1996 Monaco Grand Prix

The 1996 Monaco Grand Prix (formally the LIV Grand Prix Automobile de Monaco) was a Formula One motor race held at Monaco on 19 May 1996. It was the sixth race of the 1996 Formula One season. The race was run in wet weather, causing significant attrition and setting a record for the fewest cars to be running at the end of a Grand Prix race, with the three podium finishers being the only cars left.

1996 Monaco Grand Prix
Race 6 of 16 in the 1996 Formula One World Championship
Race details
Date 19 May 1996
Official name LIV Grand Prix Automobile de Monaco
Location Circuit de Monaco, Monte Carlo
Course Street circuit
Course length 3.328 km (2.068 mi)
Distance 75 laps, 249.600 km (155.094 mi)
Scheduled distance 78 laps, 259.584 km (161.298 mi)
Weather Overcast, mild, wet at first, drying later, light rain at finish
Pole position
Driver
Ferrari
Time 1:20.356
Fastest lap
Driver Jean Alesi Benetton-Renault
Time 1:25.205 on lap 59
Podium
First
Ligier-Mugen-Honda
Second
McLaren-Mercedes
Third
Sauber-Ford
JS43 of the type driven by Olivier Panis at the 1996 Monaco Grand Prix, on display.
Formation lap

Olivier Panis scored his sole career Formula One victory, earning the last Formula One victory for the Ligier team, and the first ever for engine manufacturer Mugen Motorsports, after switching to slick tyres in a well-timed pitstop. Second place went to David Coulthard in a McLaren-Mercedes. Johnny Herbert was the last finisher in a Sauber, scored his only points of the season.

This was the final win by a French Formula One driver until Pierre Gasly won the 2020 Italian Grand Prix.

Report

Practice and qualifying

Michael Schumacher had taken pole position but had caused controversy on his slowing down lap when he impeded Gerhard Berger right at the end of the session. Coming out of the tunnel Schumacher was cruising slowly, acknowledging the crowd, while Berger was on a fast lap. Schumacher tried to get out of Berger's way but the Austrian had to spin at high speed to avoid the Ferrari, entering the chicane backwards.

The Ligiers were 14th and 17th in qualifying, both below their expectations after the team had mis-firing issues, preventing a top six position.[1]

Race day

Olivier Panis was fastest in the warm-up.[2] Jacques Villeneuve was 18th after running a wet-setup in preparation for the expected rain.[3] Between the warm-up session and the race, heavy rain fell at the circuit, and an additional 15-minute session was added to allow the drivers to get used to the changed conditions as it was the first time rain had fallen over the race weekend.[4][5][6] The session took place at 13:15 CEST (GMT +2).[7] Several drivers went off during the session, including Pedro Lamy, Pedro Diniz and Giancarlo Fisichella, but all continued.[8][9][10] The only two drivers to escape with damage were Mika Häkkinen and Andrea Montermini.[11][12] Jean Alesi suffered a puncture at the end of the session, but was able to return to the pitlane.[13] Several drivers opted to skip the session. The Footwork team chose not to participate as they did not have any spare parts, and any crash would have marked the end of their weekend.[14] Häkkinen was fastest, setting his time before his crash, with Alesi, Rubens Barrichello and Johnny Herbert behind. The two Williams cars were 7th and 8th, Villeneuve ahead of Damon Hill with Schumacher behind them in 9th.[15]

The race started at 14:30 CEST.[16] On the warm-up lap, Montermini crashed his Forti coming out of the tunnel, and the team's lack of a spare car meant the Italian was unable to start, leaving 21 cars on the grid. Hill overtook Schumacher into Ste Devote, while further back, Jos Verstappen, who had opted to start the race on slicks, slid straight into the wall. The two Minardis were then eliminated when they tangled coming out of the first corner. Hill began to pull away while polesitter Schumacher lost control coming out of Lower Mirabeau and hit the wall. Coming into the Rascasse, Barrichello spun and retired. After five laps, there were only 13 cars remaining as Ukyo Katayama (accident), Ricardo Rosset (accident) and Diniz (transmission) retired. A significant gap began to open between the leaders and Eddie Irvine in fourth. A queue of eight cars formed behind the slow Ferrari. Berger retired from third place on the 10th lap with gearbox trouble leaving 12 cars, while Heinz-Harald Frentzen damaged his front wing trying to pass Irvine, dropping to second last, ahead of Luca Badoer.

