1994 Japanese Grand Prix

1994 Japanese Grand Prix
Race 15 of 16 in the 1994 Formula One World Championship
Race details [1]
Date	6 November 1994
Official name	XX Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix
Location	Suzuka Circuit Suzuka, Mie, Japan
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	5.860 km (3.641 miles)
Distance	50 laps, 293.000 km (182.062 miles)
Scheduled distance	53 laps, 310.580 km (192.985 miles)
Weather	Heavy rain, followed by light showers
Attendance	357,000 [2]
Pole position
Driver	Michael Schumacher	Benetton-Ford
Time	1:37.209
Fastest lap
Driver	Damon Hill	Williams-Renault
Time	1:56.597 on lap 24
Podium
First	Damon Hill	Williams-Renault
Second	Michael Schumacher	Benetton-Ford
Third	Jean Alesi	Ferrari
Lap leaders

The 1994 Japanese Grand Prix (officially the XX Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 6 November 1994 at the Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka. It was the fifteenth and penultimate race of the 1994 Formula One World Championship. In wet conditions, the 50-lap race was won by Damon Hill, driving a Williams-Renault, after he started from second position. Hill's Drivers' Championship rival Michael Schumacher finished second in his Benetton-Ford, having started from pole position, with Jean Alesi third in his Ferrari. The win left Hill just one point behind Schumacher in the Drivers' Championship with one race remaining. This also proved to be the last Grand Prix for Érik Comas. This was also the last time in Formula 1 history when the race was split in two parts due to race stoppage and final classification has been set by aggregate time.

Report

Going into the race, Benetton driver Michael Schumacher led the Drivers' Championship with 86 points, five ahead of rival Damon Hill in the Williams on 81. ^[3] Schumacher felt he was "very confident" about the race, ^[4] and Hill similarly declared that he was "positive". ^[4]

There were several changes of driver for this race: Johnny Herbert moved from Ligier to Benetton after just one race for the French team, replacing Jos Verstappen. His place at Ligier was taken by Franck Lagorce. Eric Bernard lost his seat at Lotus to Mika Salo who had been racing in Japanese Formula 3000, and likewise Simtek hired Taki Inoue on a one-race deal, replacing Domenico Schiattarella. Finally, JJ Lehto returned to Sauber to replace Andrea de Cesaris after the Italian's sudden retirement from Formula One.

The race started in torrential rain, and as a result, several cars spun out of the race by aquaplaning, including Schumacher's team-mate Herbert on lap 4, Lagorce, the Minardis of Pierluigi Martini and Michele Alboreto, and all three Japanese drivers by the end of lap 3 (with both Ukyo Katayama and Hideki Noda being injured in separate crashes). Lehto also retired at the start with an engine failure. As did Gerhard Berger in the second Ferrari with battery problems by lap 11.

On lap 13, Gianni Morbidelli crashed his Footwork at one of the Esses at the first sector. Shortly afterwards, Martin Brundle spun his McLaren off the track and crashed at the same spot, and as he bounced off the tyre barriers, hit a track marshal who was moving Morbidelli's car off the gravel trap. The marshal suffered a broken leg, adding to the huge list of injuries of the 1994 season, and the race was immediately stopped, as both Brundle and Morbidelli were fortunately able to escape uninjured. Rubens Barrichello soon retired in the pits with transmission problems by lap 17, Blundell was also forced to retire from 10th position when his engine failed on lap 27, which ended an appalling weekend for Tyrrell. ^[5] This left 13 runners, and there were no further retirements for the remaining 23 laps.

As the rain eased, it was decided to run the remainder of the race, with around one hour to the time limit, on aggregate corrected time. Schumacher had been leading by 6.8 seconds when the red flag was shown, but Hill had a bigger lead (10.1 seconds) at the chequered flag, and thus took the win by 3.3 seconds on aggregate. This remains the last instance of aggregate race time being used in Formula One to determine the winner. ^{[6] [7]}

Hill subsequently stated that his driving was "on a different level from how I’d ever driven before", noting that he never would achieve that level of performance again in his career. ^{[8] [9]}

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1 Time	Q2 Time	Gap
1	5	Michael Schumacher	Benetton-Ford	1:37.209	1:57.128
2	0	Damon Hill	Williams-Renault	1:37.696	1:57.278	+0.487
3	30	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Sauber-Mercedes	1:37.742	1:56.935	+0.533
4	2	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault	1:37.768	2:00.963	+0.559
5	6	Johnny Herbert	Benetton-Ford	1:37.828	1:59.729	+0.619
6	15	Eddie Irvine	Jordan-Hart	1:37.880	1:57.760	+0.671
7	27	Jean Alesi	Ferrari	1:37.907	1:58.610	+0.698
8	7	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Peugeot	1:37.998	1:58.204	+0.789
9	8	Martin Brundle	McLaren-Peugeot	1:38.076	1:56.876	+0.877
10	14	Rubens Barrichello	Jordan-Hart	1:38.533	2:01.905	+1.324
11	28	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari	1:38.570	1:58.926	+1.361
12	10	Gianni Morbidelli	Footwork-Ford	1:39.030	2:07.293	+1.821
13	4	Mark Blundell	Tyrrell-Yamaha	1:39.266	2:02.266	+2.057
14	3	Ukyo Katayama	Tyrrell-Yamaha	1:39.462	2:04.187	+2.253
15	29	JJ Lehto	Sauber-Mercedes	1:39.483	1:59.943	+2.274
16	23	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Ford	1:39.548	2:01.929	+2.339
17	12	Alessandro Zanardi	Lotus-Mugen-Honda	1:39.721	2:02.077	+2.512
18	9	Christian Fittipaldi	Footwork-Ford	1:39.868	2:00.084	+2.659
19	26	Olivier Panis	Ligier-Renault	1:40.042	2:00.575	+2.833
20	25	Franck Lagorce	Ligier-Renault	1:40.577	2:02.780	+3.368
21	24	Michele Alboreto	Minardi-Ford	1:40.652	2:02.219	+3.443
22	20	Érik Comas	Larrousse-Ford	1:40.978	2:01.035	+3.769
23	19	Hideki Noda	Larrousse-Ford	1:40.990	2:05.354	+3.781
24	31	David Brabham	Simtek-Ford	1:41.659	2:09.453	+4.450
25	11	Mika Salo	Lotus-Mugen-Honda	1:41.805	2:01.637	+4.596
26	32	Taki Inoue	Simtek-Ford	1:45.004	no time	+7.795
DNQ	34	Bertrand Gachot	Pacific-Ilmor	1:46.374	no time	+9.165
DNQ	33	Paul Belmondo	Pacific-Ilmor	1:46.629	no time	+9.420
Sources: [10] [11] [12]

