1996 Monaco Grand Prix
| 1996 Monaco Grand Prix | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 6 of 16 in the 1996 Formula One World Championship | |||
| File:Montecarlo 1986.jpg | |||
| Race details | |||
| Date | May 19, 1996 | ||
| Official name | LIV Grand Prix Automobile de Monaco | ||
| Location | Circuit de Monaco, Monte Carlo | ||
| Course | Street circuit | ||
| Course length | 3.328 km (2.068 miles) | ||
| Distance | 75 laps, 249.600 km (155.094 miles) | ||
| Scheduled distance | 78 laps, 259.584 km (161.298 miles) | ||
| Weather | Overcast, mild, wet at first, drying later, light rain at finish | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Ferrari | ||
| Time | 1:20.356 | ||
| Fastest lap | |||
| Driver |
 Jean Alesi | Benetton-Renault | |
| Time | 1:25.205 on lap 59 | ||
| Podium | |||
| First | Ligier-Mugen-Honda | ||
| Second | McLaren-Mercedes | ||
| Third | Sauber-Ford | ||
The 1996 Monaco Grand Prix was a Formula One race held at Monaco on May 19, 1996. The race was run in wet weather, causing significant attrition and setting a record for the least number of cars (3) to be running at the end of a Grand Prix race. Olivier Panis scored his sole career Formula One victory, earning the last ever Formula One victory for the Ligier team (and the first ever for engine manufacturer Mugen Motorsports) after switching to slick tyres in a well-timed pitstop.
Report
Practice and qualifying
Michael Schumacher had taken pole position but had caused minor controversy on his slowing down lap when he impeded Gerhard Berger right at the end of the session. Coming out of the tunnel Schumacher was cruising slowly, acknowledging the crowd, while Berger was on a hot lap. Schumacher tried to get out of Berger's way but the Austrian was going too fast and had to spin at high speed to avoid the Ferrari, entering the chicane backwards.
The Ligier's were 14th and 17th in qualifying, both below their expectations after the team had mis-firing issues, preventing a top six position.[1]
Race day
Olivier Panis was fastest in the warm-up.[2] Villeneuve was 18th after running a wet-setup in preparation for the expected rain.[3]
Between the warm-up session and the race, heavy rain fell at the circuit. An additional 15-minute session was added to allow the drivers' to get use to to the changed conditions as it was the first time rain had fallen over the race weekend.[4][5][6] The session took place at 13:15 local time.[7] Several drivers went off during the session, including Pedro Lamy, Pedro Diniz and Giancarlo Fisichella, but all continued.[8][9][10] The only two drivers to escape unscathed were Mika Hakkinen and Andrea Montermini, who suffered damage to their car.[11][12] Jean Alesi suffered a puncture at the end of the session, but was able to return to the pitlane.[13] Several drivers opted to skip the session. The Footwork team chose not to participate as they did not have any spare parts, and any crash would have marked the end of their weekend.[14] Hakkinen was fastest, setting his time before his crash, with Alesi, Barrichello and Herbert behind. The two Williams were 7th and 8th, Villeneuve ahead of Hill with Schumacher behind them in 9th.[15]
The race started at 14:30 local time.[16]
In the warm-up Andrea Montermini crashed his Forti coming out of the tunnel, and the team's lack of a spare car meant the Italian was unable to start the wet race, therefore 21 cars would take the start. Damon Hill got the jump on Schumacher into Ste Devote while further back there was trouble already. Jos Verstappen, who had opted to start the race on slicks, slid straight into the wall. The two Minardis were then eliminated when they tangled coming out of the first corner. And so 18 cars climbed the hill on the first lap. Hill began to pull away while polesitter Schumacher lost control coming out of Lower Mirabeau and hit the wall, leaving 17 cars running. Coming into the Rascasse, Rubens Barrichello's race was over as he spun. After five laps, there were only 13 cars remaining as Ukyo Katayama (accident), Ricardo Rosset (accident) and Pedro Diniz (transmission) joined the list of retirements. A significant gap began to open between the leaders and Eddie Irvine in fourth. Indeed there was a queue of eight cars behind the slow Ferrari. Berger retired from third place on the 10th lap with gearbox trouble leaving 12 cars while Heinz-Harald Frentzen damaged his front wing trying to pass Irvine, dropping to second last, ahead of Luca Badoer.
