1995 Australian Grand Prix

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Australia  1995 Australian Grand Prix
Race details
Race 17 of 17 in the 1995 Formula One season
Adelaide (long route).svg
Date 12 November 1995
Official name LX EDS Australian Grand Prix[1]
Location Adelaide Street Circuit, Adelaide, Australia
Course Temporary street circuit
Course length 3.780 km (2.362 mi)
Distance 81 laps, 306.180[2] km (191.362 mi)
Weather Dry and cloudy[2]
Attendance 210,000[3]
Pole position
Driver
Williams-Renault
Time 1:15.505
Fastest lap
Driver United Kingdom Damon Hill Williams-Renault
Time 1:17.943 on lap 51
Podium
First
Williams-Renault
Second
Ligier-Mugen-Honda
Third
Footwork-Hart
Lap leaders

The 1995 Australian Grand Prix (officially known as the LX EDS Australian Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 12 November 1995 at the Adelaide Street Circuit, Adelaide. It was the seventeenth and final race of the 1995 Formula One season.[1] It was the 60th Australian Grand Prix and the eleventh and last Australian Grand Prix to be held in Adelaide before moving east to the state capital of Victoria, Melbourne.

The race was contested over 81 laps, with Damon Hill dominating the race for Williams after starting from pole position in his Williams FW17B. Olivier Panis finished second in a Ligier JS41, with Gianni Morbidelli third in a Footwork FA16.[4] It was the best result of the season for both teams and would prove to be a career high for Morbidelli, his only podium finish. Only eight drivers finished the race out of the twenty two that started, the lowest number of finishers in the 1995 season.

The race held the record for the number of people that have attended a Formula One race, with 210,000 watching the event, until 2000, when it was surpassed by the US Grand Prix at Indianapolis with 250,000.[3]

Report

Pre-Race

Heading into the final round of the 1995 Formula One season, both the Drivers' Championship and Constructors' Championship were already settled, with Michael Schumacher having claimed the Drivers' Championship two rounds earlier in the Pacific round.[5] It was Schumacher's last race with the Benetton team, having already announced that he was going to Ferrari for the 1996 season.[6] Benetton claimed the Constructors' Championship at the penultimate round of the championship – the Japanese Grand Prix, with Williams too many points behind to be able to catch them.[7] It was announced beforehand that it would be the last Formula One event to be held at the Adelaide Street Circuit, with the Australian Grand Prix moving to Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit in Melbourne from the 1996 season.[6][8]

In the Friday afternoon qualifying session, Mika Häkkinen in his McLaren car suffered a puncture heading towards Brewery Bend, causing him to become airborne over the outside chicane and crash heavily into a tyre barrier at 120mph.[9] An emergency tracheotomy was performed on Häkkinen at trackside, before he was rushed to the Royal Adelaide Hospital (which was conveniently located less than 1 km from where Häkkinen crashed) for treatment of his head injuries.[3][6]

The Williams' cars dominated qualifying, with Damon Hill in pole position and David Coulthard alongside him.[3] Schumacher was third in his Benetton, with the Ferrari drivers fourth and fifth, Gerhard Berger ahead of Jean Alesi.[3] Heinz-Harald Frentzen rounded out the top six in his Sauber.[3]

Race

Despite starting in pole position, Hill lost the lead at the start, with Coulthard taking the lead at the beginning.[3] Schumacher also lost ground at the start, with Berger moving into third and Alesi moving into fourth.[3] Schumacher made his way back up to third, overtaking Alesi on lap one, before overtaking Berger a few laps later.[3] Coulthard kept the lead until the first round of pitstops. However, he came into the pitlane too fast, locking his front tyres and ran into the pitwall. He was forced to retire from the race.[3] A few laps later, Forti's Roberto Moreno spun and caused terminal damage to his suspension in the same place where Coulthard had crashed earlier.

