1995 Pacific Grand Prix

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1995 Pacific Grand Prix
Race 15 of 17 in the 1995 Formula One World Championship
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Race details[1]
Date 22 October 1995
Official name II Pacific Grand Prix
Location TI Circuit, Aida, Japan
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 3.704 km (2.314 miles)
Distance 83 laps, 307.349 km (192.093 miles)
Weather Cloudy, dry
Pole position
Driver
Williams-Renault
Time 1:14.013
Fastest lap
Driver Germany Michael Schumacher Benetton-Renault
Time 1:16.374 on lap 40
Podium
First
Benetton-Renault
Second
Williams-Renault
Third
Williams-Renault
Lap leaders

The 1995 Pacific Grand Prix (formally the II Pacific Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 22 October 1995 at the TI Circuit, Aida, Japan. It was the fifteenth round of the 1995 Formula One World Championship.[1] Michael Schumacher for the Benetton team won the 83-lap race starting from third position. David Coulthard, who started the Grand Prix from pole position, finished second in a Williams car, with Damon Hill third in the other Williams.[2] Schumacher's win confirmed him as 1995 Drivers' Champion, as Hill could not pass Schumacher's points total with only two races remaining.[3] This was also the last race for Jean-Christophe Boullion.

Hill started the race alongside Coulthard on the front row, amidst pressure from the British media for not being "forceful" enough in battles.

slick tyres, to close on Coulthard who was on a two-stop strategy. Schumacher opened up a gap of 21 seconds by lapping two seconds faster per lap than Coulthard, so that when his third stop came, he still led the race.[5]

Background

The race, originally scheduled to be held as the third round of the season on 16 April 1995, was moved to October as the local infrastructure and communications were badly damaged from the Great Hanshin earthquake.[6][7]

Heading into the 15th race of the season,

Ligier driver Martin Brundle
said:

Damon has to do two things. First, he has to establish himself as the No1 at Williams for next year so the team can give him their full support. Second, he has to re-establish himself as a racer. Maybe he needs to lose a front wheel once or twice to re-establish himself.[10]

Damon Hill, who was criticised by pundits leading into the race

Schumacher, his title-rival, said that Hill made "half-hearted attempts" to overtake, which led to him "getting into trouble".

governing body emphasised that the International Sporting Code would be enforced on the basis that drivers are free to drive as they wish "provided they do not deliberately endanger another driver or repeatedly obstruct him on a straight", following incidents during the year involving Hill and Schumacher.[12]

Williams were favourites to win the race due to the nature of the track—their

rear suspension geometry to the Benetton B195 for the race.[9]

There were five driver changes heading into the race. Having been in one of the two Ligier cars since the tenth race of the season at

Jean-Denis Délétraz, both men having driven for these teams at the start of the season.[16] Délétraz was replaced as he had not made agreed payment instalments to the Pacific team for the privilege of the drive.[17] Pacific had originally intended to run local driver Katsumi Yamamoto in place of Délétraz, but he was not granted an FIA Super Licence and so Gachot retook the seat. Similarly, the Forti team's plans to replace Roberto Moreno with Hideki Noda came to nought for the same reason, even though Noda had started three Grands Prix for the Larrousse team the previous year.[18]

Practice and qualifying

"For me it was just a case of going out for my last run and trying to do better just in case Michael improved. But it was so close to the end of the session that I had to be out on the circuit; there wasn't time to see if Michael went quicker, then go out and try for a time if he did."

slick tyres at the end of the session.[9]

Two practice sessions were held before the race; the first was held on Friday morning and the second on Saturday morning. Both sessions lasted 1 hour and 45 minutes with weather conditions dry throughout.

Sauber cars, with Rubens Barrichello ninth in the Jordan, two seconds off the pace.[1]

Williams car (picture taken in 2007, while driving at Red Bull Racing
)

The

slick tyres, meaning that out of the allocation of seven sets of slick tyres as set out by the FIA, he had only two sets of brand-new rubber for the race, whereas Schumacher had the advantage of three sets of new rubber. Hill, concerned about starting from the dirty side of the track (the side of the track that is opposite to the racing line), had only two sets of brand new tyres for the race.[9]

Berger took fourth despite going off into the gravel late in the second part of qualifying.[21] Berger's teammate Alesi was fifth, with Irvine completing the top six for his best qualifying position of the season. Rookie Magnussen qualified 12th, only two places behind teammate Blundell, after not making a mistake in either of the two sessions.[22] Returning drivers Suzuki, Katayama, Morbidelli and Gachot qualified 13th, 17th, 19th and 24th respectively, with the grid covered by 7.392 seconds.[1]

