1994 British Grand Prix

1994 British Grand Prix
Race 8 of 16 in the 1994 Formula One World Championship
Silverstone Circuit (as modified in 1994)
Race details
Date	10 July 1994
Official name	XLVII British Grand Prix
Location	Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone, Northamptonshire, England
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	5.057 km (3.160 miles)
Distance	60 laps, 303.420 km (189.637 miles)
Weather	Sunny
Pole position
Driver	Damon Hill	Williams-Renault
Time	1:24.960
Fastest lap
Driver	Damon Hill	Williams-Renault
Time	1:27.100 on lap 11
Podium
First	Damon Hill	Williams-Renault
Second	Jean Alesi	Ferrari
Third	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Peugeot
Lap leaders

The 1994 British Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Silverstone on 10 July 1994. It was the eighth race of the 1994 Formula One World Championship.

The 60-lap race was won from pole position by local driver Damon Hill, driving a Williams-Renault. Drivers' Championship leader, German Michael Schumacher, crossed the line second in his Benetton-Ford, but was subsequently disqualified for overtaking Hill on the formation lap and failing to serve a stop-go penalty in time; he was also given a two-race ban that he served at the Italian and Portuguese Grands Prix. Frenchman Jean Alesi was thus classified second in his Ferrari, with Finn Mika Häkkinen third in a McLaren-Peugeot.

Report

Pre-race

Going into this race, Benetton's Michael Schumacher led the Drivers' Championship with 66 points out of a possible 70. Williams' Damon Hill was second on 29 points, followed by Ferrari drivers Gerhard Berger and Jean Alesi on 17 and 13 respectively. Benetton led the Constructors' Championship with 67 points, followed by Ferrari on 36 and Williams on 31.

Following his appearance at the previous round in France, Nigel Mansell had returned to his CART commitments in America, so David Coulthard returned in the second Williams to partner Hill.

Qualifying

Qualifying was extremely close with Hill, Schumacher and Berger in competition for pole position. Berger collided with the barrier at the end of the pitlane as he attempted to have another lap. Hill took pole position with a time of 1:24.960. Schumacher took second position on the grid, three thousandths of a second slower than Hill and Berger third, two hundredths of a second behind Hill.

Race

On the formation lap, Schumacher overtook Hill twice (once when leaving the dummy grid, and then once more further round the lap), before dropping back to take his second place on the grid for the start.

Mika Häkkinen finished third in a McLaren-Peugeot.

David Coulthard stalled on the grid at the start, forcing him to start from the back of the grid – he fought back to finish 5th. This prompted another formation lap, on which Eddie Irvine's car broke down. Again on this second formation lap, Schumacher overtook Hill twice. The Peugeot V10 engine in Martin Brundle's McLaren MP4/9 failed on the second start in a huge fireball.

On lap 14, Michael Schumacher was handed a five-second stop-go penalty for overtaking Hill on the first formation lap. He failed to serve the penalty by lap 21, and as a result was shown the black flag, requiring him to stop immediately at the pits. Schumacher did not acknowledge the black flag and was shown it again on both of the next two laps, he later claimed that he had not seen it. Benetton told the race officials that there had been a misunderstanding over the 5-second stop-go penalty, and after discussing the issue with the team the officials withdrew the black flag and Schumacher finally served the stop-go penalty at the end of lap 27. ^{[1] [2]}

Mika Häkkinen and Rubens Barrichello collided while battling for 4th place at the final corner. Barrichello pulled his damaged car into the pits, without realising that he was on the final lap. This allowed Häkkinen to limp over the finish line before Barrichello reached it, despite his car being more severely damaged.

Behind them, Ukyo Katayama scored what proved to be his final point.

David Coulthard, in only his third Grand Prix, finished fifth in a Williams-Renault.

Post-race

The stewards fined Benetton $25,000 and gave the team and their driver Michael Schumacher a severe reprimand for ignoring Schumacher's five-second stop-go penalty and the subsequent black flag. On 26 July, the FIA World Motorsport Council increased the penalty to a $500,000 fine for the team and a two race ban for Schumacher. The WMSC also disqualified Schumacher from his second place at the British Grand Prix. The penalty was upheld on appeal on 30 August. ^[3]

