1994 Japanese Grand Prix

December 2009 F1 Japan 1947 Japanese XX Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix Suzuka circuit map (1987-2002).svg 6 November 1994 15 https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/database/races/1994-japanese-grand-prix/ 1994 Japanese Grand Prix | Motorsport Database 16 Suzuka CircuitSuzuka, Mie, Japan Permanent racing facility 3.641 5.860 50 182.062 293.000 53 192.985 310.580 Heavy rain, followed by light showers 357,000https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/2022_japanesegp_mediakit_english.pdf Formula 1 Honda Japanese Grand Prix 2022 – Media Kit Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile 5 October 2022 5 October 2022 Michael Schumacher Benetton-Ford 1:37.209 Germany Damon Hill Williams-Renault 1:56.597 24 United Kingdom Damon Hill Williams-Renault United Kingdom Michael Schumacher Benetton-Ford Germany Jean Alesi Ferrari France JPN The 1994 Japanese Grand Prix (officially the XX Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 6 November 1994 at the Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka. It was the fifteenth and penultimate race of the 1994 Formula One World Championship. In wet conditions, the 50-lap race was won by Damon Hill, driving a Williams-Renault, after he started from second position. Hill's Drivers' Championship rival Michael Schumacher finished second in his Benetton-Ford, having started from pole position, with Jean Alesi third in his Ferrari. The win left Hill just one point behind Schumacher in the Drivers' Championship with one race remaining. This also proved to be the last Grand Prix for Érik Comas. This was also the last time in Formula 1 history when the race was split in two parts due to race stoppage and final classification has been set by aggregate time. Report Going into the race, Benetton driver Michael Schumacher led the Drivers' Championship with 86 points, five ahead of rival Damon Hill in the Williams on 81.Murray Walker, Jonathan Palmer 1994 Grand Prix Television Presentation BBC London, England 01:30-01:41 Rundown of Drivers Championship table Schumacher felt he was "very confident" about the race,Murray Walker 1994 Grand Prix Television Presentation BBC London, England 01:58-02:13 02:28-02:45 and Hill similarly declared that he was "positive". There were several changes of driver for this race: Johnny Herbert moved from Ligier to Benetton after just one race for the French team, replacing Jos Verstappen. His place at Ligier was taken by Franck Lagorce. Eric Bernard lost his seat at Lotus to Mika Salo who had been racing in Japanese Formula 3000, and likewise Simtek hired Taki Inoue on a one-race deal, replacing Domenico Schiattarella. Finally, JJ Lehto returned to Sauber to replace Andrea de Cesaris after the Italian's sudden retirement from Formula One. The race started in torrential rain, and as a result, several cars spun out of the race by aquaplaning, including Schumacher's team-mate Herbert on lap 4, Lagorce, the Minardis of Pierluigi Martini and Michele Alboreto, and all three Japanese drivers by the end of lap 3 (with both Ukyo Katayama and Hideki Noda being injured in separate crashes). Lehto also retired at the start with an engine failure. As did Gerhard Berger in the second Ferrari with battery problems by lap 11. On lap 13, Gianni Morbidelli crashed his Footwork at one of the Esses at the first sector. Shortly afterwards, Martin Brundle spun his McLaren off the track and crashed at the same spot, and as he bounced off the tyre barriers, hit a track marshal who was moving Morbidelli's car off the gravel trap. The marshal suffered a broken leg, adding to the huge list of injuries of the 1994 season, and the race