Qualifying classification

Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Time Q2 Time Gap
1 6 United Kingdom David Coulthard Williams-Renault 1:14.182 1:14.013 —
2 5 United Kingdom Damon Hill Williams-Renault 1:14.289 1:14.213 +0.200
3 1 Germany Michael Schumacher Benetton-Renault 1:14.524 1:14.284 +0.271
4 27 France Jean Alesi Ferrari 1:14.919 1:15.131 +0.906
5 28 Austria Gerhard Berger Ferrari 1:14.974 1:15.125 +0.961
6 15 United Kingdom Eddie Irvine Jordan-Peugeot 1:15.696 1:15.354 +1.341
7 2 United Kingdom Johnny Herbert Benetton-Renault 1:15.561 1:15.556 +1.543
8 30 Germany Heinz-Harald Frentzen
Sauber-Ford
 1:15.942 1:15.561 +1.548
9 26 France Olivier Panis
Ligier-Mugen-Honda
 1:17.071 1:15.621 +1.608
10 7 United Kingdom Mark Blundell
Mercedes
 1:15.652 1:16.166 +1.639
11 14 Brazil Rubens Barrichello Jordan-Peugeot 1:16.263 1:15.774 +1.761
12 8 Denmark Jan Magnussen
Mercedes
 1:16.339 1:16.368 +2.326
13 25 Japan Aguri Suzuki
Ligier-Mugen-Honda
 1:17.019 1:16.519 +2.506
14 23 Portugal Pedro Lamy Minardi-Ford 1:17.224 1:16.596 +2.583
15 29 France Jean-Christophe Boullion
Sauber-Ford
 1:16.646 1:23.791 +2.633
16 24 Italy Luca Badoer Minardi-Ford 1:17.612 1:16.887 +2.874
17 3 Japan Ukyo Katayama Tyrrell-Yamaha 1:17.265 1:17.014 +3.001
18 4 Finland Mika Salo Tyrrell-Yamaha 1:17.213 1:17.235 +3.200
19 9 Italy Gianni Morbidelli
Hart
 1:18.288 1:18.114 +4.101
20 10 Japan Taki Inoue
Hart
 1:19.471 1:18.212 +4.199
21 21 Brazil Pedro Diniz Forti-Ford 1:20.555 1:19.579 +5.566
22 22 Brazil Roberto Moreno Forti-Ford 1:19.745 1:19.779 +5.732
23 17 Italy Andrea Montermini Pacific-Ford 1:22.096 1:20.093 +6.080
24 16 France Bertrand Gachot Pacific-Ford 1:22.710 1:21.405 +7.392
Source:[1]

Warm-up

The drivers took to the track at 09:30 

Ligier car, eight-tenths of a second behind Hill.[1] Hill drove the spare Williams car along the inside of the start–finish straight in an effort to clean up his grid position on the dusty side of the track.[9] Schumacher finished the session in eighth, despite going off the track, damaging his race car in the process.[23]

Race

The conditions for the race were dry with the

hairpin, but Hill held him off.[1][12] As Hill and Schumacher were held up by the slower Ferrari cars, Coulthard pulled away by more than a second a lap in the first eight laps.[22] By lap 18, Coulthard's gap to second place was 14 seconds, and it appeared that he would win the race comfortably.[12]


Alesi, Hill and Schumacher all made pit stops for their first of three stops on lap 18. The Benetton pitcrew made a quick stop for Schumacher, allowing him to get out ahead of Alesi and Hill.[9] Hill lost additional time with a sticking refuelling valve, causing his stop to last almost twice as long as Schumacher's.[12] Schumacher exited the pit stop in fourth place (behind Coulthard, and the yet-to-stop Berger and Herbert), with Alesi in seventh place (split from Schumacher by Irvine) and Hill in tenth place (separated from Alesi by Frentzen and Blundell).[1] With Alesi and Hill held up by the slower runners on two-stop strategies in front, Schumacher pulled away and closed in on Coulthard. Blundell made a pit stop on the next lap, and Hill passed Frentzen on lap 22.[1] On the following lap, Alesi passed Irvine at the hairpin; Hill tried to follow Alesi through but his front wing hit the rear of Irvine's car, causing minor damage.[26][27] Irvine made a pit stop at the end of lap 25, allowing Hill to resume his chase of Alesi unimpeded.[1] Like his teammate, Coulthard was scheduled to make three stops, but his pit strategy was changed to make only two by staying out six laps longer than originally scheduled, and then taking onboard more fuel than first planned at his first stop on lap 24.[9] As a result of a lighter fuel load for Schumacher because of the different strategies, Schumacher began to consistently lap faster than the Scotsman.[26]

