British Grand Prix

Analysis :
With a highly partisan crowd cheering for his Williams teammate, Jacques Villeneuve silenced the fans with a convincing win. After a good start he was never threatened by the second placed Benetton of Gerhard Berger. A very happy third was McLaren's Mika Hakkinen with another strong showing for the team.
Rounding out the points in a very processional race were the Jordans of Rubens Barrichello and Martin Brundle with David Coulthard's McLaren in between them.

Damon Hill made a terrible start from pole and dropped to fourth and was pressing Hakkinen for third when a front wheel bearing failed and he sailed off into the gravel at the end of the pit straight much to the disappointment of the crowd. This hardly compares to the reliablity problems at Ferrari with Micheal Schumacher's gearbox sticking in sixth after just 4 laps and Eddie Irvine's engine letting go two laps later!. Another mechanical victim was Jean Alesi, with a brake line splitting on his Benetton after a good run early on. And once again both Ligier's failed to make the finish.

All in all a pretty boring race, but a great result for Jacques Villeneuve

.
While Damon Hill is still has a dominant lead in the Championship, Villeneuve is keeping up the pressure ready to take advantage of the smallest mistake.

Qualifying :
Cool, dry
PosDriverNat.TeamTime m:ss.sss
1Damon HillGBRWilliams-Renault1:26.875
2Jacques Villeneuve CANWilliams-Renault1:27.070
3Michael SchumacherGERFerrari1:27.707
4Mika HakkinenFINMcLaren-Mercedes1:27.856
5Jean AlesiFRABenetton-Renault1:28.307
6Rubens BarrichelloBRAJordan-Peugeot1:28.409
7Gerhard BergerAUTBenetton-Renault1:28.653
8Martin BrundleGBRJordan-Peugeot1:28.946
9David CoulthardGBRMcLaren-Mercedes1:28.966
10Eddie IrvineIRLFerrari1:29.186
11H-H FrentzenGER Sauber-Ford1:29.591
12Ukyo KatayamaJAPTyrrell-Yamaha1:29.913
13Johnny HerbertGBRSauber-Ford1:29.947
14Mika SaloFINTyrrell-Yamaha1:29.949
15Jos VerstappenNEDTWR-Hart1:30.102
16Olivier PanisFRALigier-Mugen1:30.167
17Ricardo RossetBRATWR-Hart1:30.529
18Pedro DinizBRALigier-Mugen1:31.076
19Giancarlo FisichellaITAMinardi-Ford1:31.365
20Pedro LamyPORMinardi-Ford1:31.454

107 % rule : 1:32.956
Did Not Qualify :

Andrea Montermini - ITA - Forti-Ford 1:35.206
Luca Badoer - ITA - Forti-Ford 1:35.304

Race : 61 laps
Sunny
PosDriverNat.CarTime h:mm:ss.sss
1Jacques VilleneuveCANWilliams-Renault1:33:00.874
2Gerhard BergerAUTBenetton-Renault1:33:19.900
3Mika HakkinenFINMcLaren-Mercedes1:33:51.704
4Rubens BarrichelloBRAJordan-Peugeot1:34:07.590
5David CoulthardGBRMcLaren-Mercedes1:34:23.381
6Martin BrundleGBRJordan-Puegeot1 lap down
7Mika SaloFINTyrrell-Yamaha1 lap down
8H-H FrentzenGER Sauber-Ford1 lap down
9Johnny HerbertGBRSauber-Ford1 lap down
10Jos VerstappenNEDTWR-Hart1 lap down
11Giancarlo FisichellaITAMinardi-Ford2 laps down
12Jean AlesiFRABenetton-Renault45 laps - split brake line
13Olivier PanisFRALigier-Mugen41 laps - electrics
14Pedro DinizBRALigier-Mugen39 laps - engine
15Damon HillGBRWilliams-Renault27 laps - broken wheel nut
16Pedro LamyPORMinardi-Ford22 laps - engine
17Ricardo Rosset BRATWR-Hart14 laps - gearbox
18Ukyo KatayamaJAPTyrrell-Yamaha13 laps - engine
19Eddie IrvineIRLFerrari6 laps - engine
20Michael SchumacherGERFerrari4 laps - gearbox

Return to the 1996 Race Info Page