After the first round of pitstops, Schumacher and Alesi collided, with both retiring.[3] Schumacher's Benetton team-mate, Johnny Herbert took second place briefly before coming in for his first stop later than many of the other drivers, while surviving a potential accident which was very similar to Coulthard's, missing, however, the pit entry and rejoining the track.[3] Berger was promoted to second, but his Ferrari encountered an engine problem, forcing him to retire. This promoted Frentzen to second, but he too retired due to a gearbox problem. With many of the front-runners out, Hill led at the front, with Herbert second. Jordan driver Eddie Irvine rounded out the top three, before retiring after losing all of his pneumatic pressure.[3] Herbert was still second, and looked set as a result to claim third place in the Drivers' Championship.[10] He was, however, forced out of the race as his Benetton suffered a driveshaft failure.[3] Olivier Panis was now second in his Ligier a lap behind Hill, with Footwork driver Gianni Morbidelli third, two laps down. However, with a few laps remaining, Panis' Ligier was suffering an oil leak. Hill lapped him for a second time on his way to victory.[3] Panis remained second, with Morbidelli third for his only career podium, and the first podium for the Footwork/Arrows team in 6 years.[3] Behind the top three, Mark Blundell was fourth in the sole McLaren, with Mika Salo fifth in the Tyrrell. Pedro Lamy after a spectacular mid-race spin rounded out the points with sixth in his Minardi – his only Formula One point.[3] Only eight cars finished the race, with Pedro Diniz seventh place being Forti's best Formula One finish at the last grand prix at Adelaide.[3]

The race marked the end of Pacific Racing, as the team went back to International Formula 3000 for 1996. In a last gasp effort, Pacific tried to have their test driver Oliver Gavin in the seat, but he was not granted an FIA Super License and shareholder Bertrand Gachot was in the car. It was only the second time the winner won by two laps– the first time was at the 1969 Spanish Grand Prix when Jackie Stewart won.[3] Hill, who had come in for an enormous amount of criticism for his performances in all of the three previous races, was praised by commentator Murray Walker for this performance, with Walker immediately citing that, with Schumacher and Coulthard's imminent moves to Ferrari and McLaren respectively, Hill would be a strong favourite to win the title in 1996 if he could continue to perform in the way he had done so in this particular race. This would also be the last race for a V12 engine, specifically Ferrari. The Italian outfit would use a more fuel-efficient V10 engine for 1996.

Although he failed to finish, by competing in the race Gerhard Berger earned the distinction of being the only driver to have driven in all 11 Formula One Grands Prix held in Adelaide. He had driven for Arrows-BMW (1985), Benetton-BMW (1986), Ferrari (1987, 1988, 1989, 1993, 1994, 1995) and McLaren-Honda (1990, 1991, 1992), winning the race for Ferrari in 1987 (as well as claiming pole position and fastest lap) and McLaren in 1992.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap
1 5 United Kingdom Damon Hill Williams-Renault 1:15.505 1:15.988 -
2 6 United Kingdom David Coulthard Williams-Renault 1:15.628 1:15.792 +0.123
3 1 Germany Michael Schumacher Benetton-Renault 1:16.039 1:15.839 +0.334
4 28 Austria Gerhard Berger Ferrari 1:15.932 1:16.994 +0.427
5 27 France Jean Alesi Ferrari 15:52.653 1:16.305 +0.800
6 30 Germany Heinz-Harald Frentzen Sauber-Ford 1:16.837 1:16.647 +1.142
7 14 Brazil Rubens Barrichello Jordan-Peugeot 1:16.725 1:16.971 +1.220
8 2 United Kingdom Johnny Herbert Benetton-Renault 1:17.289 1:16.950 +1.445
9 15 United Kingdom Eddie Irvine Jordan-Peugeot 1:17.197 1:17.116 +1.611
10 7 United Kingdom Mark Blundell McLaren-Mercedes 1:17.348 1:17.721 +1.843
11 25 United Kingdom Martin Brundle Ligier-Mugen-Honda 1:17.788 1:17.624 +2.119
12 26 France Olivier Panis Ligier-Mugen-Honda 1:18.033 1:18.065 +2.528
13 9 Italy Gianni Morbidelli Footwork-Hart 1:18.814 1:18.391 +2.886
14 4 Finland Mika Salo Tyrrell-Yamaha 1:18.604 1:19.083 +3.099
15 24 Italy Luca Badoer Minardi-Ford 1:19.285 1:18.810 +3.305
16 3 Japan Ukyo Katayama Tyrrell-Yamaha 1:18.828 1:19.114 +3.323
17 23 Portugal Pedro Lamy Minardi-Ford 1:18.875 1:19.114 +3.370
18 29 Austria Karl Wendlinger Sauber-Ford 1:19.561 no time +4.056
19 10 Japan Taki Inoue Footwork-Hart 1:19.764 1:19.677 +4.172
20 22 Brazil Roberto Moreno Forti-Ford 1:21.419 1:20.657 +5.152
21 21 Brazil Pedro Diniz Forti-Ford 1:22.154 1:20.878 +5.373
22 17 Italy Andrea Montermini Pacific-Ford 1:21.659 1:21.870 +6.154
23 16 France Bertrand Gachot Pacific-Ford 1:22.881 1:21.998 +6.493
24 8 Finland Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 1:37.998 +22.483
Source:[11]