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	0	Damon Hill	Williams-Renault	50	1:55:53.532	2	10
2	5	Michael Schumacher	Benetton-Ford	50	+ 3.365	1	6
3	27	Jean Alesi	Ferrari	50	+ 52.045	7	4
4	2	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault	50	+ 56.074	4	3
5	15	Eddie Irvine	Jordan-Hart	50	+ 1:42.107	6	2
6	30	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Sauber-Mercedes	50	+ 1:59.863	3	1
7	7	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Peugeot	50	+ 2:02.985	8
8	9	Christian Fittipaldi	Footwork-Ford	49	+ 1 Lap	18
9	20	Érik Comas	Larrousse-Ford	49	+ 1 Lap	22
10	11	Mika Salo	Lotus-Mugen-Honda	49	+ 1 Lap	25
11	26	Olivier Panis	Ligier-Renault	49	+ 1 Lap	19
12	31	David Brabham	Simtek-Ford	48	+ 2 Laps	24
13	12	Alessandro Zanardi	Lotus-Mugen-Honda	48	+ 2 Laps	17
Ret	4	Mark Blundell	Tyrrell-Yamaha	26	Engine	13
Ret	14	Rubens Barrichello	Jordan-Hart	16	Gearbox	10
Ret	8	Martin Brundle	McLaren-Peugeot	13	Spun Off	9
Ret	10	Gianni Morbidelli	Footwork-Ford	13	Spun Off	12
Ret	28	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari	10	Battery	11
Ret	25	Franck Lagorce	Ligier-Renault	10	Collision	20
Ret	23	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Ford	10	Collision	16
Ret	24	Michele Alboreto	Minardi-Ford	10	Spun Off	21
Ret	6	Johnny Herbert	Benetton-Ford	3	Spun Off	5
Ret	3	Ukyo Katayama	Tyrrell-Yamaha	3	Spun Off	14
Ret	32	Taki Inoue	Simtek-Ford	3	Spun Off	26
Ret	29	JJ Lehto	Sauber-Mercedes	0	Engine	15
Ret	19	Hideki Noda	Larrousse-Ford	0	Spun Off	PL
Source: [13]

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Michael Schumacher 92 2 Damon Hill 91 3 Gerhard Berger 35 4 Mika Häkkinen 26 5 Jean Alesi 23 Source: [14]

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Williams-Renault 108 2 Benetton-Ford 103 3 Ferrari 64 4 McLaren-Peugeot 38 5 Jordan-Hart 25 Source: [14]

References

1. "1994 Japanese Grand Prix | Motorsport Database".
2. "Formula 1 Honda Japanese Grand Prix 2022 – Media Kit" (PDF). Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. 5 October 2022. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
3. Murray Walker, Jonathan Palmer (1994). Grand Prix (Television Presentation). London, England: BBC. Event occurs at 01:30-01:41. Rundown of Drivers Championship table
4. Murray Walker (1994). Grand Prix (Television Presentation). London, England: BBC. Event occurs at 01:58-02:13 02:28-02:45.
5. "Japanese Grand Prix: Down to the wire". Motor Sport . December 1994. p. 10. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
6. "1994 Japanese Grand Prix". F1 since 81. September 2018. Retrieved 27 December 2024.
7. Smith, Luke (22 April 2020). "Remembering Formula 1's last aggregate race". Archived from the original on 30 March 2024. Retrieved 27 December 2024.
8. McRae, Donald (2025-06-30). "'I was angry at the world': Damon Hill on pain of his father's death and how it fuelled his rise". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2025-06-30.
9. Keilloh, Graham (2019-10-09). "'I was driving on a different level': Damon Hill's 1994 Japanese GP win". Motor Sport Magazine. Retrieved 2025-06-30.
10. "Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix – Qualifying 1". Formula1.com. Retrieved 29 December 2023.
11. "Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix – Qualifying 2". Formula1.com. Retrieved 29 December 2023.
12. "1994 Japanese GP – Qualifying". ChicaneF1. Retrieved 29 December 2023.
13. "1994 Japanese Grand Prix - Race Result". Formula1.com. 2020-02-16. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
14. "Japan 1994 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 18 March 2019.

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