Hill does it in style
Qualifying:
mins secs
1 J Villeneuve Can Williams 1:38.909
2 D Hill GB Williams 1:39.370
3 M Schumacher Ger Ferrari 1:40.071
4 G Berger Aut Benetton 1:40.364
5 M Hakkinen Fin McLaren 1:40.458
6 E Irvine GB Ferrari 1:41.005
7 H Frentzen Ger Sauber 1:41.277
8 D Coulthard GB McLaren 1:41.384
9 J Alesi Fra Benetton 1:41.562
10 M Brundle GB Jordan 1:41.660
11 R Barrichello Bra Jordan 1:41.919
12 O Panis Fra Ligier 1:42.206
13 J Herbert GB Sauber 1:42.658
14 U Katayama Jap Tyrrell 1:42.711
15 M Salo Fin Tyrrell 1:42.840
16 P Diniz Brz Ligier 1:43.196
17 J Verstappen Hol Footwork 1:43.383
18 P Lamy Por Minardi 1:44.874
19 R Rosset Bra Footwork 1:45.412
Did Not Qualify
G Lavaggi Ita Minardi 1:46.795
Well, this was it. The final race, the final chance. The two Williams' were on the front row, and they had a clear dash to the first corner, Hill on the inside line despite the second place on the grid. As they lined up for the lights on the warm up lap, Villeneuve glanced across at Hill, showing momentary nerves. Hill just stared straight ahead. The lights came on one by one, the engine revs and tensioned rose, reaching a crescendo as the fifth lit up. And there they stayed, the start aborted as Coulthard had stalled on the grid. It was too dangerous to let the start procede with a stationary car so far near the front of the grid, so they scheduled a restart five minutes later, and knocked a lap off the final total.At the second restart, everything went cleanly as Hill rocketed away into the lead, his recent start-practicing paying dividends, whereas Villeneuve bogged down and was swamped. Hill led into the first corner, pursued by a quick starting Berger, Hakkinen, and then the two Ferrari's of Schumacher and Irvine, the Ferrari drivers having passed either side of the Williams. Funnelling out of the first corner, Alesi banged wheels with Irvine, and speared off right, crashing heavily into the wall, shattering his Benetton. He climbed out unaided, but Benetton's constructor championship hopes were fading: with the two Ferrari's so high up, they would drop down to third.
Hill started to pull out a gap on the rest of the field, although he was dragging Berger with him. Dragging along at the back was Coulthard, his car still not right. He dived into the pits at the end of the lap for some remedial work, and was soon on his way again.
Gerhard Berger was working on the theory that with the championship at stake, Damon Hill would be as easy to pass as a steamroller with a snail. Damon was soon to disabuse him of this notion though. Going into the chicane for the third time, Berger took a lunge up the inside from a long way back, expecting Hill to meekly move over. Hill held his line, and Berger was forced to put two wheels up on the kerbing, and then over it, breaking his front wing. The resulting lack of downforce meant that Hill could quietly resume his task of pulling away, as Berger toured around to the pits. Hakkinen was 4.364s behind, and that was about as close as anyone would get to Hill all day. The Williams team weren't taking any chances though, and got the tyres out in case Hill had a puncture. He didn't, so in the tyres went again.
Berger's trip across the kerbs brought down the red mist, and on rejoining the track he reeled of a couple of fastest laps as he sought to redress the balance, a task he would spend the rest of the race doing. Villeneuve was also having a case of red mist, being desperate to get past the Ferrari of Irvine, who was holding him up. Villeneuve had repeated looks at the Casio chicane, but was just that little bit too far back. Lap eleven he finally managed it though, locking his right front as he dived up the inside, oversteered in the middle, and then powered out. He had a clear track in front of him, and set a fastest lap as he set about catching the Ferrari of Schumacher. After one lap though he dived into the pits, re-emerging in 11th place and directly behind the recovering Berger. His pit stop was longer than desired, as he had had to wait for Barrichello to get into his pit before he could barrel out.
Lap 15 and we had only the second retirement of the race, and a pretty stupid one at that. Pedro Diniz went slightly wide at the exit to the Casio Chicane, and as he laid the power down his car snapped away and speared off into the gravel, beaching itself tantalisingly close to the track edge. He had been off three times in practice, so completed a miserable weekend. By the looks of things Hill will have no problems at all next year blowing away his team mate. The only thing he'll have to thank Diniz for is the $12 million that Diniz brings to pay Hill's salary.