On lap 31, Martin Brundle spun off, which left only 11 cars in the race. Three laps later, Irvine was eventually passed when Olivier Panis forced his way through at the Loews hairpin in an electrifying move. Irvine lost control, became stuck and had even undone his seatbelts before he restarted his car with the assistance of the marshals. Hill, meanwhile, had briefly lost the lead to Jean Alesi when he made a pit stop on lap 30 to change to slicks as the track began to dry, but regained the lead a lap later when he overtook the Frenchman (who was still on wet tyres) on the track. Alesi made his pit stop shortly afterwards, allowing Hill to extend his lead to nearly 30 seconds and continue untroubled at the front until the 40th lap, when a gearbox mistake led to engine failure coming out of the tunnel, his first retirement of the season. Alesi took over the lead after otherwise having a quiet race in second. He lasted 20 laps in the lead when his suspension failed, handing the lead to Panis. Luca Badoer was running six laps down in the Forti when he collided with Jacques Villeneuve at Mirabeau, retiring both drivers.
The race did not run its full distance as the 2 hour time limit came into effect. Panis was leading David Coulthard by a small margin with only five other cars behind them. Irvine capped an eventful afternoon by spinning at the same point that teammate Schumacher crashed. As he tried to rejoin, he was hit by Mika Salo, who was in turn hit by Mika Häkkinen. All three cars retired and the marshals had their work cut out to clear the track. Fortunately there were only four cars circulating, with Frentzen running last. The German, who so easily could have been leading the race, decided to pull into the pits on the penultimate lap as he was running last anyway. Therefore only Panis, Coulthard and Johnny Herbert finished the race, with the Frenchman winning his one and only Grand Prix and Ligier's first win in 15 seasons. Frentzen, Salo and Häkkinen were classified in the final points positions with Irvine credited with seventh place.
Classification
Qualifying
Race
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 9 | Olivier Panis
|
Ligier-Mugen-Honda | 75 | 2:00:45.629 | 14 | 10 |
| 2 | 8 |  David Coulthard
|
McLaren-Mercedes | 75 | +4.828 | 5 | 6 |
| 3 | 14 | Johnny Herbert
|
Sauber-Ford | 75 | +37.503 | 13 | 4 |
| 4 | 15 |  Heinz-Harald Frentzen
|
Sauber-Ford | 74 | Withdrawn | 9 | 3 |
| 5 | 19 |  Mika Salo
|
Tyrrell-Yamaha | 70 | Collision | 11 | 2 |
| 6 | 7 | Mika Häkkinen
|
McLaren-Mercedes | 70 | Collision | 8 | 1 |
| 7 | 2 | Eddie Irvine
|
Ferrari | 68 | Collision | 7 | |
| Ret | 6 |  Jacques Villeneuve
|
Williams-Renault | 66 | Collision | 10 | |
| Ret | 3 | Jean Alesi
|
Benetton-Renault | 60 | Suspension | 3 | |
| Ret | 22 |  Luca Badoer
|
Forti-Ford | 60 | Collision + Electrical | 21 | |
| Ret | 5 | Damon Hill
|
Williams-Renault | 40 | Engine | 2 | |
| Ret | 12 | Martin Brundle
|
Jordan-Peugeot | 30 | Spun off | 16 | |
| Ret | 4 |  Gerhard Berger
|
Benetton-Renault | 9 | Gearbox | 4 | |
| Ret | 10 |  Pedro Diniz
|
Ligier-Mugen-Honda | 5 | Transmission | 17 | |
| Ret | 16 | Ricardo Rosset
|
Footwork-Hart | 3 | Spun off | 20 | |
| Ret | 18 |  Ukyo Katayama
|
Tyrrell-Yamaha | 2 | Spun off | 15 | |
| Ret | 1 | Michael Schumacher
|
Ferrari | 0 | Accident | 1 | |
| Ret | 11 | Rubens Barrichello
|
Jordan-Peugeot | 0 | Spun off | 6 | |
| Ret | 20 |  Pedro Lamy
|
Minardi-Ford | 0 | Collision | 19 | |
| Ret | 21 | Giancarlo Fisichella
|
Minardi-Ford | 0 | Collision | 18 | |
| Ret | 17 |  Jos Verstappen
|
Footwork-Hart | 0 | Accident | 12 | |
| DNS | 23 | Andrea Montermini
|
Forti-Ford | No Car | 22 |
Standings after the race
|
|
- Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
Trivia
David Coulthard took second place wearing one of Schumacher's helmets, having borrowed it before the race because his was steaming up.[17]
References
- ^ Edwards, Ben (Commentator) (1996-05-19). Monaco Grand Prix: Acclimatisation Session Live (Television production). London, England: Eurosport. Event occurs at 08:25 (excluding commercials).
