1996 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season

1996 F.I.M. Grand Prix motorcycle racing season
Previous: 1995	Next: 1997

The 1996 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season was the 48th F.I.M. Road Racing World Championship season.

Season summary

Honda's Mick Doohan continued his domination of the 500 class with 8 victories. His Repsol Honda team-mate, Àlex Crivillé beat him to the line twice in Austria and the Czech Republic. Luca Cadalora, now with the Kanemoto Honda team took 2 wins for the third consecutive year. Suzuki's hopes were dashed when Daryl Beattie suffered head injuries in a pre-season crash. He returned only to crash in Spain then two races later in France which effectively ended his career. Loris Capirossi won his first 500 Grand Prix when Criville collided with his team-mate, Doohan on the last lap of the Australian round. A new European team made its debut with the Elf team using a Swissauto V4 sidecar engine in an ROC chassis. It proved to be fast but unreliable. Honda introduced the NSR500V, a V twin as a cost effective alternative for privateer teams.

Max Biaggi claimed his third consecutive 250 championship for Aprilia. Haruchika Aoki repeated as the 125 champion for Honda. Newcomers winning their first Grands Prix were Norifumi Abe in the 500 class, Olivier Jacque in the 250 class and Valentino Rossi in the 125 class.

Grands Prix

Round	Date	Grand Prix	Circuit	125cc winner	250cc winner	500cc winner	Report
1	March 31	Malaysian Grand Prix	Shah Alam	Stefano Perugini	Max Biaggi	Luca Cadalora	Report
2	April 7	Indonesian Grand Prix	Sentul	Masaki Tokudome	Tetsuya Harada	Mick Doohan	Report
3	April 21	Japanese Grand Prix	Suzuka	Masaki Tokudome	Max Biaggi	Norifumi Abe	Report
4	May 12	Spanish Grand Prix	Jerez	Haruchika Aoki	Max Biaggi	Mick Doohan	Report
5	May 26	Italian Grand Prix	Mugello	Peter Öttl	Max Biaggi	Mick Doohan	Report
6	June 6	French Grand Prix	Paul Ricard	Stefano Perugini	Max Biaggi	Mick Doohan	Report
7	June 29	Dutch TT	Assen	Emilio Alzamora	Ralf Waldmann	Mick Doohan	Report
8	July 7	German Grand Prix	Nürburgring	Masaki Tokudome	Ralf Waldmann	Luca Cadalora	Report
9	July 21	British Grand Prix	Donington	Stefano Perugini	Max Biaggi	Mick Doohan	Report
10	August 4	Austrian Grand Prix	Zeltweg	Ivan Goi	Ralf Waldmann	Àlex Crivillé	Report
11	August 18	Czech Republic Grand Prix	Brno	Valentino Rossi	Max Biaggi	Àlex Crivillé	Report
12	September 1	City of Imola Grand Prix	Imola	Masaki Tokudome	Ralf Waldmann	Mick Doohan	Report
13	September 15	Catalan Grand Prix	Catalunya	Tomomi Manako	Max Biaggi	Carlos Checa	Report
14	October 6	Rio de Janeiro Grand Prix	Rio de Janeiro	Haruchika Aoki	Olivier Jacque	Mick Doohan	Report
15	October 20	Australian Grand Prix	Eastern Creek	Garry McCoy	Max Biaggi	Loris Capirossi	Report

