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. Marlboro had expressed interest in Fisichella running early on.

The race was the first to use the new race-start system, still used in Formula 1 today, 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. 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.

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. Incidentally, the team had logged its best result of 7th one race earlier at the season-ending 1995 Australian Grand Prix.Forti – Team Summary

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.

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 , in Adelaide.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap 1 6 Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Renault 1:32.371 2 5 Damon Hill Williams-Renault 1:32.509 +0.138 3 2 Eddie Irvine Ferrari 1:32.889 +0.518 4 1 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:33.125 +0.754 5 7 Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 1:34.054 +1.683 6 3 Jean Alesi Benetton-Renault 1:34.257 +1.886 7 4 Gerhard Berger Benetton-Renault 1:34.344 +1.973 8 11 Rubens Barrichello Jordan-Peugeot 1:34.474 +2.103 9 15 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Sauber-Ford 1:34.494 +2.123 10 19 Mika Salo Tyrrell-Yamaha 1:34.832 +2.461 11 9 Olivier Panis Ligier-Mugen-Honda 1:35.330 +2.959 12 17 Jos Verstappen Footwork-Hart 1:35.338 +2.967 13 8 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 1:35.351 +2.980 14 14 Johnny Herbert Sauber-Ford 1:35.453 +3.082 15 18 Ukyo Katayama Tyrrell-Yamaha 1:35.715 +3.344 16 21 Giancarlo Fisichella Minardi-Ford 1:35.898 +3.527 17 20 Pedro Lamy Minardi-Ford 1:36.109 +3.738 18 16 Ricardo Rosset Footwork-Hart 1:36.198 +3.827 19 12 Martin Brundle Jordan-Peugeot 1:36.286 +3.915 20 10 Pedro Diniz Ligier-Mugen-Honda 1:36.298 +3.927107% time: 1:38.837 22 Luca Badoer Forti-Ford 1:39.202 +6.831 23 Andrea Montermini Forti-Ford 1:42.087 +9.716 Sources:

Race Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 5 Damon Hill Williams-Renault 58 1:32:50.491 2 10 2 6 Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Renault 58 +38.020 1 6 3 2 Eddie Irvine Ferrari 58 +1:02.571 3 4 4 4 Gerhard Berger Benetton-Renault 58 +1:17.037 7 3 5 7 Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 58 +1:35.071 5 2 6 19 Mika Salo Tyrrell-Yamaha 57 +1 lap 10 1 7 9 Olivier Panis Ligier-Mugen-Honda 57 +1 lap 11   8 15 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Sauber-Ford 57 +1 lap 9   9 16 Ricardo Rosset Footwork-Hart 56 +2 laps 18   10 10 Pedro Diniz Ligier-Mugen-Honda 56 +2 laps 20   11 18 Ukyo Katayama Tyrrell-Yamaha 55 +3 laps 15   20 Pedro Lamy Minardi-Ford 42 Safety belt 17   1 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 32 Brakes 4   21 Giancarlo Fisichella Minardi-Ford 32 Clutch 16   11 Rubens Barrichello Jordan-Peugeot 29 Engine 8   8 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 24 Throttle 13   17 Jos Verstappen Footwork-Hart 15 Engine 12   3 Jean Alesi Benetton-Renault 9 Collision 6   12 Martin Brundle Jordan-Peugeot 1 Collision 19   14 Johnny Herbert Sauber-Ford 0 Collision 14   22 Luca Badoer Forti-Ford 107% rule 23 Andrea Montermini Forti-Ford 107% rule

Notes – Herbert is listed as '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 . His place on grid was left vacant.

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Damon Hill 10 2 Jacques Villeneuve 6 3 Eddie Irvine 4 4 Gerhard Berger 3 5 Mika Häkkinen 2Source:

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Williams-Renault 16 2 Ferrari 4 3 Benetton-Renault 3 4 McLaren-Mercedes 2 5 Tyrrell-Yamaha 1Source:

References