1996 Australian Grand Prix

December 2019 F1 Australia Australian Albert_Lake_Park_Street_Circuit_in_Melbourne,_Australia.svg 10 March 1996 1 16 1996 Transurban Australian Grand Prix Melbourne Grand Prix CircuitMelbourne, Australia Temporary street circuit 3.295 5.302 58 191.110 307.516 Dry with temperatures reaching up to 23 C FWeather info for the 1996 Australian Grand Prix at Weather Underground Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Renault 1:32.371 Canada Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Renault 1:33.421 27 Canada Damon Hill Williams-Renault United Kingdom Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Renault Canada Eddie Irvine Ferrari United Kingdom AUS 1995 Australian Grand Prix 1996 Brazilian Grand Prix The 1996 Australian Grand Prix (officially the 1996 Transurban Australian Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held at Melbourne on 10 March 1996. It was the first race of the 1996 Formula One World Championship, and the first Australian Grand Prix to be held at Melbourne, taking over from Adelaide. The 58-lap race was won by Damon Hill, driving a Williams-Renault. Hill's teammate Jacques Villeneuve, making his Formula One debut, took pole position and led for most of the race, before an oil leak enabled Hill to catch and pass him in the closing laps. Eddie Irvine finished third in a Ferrari. Report Background This was the second Grand Prix in a row held in Australia, the previous race being the conclusion to the 1995 season. Taki Inoue was scheduled to race for the Minardi team as a pay driver but when no money materialised prior to the race he was replaced by Giancarlo Fisichella.http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns00507.html Minardi to get Fisichella? 4 March 1996 www.grandprix.com 8 August 2017 Marlboro had expressed interest in Fisichella running early on.http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns00435.html Five drivers bidding for Minardi 15 January 1996 www.grandprix.com 8 August 2017 The race was the first to use the new race-start system, still used in Formula 1 today,Grand Prix Results: Australian GP, 1996 http://www.grandprix.com/gpe/rr582.html https://web.archive.org/web/20090506030643/http://grandprix.com/gpe/rr582.html 6 May 2009 live 28 May 2009 replacing the old red to green light system. Under the new system, five red lights would come on at one second intervals, starting after the last driver reached his grid box. There would then be a pre-determined pause, and then the five lights would go off simultaneously.FIA Formula One World Championship – Lights and Pit Lane http://www.fia.com/resources/documents/238247948__14_03_1996_F1_Lights_Pits.pdf 14 March 1996 FIA.com dead 20 January 2010 https://web.archive.org/web/20050302223843/http://www.fia.com/resources/documents/238247948__14_03_1996_F1_Lights_Pits.pdf 2 March 2005 This was also the first race to have a single qualifying session on Saturday afternoon; the Friday session was dropped. Qualifying Jacques Villeneuve, the reigning IndyCar champion, took pole position for his first Grand Prix ahead of team mate Hill. The second row of the grid was taken by the two Ferrari cars, with Eddie Irvine surprisingly ahead of Michael Schumacher.Tremayne David 10 March 1996 Villeneuve signals a new era https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/villeneuve-signals-a-new-era-1341336.html Independent 25 May 2026 Both Forti cars failed make the race due to the new 107% rule for qualifying, which stated that any car that qualified 107% slower than the pole time (1:38.837 in this race) would be excluded. The measure was introduced as excessively slow entrants presented potential safety hazards due to a high speed difference.http://atlasf1.autosport.com/97/san/gogos.html Autosport 107% Disapproval Incidentally, the team had logged its best result of 7th one