was immediately stopped, as both Brundle and Morbidelli were fortunately able to escape uninjured. Rubens Barrichello soon retired in the pits with transmission problems by lap 17, Blundell was also forced to retire from 10th position when his engine failed on lap 27, which ended an appalling weekend for Tyrrell.Japanese Grand Prix: Down to the wire https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/december-1994/10/down-wire Motor Sport December 1994 10 27 April 2019 This left 13 runners, and there were no further retirements for the remaining 23 laps. As the rain eased, it was decided to run the remainder of the race, with around one hour to the time limit, on aggregate corrected time. Schumacher had been leading by 6.8 seconds when the red flag was shown, but Hill had a bigger lead (10.1 seconds) at the chequered flag, and thus took the win by 3.3 seconds on aggregate. This remains the last instance of aggregate race time being used in Formula One to determine the winner.September 2018 1994 Japanese Grand Prix https://f1since81.wordpress.com/2018/09/02/1994-japanese-grand-prix/ 27 December 2024 F1 since 81Smith Luke 22 April 2020 Remembering Formula 1's last aggregate race https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/remembering-f1s-last-aggregate-race/4783756/ https://web.archive.org/web/20240330043856/https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/remembering-f1s-last-aggregate-race/4783756/ 30 March 2024 27 December 2024 en Hill subsequently stated that his driving was "on a different level from how I'd ever driven before", noting that he never would achieve that level of performance again in his career.McRae Donald 2025-06-30 'I was angry at the world': Damon Hill on pain of his father's death and how it fuelled his rise https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/jun/30/i-was-angry-at-the-world-damon-hill-on-pain-of-his-fathers-death-and-how-it-fuelled-his-rise 2025-06-30 The Guardian en-GB 0261-3077Keilloh Graham 2019-10-09 'I was driving on a different level': Damon Hill's 1994 Japanese GP win https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/articles/single-seaters/f1/i-was-driving-different-level-damon-hill-s-1994-japanese-grand-prix/ 2025-06-30 Motor Sport Magazine en-GB Classification Qualifying Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Time Q2 Time Gap 1 5 Germany Michael Schumacher Benetton-Ford 1:37.209 1:57.128 2 0 UK Damon Hill Williams-Renault 1:37.696 1:57.278 +0.487 3 30 Germany Heinz-Harald Frentzen Sauber-Mercedes 1:37.742 1:56.935 +0.533 4 2 UK Nigel Mansell Williams-Renault 1:37.768 2:00.963 +0.559 5 6 UK Johnny Herbert Benetton-Ford 1:37.828 1:59.729 +0.619 6 15 UK Eddie Irvine Jordan-Hart 1:37.880 1:57.760 +0.671 7 27 France Jean Alesi Ferrari 1:37.907 1:58.610 +0.698 8 7 Finland Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Peugeot 1:37.998 1:58.204 +0.789 9 8 UK Martin Brundle McLaren-Peugeot 1:38.076 1:56.876 +0.877 10 14 Brazil Rubens Barrichello Jordan-Hart 1:38.533 2:01.905 +1.324 11 28 Austria Gerhard Berger Ferrari 1:38.570 1:58.926 +1.361 12 10 Italy Gianni Morbidelli Footwork-Ford 1:39.030 2:07.293 +1.821 13 4 UK Mark Blundell Tyrrell-Yamaha 1:39.266 2:02.266 +2.057 14 3 Japan 1947 Ukyo Katayama Tyrrell-Yamaha 1:39.462 2:04.187 +2.253 15 29 Finland JJ Lehto Sauber-Mercedes 1:39.483 1:59.943 +2.274 16 23 Italy Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 1:39.548 2:01.929 +2.339 17 12 Italy Alessandro Zanardi Lotus-Mugen-Honda 1:39.721 2:02.077 +2.512 18 9 Brazil Christian Fittipaldi Footwork-Ford 1:39.868 2:00.084 +2.659 19 26 France Olivier Panis Ligier-Renault 1:40.042 2:00.575 +2.833 20 25 France Franck Lagorce Ligier-Renault 1:40.577 2:02.780 +3.368 21 24 Italy Michele Alboreto Minardi-Ford 1:40.652 2:02.219 +3.443 22 20 France Érik Comas Larrousse-Ford 1:40.978 2:01.035 +3.769 23 19 Japan 1947 Hideki Noda Larrousse-Ford 1:40.990 2:05.354 +3.781 24 31 Australia David Brabham Simtek-Ford 1:41.659 2:09.453 +4.450 25 11 Finland Mika Salo Lotus-Mugen-Honda 1:41.805 2:01.637 +4.596 26 32 Japan 1947 Taki Inoue Simtek-Ford 1:45.004 no time +7.795 DNQ Did not qualify 34 France Bertrand Gachot Pacific-Ilmor 1:46.374 no time +9.165 DNQ Did not qualify 33 France Paul Belmondo Pacific-Ilmor 1:46.629 no time +9.420 Sources:Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix – Qualifying 1 https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/1994/races/619/japan/qualifying-1.html Formula1.com 29 December 2023Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix – Qualifying 2 https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/1994/races/619/japan/qualifying-2.html Formula1.com 29 December 20231994 Japanese GP – Qualifying https://www.chicanef1.com/race.pl?year=1994&gp=Japanese%20GP&r=1&type=qual ChicaneF1 29 December 2023 Race Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 0 UK Damon Hill Williams-Renault 50 1:55:53.532 2 10 2 5 Germany Michael Schumacher Benetton-Ford 50 + 3.365 1 6 3 27 France Jean Alesi Ferrari 50 + 52.045 7 4 4 2 UK Nigel Mansell Williams-Renault 50 + 56.074 4 3 5 15 UK Eddie Irvine Jordan-Hart 50 + 1:42.107 6 2 6 30 Germany Heinz-Harald Frentzen Sauber-Mercedes 50 + 1:59.863 3 1 7 7 Finland Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Peugeot 50 + 2:02.985 8   8 9 Brazil Christian Fittipaldi Footwork-Ford 49 + 1 Lap 18   9 20 France Érik Comas Larrousse-Ford 49 + 1 Lap 22   10 11 Finland Mika Salo Lotus-Mugen-Honda 49 + 1 Lap 25   11 26 France Olivier Panis Ligier-Renault 49 + 1 Lap 19   12 31 Australia David Brabham Simtek-Ford 48 + 2 Laps 24   13 12 Italy Alessandro Zanardi Lotus-Mugen-Honda 48 + 2 Laps 17   Ret Retired 4 UK Mark Blundell Tyrrell-Yamaha 26 Engine 13   Ret Retired 14 Brazil Rubens Barrichello Jordan-Hart 16 Gearbox 10   Ret Retired 8 UK Martin Brundle McLaren-Peugeot 13 Spun Off 9   Ret Retired 10 Italy Gianni Morbidelli Footwork-Ford 13 Spun Off 12   Ret Retired 28 Austria Gerhard Berger Ferrari 10 Battery 11   Ret Retired 25 France Franck Lagorce Ligier-Renault 10 Collision 20   Ret Retired 23 Italy Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 10 Collision 16   Ret Retired 24 Italy Michele Alboreto Minardi-Ford 10 Spun Off 21   Ret Retired 6 UK Johnny Herbert Benetton-Ford 3 Spun Off 5   Ret Retired 3 Japan 1947 Ukyo Katayama Tyrrell-Yamaha 3 Spun Off 14   Ret Retired 32 Japan 1947 Taki Inoue Simtek-Ford 3 Spun Off 26   Ret Retired 29 Finland JJ Lehto Sauber-Mercedes 0 Engine 15   Ret Retired 19 Japan 1947 Hideki Noda Larrousse-Ford 0 Spun Off PL  Source:2020-02-16 1994 Japanese Grand Prix – Race Result https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/1994/races/619/japan/race-result.html 16 February 2020 Formula1.com Championship standings after the race Drivers' Championship standings PosDriverPoints 1 GER Michael Schumacher 92 2 GBR Damon Hill 91 3 AUT Gerhard Berger 35 4 FIN Mika Häkkinen 26 5 FRA Jean Alesi 23Source:https://www.statsf1.com/en/1994/japon/championnat.aspx Japan 1994 – Championship • STATS F1 www.statsf1.com 18 March 2019 Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 GBR Williams-Renault108 2 GBR Benetton-Ford103 3 ITA Ferrari64 4 GBR McLaren-Peugeot38 5 IRE Jordan-Hart25Source: References Japanese Grand Prix 1994 1994 European Grand Prix 1994 Australian Grand Prix 1993 Japanese Grand Prix 1995 Japanese Grand Prix Japanese Grand Prix Category:Japanese Grand Prix Grand Prix Japanese Grand Prix