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1 Time	Q2 Time	Gap
1	0	Damon Hill	Williams-Renault	1:26.894	1:24.960
2	5	Michael Schumacher	Benetton-Ford	1:26.323	1:24.963	+0.003
3	28	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari	1:26.738	1:24.980	+0.020
4	27	Jean Alesi	Ferrari	1:26.891	1:25.541	+0.581
5	7	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Peugeot	1:27.983	1:26.268	+1.308
6	14	Rubens Barrichello	Jordan-Hart	1:27.890	1:26.271	+1.311
7	2	David Coulthard	Williams-Renault	1:27.698	1:26.337	+1.377
8	3	Ukyo Katayama	Tyrrell-Yamaha	1:27.936	1:26.414	+1.454
9	8	Martin Brundle	McLaren-Peugeot	1:28.224	1:26.768	+1.808
10	6	Jos Verstappen	Benetton-Ford	1:29.142	1:26.841	+1.881
11	4	Mark Blundell	Tyrrell-Yamaha	1:28.510	1:26.920	+1.960
12	15	Eddie Irvine	Jordan-Hart	1:27.890	1:27.065	+2.105
13	30	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Sauber-Mercedes	1:27.284	1:28.231	+2.324
14	23	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Ford	1:28.517	1:27.522	+2.562
15	26	Olivier Panis	Ligier-Renault	1:29.381	1:27.785	+2.825
16	10	Gianni Morbidelli	Footwork-Ford	1:28.159	1:27.886	+2.926
17	24	Michele Alboreto	Minardi-Ford	1:29.403	1:28.100	+3.140
18	29	Andrea de Cesaris	Sauber-Mercedes	1:30.034	1:28.212	+3.252
19	11	Alessandro Zanardi	Lotus-Mugen-Honda	1:29.240	1:28.225	+3.265
20	9	Christian Fittipaldi	Footwork-Ford	1:28.816	1:28.231	+3.271
21	12	Johnny Herbert	Lotus-Mugen-Honda	1:29.268	1:28.340	+3.380
22	20	Érik Comas	Larrousse-Ford	1:30.274	1:28.519	+3.559
23	25	Éric Bernard	Ligier-Renault	1:30.058	1:28.955	+3.995
24	19	Olivier Beretta	Larrousse-Ford	1:29.971	1:29.299	+4.339
25	31	David Brabham	Simtek-Ford	1:31.437	1:30.690	+5.730
26	32	Jean-Marc Gounon	Simtek-Ford	1:31.225	1:30.722	+5.762
DNQ	34	Bertrand Gachot	Pacific-Ilmor	1:31.496	1:31.877	+6.536
DNQ	33	Paul Belmondo	Pacific-Ilmor	1:34.631	1:32.507	+7.547
Source: [4] [5] [6]

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	0	Damon Hill	Williams-Renault	60	1:30:03.640	1	10
2	27	Jean Alesi	Ferrari	60	+ 1:08.128	4	6
3	7	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Peugeot	60	+ 1:40.659	5	4
4	14	Rubens Barrichello	Jordan-Hart	60	+ 1:41.751	6	3
5	2	David Coulthard	Williams-Renault	59	+ 1 lap	7	2
6	3	Ukyo Katayama	Tyrrell-Yamaha	59	+ 1 lap	8	1
7	30	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Sauber-Mercedes	59	+ 1 lap	13
8	6	Jos Verstappen	Benetton-Ford	59	+ 1 lap	10
9	9	Christian Fittipaldi	Footwork-Ford	58	+ 2 laps	20
10	23	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Ford	58	+ 2 laps	14
11	12	Johnny Herbert	Lotus-Mugen-Honda	58	+ 2 laps	21
12	26	Olivier Panis	Ligier-Renault	58	+ 2 laps	15
13	25	Éric Bernard	Ligier-Renault	58	+ 2 laps	23
14	19	Olivier Beretta	Larrousse-Ford	58	+ 2 laps	24
15	31	David Brabham	Simtek-Ford	57	+ 3 laps	25
16	32	Jean-Marc Gounon	Simtek-Ford	57	+ 3 laps	26
Ret	24	Michele Alboreto	Minardi-Ford	48	Engine	17
Ret	28	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari	32	Engine	3
Ret	4	Mark Blundell	Tyrrell-Yamaha	20	Gearbox	11
Ret	20	Érik Comas	Larrousse-Ford	12	Engine	22
Ret	29	Andrea de Cesaris	Sauber-Mercedes	11	Engine	18
Ret	10	Gianni Morbidelli	Footwork-Ford	5	Engine	16
Ret	11	Alessandro Zanardi	Lotus-Mugen-Honda	4	Engine	PL
Ret	8	Martin Brundle	McLaren-Peugeot	0	Engine	9
DNS	15	Eddie Irvine	Jordan-Hart	0	Engine	12
DSQ	5	Michael Schumacher	Benetton-Ford	60	Ignored black flag	2
Source: [7]

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Michael Schumacher 66 2 Damon Hill 39 3 Jean Alesi 19 4 Gerhard Berger 17 5 Rubens Barrichello 10 Source: [8]

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Benetton-Ford 67 2 Williams-Renault 43 3 Ferrari 42 4 McLaren-Peugeot 14 5 Jordan-Hart 14 Source: [8]

References

1. Matchett, Steve (1995). Life in the Fast Lane. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. p. 102. ISBN   0-297-83575-0.
2. Formula 1 Grand Prix: 1994 Season Review (video)
3. "Schumacher ban upheld on appeal". Motorsport.com. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 21 July 2008.
4. "1994 British Grand Prix - Qualifying 1". Formula1.com. 22 October 2020. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
5. "1994 British Grand Prix - Qualifying 2". Formula1.com. 22 October 2020. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
6. "1994 British GP – Qualification". ChicaneF1. Retrieved 29 December 2023.
7. "1994 British Grand Prix - Race Result". Formula1.com. 8 February 2020. Retrieved 8 February 2020.
8. "Britain 1994 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 13 March 2019.

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