Villeneuve though was on the move. He dispensed with Berger at the chicane on lap 15, and Panis on 16. The next lot of pit-stops moved him up further, as Schumacher (8.7s), Brundle and Frentzen all came in together. Schumacher though had a clean stop, and as he came out the pits, Villeneuve slotted in behind. It had the look of an interesting race.
Hill (11.6s), Hakkinen (7.5s) and Irvine all pitted on lap 18, Irvine inadvertantly holding up Hill as he tried to leave the pits. No matter, as Hill rejoined in the lead, albeit only 1.523s head of Schumacher, who was in turn 1.684s ahead of Villeneuve, from Irvine (@10.874s) and Berger (@12.164s). And there it stabilised, as Hill gradually eked out a bigger gap to Schumacher, who was no longer holding up those following (Hakkinen and Villeneuve). But as always, there was traffic.
For one of the few times this season, traffic presented no problem to Hill, the Williams driver able to pass with ease, the individual drivers seemingly not wanting to be responsible for deciding the outcome of the championship. This wasn't the case with those following though. Coming up to lap Rosset at the chicane (Hakkinen having just passed), Villeneuve tried an outbraking manouevre, but was thwarted by the sheer traffic on the track. Next time round and Rosset was blocking Katayama, who actually went up the rear of the Arrows as Rosset crawled through the chicane. Despite the severely damaged front wing, Katayama could still follow Rosset's gearbox and looked at passing a couple of times. At the end of the lap Katayama dived in to the pits for a nose cone change, and Rosset too was in a lap later, this for a ten-second blocking penalty though.
Lap 32, and the second round of pit stops began, Villeneuve diving in complaining of a right rear puncture, although subsequent examination of the tyre could reveal no defect. A harbinger of future things to come? Schumacher (8.2s) and Hakkinen (8.1s) both pitted as well, and Irvine (8.1s) a lap later. Going into lap 34, the order was Hill, Schumacher, Hakkinen, Berger, Villeneuve and Brundle, and even though Hill pitted this lap, he again rejoined in the lead.
Villeneuve's problems appeared to have been solved, as on lap 34 he set the fastest lap of the race, and dispensed with Katayama at the cross-over the following lap (Katayama was also given a ten-second blocking penalty for holding up the championship challenger). Lap 38 though, and it all went horribly wrong. As Villeneuve turned into the first corner, the car slid wide, and his right rear tyre overtook him, bounding over the track, over the gravel track, and over the catch fencing into the crowd. Villeneuve's car plowed straight on into the gravel and out of the championship race. The Williams team immediately notified Hill of his rival's demise. Hill immediately thought of the UK's BBC Television much loved commentator Murray Walker. "I could hear you [Murray] in my head: there he goes, Jacques' out, Murray's off...." He wasn't far off either. Question's though have to be raised at this incident. There are meant to be retaining clips to prevent the tyres coming off in the event of the nut coming loose, which is why when Hill's tyre was loose at Silverstone he just slid off. Perhaps the clips have to be stronger to withstand the forces of a 130mph off? As for the off, a suspected hub or bearing failure was the likely candidate.
The action wasn't yet over though. Hakkinen was harrying Schumacher, and Berger was all over the Ferrari of Irvine, and soon to be under as well. Going into the Casio chicane on lap 40, and Berger took another of his distance lunges. As Berger came up the inside, Irvine shut the door (he was already understeering wide), but the Austrian had too much speed, and couldn't turn in fast enough. He hit the Ferrari amidships, flicking it up in the air onto two wheels, and as it came down it span around and out. Berger crossed the kerbs and carried onwards. Irvine could only think about what might have been as he walked away.
From there on in it was a matter of retaining concentration as the laps dropped away and the tension rose. The final lap though and the euphoria building up in the pits was reaching a crescendo. Georgie Hill, Damon's wife, was beside herself with joy, and had a specially prepared pit-board with 'Damon World Champion' written on it ready to hang out for when the car went past. Damon joyously took the chequered flag, winning in emphatic style, and he threw both arms out of the cockpit, only bringing one back in to straighten the steering wheel and avoid ramming Schumacher's Ferrari. The Japanese Damon Hill supporters went wild. As Damon came back into Parc Ferme, his wife was there waiting, and as Hill climbed out, he walked over and gave her a huge hug. Once the helmet came off, the huge grin from ear to ear was there for all to see. Dear old Murray Walker was beside himself, almost choking with emotion as he struggled to continue commentating. Hill mounted the stairs to the podium, and again the crowd went wild. The British National Anthem had to be played extremely loud just to be heard over the klaxons being sounded in celebration. Schumacher personally congratulated Hill, and once the champagne was brought out, everyone bar the drivers and Williams designer Adrian Newey ran for cover as it was sprayed about with gay abandon. Schumacher removed Hill's hat for him, and he found himself having an impromptu shower as both Schumacher and Hakkinen emptied their Jereboam's over him. When asked at the post race conference what he was going to do tonight, Hill immediately replied 'Celebrate'. Better remember to tell the cat to walk quietly tomorrow morning.......
