1994 Belgian Grand Prix

Eleventh round of the 1994 Formula One World Championship March 2019 March 2023 F1 Belgium Belgian LII Grand Prix de Belgique Spa 1994.svg 28 August 1994 11 16 Circuit de Spa-FrancorchampsFrancorchamps, Wallonia, Belgium1994 Belgian GP https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/database/races/1994-belgian-grand-prix/ Motor Sport 30 May 2022 Permanent racing facility 4.350 7.001 44 191.410 308.044 Sunny Rubens Barrichello Jordan-Hart 2:21.163 Brazil Damon Hill Williams-Renault 1:57.117 41 (lap record) United Kingdom Damon Hill Williams-Renault United Kingdom Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Peugeot Finland Jos Verstappen Benetton-Ford Netherlands BEL The 1994 Belgian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 28 August 1994 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, near the village of Francorchamps, Wallonia. It was the eleventh race of the 1994 Formula One World Championship. The 44-lap race was won by British driver Damon Hill, driving a Williams-Renault. After Brazilian Rubens Barrichello took the first pole position for the Jordan team, German Michael Schumacher crossed the finish line first in his Benetton-Ford, only to be disqualified due to excessive wear on the wooden skid block underneath his car. Hill was thus awarded the win, his third of the season, with Finn Mika Häkkinen second in a McLaren-Peugeot and Schumacher's Dutch teammate Jos Verstappen third. This was the last time a race-winning driver was disqualified in Formula One until George Russell thirty years later at the same event.George Russell, 2024 Belgian Grand Prix https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/from-infamous-title-deciders-to-home-race-heartbreaks-7-of-the-most-dramatic.3gUysRekRcxhLJ1MgzvFDZ Report Background Having deputised for a suspended Mika Häkkinen at McLaren at the previous race in Hungary, Philippe Alliot now returned to his old Larrousse team for this race, taking the place of Olivier Beretta. Meanwhile, the cash-strapped Lotus replaced Alessandro Zanardi with local driver Philippe Adams, who brought significant funding to the team.Philippe Adams Profile https://f1everything.com/drivers/philippe-adams/profile Following the deaths of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna at Imola earlier in the season, a chicane was installed at Eau Rouge to slow the cars. Qualifying thumb|upright|Andrea de Cesaris exiting the Bus Stop chicane in his Sauber C13. The Friday qualifying session was held in wet but drying conditions. Towards the end of the session, the Jordan cars were sent out on slick tyres, and Rubens Barrichello duly put his car on provisional pole with teammate Eddie Irvine fourth. More rain fell on Saturday, with most of the drivers lapping several seconds slower than the day before, and only Christian Fittipaldi improving his time. Thus, Barrichello took the first pole position of his career and the first for Jordan. At 22 years and 98 days, Barrichello became the youngest ever F1 polesitter up to that point, beating the record set by Andrea de Cesaris at the 1982 United States Grand Prix West.Statistics Drivers – Pole positions – By age https://www.statsf1.com/en/statistiques/pilote/pole/age.aspx 2022-04-24 statsf1.com Drivers' Championship leader Michael Schumacher was second in his Benetton, with Damon Hill third in his Williams. After Irvine came Jean Alesi in the Ferrari, Jos Verstappen in the second Benetton, David Coulthard in the second Williams and the returning Häkkinen, with Heinz-Harald Frentzen in the Sauber and Pierluigi Martini in the Minardi completing the top ten. Race thumb|Local driver Philippe Adams spun his Lotus 109 out of the race on lap 16. In dry conditions, Barrichello led away from Schumacher and a fast-starting Alesi. Schumacher passed Barrichello at Les Combes, and Alesi soon followed, only for his engine to fail on lap 3. With the Jordans struggling to hold on to track position against faster cars, Hill