1995 San Marino Grand Prix

  1995 San Marino Grand Prix

Race details
Race 3 of 17 in the 1995 Formula One season
Date	April 30, 1995
Official name	15° Gran Premio di San Marino
Location	Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, Imola, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Course	Permanent racing facility 4.895 km (3.059 mi)
Distance	63 laps, 308.385 km (192.740 mi)
Weather	Heavy Rain before the Start, before brightening up
Pole position
Driver	Michael Schumacher	Benetton-Renault
Time	1:27.274
Fastest lap
Driver	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari
Time	1:29.568 on lap 57
Podium
First	Damon Hill	Williams-Renault
Second	Jean Alesi	Ferrari
Third	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari
Lap leaders

The 1995 San Marino Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on April 30, 1995 at the Imola. It was the third race of the 1995 Formula One season.

Following the deaths of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna at Imola the previous year, the track was heavily modified for 1995. New chicanes were built at Tamburello and Villeneuve corners, Aqua Minerale chicane was removed and replaced by a right-hand corner, Rivazza was eased and the final corner became a single chicane, rather than the 5th-gear sweep previously.

Damon Hill's victory at the track at which his teammate Senna died a year earlier was an emotional one and if the team had left the track a year earlier in deep distress, when they packed up this year, Williams knew that they had a car which was capable of winning races on a regular basis.

Race report

Michael Schumacher secured pole position with his time on Friday, in an exciting qualifying session. David Coulthard had looked to have set the fastest time on Friday but it only lasted for a few seconds before it was snatched back by Schumacher. Moments later Gerhard Berger - who was on a stupendously fast lap in his Ferrari - screamed towards the start-finish line and looked set to send the local Ferrari fans into raptures. Berger came agonisingly close to securing pole position and a mere 0.008 seconds separated the Austrian's Ferrari from Schumacher's Benetton.

Berger's performance guaranteed massive crowds for the rest of the weekend but on Saturday the weather was hotter and the track a lot slower. None of the fast men improved. Nigel Mansell, making his return to F1 with McLaren, qualified ninth, three places down on team-mate Häkkinen.

Before the race, all the drivers participated in a one-minute in the memory of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna who had died a year earlier at the same track.^[1]

The weather took a turn on race day and Sunday morning was greeted with steady rain but the rain did not deter the fans and the hillsides of Imola were packed with the joyful Ferrari fans from dawn onwards. As the grid lined up teams had to decide whether to race on slick tyres or on wets. Six drivers chose wet tyres: the first five on the grid and Rubens Barrichello in 10th place. By the end of the first lap the men on wet tyres were lying 1-2-3-4-5-6 and everyone else was waiting for the track to dry. The drivers on wets gained about five seconds a lap on their rivals. Then they started coming in. Schumacher's race lasted only half a lap after his pit stop because, on the way up to the top of the circuit, the Benetton snapped suddenly to the right and hit the wall hard. It looked like a driver of a very sensitive car making a mistake on slicks in damp conditions, but Schumacher said it was a car problem.

With Schumacher out of the way Berger led Hill, Coulthard and Alesi. The latter pair put on a good show, ducking and weaving as they dived through the backmarkers.

The fight became more significant when Berger's Ferrari stalled during his next pit stop. This left Hill in the lead with Coulthard and Alesi on his tail. During the exciting pit stop sequence Coulthard and Alesi brushed but the Williams team did not spot a damaged front wing. An over-eager Coulthard exceeded the speed-limit when exiting the pits, resulting in the Williams driver receiving a 10-second penalty. Unfortunately for Coulthard the rules meant that the Williams team would be unable to change his now obviously damaged front wing when he returned to the pits to serve his penalty and so had to make a third trip to the pits to replace his damaged front wing, by which time his race was ruined. There was nearly disaster for Hill when a refuelling hose stuck during his final pit stop but he managed to get out ahead of Alesi.

In the midfield the returning Mansell collided with Eddie Irvine in the Jordan and both had to pit.