race earlier at the season-ending 1995 Australian Grand Prix.Forti – Team Summary https://web.archive.org/web/20120505073534/http://f1rejects.com/teams/forti/index.html 5 May 2012 Race Pedro Lamy started from the pit lane due to a clutch problem, while on the formation lap Heinz-Harald Frentzen stopped with an electrical problem. It was an all-Williams front row with Damon Hill and debutant Jacques Villeneuve in the blue and white Rothmans cars. As the red lights went out, a flurry of yellow flags revealed that both Tyrrell cars had stalled meaning 16 cars actually got away. In the first corner Hill momentarily lost control and slid wide, losing momentum and enabling Irvine and Schumacher to overtake through Turn 2. On the run down to the third corner, the field bunched to the right hand side of the track with Rubens Barrichello fending off Olivier Panis. This began a chain reaction of heavy braking as drivers tried to avoid colliding with one another, and David Coulthard veered left under braking and his McLaren hit the side of Johnny Herbert's Sauber. Herbert tried to avoid the car and braked heavily. Martin Brundle was behind them and unable to slow sufficiently, hitting the rear of Herbert's and Coulthard's cars and was launched into a barrel roll, ending in a sand trap at turn 3 and breaking his car in two. Brundle was unhurt. The race was halted to allow the circuit to be cleared.http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns00510.html Martin Brundle's Melbourne crash 11 March 1996 www.grandprix.com 8 August 2017 The race was restarted, with Herbert a non-starter as team mate Frentzen took the spare Sauber. Brundle started from the pit lane in the spare Jordan, and spun off on lap 2 after light contact with Pedro Diniz. The Williams dominated again, with Villeneuve leading Hill. Schumacher quickly passed Irvine and held third place, but dropped back half a minute with his second pit stop. He developed brake problems on lap 28 and retired five laps later. Irvine assumed third, having survived contact with Jean Alesi's Benetton on lap 6, when Alesi had attempted to pass him. The Williams team employed a one stop strategy with Hill emerging from his stop just ahead of Villeneuve, who immediately retook the lead. Soon after, Villeneuve had an off at the first corner, and was later hampered by an oil leak. The Williams team showed a SLOW signal as his oil pressure was dropping, which enabled Hill to catch and pass him; taking his 14th Grand Prix victory and equalling his father Graham's overall number of wins. Villeneuve was second and Irvine third on his Ferrari debut. Hill therefore took back to back Australian Grand Prix victories, the previous race being the last round of 1995, in Adelaide. Classification Qualifying Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap 1 6 Canada Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Renault 1:32.371 2 5 UK Damon Hill Williams-Renault 1:32.509 +0.138 3 2 UK Eddie Irvine Ferrari 1:32.889 +0.518 4 1 Germany Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:33.125 +0.754 5 7 Finland Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 1:34.054 +1.683 6 3 France Jean Alesi Benetton-Renault 1:34.257 +1.886 7 4 Austria Gerhard Berger Benetton-Renault 1:34.344 +1.973 8 11 Brazil Rubens Barrichello Jordan-Peugeot 1:34.474 +2.103 9 15 Germany Heinz-Harald Frentzen Sauber-Ford 1:34.494 +2.123 10 19 Finland Mika Salo Tyrrell-Yamaha 1:34.832 +2.461 11 9 France Olivier Panis Ligier-Mugen-Honda 1:35.330 +2.959 12 17 the Netherlands Jos Verstappen Footwork-Hart 1:35.338 +2.967 13 8 UK David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 1:35.351 +2.980 14 14 UK Johnny Herbert Sauber-Ford 1:35.453 +3.082 15 18 Japan 1947 Ukyo Katayama Tyrrell-Yamaha 1:35.715 +3.344 16 21 Italy Giancarlo Fisichella Minardi-Ford 1:35.898 +3.527 17 20 Portugal Pedro Lamy Minardi-Ford 