On lap 31, Martin Brundle spun off, which left only 11 cars in the race. Three laps later, Irvine was passed when Panis forced his way through at the Loews hairpin. Irvine lost control, became stuck and had undone his seatbelts before he restarted his car with the assistance of the marshals. Hill, meanwhile, had briefly lost the lead to Alesi when he made a pit stop on lap 30 to change to slicks as the track began to dry, but regained it a lap later when he overtook the Frenchman (who was still on wet tyres) on the track. Alesi made his pit stop shortly afterwards, allowing Hill to extend his lead to nearly 30 seconds and continue untroubled at the front until the 40th lap, when a failed oil pump caused his engine to blow coming out of the tunnel, his first retirement of the season. Alesi then led for 20 laps, before his suspension failed, handing the lead to Panis. Luca Badoer was running six laps down in the Forti when he collided with Villeneuve at Mirabeau on lap 66, retiring both drivers.

The race did not run its full distance as the two-hour time limit came into effect. Panis was leading David Coulthard by a small margin with only five other cars behind them. Irvine spun at the same point that his teammate Schumacher had crashed, and as he tried to rejoin, he was hit by Mika Salo, who was in turn hit by Häkkinen. All three cars retired, leaving only four cars circulating, with Frentzen running last. The German decided to pull into the pits on the final lap as he was running last anyway, and everyone else had already seen the checkered flag. Panis thus won his one and only Grand Prix, taking Ligier's first win in 15 seasons. Frentzen, Salo and Häkkinen were classified in the final points positions with Irvine credited with seventh place.

Classification

Qualifying
PosNoDriverConstructorTimeDiff.
1 1 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:20.356
2 5 Damon Hill Williams-Renault 1:20.866 +0.510
3 3 Jean Alesi Benetton-Renault 1:20.918 +0.562
4 4 Gerhard Berger Benetton-Renault 1:21.067 +0.711
5 8 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 1:21.460 +1.104
6 11 Rubens Barrichello Jordan-Peugeot 1:21.504 +1.148
7 2 Eddie Irvine Ferrari 1:21.542 +1.186
8 7 Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 1:21.688 +1.332
9 15 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Sauber-Ford 1:21.929 +1.573
10 6 Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Renault 1:21.963 +1.607
11 19 Mika Salo Tyrrell-Yamaha 1:22.235 +1.879
12 17 Jos Verstappen Footwork-Hart 1:22.327 +1.971
13 14 Johnny Herbert Sauber-Ford 1:22.346 +1.990
14 9 Olivier Panis Ligier-Mugen-Honda 1:22.358 +2.002
15 18 Ukyo Katayama Tyrrell-Yamaha 1:22.460 +2.104
16 12 Martin Brundle Jordan-Peugeot 1:22.519 +2.163
17 10 Pedro Diniz Ligier-Mugen-Honda 1:22.682 +2.326
18 21 Giancarlo Fisichella Minardi-Ford 1:22.684 +2.328
19 20 Pedro Lamy Minardi-Ford 1:23.350 +2.994
20 16 Ricardo Rosset Footwork-Hart 1:24.976 +4.620
21 22 Luca Badoer Forti-Ford 1:25.059 +4.703
22 23 Andrea Montermini Forti-Ford 1:25.393 +5.037
107% time: 1:25.981
Source: [17]

