The 1993 Belgian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Spa-Francorchamps on 29 August 1993. It was the twelfth race of the 1993 Formula One World Championship.
The 44-lap race was won by Briton Damon Hill, driving a Williams-Renault. Hill's French teammate, Alain Prost, took pole position and led the first 30 laps, before he suffered a slow pit stop and dropped to third behind Hill and German Michael Schumacher in the Benetton-Ford. Hill went on to win by 3.6 seconds from Schumacher with Prost a further 11 seconds back; the 1–3 finish secured Williams their second consecutive Constructors' Championship.
Lotus driver Alessandro Zanardi was withdrawn from the meeting following a huge crash in Friday practice, which ultimately ended his season. In the race itself, his team-mate Johnny Herbert scored the final points ever for Team Lotus with his 5th position. Local driver Thierry Boutsen retired from Formula One following the race (after his race ended on the first lap with a gearbox failure).
Qualifying report Once again, Alain Prost took pole position in his Williams-Renault with teammate Damon Hill alongside him on the front row of the grid, the two separated on this occasion by nearly nine-tenths of a second. On the second row were Michael Schumacher in the Benetton and Jean Alesi in the Ferrari, and on the third row were Ayrton Senna in the McLaren and Aguri Suzuki in the Footwork. Completing the top ten were Derek Warwick in the second Footwork, Riccardo Patrese in the second Benetton, JJ Lehto in the Sauber and Johnny Herbert in the Lotus.
Qualifying classification Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap 1 2 Alain Prost Williams-Renault 1:48.794 1:47.571 — 2 0 Damon Hill Williams-Renault 1:48.716 1:48.466 +0.895 3 5 Michael Schumacher Benetton-Ford 1:50.305 1:49.075 +1.504 4 27 Jean Alesi Ferrari 1:52.159 1:49.825 +2.254 5 8 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Ford 1:51.385 1:49.934 +2.363 6 10 Aguri Suzuki Footwork-Mugen-Honda 1:51.904 1:50.329 +2.758 7 9 Derek Warwick Footwork-Mugen-Honda 1:52.730 1:50.628 +3.057 8 6 Riccardo Patrese Benetton-Ford 1:51.925 1:51.017 +3.446 9 30 JJ Lehto Sauber 1:52.210 1:51.048 +3.477 10 12 Johnny Herbert Lotus-Ford 1:52.369 1:51.139 +3.568 11 25 Martin Brundle Ligier-Renault 1:53.323 1:51.350 +3.779 12 29 Karl Wendlinger Sauber 1:53.139 1:51.440 +3.869 13 14 Rubens Barrichello Jordan-Hart 1:53.235 1:51.711 +4.140 14 7 Michael Andretti McLaren-Ford 1:53.554 1:51.833 +4.262 15 26 Mark Blundell Ligier-Renault 1:53.030 1:51.916 +4.345 16 28 Gerhard Berger Ferrari 1:52.689 1:52.080 +4.509 17 4 Andrea de Cesaris Tyrrell-Yamaha 1:53.559 1:52.647 +5.076 18 19 Philippe Alliot Larrousse-Lamborghini 1:56.822 1:52.907 +5.336 19 20 Érik Comas Larrousse-Lamborghini 1:56.072 1:53.186 +5.615 20 15 Thierry Boutsen Jordan-Hart 1:55.382 1:53.465 +5.894 21 24 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 1:54.968 1:53.526 +5.955 22 23 Christian Fittipaldi Minardi-Ford 1:56.947 1:53.942 +6.371 23 3 Ukyo Katayama Tyrrell-Yamaha 1:55.271 1:54.551 +6.980 24 22 Luca Badoer Lola-Ferrari 1:57.599 1:54.978 +7.407 25 21 Michele Alboreto Lola-Ferrari 1:57.852 1:55.965 +8.394 11 Alessandro Zanardi Lotus-Ford — — — Sources:
Race report At the start, Senna got ahead of both Schumacher and Alesi with Alesi also getting by Schumacher. The order at the end of lap 1 was: Prost, Senna, Hill, Alesi, Schumacher and Suzuki.