Hill won, with Alesi and Berger coming second and third. Coulthard was fourth and Häkkinen fifth, the McLaren a lap down, while Heinz-Harald Frentzen gave Sauber another unexpected point by finishing sixth. The Ferrari fans and the team itself were left asking what might have been had Berger not stalled in the pits while he was involved in a titanic struggle with Hill.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1 Time	Q2 Time	Gap
1	1	Michael Schumacher	Benetton-Renault	1:27.274	1:27.413
2	28	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari	1:27.282	1:38.801	+0.008
3	6	David Coulthard	Williams-Renault	1:27.459	1:27.600	+0.185
4	5	Damon Hill	Williams-Renault	1:27.537	1:27.512	+0.238
5	27	Jean Alesi	Ferrari	1:27.813	1:28.431	+0.539
6	8	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:28.343	no time	+1.069
7	15	Eddie Irvine	Jordan-Peugeot	1:28.516	1:41.247	+1.242
8	2	Johnny Herbert	Benetton-Renault	1:29.403	1:29.350	+2.076
9	7	Nigel Mansell	McLaren-Mercedes	1:29.517	1:29.966	+2.243
10	14	Rubens Barrichello	Jordan-Peugeot	1:29.580	1:29.551	+2.277
11	9	Gianni Morbidelli	Footwork-Hart	1:29.582	1:31.147	+2.308
12	26	Olivier Panis	Ligier-Mugen-Honda	1:30.801	1:30.760	+3.486
13	4	Mika Salo	Tyrrell-Yamaha	1:31.221	1:31.035	+3.761
14	30	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Sauber-Ford	1:31.358	1:31.423	+4.084
15	3	Ukyo Katayama	Tyrrell-Yamaha	1:31.630	1:31.736	+4.356
16	25	Aguri Suzuki	Ligier-Mugen-Honda	1:32.297	1:31.913	+4.639
17	12	Jos Verstappen	Simtek-Ford	1:32.156	1:32.425	+4.882
18	23	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Ford	1:32.445	1:33.832	+5.171
19	10	Taki Inoue	Footwork-Hart	1:32.988	1:32.710	+5.436
20	24	Luca Badoer	Minardi-Ford	1:33.071	1:33.430	+5.797
21	29	Karl Wendlinger	Sauber-Ford	1:33.494	1:33.554	+6.220
22	16	Bertrand Gachot	Pacific-Ford	1:33.892	1:35.253	+6.618
23	11	Domenico Schiattarella	Simtek-Ford	1:33.965	1:34.064	+6.691
24	17	Andrea Montermini	Pacific-Ford	1:35.169	1:35.282	+7.895
25	22	Roberto Moreno	Forti-Ford	1:37.612	1:36.065	+8.791
26	21	Pedro Diniz	Forti-Ford	1:36.686	1:36.624	+9.350

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	5	Damon Hill	Williams-Renault	63	1:41:42.522	4	10
2	27	Jean Alesi	Ferrari	63	+18.510	5	6
3	28	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari	63	+43.116	2	4
4	6	David Coulthard	Williams-Renault	63	+51.890	3	3
5	8	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	62	+1 Lap	6	2
6	30	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Sauber-Ford	62	+1 Lap	14	1
7	2	Johnny Herbert	Benetton-Renault	61	+2 Laps	8
8	15	Eddie Irvine	Jordan-Peugeot	61	+2 Laps	7
9	26	Olivier Panis	Ligier-Mugen-Honda	61	+2 Laps	12
10	7	Nigel Mansell	McLaren-Mercedes	61	+2 Laps	9
11	25	Aguri Suzuki	Ligier-Mugen-Honda	60	+3 Laps	16
12	23	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Ford	59	+4 Laps	18
13	9	Gianni Morbidelli	Footwork-Hart	59	+4 Laps	11
14	24	Luca Badoer	Minardi-Ford	59	+4 Laps	20
NC	21	Pedro Diniz	Forti-Ford	56	+7 Laps	26
NC	22	Roberto Moreno	Forti-Ford	56	+7 Laps	25
Ret	29	Karl Wendlinger	Sauber-Ford	43	Wheel	21
Ret	16	Bertrand Gachot	Pacific-Ford	36	Gearbox	22
Ret	11	Domenico Schiattarella	Simtek-Ford	35	Suspension	23
Ret	14	Rubens Barrichello	Jordan-Peugeot	31	Transmission	10
Ret	3	Ukyo Katayama	Tyrrell-Yamaha	23	Spun off	15
Ret	4	Mika Salo	Tyrrell-Yamaha	19	Engine	13
Ret	17	Andrea Montermini	Pacific-Ford	15	Gearbox	24
Ret	12	Jos Verstappen	Simtek-Ford	14	Gearbox	17
Ret	10	Taki Inoue	Footwork-Hart	12	Spun off	19
Ret	1	Michael Schumacher	Benetton-Renault	10	Accident	1

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Damon Hill 20 2 Michael Schumacher 14 3 Jean Alesi 14 4 David Coulthard 9 5 Gerhard Berger 9

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Williams-Renault 23 2 Ferrari 23 3 Benetton-Renault 7 4 McLaren-Mercedes 6 5 Sauber-Ford 3

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

References