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1995 Belgian Grand Prix

The 1995 Belgian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 27 August 1995 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, near the village of Francorchamps, Wallonia. It was the eleventh race of the 1995 Formula One World Championship.

1995 Belgian Grand Prix
Race 11 of 17 in the 1995 Formula One World Championship
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Race details
Date 27 August 1995
Official name LIII Grand Prix de Belgique
Location Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
Francorchamps, Wallonia, Belgium[1]
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 6.968 km (4.330[2] miles)
Distance 44 laps, 306.856 km (191.785 miles)
Weather Cloudy, then heavy rain
Pole position
Driver
Ferrari
Time 1:54.392
Fastest lap
Driver United Kingdom David Coulthard Williams-Renault
Time 1:53.412 on lap 11
Podium
First
Benetton-Renault
Second
Williams-Renault
Third
Ligier Mugen-Honda
Lap leaders

The 44-lap race was won by Michael Schumacher, driving a Benetton-Renault. Despite qualifying only 16th, Schumacher took his sixth victory of the season after an intense battle with Damon Hill in the Williams-Renault. Hill settled for second, with Martin Brundle third in a Ligier-Mugen-Honda, which would be his last podium finish.[3]

Race report

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The race was attended by in excess of 100,000 people.[4] Schumacher and Hill both qualified further down the grid than usual in a wet-dry qualifying session, but fought back during the race. Both Jean Alesi and Johnny Herbert briefly led the race, but Alesi broke down and Herbert struggled for pace once the track was dry. Polesitter Gerhard Berger struggled before dropping out.

David Coulthard pulled away at the front for Williams before suffering a gearbox problem, leaving Hill to lead the race. When Hill made his first pit stop for fresh slick tyres, Schumacher took over at the head of the field. It then started to rain and while Hill went back to the pits for wet weather tyres, Schumacher stayed out on his dry weather slicks. The Williams driver rapidly caught up with the German, but despite lapping six seconds a lap slower, Schumacher was able to keep Hill behind him until he went off the wet track and Hill passed him. Almost immediately the changing track conditions began to favour slicks once more and Schumacher re-passed Hill who pitted again, this time for slicks.

The rain intensified again and the field levelled out when the safety car appeared. Both drivers pitted for wets and returned to the track with Schumacher narrowly ahead of Hill. This appeared to set the two title rivals up for a battle for the lead going into the last ten laps, but Hill then had to pit again to serve a ten-second stop-go penalty for pit lane speeding, a penalty he served with six laps to go, and which put him down to third. Hill recovered to pass Martin Brundle on the Kemmel straight on the final lap to regain second place.

Schumacher's performance did not impress Hill after his defensive moves forced Hill to either back off or go off the track. Schumacher claimed that he had only blocked Hill at the low-speed corners, but video evidence suggested that Schumacher had blocked Hill on some of the high speed corners, such as the Radillion and Blanchimont. Hill later commented that "We (he and Schumacher) had some pretty hairy moments and I am not satisfied with being driven into; I don't think that was acceptable. That is all well and good but if it was meant on purpose I would be very upset, F1 cars are not go-karts. I think there are some things which are acceptable and some things which are not." Schumacher defended himself by agreeing that touching wheels in high-speed corners is "not acceptable" but added that at the speed he and Hill were doing, he thought it was acceptable. Schumacher was given a one-race suspended ban for driving aggressively in order to stop Hill from passing.[5]