Final standings

500cc standings

Pos Rider Bike MAL INA JPN ESP ITA FRA NED GER GBR AUT CZE IMO CAT RIO AUS Pts 1 Mick Doohan Honda NSR500 5 1 6 1 1 1 1 2 1 2 2 1 2 1 8 309 2 Alex Criville Honda NSR500 Ret 4 2 Ret 2 2 2 3 2 1 1 2 3 2 6 245 3 Luca Cadalora Honda NSR500 1 6 Ret 2 3 6 Ret 1 9 4 Ret 6 4 6 7 168 4 Alex Barros Honda NSR500 2 2 Ret 8 6 7 3 8 7 5 9 8 8 5 4 158 5 Norick Abe Yamaha YZR500 8 9 1 Ret 11 4 6 6 3 3 11 5 10 3 Ret 148 6 Scott Russell Suzuki RGV500 4 7 3 5 4 4 5 6 3 7 11 9 Ret 133 7 Tadayuki Okada Honda NSR500V Ret Ret 4 3 7 Ret 13 7 4 11 7 3 5 8 2 132 8 Carlos Checa Honda NSR500 3 5 10 10 Ret 11 Ret 12 7 8 11 1 4 3 124 9 Jean-Michel Bayle Yamaha YZR500 6 8 8 7 5 Ret 8 10 Ret 9 6 4 Ret 7 5 110 10 Loris Capirossi Yamaha YZR500 Ret 3 Ret 4 Ret Ret Ret 12 6 8 5 Ret 9 12 1 98 11 Alberto Puig Honda NSR500 7 10 9 5 12 3 12 11 11 13 12 12 7 10 93 12 Shinichi Ito Honda NSR500V Ret 13 11 9 8 Ret 10 9 10 Ret 10 9 6 11 9 77 13 Kenny Roberts Jr Yamaha YZR500 12 6 10 Ret 5 5 Ret Ret 4 10 Ret 13 11 69 14 Juan Borja ELF 500 10 Ret 18 11 Ret Ret 9 Ret 8 10 Ret Ret 14 Ret 34 15 Frederic Protat ROC-Yamaha 9 14 Ret 13 15 8 15 14 14 Ret 19 Ret 13 16 13 32 16 Jeremy McWilliams ROC-Yamaha 14 12 13 14 16 11 14 Ret Ret 14 14 Ret 12 Ret Ret 26 17 Lucio Pedercini ROC-Yamaha 12 Ret Ret 20 13 10 Ret 13 15 16 16 13 Ret 15 12 25 18 Daryl Beattie Suzuki RGV500 5 Ret 4 Ret 24 19 Doriano Romboni Aprilia RSA500 Ret 11 7 Ret 9 Ret Ret Ret 14 23 20 Terry Rymer Suzuki RGV500 Ret 7 Ret Ret 12 13 Ret 16 21 James Haydon ROC-Yamaha 15 18 15 12 17 9 Ret 13 17 Ret Ret 16 22 Sean Emmett Harris-Yamaha 11 15 17 15 14 Ret Ret Ret Ret Ret 17 16 Ret 9 23 Peter Goddard Suzuki RGV500 10 6 24 Eugene McManus Yamaha Ret Ret 16 16 18 12 Ret 15 17 19 18 15 Ret Ret Ret 6 25 Toshi Arakaki Harris-Yamaha 17 17 14 17 Ret 15 Ret Ret 15 4 26 Laurent Naveau ROC-Yamaha 13 16 Ret Ret 18 Ret 3 27 Florian Ferracci ROC-Yamaha 13 16 3 28 Jean-Marc Deletang ROC-Yamaha Ret 14 2 29 Paul Young Harris-Yamaha Ret 20 23 Ret 14 Ret Ret 2 30 Andrew Stroud ROC-Yamaha Ret 14 2 31 Chris Walker ELF 500 16 15 20 Ret 15 17 2 32 Marcellino Lucchi Aprilia RSA500 18 15 1 Pos Rider Bike MAL INA JPN ESP ITA FRA NED GER GBR AUT CZE IMO CAT RIO AUS Pts

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green Finished, in points Blue Finished, no points Not classified (NC) Purple Did not finish (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Withdrew (WD) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not participate Excluded (EX) Bold – Pole Italics – Fastest Lap

250cc standings

Place	Rider	Number	Country	Machine	Points	Wins	Poles	F.Laps
1	Max Biaggi	1	Italy	Aprilia	274	9	8	9
2	Ralf Waldmann	3	Germany	Honda	268	4	1	3
3	Olivier Jacque	19	France	Honda	193	1	4	2
4	Jürgen Fuchs	11	Germany	Honda	174
5	Tohru Ukawa	10	Japan	Honda	142
6	Luis d'Antin	7	Spain	Honda	138
7	Nobuatsu Aoki	6	Japan	Honda	105
8	Tetsuya Harada	31	Japan	Yamaha	104	1	2	1
9	Jean-Philippe Ruggia	5	France	Honda	91
10	Luca Boscoscuro	20	Italy	Aprilia	62