moved into second, ahead of Coulthard and Häkkinen. Gerhard Berger in the remaining Ferrari also retired with engine failure by lap 12. Philippe Adams who made his debut Grand Prix appearance at his home circuit soon spun out into the gravel trap, five laps after Berger retired. Coulthard overtook teammate Hill during the first round of pit stops, while Barrichello moved back up to second before making his stop. On lap 19, Schumacher spun exiting Fagnes but retained the lead; the following lap, Barrichello spun into retirement at Pouhon and clipped the armco barrier giving his Jordan 194 terminal suspension damage. Martin Brundle moved into fifth in the second McLaren, before he himself had spun off and clipped the armco like Barrichello by lap 25. When Schumacher and Hill made their second pit stops on lap 28, Coulthard led a lap for the first time in his F1 career. After making his own second stop, he remained ahead of Hill until the Williams team called him in on lap 37 to check his rear wing. He then developed gearbox problems and was passed by Häkkinen, Verstappen and Mark Blundell in the Tyrrell. On lap 40, Coulthard hit the back of Blundell's car going through La Source; both were able to continue, with Coulthard apologising to Blundell afterwards. Eddie Irvine was the final retirement with the result of an alternator failure with only three laps to go and was classified fourteenth, leaving thirteen runners left in the race up to the finish. Though Hill set the fastest lap of the race on lap 41, Schumacher crossed the finish line some 13 seconds ahead, with Häkkinen a further 51 seconds back and Verstappen, Coulthard, Blundell and Morbidelli completing the top six. Post-race thumb|Bottom view of the Benetton B194. thumb|upright|Michael Schumacher celebrating his race win before being disqualified. Shortly after the race, excessive wear was found on the wooden skid block on the underside of Schumacher's car. The skid block was a mandatory requirement on all cars, introduced two races before in Germany, to increase ride height and reduce ground effect advantages. Wear on the skid block of up to one millimetre was permitted; any greater would make the ride height too low and result in an illegal aerodynamic advantage.Grand Prix Results: Belgian GP, 1994 http://www.grandprix.com/gpe/rr559.html GrandPrix.com 7 June 2008 The Benetton team claimed that the excessive wear resulted from Schumacher's spin on lap 19, but the stewards rejected the claim because of the wear pattern. Schumacher was thus disqualified and Hill awarded the victory, with Häkkinen second, Verstappen third, Coulthard fourth, Blundell fifth and Gianni Morbidelli sixth in the Footwork. Verstappen achieved his second and last podium in Formula One. Schumacher's lead over Hill in the Drivers' Championship was reduced to 21 points with five races remaining. Classification Qualifying Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Time Q2 Time Gap 1 14 Brazil Rubens Barrichello Jordan-Hart 2:21.163 no time 2 5 Germany Michael Schumacher Benetton-Ford 2:21.494 2:25.501 +0.331 3 0 UK Damon Hill Williams-Renault 2:21.681 2:25.570 +0.518 4 15 UK Eddie Irvine Jordan-Hart 2:22.074 no time +0.911 5 27 France Jean Alesi Ferrari 2:22.202 2:25.099 +1.039 6 6 Netherlands Jos Verstappen Benetton-Ford 2:22.218 2:28.576 +1.055 7 2 UK David Coulthard Williams-Renault 2:22.359 2:27.180 +1.196 8 7 Finland Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Peugeot 2:22.441 2:28.997 +1.278 9 30 Germany Heinz-Harald Frentzen Sauber-Mercedes 2:22.634 2:28.026 +1.471 10 23 Italy Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 2:23.326 2:30.896 +2.163 11 28 Austria Gerhard Berger Ferrari 2:23.895 2:29.391 +2.732 12 4 UK Mark Blundell Tyrrell-Yamaha 2:24.048 2:28.164 +2.885 13 8 UK Martin Brundle McLaren-Peugeot 2:24.117 2:28.428 +2.954 14 10 Italy Gianni Morbidelli Footwork-Ford 2:25.114 2:31.403 +3.951 15 29 Italy Andrea de Cesaris Sauber-Mercedes 2:25.695 2:30.475 +4.532 16 25 France Éric