Race

Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired[4] Grid Points
1 5 United Kingdom Damon Hill Williams-Renault 81 1:49:15.946 1 10
2 26 France Olivier Panis Ligier-Mugen-Honda 79 +2 Laps 12 6
3 9 Italy Gianni Morbidelli Footwork-Hart 79 +2 Laps 13 4
4 7 United Kingdom Mark Blundell McLaren-Mercedes 79 +2 Laps 10 3
5 4 Finland Mika Salo Tyrrell-Yamaha 78 +3 Laps 14 2
6 23 Portugal Pedro Lamy Minardi-Ford 78 +3 Laps 17 1
7 21 Brazil Pedro Diniz Forti-Ford 77 +4 Laps 21  
8 16 France Bertrand Gachot Pacific-Ford 76 +5 Laps 23  
Ret 3 Japan Ukyo Katayama Tyrrell-Yamaha 70 Engine 16  
Ret 2 United Kingdom Johnny Herbert Benetton-Renault 69 Transmission 8  
Ret 15 United Kingdom Eddie Irvine Jordan-Peugeot 62 Engine 9  
Ret 30 Germany Heinz-Harald Frentzen Sauber-Ford 39 Gearbox 6  
Ret 28 Austria Gerhard Berger Ferrari 34 Engine 4  
Ret 25 United Kingdom Martin Brundle Ligier-Mugen-Honda 29 Spun off 11  
Ret 1 Germany Michael Schumacher Benetton-Renault 25 Collision 3  
Ret 27 France Jean Alesi Ferrari 23 Collision 5  
Ret 22 Brazil Roberto Moreno Forti-Ford 21 Spun off 20  
Ret 14 Brazil Rubens Barrichello Jordan-Peugeot 20 Spun off 7  
Ret 6 United Kingdom David Coulthard Williams-Renault 19 Accident 2  
Ret 10 Japan Taki Inoue Footwork-Hart 15 Spun off 19  
Ret 29 Austria Karl Wendlinger Sauber-Ford 8 Physical 18  
Ret 17 Italy Andrea Montermini Pacific-Ford 2 Gearbox 22  
DNS 24 Italy Luca Badoer Minardi-Ford 0 Electrical 15  
DNS 8 Finland Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes - Injured 24  
Source:[4]

Championship standings after the race

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

References

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  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.[dead link]
  3. ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 3.17 3.18 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.[dead link]
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.[dead link]
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.


Previous race:
1995 Japanese Grand Prix		 FIA Formula One World Championship
1995 season		 Next race:
1996 Australian Grand Prix
Previous race:
1994 Australian Grand Prix		 Australian Grand Prix Next race:
1996 Australian Grand Prix
Awards
Preceded by
1994 Pacific Grand Prix		 Formula One Promotional Trophy
for Race Promoter
1995		 Succeeded by
1996 Australian Grand Prix
  1. REDIRECT Template:F1GP 1990–1999

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