Alesi retired then with suspension troubles on lap 4, releasing Schumacher. Schumacher then set off after Senna and overtook him on the grass during the first round of pitstops. The first stops did not change anything, with Prost leading from Hill, Schumacher and Senna. Suzuki was a distant fifth until his gearbox failed on lap 15. Prost had a slow second stop, which allowed Hill to take the lead. Schumacher then overtook Prost to claim second. Prost smashed the lap record on lap 41 in his chase of Schumacher, but he found out that he was just a tenth quicker and settled for third. Hill won, wrapping up the Constructors Championship for Williams with Schumacher and Prost close behind. Senna was a lonely fourth, while Herbert and Patrese, who spun after his pitstop, took the final points. Herbert's 2 points for 5th place would turn out to be the last points finish for a Team Lotus driver.
Thus, with three-quarters of the season gone, Prost was a full 28 points ahead and could sense the championship, having 81 points to Senna's 53. Hill was third with 48, Schumacher was fourth with 42, Patrese was fifth with 18, Brundle was sixth with 11, Herbert was seventh with 11 and Blundell was eighth with 10. In the Constructors Championship, Williams were World Champions with 129 points ahead of Benetton who were second with 60, McLaren close behind in third with 56 and Ligier fourth with 21 – their best performance in some years.
Race classification Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 0 Damon Hill Williams-Renault 44 1:24:32.124 2 10 2 5 Michael Schumacher Benetton-Ford 44 + 3.668 3 6 3 2 Alain Prost Williams-Renault 44 + 14.988 1 4 4 8 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Ford 44 + 1:39.763 5 3 5 12 Johnny Herbert Lotus-Ford 43 + 1 lap 10 2 6 6 Riccardo Patrese Benetton-Ford 43 + 1 lap 8 1 7 25 Martin Brundle Ligier-Renault 43 + 1 lap 11 8 7 Michael Andretti McLaren-Ford 43 + 1 lap 14 9 30 JJ Lehto Sauber 43 + 1 lap 9 10 28 Gerhard Berger Ferrari 42 Collision 16 11 26 Mark Blundell Ligier-Renault 42 Collision 15 12 19 Philippe Alliot Larrousse-Lamborghini 42 + 2 laps 18 13 22 Luca Badoer Lola-Ferrari 42 + 2 laps 24 14 21 Michele Alboreto Lola-Ferrari 41 + 3 laps 25 15 3 Ukyo Katayama Tyrrell-Yamaha 40 + 4 laps 23 20 Érik Comas Larrousse-Lamborghini 37 Fuel pump 19 9 Derek Warwick Footwork-Mugen-Honda 28 Engine 7 29 Karl Wendlinger Sauber 27 Engine 12 4 Andrea de Cesaris Tyrrell-Yamaha 24 Engine 17 23 Christian Fittipaldi Minardi-Ford 15 Accident 22 24 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 15 Spun off 21 10 Aguri Suzuki Footwork-Mugen-Honda 14 Gearbox 6 14 Rubens Barrichello Jordan-Hart 11 Wheel bearing 13 27 Jean Alesi Ferrari 4 Suspension 4 15 Thierry Boutsen Jordan-Hart 0 Gearbox 20 11 Alessandro Zanardi Lotus-Ford
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings PosDriverPoints 1 Alain Prost* 81 2 Ayrton Senna* 53 3 Damon Hill* 48 4 Michael Schumacher* 42 5 Riccardo Patrese 18Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Williams-Renault 129 1 2 Benetton-Ford 60 1 3 McLaren-Ford 56 4 Ligier-Renault 21 5 Ferrari 14Source:
Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. Bold text indicates the 1993 World Constructors' Champions. Competitors in bold and marked with an asterisk still had a mathematical chance of becoming World Champion.
References