Bernard Ligier-Renault 2:26.044 2:31.025 +4.881 17 26 France Olivier Panis Ligier-Renault 2:26.079 2:31.501 +4.916 18 24 Italy Michele Alboreto Minardi-Ford 2:26.738 2:32.286 +5.575 19 19 France Philippe Alliot Larrousse-Ford 2:26.901 2:31.350 +5.738 20 12 UK Johnny Herbert Lotus-Mugen-Honda 2:27.155 2:32.610 +5.992 21 31 Australia David Brabham Simtek-Ford 2:27.212 2:41.593 +6.049 22 20 France Érik Comas Larrousse-Ford 2:28.156 2:30.524 +6.993 23 3 Japan 1947 Ukyo Katayama Tyrrell-Yamaha 2:28.979 2:29.925 +7.816 24 9 Brazil Christian Fittipaldi Footwork-Ford 16:56.162 2:30.931 +9.768 25 32 France Jean-Marc Gounon Simtek-Ford 2:31.755 2:40.280 +10.592 26 11 Belgium Philippe Adams Lotus-Mugen-Honda 2:33.885 2:34.733 +12.722 DNQ Did not qualify 34 France Bertrand Gachot Pacific-Ilmor 2:34.582 2:34.951 +13.419 DNQ Did not qualify 33 France Paul Belmondo Pacific-Ilmor 2:35.729 no time +14.566Source:http://www.motorsport.com/#/all/article/?id=809 Belgian GP Friday Qualifying motorsport.com 2 July 2011http://www.motorsport.com/#/all/article/?id=812 Belgian GP Saturday Qualifying motorsport.com 2 July 20111994 Belgian GP – Qualifying https://www.chicanef1.com/race.pl?year=1994&gp=Belgian%20GP&r=1&type=qual ChicaneF1 29 December 2023 https://web.archive.org/web/20250422224539/https://www.chicanef1.com/race.pl?year=1994&gp=Belgian%20GP&r=1&type=qual 22 April 2025 dead Race Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 0 UK Damon Hill Williams-Renault 44 1:28:47.170 3 10 2 7 Finland Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Peugeot 44 + 51.381 8 6 3 6 Netherlands Jos Verstappen Benetton-Ford 44 + 1:10.453 6 4 4 2 UK David Coulthard Williams-Renault 44 + 1:45.787 7 3 5 4 UK Mark Blundell Tyrrell-Yamaha 43 + 1 Lap 12 2 6 10 Italy Gianni Morbidelli Footwork-Ford 43 + 1 Lap 14 1 7 26 France Olivier Panis Ligier-Renault 43 + 1 Lap 17   8 23 Italy Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 43 + 1 Lap 10   9 24 Italy Michele Alboreto Minardi-Ford 43 + 1 Lap 18   10 25 France Éric Bernard Ligier-Renault 42 + 2 Laps 16   11 32 France Jean-Marc Gounon Simtek-Ford 42 + 2 Laps 25   12 12 UK Johnny Herbert Lotus-Mugen-Honda 41 + 3 Laps 20   13 15 UK Eddie Irvine Jordan-Hart 40 Alternator 4   Ret Retired 9 Brazil Christian Fittipaldi Footwork-Ford 33 Engine 24   Ret Retired 31 Australia David Brabham Simtek-Ford 29 Wheel 21   Ret Retired 29 Italy Andrea de Cesaris Sauber-Mercedes 27 Throttle 15   Ret Retired 8 UK Martin Brundle McLaren-Peugeot 24 Spun off 13   Ret Retired 14 Brazil Rubens Barrichello Jordan-Hart 19 Spun off 1   Ret Retired 3 Japan 1947 Ukyo Katayama Tyrrell-Yamaha 18 Engine 23   Ret Retired 11 Belgium Philippe Adams Lotus-Mugen-Honda 15 Spun off 26   Ret Retired 28 Austria Gerhard Berger Ferrari 11 Engine 11   Ret Retired 19 France Philippe Alliot Larrousse-Ford 11 Engine 19   Ret Retired 30 Germany Heinz-Harald Frentzen Sauber-Mercedes 10 Halfshaft 9   Ret Retired 20 France Érik Comas Larrousse-Ford 3 Engine 22   Ret Retired 27 France Jean Alesi Ferrari 2 Engine 5   DSQ Disqualified 5 Germany Michael Schumacher Benetton-Ford 44 Worn skid block 2  Source:2020-02-08 1994 Belgian Grand Prix – Race Result https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/1994/races/615/belgium/race-result.html 2020-02-08 Formula1.com en Championship standings after the race Drivers' Championship standings PosDriverPoints 1 GER Michael Schumacher 76 2 GBR Damon Hill 55 3 AUT Gerhard Berger 27 4 FRA Jean Alesi 19 5 FIN Mika Häkkinen 14Source:https://www.statsf1.com/en/1994/belgique/championnat.aspx Belgium 1994 – Championship • STATS F1 statsf1.com 13 March 2019 Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 GBR Benetton-Ford 85 2 GBR Williams-Renault 62 3 ITA Ferrari 52 4 GBR McLaren-Peugeot 23 5 IRE Jordan-Hart 14Source: References Belgian Grand Prix 1994 1994 Hungarian Grand Prix 1994 Italian Grand Prix 1993 Belgian Grand Prix 1995 Belgian Grand Prix Belgian Grand Prix Category:Belgian Grand Prix Grand Prix Belgian Grand Prix