Race
PosNoDriverConstructorLapsTime/RetiredGridPoints
1 9 Olivier Panis Ligier-Mugen-Honda 75 2:00:45.629 14 10
2 8 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 75 +4.828 5 6
3 14 Johnny Herbert Sauber-Ford 75 +37.503 13 4
4 15 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Sauber-Ford 74 Retired in pits 9 3
5 19 Mika Salo Tyrrell-Yamaha 70 Collision 11 2
6 7 Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 70 Collision 8 1
7 2 Eddie Irvine Ferrari 68 Collision 7  
Ret 6 Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Renault 66 Collision 10  
Ret 3 Jean Alesi Benetton-Renault 60 Suspension 3  
Ret 22 Luca Badoer Forti-Ford 60 Collision + Electrical 21  
Ret 5 Damon Hill Williams-Renault 40 Engine 2  
Ret 12 Martin Brundle Jordan-Peugeot 30 Accident 16  
Ret 4 Gerhard Berger Benetton-Renault 9 Gearbox 4  
Ret 10 Pedro Diniz Ligier-Mugen-Honda 5 Transmission 17  
Ret 16 Ricardo Rosset Footwork-Hart 3 Accident 20  
Ret 18 Ukyo Katayama Tyrrell-Yamaha 2 Accident 15  
Ret 1 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 0 Accident 1  
Ret 11 Rubens Barrichello Jordan-Peugeot 0 Spun off 6  
Ret 20 Pedro Lamy Minardi-Ford 0 Collision 19  
Ret 21 Giancarlo Fisichella Minardi-Ford 0 Collision 18  
Ret 17 Jos Verstappen Footwork-Hart 0 Accident 12  
DNS 23 Andrea Montermini Forti-Ford   Crash in warm-up 22  
Source:[18][19]

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

References
  1. Edwards, Ben (Commentator) (19 May 1996). Monaco Grand Prix: Acclimatisation Session Live (Television production). London, England: Eurosport. Event occurs at 08:25 (excluding commercials).
  2. Edwards, Ben (Commentator) (19 May 1996). Monaco Grand Prix: Acclimatisation Session Live (Television production). London, England: Eurosport. Event occurs at 08:05 (excluding commercials).
  3. Edwards, Ben; Watson, John (Commentators) (19 May 1996). Monaco Grand Prix: Acclimatisation Session Live (Television production). London, England: Eurosport. Event occurs at 01:00–01:20 (excluding commercials).
  4. Edwards, Ben (Commentator) (19 May 1996). Monaco Grand Prix: Acclimatisation Session Live (Television production). London, England: Eurosport. Event occurs at 00:00–00:05.
  5. Edwards, Ben (Commentator) (19 May 1996). Monaco Grand Prix: Acclimatisation Session Live (Television production). London, England: Eurosport. Event occurs at 00:57.
  6. Edwards, Ben (Commentator) (19 May 1996). Monaco Grand Prix: Acclimatisation Session Live (Television production). London, England: Eurosport. Event occurs at 02:10–02:15.
  7. Edwards, Ben (Commentator) (19 May 1996). Monaco Grand Prix: Acclimatisation Session Live (Television production). London, England: Eurosport. Event occurs at 15:37.
  8. Monaco Grand Prix: Acclimatisation Session Live (Television production). London, England: Eurosport. 19 May 1996. Event occurs at 05:00.
  9. Monaco Grand Prix: Acclimatisation Session Live (Television production). London, England: Eurosport. 19 May 1996. Event occurs at 07:30.
  10. Monaco Grand Prix: Acclimatisation Session Live (Television production). London, England: Eurosport. 19 May 1996. Event occurs at 12:45.
  11. Monaco Grand Prix: Acclimatisation Session Live (Television production). London, England: Eurosport. 19 May 1996. Event occurs at 13:45.
  12. Monaco Grand Prix: Acclimatisation Session Live (Television production). London, England: Eurosport. 19 May 1996. Event occurs at 15:56.
  13. Monaco Grand Prix: Acclimatisation Session Live (Television production). London, England: Eurosport. 19 May 1996. Event occurs at 16:56–19:00.
  14. Watson, John (Commentator) (19 May 1996). Monaco Grand Prix: Acclimatisation Session Live (Television production). London, England: Eurosport. Event occurs at 18:45.
  15. Monaco Grand Prix: Acclimatisation Session Live (Television production). London, England: Eurosport. 19 May 1996. Event occurs at 19:47.
  16. Edwards, Ben (Commentator) (19 May 1996). Monaco Grand Prix: Acclimatisation Session Live (Television production). London, England: Eurosport. Event occurs at 00:40.
  17. "Monaco 1996 – Qualifications". statsf1.com. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  18. "1996 Monaco Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 1 November 2014. Retrieved 24 December 2015.
  19. "Monaco 1996 - Result". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  20. "Monaco 1996 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 19 March 2019.
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1996 San Marino Grand Prix		 FIA Formula One World Championship
1996 season		 Next race:
1996 Spanish Grand Prix
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1995 Monaco Grand Prix		 Monaco Grand Prix Next race:
1997 Monaco Grand Prix

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