The 1996 Belgian Grand Prix (formally the LIV Grand Prix de Belgique) was a Formula One motor race held on 25 August 1996 at Spa-Francorchamps. It was the thirteenth race of the 1996 FIA Formula One World Championship.
The 44-lap race was won by Michael Schumacher, driving a Ferrari. Schumacher had crashed heavily in Friday practice, but recovered to qualify third before taking his second win of the season. Jacques Villeneuve, who had started from pole position, finished second in his Williams-Renault, with Mika Häkkinen third in a McLaren-Mercedes. Villeneuve's teammate and Drivers' Championship leader, Damon Hill, finished fifth.
Qualifying
Pos No Driver Constructor Time Diff. 1 6 Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Renault 1:50.574 2 5 Damon Hill Williams-Renault 1:50.980 +0.406 3 1 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:51.778 +1.204 4 8 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 1:51.884 +1.310 5 4 Gerhard Berger Benetton-Renault 1:51.960 +1.386 6 7 Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 1:52.318 +1.744 7 3 Jean Alesi Benetton-Renault 1:52.354 +1.780 8 12 Martin Brundle Jordan-Peugeot 1:52.977 +2.403 9 2 Eddie Irvine Ferrari 1:53.043 +2.469 10 11 Rubens Barrichello Jordan-Peugeot 1:53.152 +2.578 11 15 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Sauber-Ford 1:53.199 +2.625 12 14 Johnny Herbert Sauber-Ford 1:53.993 +3.419 13 19 Mika Salo Tyrrell-Yamaha 1:54.095 +3.521 14 9 Olivier Panis Ligier-Mugen-Honda 1:54.220 +3.646 15 10 Pedro Diniz Ligier-Mugen-Honda 1:54.700 +4.126 16 17 Jos Verstappen Footwork-Hart 1:55.150 +4.576 17 18 Ukyo Katayama Tyrrell-Yamaha 1:55.371 +4.797 18 16 Ricardo Rosset Footwork-Hart 1:56.286 +5.712 19 20 Pedro Lamy Minardi-Ford 1:56.830 +6.256107% time: 1:58.314 21 Giovanni Lavaggi Minardi-Ford 1:58.579 +8.005 Sources:
Race The start of the race saw the two Saubers of Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Johnny Herbert eliminated immediately when they collided at the La Source hairpin after attempting to evade an incident where Olivier Panis spun his Ligier after making contact with Rubens Barrichello's Jordan. Panis also retired on the spot; Barrichello was able to continue, pitting to repair his suspension, although it eventually failed altogether on lap 30.
On lap 10, Jos Verstappen pitted with a sticking throttle. The Footwork Arrows pit crew found no damage and sent Verstappen back out, only for the Dutchman to crash almost immediately. Team boss Tom Walkinshaw confirmed after the race that the throttle problem had not recurred, and that the crash was caused by a faulty wheel bearing. The incident brought out the safety car for seven laps, during which time all the drivers besides the McLarens of Mika Häkkinen and David Coulthard (both running a one-stop strategy) made pit stops. Jacques Villeneuve, leading the race when the safety car came out, missed his pit stop on lap 13. As a result, he lost the lead to Michael Schumacher, who eventually won the race by 5.6 seconds from Villeneuve. The Canadian driver later explained that he had misunderstood the radio instruction to come in, due to the confusion brought about by the deployment of the safety car (as Villeneuve had already passed the site of the crash, and was not fully aware of what had happened). As a further consequence of Villeneuve's error, his teammate Damon Hill was instructed to pit by the Williams engineers on lap 14, only to then be told to stay out - however, as the team were delayed in relaying this change to Hill due to confusion brought about by Villeneuve's failure to make his stop, by the time the team radioed Hill to advise him he needed to remain out, he was already on his way into the pit lane, and had to use the emergency escape lane to rejoin the track. Hill was driving the spare Williams following a misfire in the Sunday morning warm-up session. By the time he finally got to make his pit stop, he had fallen to 13th, but he recovered to finish fifth.
Running in fourth place just after half distance, Gerhard Berger spun off in his Benetton while trying to pass Eddie Irvine's Ferrari, an error which dropped him to 12th. After setting a string of fastest laps he recovered to sixth by the end of the race, coincidentally thanks in part to Irvine's retirement with gearbox problems. Berger's Benetton teammate Jean Alesi finished fourth after Coulthard had spun off into retirement and crashed on lap 38.
The Tyrrells of Mika Salo and Ukyo Katayama finished in seventh and eighth places respectively; however, a fast early stop during the safety car period saw Salo briefly running as high as third at one point.
Race classification Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 1 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 44 1:28:15.125 3 10 2 6 Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Renault 44 + 5.602 1 6 3 7 Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 44 + 15.710 6 4 4 3 Jean Alesi Benetton-Renault 44 + 19.125 7 3 5 5 Damon Hill Williams-Renault 44 + 29.179 2 2 6 4 Gerhard Berger Benetton-Renault 44 + 29.896 5 1 7 19 Mika Salo Tyrrell-Yamaha 44 + 1:00.754 13 8 18 Ukyo Katayama Tyrrell-Yamaha 44 + 1:40.227 17 9 16 Ricardo Rosset Footwork-Hart 43 + 1 Lap 18 10 20 Pedro Lamy Minardi-Ford 43 + 1 Lap 19 8 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 37 Spun Off 4 12 Martin Brundle Jordan-Peugeot 34 Engine 8 2 Eddie Irvine Ferrari 29 Gearbox 9 11 Rubens Barrichello Jordan-Peugeot 29 Suspension 10 10 Pedro Diniz Ligier-Mugen-Honda 22 Electrical 15 17 Jos Verstappen Footwork-Hart 11 Accident 16 15 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Sauber-Ford 0 Collision 11 14 Johnny Herbert Sauber-Ford 0 Collision 12 9 Olivier Panis Ligier-Mugen-Honda 0 Collision 14
Championship standings after the race Bold text indicates the World Champions.
Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Damon Hill 81 2 Jacques Villeneuve 68 3 Michael Schumacher 39 4 Jean Alesi 38 5 Mika Häkkinen 23Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Williams-Renault 149 2 Benetton-Renault 55 3 Ferrari 48 4 McLaren-Mercedes 41 5 Jordan-Peugeot 15Source:
References