125cc standings

Place	Rider	Number	Country	Machine	Points	Wins	Poles	F.Laps
1	Haruchika Aoki	1	Japan	Honda	220	2	3	3
2	Masaki Tokudome	7	Japan	Aprilia	193	4	5	1
3	Tomomi Manako	8	Japan	Honda	167	1		1
4	Emilio Alzamora	3	Spain	Honda	158	1		2
5	Jorge Martínez	55	Spain	Aprilia	131		3	1
6	Stefano Perugini	6	Italy	Aprilia	128	3
7	Noboru Ueda	12	Japan	Honda	126	1	1
8	Kazuto Sakata	2	Japan	Aprilia	113		1	2
9	Valentino Rossi	46	Italy	Aprilia	111	1	1	2
10	Ivan Goi	26	Italy	Honda	110	1

Participants

500cc participants

No Rider Team Constructor 1 Mick Doohan Team Repsol Honda Honda 4 Alex Criville Team Repsol Honda Honda 6 Tadayuki Okada Team Repsol Honda Honda 41 Shinichi Ito Team Repsol Honda Honda 52 Takuma Aoki Team HRC Honda 2 Daryl Beattie Lucky Strike Suzuki Suzuki 11 Scott Russell Lucky Strike Suzuki Suzuki 21 Katsuaki Fujiwara Lucky Strike Suzuki Suzuki 26 Terry Rymer Lucky Strike Suzuki Suzuki 42 Peter Goddard Lucky Strike Suzuki Suzuki 3 Luca Cadalora Kanemoto Honda Honda 7 Alex Barros Pileri Honda Honda 8 Juan Borja ELF 500 ROC Elf 500 14 Adrian Bosshard ELF 500 ROC Elf 500 28 William Costes ELF 500 ROC Elf 500 44 Chris Walker ELF 500 ROC Elf 500 48 Marty Craggill ELF 500 ROC Elf 500 9 Norick Abe Marlboro Yamaha Roberts Yamaha 10 Kenny Roberts Jr Marlboro Yamaha Roberts Yamaha 12 Jean-Michel Bayle Marlboro Yamaha Roberts Yamaha 13 Jeremy McWilliams Qub Team Optimum ROC-Yamaha 15 Doriano Romboni IP Aprilia Racing Team Aprilia 29 Marcellino Lucchi IP Aprilia Racing Team Aprilia 16 Laurent Naveau ELC Lease ROC ROC-Yamaha 25 Jean-Marc Deletang ELC Lease ROC ROC-Yamaha 17 Alberto Puig Fortuna Honda Pons Honda 24 Carlos Checa Fortuna Honda Pons Honda 18 James Haydon WCM ROC-Yamaha 30 Andrew Stroud WCM ROC-Yamaha 33 Chris Taylor WCM ROC-Yamaha 19 Sean Emmett Harris Grand Prix Harris-Yamaha 32 Stephane Mertens Harris Grand Prix Harris-Yamaha 20 Toshi Arakaki Padgett’s Racing Team Yamaha 96 Paul Young Padgett’s Racing Team Harris-Yamaha 22 Lucio Pedercini Team Pedercini ROC-Yamaha 23 Eugene McManus Millar Racing Yamaha 27 Frederic Protat Soverex FP Racing ROC-Yamaha 70 Florian Ferracci Soverex FP Racing ROC-Yamaha 51 Jean-Pierre Jeandat Team Paton Paton 54 Michael Rudroff Suzuki Deutschland Suzuki 55 Niggi Schmassmann Team Schmassmann Harris-Yamaha 65 Loris Capirossi Marlboro Yamaha Rainey Yamaha 66 Marco Papa Team Leone Racing ROC-Yamaha 69 Karl Truchsess Team Truchsess ROC-Yamaha

Key Regular rider Wildcard rider Replacement rider

References

• Büla, Maurice & Schertenleib, Jean-Claude (2001). Continental Circus 1949-2000. Chronosports S.A. ISBN 2-940125-32-5
• "The Official MotoGP website". http://www.motogp.com/en/Results+Statistics/1996/NAT/500cc/World+Standing. Retrieved 2010-07-06.