{{cite AV media}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ Edwards, Ben (Commentator) (1996-05-19). Monaco Grand Prix: Acclimatisation Session Live (Television production). London, England: Eurosport. Event occurs at 08:05 (excluding commercials).
{{cite AV media}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ Edwards, Ben; Watson, John (Commentators) (1996-05-19). Monaco Grand Prix: Acclimatisation Session Live (Television production). London, England: Eurosport. Event occurs at 01:00-01:20 (excluding commercials).
{{cite AV media}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ Edwards, Ben (Commentator) (1996-05-19). Monaco Grand Prix: Acclimatisation Session Live (Television production). London, England: Eurosport. Event occurs at 00:00-00:05.
{{cite AV media}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ Edwards, Ben (Commentator) (1996-05-19). Monaco Grand Prix: Acclimatisation Session Live (Television production). London, England: Eurosport. Event occurs at 00:57.
{{cite AV media}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ Edwards, Ben (Commentator) (1996-05-19). Monaco Grand Prix: Acclimatisation Session Live (Television production). London, England: Eurosport. Event occurs at 02:10-02:15.
{{cite AV media}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ Edwards, Ben (Commentator) (1996-05-19). Monaco Grand Prix: Acclimatisation Session Live (Television production). London, England: Eurosport. Event occurs at 15:37.
{{cite AV media}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ Monaco Grand Prix: Acclimatisation Session Live (Television production). London, England: Eurosport. 1996-05-19. Event occurs at 05:00.
{{cite AV media}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ Monaco Grand Prix: Acclimatisation Session Live (Television production). London, England: Eurosport. 1996-05-19. Event occurs at 07:30.
{{cite AV media}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ Monaco Grand Prix: Acclimatisation Session Live (Television production). London, England: Eurosport. 1996-05-19. Event occurs at 12:45.
{{cite AV media}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ Monaco Grand Prix: Acclimatisation Session Live (Television production). London, England: Eurosport. 1996-05-19. Event occurs at 13:45.
{{cite AV media}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ Monaco Grand Prix: Acclimatisation Session Live (Television production). London, England: Eurosport. 1996-05-19. Event occurs at 15:56.
{{cite AV media}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ Monaco Grand Prix: Acclimatisation Session Live (Television production). London, England: Eurosport. 1996-05-19. Event occurs at 16:56-19:00.
{{cite AV media}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ Watson, John (Commentator) (1996-05-19). Monaco Grand Prix: Acclimatisation Session Live (Television production). London, England: Eurosport. Event occurs at 18:45.
{{cite AV media}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ Monaco Grand Prix: Acclimatisation Session Live (Television production). London, England: Eurosport. 1996-05-19. Event occurs at 19:47.
{{cite AV media}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ Edwards, Ben (Commentator) (1996-05-19). Monaco Grand Prix: Acclimatisation Session Live (Television production). London, England: Eurosport. Event occurs at 00:40.
{{cite AV media}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ "David Coulthard column". BBC Sport. Retrieved 27 April 2012.
External links