Schumacher made his second stop on lap 38, and came out of the pit lane just in front of third-placed Alesi, but over twenty seconds behind Coulthard. Schumacher immediately began setting fastest laps and began to close in on Coulthard once more.[1][26] Hill managed to move up to third, in front of Alesi, during their second pit stops on laps 38 and 39 respectively. The Ferrari of Alesi then dropped further back as teammate Berger passed him at the hairpin for fourth position on lap 45.[1] Coulthard made his second and final stop for new tyres on lap 49; exiting 14 seconds behind Schumacher, who continued to extend the margin between the two. Coulthard was unable to capitalise on the performance advantage offered by the new tyres after the stop due to lapped traffic getting in his way.[27][28] The German made his third and final pit stop on lap 60 with a 21-second advantage, exiting in front of Coulthard to lead the race.[5][26] Schumacher opened the gap to 15 seconds, and won the race after 83 laps to secure his eighth victory of the season in a time of 1:48:49.972s.[1] Schumacher was crowned the 1995 Drivers' Champion as Hill could not catch his points total with two races remaining.[3] He also became the youngest double Drivers' Champion in Formula One history.[26] Coulthard finished second in his Williams, 14 seconds behind Schumacher, with teammate Hill third. The Ferrari cars of Berger and Alesi were fourth and fifth respectively, but off the pace as Schumacher lapped them both in the closing stages. Berger suffered from a misfiring engine throughout the race.[28] Herbert took the final point in sixth place for Benetton, ahead of Frentzen, Panis and Blundell. Throughout the race, Barrichello and Magnussen engaged in a battle for tenth and eleventh positions, with Magnussen keeping Barrichello behind until lap 37 when the Brazilian managed to overtake him into the hairpin. Magnussen finished in tenth place, but Barrichello subsequently retired on lap 67 with an engine problem.[1] Magnussen's first race was described as "highly accomplished" by the year's Autocourse annual.[12] After his impressive qualifying performance, Irvine was heading for eighth place, but made an unscheduled pit stop on lap 72 and dropped to eleventh. The attrition rate was low, with 17 of the 24 starters finishing the race.[1]

Post-race

After the race, it was revealed that Schumacher endured a

downshift problem after his final stop, and that he was lucky to complete the final lap as warning lights had activated on his steering wheel.[5] Schumacher praised his pitcrew for doing a "perfect" first stop which helped him move in front of Alesi and Hill. He said he "never saw anything like this team and its ability to come up with strategies" and that they never made "one mistake this season".[12] Off-camera while going through parc fermé, Schumacher and Hill renewed their argument from the Belgian Grand Prix over what degree of blocking was acceptable after their first corner incident.[5] Schumacher told Hill that he was unhappy with Hill's driving throughout the race, most notably during Schumacher's overtaking attempts on lap one and lap eleven where Schumacher felt Hill had "brake tested" him.[27]
Hill refuted Schumacher's claims, saying:

Michael wasn't happy with what I did a couple of times in the race and he has told me that he is unhappy with my driving. I find that extraordinary. The situation now is that we are completely free to drive as we like as long as it is not deliberately dangerous, So I drove in that style and he didn't like it. He should have no complaints ... somehow or other, when we got into the braking area at the end of the back straight I did something wrong. But I can't see what I did wrong. It seems that there is one rule for him and another for everybody else at times. I just think that either you agree to that, and there should be no complaints, or there are rules and you should stick to them. I think that I am a better, stronger driver this year than I was last year and can build on that for next year. Clearly Michael has an advantage over everyone and if I want to win, then I am going to have to overhaul him.[12]

Despite Hill's comments, he endured continued criticism by the British media after the poor performance; speculation brewed that Williams were going to replace him with Frentzen for the 1996 season.[29] Despite the rumours, Williams team boss Frank Williams gave Hill "an unequivocal vote of confidence" heading into the next race, the Japanese Grand Prix.[30] Schumacher subsequently changed his opinion of the incident after watching video footage prior to the Japanese race and no longer blamed Hill for it.[30]

