mugen-Honda | 1:54.220 | +3.646 | ||
| 15 | 10 | Pedro Diniz | Ligier-Mugen-Honda | 1:54.700 | +4.126 | ||
| 16 | 17 |  Jos Verstappen | Footwork-Hart | 1:55.150 | +4.576 | ||
| 17 | 18 |  Ukyo Katayama | Tyrrell-Yamaha | 1:55.371 | +4.797 | ||
| 18 | 16 | Ricardo Rosset | Footwork-Hart | 1:56.286 | +5.712 | ||
| 19 | 20 |  Pedro Lamy | Minardi-Ford | 1:56.830 | +6.256 | ||
| 107% time: 1:58.314 | |||||||
| DNQ | 21 |  Giovanni Lavaggi | Minardi-Ford | 1:58.579 | +8.005 | ||
| Sources:[4][5] | |||||||
The start of the race saw the twoSaubers ofHeinz-Harald Frentzen andJohnny Herbert eliminated immediately when they collided at the La Source hairpin after attempting to evade an incident whereOlivier Panis spun his Ligier after making contact withRubens Barrichello's Jordan. Panis also retired on the spot; Barrichello was able to continue, pitting to repair his suspension, although it eventually failed altogether on lap 30.
On lap 10,Jos Verstappen pitted with a sticking throttle. TheFootwork Arrows pit crew found no damage and sent Verstappen back out, only for the Dutchman to crash almost immediately. Team bossTom Walkinshaw confirmed after the race that the throttle problem had not recurred, and that the crash was caused by a faulty wheel bearing. The incident brought out thesafety car for seven laps, during which time all the drivers besides theMcLarens ofMika Häkkinen andDavid Coulthard (both running a one-stop strategy) made pit stops.Jacques Villeneuve, leading the race when the safety car came out, missed his pit stop on lap 13. As a result, he lost the lead toMichael Schumacher, who eventually won the race by 5.6 seconds from Villeneuve.[6] The Canadian driver later explained that he had misunderstood the radio instruction to come in, due to the confusion brought about by the deployment of the safety car (as Villeneuve had already passed the site of the crash, and was not fully aware of what had happened). As a further consequence of Villeneuve's error, his teammateDamon Hill was instructed to pit by the Williams engineers on lap 14, only to then be told to stay out - however, as the team were delayed in relaying this change to Hill due to confusion brought about by Villeneuve's failure to make his stop, by the time the team radioed Hill to advise him he needed to remain out, he was already on his way into the pit lane, and had to use the emergency escape lane to rejoin the track. Hill was driving the spare Williams following a misfire in the Sunday morning warm-up session. By the time he finally got to make his pit stop, he had fallen to 13th, but he recovered to finish fifth.
Running in fourth place just after half distance,Gerhard Berger spun off in his Benetton while trying to passEddie Irvine's Ferrari, an error which dropped him to 12th. After setting a string of fastest laps he recovered to sixth by the end of the race, coincidentally thanks in part to Irvine's retirement with gearbox problems. Berger's Benetton teammateJean Alesi finished fourth after Coulthard had spun off into retirement and crashed on lap 38.
The Tyrrells ofMika Salo andUkyo Katayama finished in seventh and eighth places respectively; however, a fast early stop during the safety car period saw Salo briefly running as high as third at one point.
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Michael Schumacher | Ferrari | 44 | 1:28:15.125 | 3 | 10 |
| 2 | 6 | Jacques Villeneuve | Williams-Renault | 44 | + 5.602 | 1 | 6 |
| 3 | 7 | Mika Häkkinen | McLaren-Mercedes | 44 | + 15.710 | 6 | 4 |
| 4 | 3 | Jean Alesi | Benetton-Renault | 44 | + 19.125 | 7 | 3 |
| 5 | 5 | Damon Hill | Williams-Renault | 44 | + 29.179 | 2 | 2 |
| 6 | 4 | Gerhard Berger | Benetton-Renault | 44 | + 29.896 | 5 | 1 |
| 7 | 19 | Mika Salo | Tyrrell-Yamaha | 44 | + 1:00.754 | 13 | |
| 8 | 18 | Ukyo Katayama | Tyrrell-Yamaha | 44 | + 1:40.227 | 17 | |
| 9 | 16 | Ricardo Rosset | Footwork-Hart | 43 | + 1 Lap | 18 | |
| 10 | 20 | Pedro Lamy | Minardi-Ford | 43 | + 1 Lap | 19 | |
| Ret | 8 | David Coulthard | McLaren-Mercedes | 37 | Spun Off | 4 | |
| Ret | 12 | Martin Brundle | Jordan-Peugeot | 34 | Engine | 8 | |
| Ret | 2 | Eddie Irvine | Ferrari | 29 | Gearbox | 9 | |
| Ret | 11 | Rubens Barrichello | Jordan-Peugeot | 29 | Suspension | 10 | |
| Ret | 10 | Pedro Diniz | Ligier-Mugen-Honda | 22 | Electrical | 15 | |
| Ret | 17 | Jos Verstappen | Footwork-Hart | 11 | Accident | 16 | |
| Ret | 15 | Heinz-Harald Frentzen | Sauber-Ford | 0 | Collision | 11 | |
| Ret | 14 | Johnny Herbert | Sauber-Ford | 0 | Collision | 12 | |
| Ret | 9 | Olivier Panis | Ligier-Mugen-Honda | 0 | Collision | 14 | |
Source:[7] | |||||||
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| Previous race: 1996 Hungarian Grand Prix | FIA Formula One World Championship 1996 season | Next race: 1996 Italian Grand Prix |
| Previous race: 1995 Belgian Grand Prix | Belgian Grand Prix | Next race: 1997 Belgian Grand Prix |
