Race Report
Jacques Villeneuvemade it two out of two, though this time the margin was not quite as wide.
Despite the best efforts of Micheal Schumacher and Gerhard
Berger, Villeneuve was a comfortable half a second in front
of the field. Benetton was the only team to have both cars in
the top 6 as Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Eddie Irvine
and David Coulthard all struggled to get the balance required
by the Carlos Pace circuit.
Better than expected performances came from Olivier Panis, Damon Hill and Rubens Barrichello while both of the Tyrrell's were disappointingly slow with Mika Salo losing an engine early in the session .
Apart from an early spin for Berger, the only major incident was a major off by Giancarlo Fisichella which stopped the session with three minutes remaining. He walked away unhurt and by that time was comfortably in the top 10.
1996 Pole: Damon Hill (Williams) 1m 18.111s
The Starting Grid
| Jacques Villeneuve | Williams-Renault | 1m 16.004s |
| Michael Schumacher | Ferrari | 1m 16.594s |
| Gerhard Berger | Benetton-Renault | 1m 16.644s |
| Mika Hakkinen | McLaren-Mercedes | 1m 16.692s |
| Olivier Panis | Prost-Mugen | 1m 16.756s |
| Jean Alesi | Benetton-Renault | 1m 16.757s |
| Gianni Fisichella | Jordan-Peugeot | 1m 16.912s |
| Heinz-Harald Frentzen | Williams-Renault | 1m 16.924s |
| Damon Hill | TWR Arrows-Yamaha | 1m 17.090s |
| Ralf Schumacher | Jordan-Peugeot | 1m 17.175s |
| Rubens Barrichello | Stewart-Ford | 1m 17.259s |
| David Coulthard | McLaren-Mercedes | 1m 17.262s |
| Johnny Herbert | Sauber-Petronas | 1m 17.409s |
| Eddie Irvine | Ferrari | 1m 17.527s |
| Shinji Nakano | Prost-Mugen | 1m 17.999s |
| Pedro Diniz | TWR Arrows-Yamaha | 1m 18.095s |
| Jarno Trulli | Minardi-Hart | 1m 18.336s |
| Ukyo Katayama | Minardi-Hart | 1m 18.577s |
| Nicola Larini | Sauber-Petronas | 1m 18.644s |
| Jan Magnussen | Stewart-Ford | 1m 18.773s |
| Jos Verstappen | Tyrrell-Ford | 1m 19.221s |
| Mika Salo | Tyrrell-Ford | 1m 19.274s |
Race : 72 laps, cloudy but warm
1996 Winner: Damon Hill (Williams) 1h 49m 52.976s
The Result
| Jacques Villeneuve | Williams-Renault | 1h 36m 09.990s |
| Gerhard Berger | Benetton-Renault | 1h 36m 14.180s |
| Olivier Panis | Prost-Mugen | 1h 36m 25.860s |
| Mika Hakkinen | McLaren-Mercedes | 1h 36m 43.072s |
| Michael Schumacher | Ferrari | 1h 36m 43.720s |
| Jean Alesi | Benetton-Renault | 1h 36m 43.920s |
| Johnny Herbert | Sauber-Petronas | 1h 37m 00.900s |
| Gianni Fisichella | Jordan-Peugeot | 1h 37m 10.630s |
| Heinz-Harald Frentzen | Williams-Renault | 1h 37m 25.390s |
| David Coulthard | McLaren-Mercedes | 1 lap down |
| Nicola Larini | Sauber-Petronas | 1 lap down |
| Jarno Trulli | Minardi-Hart | 1 lap down |
| Mika Salo | Tyrrell-Ford | 1 lap down |
| Shinji Nakano | Prost-Mugen | 1 lap down |
| Jos Verstappen | Tyrrell-Ford | 2 laps down |
| Eddie Irvine | Ferrari | 2 laps down |
| Damon Hill | TWR Arrows-Yamaha | 69 laps - gearbox |
| Ukyo Katayama | Minardi-Hart | 5 laps down |
| Ralf Schumacher | Jordan-Peugeot | 52 laps - hydraulics |
| Rubens Barrichello | Stewart-Ford | 16 laps - suspension |
| Pedro Diniz | TWR Arrows-Yamaha | 15 laps - spun off |
| Jan Magnussen | Stewart-Ford | 0 laps - collision damage |
Fastest Lap
1997: Jacques
Villeneuve (Williams) 1m 18.400s
Previous Record: Michael Schumacher (Benetton) 1m 18.455s (1994)
Analysis :
Jacques Villeneuve's bad
start in Adelaide landed him in a world of trouble and in Brazil
he almost blew it again. This time, however luck was on his side.
After being beaten to the first corner by Michael Schumacher,
he foolishly refused to concede and careened across the grass,
while behind him Damon Hill and Giancarlo Fisichella
had made contact sending cars in all directions. Jacques has
probably never been so pleased to see a red flag.
Second time around Schumacher repeated his jump on Villeneuve, but this time the Canadian wisely let him go through. Next time around we were then given a perfect example of Williams-Renault superiority as Villeneuve simply blasted past the Ferrari on the front straight. From then on it was all about who would take second.
Many drivers had to switch to T-cars for the restart including Eddie Irvine, Johnny Herbert, Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Fisichella and Rubens Barrichello (which meant Stewart team-mate Jan Magnussen did not take part). There were more problems for at the restart for Ukyo Katayama which dropped him far behind the field, while fellow Japanese Shinji Nakano got a scare when he lost a rear wheel in the pitlane but was able to continue.
Remarkably, there were few retirements the most notable being Ralf Schumacher and Damon Hill, who drove a great race in the spare TWR Arrows (after his car started leaking fuel before the race). Benefiting from the longer lasting Bridgestone tyres, Hill made it all the way up to 4th place before dropping back slightly, but leaking oil from the gearbox put paid to his efforts and started a nice little blaze in the back of his car. Olivier Panis also put the Bridgestones to good use as his one stop strategy left him with a solid 3rd place finish.
Some of the top cars were just not in the running, most notably Frentzen and Adelaide winner David Coulthard. Both drivers complained of a lack of balance and neither could match the pace of their team-mates.
Putting the Australian fiasco behind them, both Benetton's ran strongly with Gerhard Berger finishing in a strong 2nd, while Jean Alesi was on his best behavior and quitely ran to 6th. If the race had been a few laps longer, Berger may have been able to challange for the win, but the team were very happy to finish in the runner-up spot.
Although Villeneuve ran impressively once underway, his first start mishap and Frentzen's lacklustre performance did not sit well with the Williams team bosses.
They are going to need to get better (or stay as lucky) in order to take the championship crowns this season.
Photo credits : AP