Result after 52 laps: hrs:mins:secs 1 D Hill GB Williams 1:32:33.791, 197.520 kph 2 M Schumacher Ger Ferrari @ 1.833 3 M Hakkinen Fin McLaren 3.212 4 G Berger Aut Benetton 26.526 5 M Brundle GB Jordan 1:07.120 6 H Frentzen Ger Sauber 1:21.186 7 O Panis Fra Ligier 1:24.510 8 D Coulthard GB McLaren 1:25.233 9 R Barrichello Bra Jordan 1:41.065 10 J Herbert GB Sauber 1:41.799 11 J Verstappen Hol Footwork - 1 lap 12 P Lamy Por Minardi - 2 laps 13 R Rosset Bra Footwork - 2 laps Did not finish: E Irvine NI Ferrari -13 laps J Villeneuve Can Williams -15 laps M Salo Fin Tyrrell -32 laps U Katamaya Jpn Tyrrell -37 laps P Diniz Brz Ligier -39 laps J Alesi Fr Benetton -52 laps Final Drivers Championship Positions 1 D Hill GB Williams 97 pts 2 J Villeneuve Can Williams 78 3 M Schumacher Ger Ferrari 59 4 J Alesi Fr Benetton 47 5 M Hakkinen Fin McLaren 31 6 G Berger Aut Benetton 21 7 D Coulthard GB McLaren 18 8 R Barrichello Brz Jordan 14 9 O Panis Fr Ligier 13 10 E Irvine GB Ferrari 11 11 M Brundle GB Jordan 8 12 H Frentzen Ger Sauber 7 13 M Salo Fin Tyrrell 5 14 J Herbert GB Sauber 4 15 P Diniz Brz Ligier 2 16 J Verstappen Hol Footwork 1
Final Constructors Championship 1 Williams-Renault 175 points 2 Ferrari 70 3 Benetton-Renault 68 4 McLaren-Mercedes 49 5 Jordan-Peugeot 22 6 Ligier-Mugen Honda 15 7 Sauber 11 8 Tyrrell-Yamaha 5 9 Footwork-Hart 1 Fastest Lap Time 2 Hill 1:45.632 9 Berger 1:45.541 10 Berger 1:45.376 13 Villeneuve 1:44.961 17 Villeneuve 1:44.353 18 Villeneuve 1:44.262 34 Villeneuve 1:44.043 Top Six Lap Chart Lap/Pos 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 6 5 1 4 7 2 1 5 4 7 1 2 6 2 5 4 7 1 2 6 3 5 4 7 1 2 6 4 5 7 1 2 6 12 5 5 7 1 2 6 12 6 5 7 1 2 6 12 7 5 7 1 2 6 12 8 5 7 1 2 6 12 9 5 7 1 2 6 12 10 5 7 1 2 6 12 11 5 7 1 2 6 12 12 5 7 1 6 2 12 13 5 7 1 6 2 12 14 5 7 1 2 12 15 15 5 7 1 2 12 15 16 5 7 2 1 6 4 17 5 7 2 1 6 4 18 5 1 7 6 2 4 19 5 1 7 6 2 4 20 5 1 7 6 2 4 21 5 1 7 6 2 4 22 5 1 7 6 2 4 23 5 1 7 6 2 12 24 5 1 7 6 2 12 25 5 1 7 6 2 12 26 5 1 7 6 2 12 27 5 1 7 6 2 12 28 5 1 7 6 2 12 29 5 1 7 6 2 4 30 5 1 7 6 2 4 31 5 1 7 6 2 4 32 5 1 7 2 4 6 33 5 1 7 4 6 12 34 5 1 7 4 6 12 35 5 1 7 4 6 12 36 5 1 7 4 6 12 37 5 1 7 6 2 4 38 5 1 7 2 4 12 39 5 1 7 4 12 15 40 5 1 7 4 12 15 41 5 1 7 4 12 15 42 5 1 7 4 12 15 43 5 1 7 4 12 15 44 5 1 7 4 12 15 45 5 1 7 4 12 15 46 5 1 7 4 12 15 47 5 1 7 4 12 15 48 5 1 7 4 12 15 49 5 1 7 4 12 15 50 5 1 7 4 12 15 51 5 1 7 4 12 15 52 5 1 7 4 12 15