Classification

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Qualifying

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Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap
1 28   Gerhard Berger Ferrari 2:14.744 1:54.392 —
2 27   Jean Alesi Ferrari 2:15.077 1:54.631 +0.239
3 8   Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 2:15.848 1:55.435 +1.043
4 2   Johnny Herbert Benetton-Renault — 1:56.085 +1.693
5 6   David Coulthard Williams-Renault 2:15.232 1:56.254 +1.862
6 7   Mark Blundell McLaren-Mercedes 2:18.136 1:56.622 +2.230
7 15   Eddie Irvine Jordan-Peugeot 2:16.540 1:57.001 +2.609
8 5   Damon Hill Williams-Renault 2:15.143 1:57.768 +3.376
9 26   Olivier Panis Ligier-Mugen-Honda 2:17.579 1:58.021 +3.629
10 30   Heinz-Harald Frentzen Sauber-Ford 2:15.533 1:58.148 +3.756
11 4   Mika Salo Tyrrell-Yamaha 2:18.104 1:58.224 +3.832
12 14   Rubens Barrichello Jordan-Peugeot 2:17.144 1:58.293 +3.901
13 25   Martin Brundle Ligier-Mugen-Honda 2:17.207 1:58.314 +3.922
14 29   Jean-Christophe Boullion Sauber-Ford 2:17.406 1:58.356 +3.964
15 3   Ukyo Katayama Tyrrell-Yamaha 2:18.194 1:58.551 +4.159
16 1   Michael Schumacher Benetton-Renault 2:14.962 1:59.079 +4.687
17 23   Pedro Lamy Minardi-Ford 2:18.547 1:59.256 +4.864
18 10   Taki Inoue Footwork-Hart 2:23.311 2:00.990 +6.598
19 24   Luca Badoer Minardi-Ford 2:17.335 2:01.013 +6.621
20 9   Massimiliano Papis Footwork-Hart 2:19.300 2:01.685 +7.293
21 17   Andrea Montermini Pacific-Ford 2:25.291 2:02.405 +8.013
22 22   Roberto Moreno Forti-Ford 2:23.417 2:03.817 +9.425
23 16   Giovanni Lavaggi Pacific-Ford 2:26.311 2:06.407 +12.015
24 21   Pedro Diniz Forti-Ford 2:25.699 2:09.537 +15.145
Sources:[6][7][8]

Race

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Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 1   Michael Schumacher Benetton-Renault 44 1:36:47.875 16 10
2 5   Damon Hill Williams-Renault 44 + 19.493 8 6
3 25   Martin Brundle Ligier-Mugen-Honda 44 + 24.998 13 4
4 30   Heinz-Harald Frentzen Sauber-Ford 44 + 26.972 10 3
5 7   Mark Blundell McLaren-Mercedes 44 + 33.772 6 2
6 14   Rubens Barrichello Jordan-Peugeot 44 + 39.674 12 1
7 2   Johnny Herbert Benetton-Renault 44 + 54.043 4  
8 4   Mika Salo Tyrrell-Yamaha 44 + 54.548 11  
9 26   Olivier Panis Ligier-Mugen-Honda 44 + 1:06.170 9  
10 23   Pedro Lamy Minardi-Ford 44 + 1:19.789 17  
11 29   Jean-Christophe Boullion Sauber-Ford 43 + 1 lap 14  
12 10   Taki Inoue Footwork-Hart 43 + 1 lap 18  
13 21   Pedro Diniz Forti-Ford 42 + 2 laps 24  
14 22   Roberto Moreno Forti-Ford 42 + 2 laps 22  
Ret 3   Ukyo Katayama Tyrrell-Yamaha 28 Spun off 15  
Ret 16   Giovanni Lavaggi Pacific-Ford 27 Gearbox 23  
Ret 24   Luca Badoer Minardi-Ford 23 Accident 19  
Ret 28   Gerhard Berger Ferrari 22 Electrical 1  
Ret 15   Eddie Irvine Jordan-Peugeot 21 Fire 7  
Ret 9   Massimiliano Papis Footwork-Hart 20 Spun off 20  
Ret 17   Andrea Montermini Pacific-Ford 18 Out of fuel 21  
Ret 6   David Coulthard Williams-Renault 13 Gearbox 5  
Ret 27   Jean Alesi Ferrari 4 Suspension 2  
Ret 8   Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 1 Spun off 3  
Source:[9]

Championship standings after the race

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  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

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  1. ^ "1995 Belgian GP". Motor Sport. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  2. ^ "1995 Belgian Grand Prix | Motorsport Database".
  3. ^ "Martin Brundle - Podiums". Stats F1. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
  4. ^ Murray Walker, Jonathan Palmer (1995). Grand Prix (Television Production). London, England: BBC. Event occurs at 00:51-01:04.
  5. ^ "Schumacher in trouble again". GrandPrix.com. 28 August 1995. Retrieved 15 December 2006.
  6. ^ "Belgian Grand Prix – Qualifying 1". Formula1.com. Retrieved 29 December 2023.
  7. ^ "Belgian Grand Prix – Qualifying 2". Formula1.com. Retrieved 29 December 2023.
  8. ^ "1995 Belgian Grand Prix Classification Qualifying". Motorsport Stats. Retrieved 29 December 2023.
  9. ^ "1995 Belgian Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 2 November 2014. Retrieved 24 December 2015.
  10. ^ a b "Belgium 1995 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
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1996 Belgian Grand Prix
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