1:36.109 +3.738 18 16 Brazil Ricardo Rosset Footwork-Hart 1:36.198 +3.827 19 12 UK Martin Brundle Jordan-Peugeot 1:36.286 +3.915 20 10 Brazil Pedro Diniz Ligier-Mugen-Honda 1:36.298 +3.927107% time: 1:38.837 DNQ Did not qualify 22 Italy Luca Badoer Forti-Ford 1:39.202 +6.831 DNQ Did not qualify 23 Italy Andrea Montermini Forti-Ford 1:42.087 +9.716 Sources:Australia 1996 – Qualifications https://www.statsf1.com/en/1996/australie/qualification.aspx StatsF1 29 December 20231996 Australian Grand Prix Classification Qualifying https://www.motorsportstats.com/results/fia-formula-one-world-championship/1996/australian-grand-prix/classification/qualifying Motorsport Stats 29 December 2023 Race Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 5 United Kingdom Damon Hill Williams-Renault 58 1:32:50.491 2 10 2 6 Canada Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Renault 58 +38.020 1 6 3 2 United Kingdom Eddie Irvine Ferrari 58 +1:02.571 3 4 4 4 Austria Gerhard Berger Benetton-Renault 58 +1:17.037 7 3 5 7 Finland Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 58 +1:35.071 5 2 6 19 Finland Mika Salo Tyrrell-Yamaha 57 +1 lap 10 1 7 9 France Olivier Panis Ligier-Mugen-Honda 57 +1 lap 11   8 15 Germany Heinz-Harald Frentzen Sauber-Ford 57 +1 lap 9   9 16 Brazil Ricardo Rosset Footwork-Hart 56 +2 laps 18   10 10 Brazil Pedro Diniz Ligier-Mugen-Honda 56 +2 laps 20   11 18 Japan 1947 Ukyo Katayama Tyrrell-Yamaha 55 +3 laps 15   Ret Retired 20 Portugal Pedro Lamy Minardi-Ford 42 Safety belt 17   Ret Retired 1 Germany Michael Schumacher Ferrari 32 Brakes 4   Ret Retired 21 Italy Giancarlo Fisichella Minardi-Ford 32 Clutch 16   Ret Retired 11 Brazil Rubens Barrichello Jordan-Peugeot 29 Engine 8   Ret Retired 8 United Kingdom David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 24 Throttle 13   Ret Retired 17 Netherlands Jos Verstappen Footwork-Hart 15 Engine 12   Ret Retired 3 France Jean Alesi Benetton-Renault 9 Collision 6   Ret Retired 12 United Kingdom Martin Brundle Jordan-Peugeot 1 Collision 19   DNS Did not start 14 United Kingdom Johnny Herbert Sauber-Ford 0 Collision1 1 14   DNQ Did not qualify 22 Italy Luca Badoer Forti-Ford 107% rule DNQ Did not qualify 23 Italy Andrea Montermini Forti-Ford 107% rule Source:http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1996/131/ 1996 Australian Grand Prix formula1.com https://web.archive.org/web/20141101204027/http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1996/131/ 1 November 2014 24 December 2015 Notes 1 1 – Herbert is listed as 'Did Not Start' (DNS Did not start) in the official results, despite having taken the first start prior to the race being stopped. Regulations at the time were such that in the event of a stoppage being ordered on the first lap, that start would be deemed null and void, and the second start would take place as if the first had never occurred. As he did not make the second start, he’s classified as DNS Did not start. His place on grid was left vacant. Championship standings after the race Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 UK Damon Hill 10 2 Canada Jacques Villeneuve 6 3 UK Eddie Irvine 4 4 Austria Gerhard Berger 3 5 Finland Mika Häkkinen 2Source:https://www.statsf1.com/en/1996/australie/championnat.aspx Australia 1996 – Championship • STATS F1 www.statsf1.com 6 March 2019 Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 UK Williams-Renault 16 2 Italy Ferrari 4 3 Italy Benetton-Renault 3 4 UK McLaren-Mercedes 2 5 UK Tyrrell-Yamaha 1Source: Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. References 30em Australian Grand Prix 1996 1995 Australian Grand Prix 1996 Brazilian Grand Prix 1995 Australian Grand Prix 1997 Australian Grand Prix 1995 Australian Grand Prix 1997 Australian Grand Prix Grand Prix Australian Grand Prix Category:Australian Grand Prix Australian Grand Prix Category:Motorsport at Albert Park