During an interview Coulthard, who finished second, revealed that it was his decision to change to a two-stop strategy from a three-stop strategy, telling the Williams pitcrew to delay his stop. Afterwards, he said that in hindsight he would have stayed on a three-stop strategy, and wished he could "blame someone else for this decision, but I can't".[12] The 1995 race was the last held at the Aida circuit, and the last Formula One race to date held under the Pacific Grand Prix banner, with the manager of the TI Circuit unable to keep the venue financially profitable.[7][31]

Race classification

Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 1 Germany Michael Schumacher Benetton-Renault 83 1:48:49.972 3 10
2 6 United Kingdom David Coulthard Williams-Renault 83 +14.920 1 6
3 5 United Kingdom Damon Hill Williams-Renault 83 +48.333 2 4
4 28 Austria Gerhard Berger Ferrari 82 +1 lap 5 3
5 27 France Jean Alesi Ferrari 82 +1 lap 4 2
6 2 United Kingdom Johnny Herbert Benetton-Renault 82 +1 lap 7 1
7 30 Germany Heinz-Harald Frentzen
Sauber-Ford
 82 +1 lap 8  
8 26 France Olivier Panis
Ligier-Mugen-Honda
 81 +2 laps 9  
9 7 United Kingdom Mark Blundell
Mercedes
 81 +2 laps 10  
10 8 Denmark Jan Magnussen
Mercedes
 81 +2 laps 12  
11 15 United Kingdom Eddie Irvine Jordan-Peugeot 81 +2 laps 6  
12 4 Finland Mika Salo Tyrrell-Yamaha 80 +3 laps 18  
13 23 Portugal Pedro Lamy Minardi-Ford 80 +3 laps 14  
14 3 Japan Ukyo Katayama Tyrrell-Yamaha 80 +3 laps 17  
15 24 Italy Luca Badoer Minardi-Ford 80 +3 laps 16  
16 22 Brazil Roberto Moreno Forti-Ford 78 +5 laps 22  
17 21 Brazil Pedro Diniz Forti-Ford 77 +6 laps 21  
Ret 14 Brazil Rubens Barrichello Jordan-Peugeot 67 Electrical 11  
Ret 9 Italy Gianni Morbidelli
Hart
 63 Engine 19  
Ret 10 Japan Taki Inoue
Hart
 38 Electrical 20  
Ret 17 Italy Andrea Montermini Pacific-Ford 14 Gearbox 23  
Ret 25 Japan Aguri Suzuki
Ligier-Mugen-Honda
 10 Spun off 13  
Ret 29 France Jean-Christophe Boullion
Sauber-Ford
 7 Spun off 15  
Ret 16 France Bertrand Gachot Pacific-Ford 2 Gearbox 24  
Source:[2]

Championship standings after the race

  • Bold text indicates who still had a theoretical chance of becoming World Champion
  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings

References

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  1. ^
    ISBN 1-874557-36-5
    .
  2. ^ a b c "1995 Pacific Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 26 April 2014. Retrieved 24 December 2015.
  3. ^ a b "Schumacher is World Champion". GrandPrix.com. Inside F1. 23 October 1995. Archived from the original on 11 October 2012. Retrieved 3 March 2008.
  4. ^ a b Walker, Murray (Commentator) (22 October 1995). Grand Prix: Pacific (Television production). BBC Sport. Event occurs at 24:00–24:30. Damon Hill has had a lot of criticism for not being "forceful" enough, well it's a very different point of view from inside the cockpit
  5. ^ a b c d e "Grand Prix Results: Pacific GP, 1995". GrandPrix.com. Inside F1. Archived from the original on 17 April 2007. Retrieved 20 March 2007.
  6. ^ "Formula 1 calendar rethink". GrandPrix.com. Inside F1. 6 February 1995. Archived from the original on 12 October 2012. Retrieved 26 April 2008.
  7. ^ a b Roebuck, Nigel (22 October 1995). "Schumacher prepares countdown to title - Motor Racing". The Sunday Times. Times Newspapers: 2/19.
  8. ^ a b "Champion in all but name". GrandPrix.com. Inside F1. 16 October 1995. Archived from the original on 12 October 2012. Retrieved 26 April 2008.
  9. ^
    ISBN 1-874557-36-5
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  10. ^ a b Holt, Oliver (20 October 1995). "Hill under fire for conceding championship - Motor Racing". The Times. Times Newspapers.
  11. ^ "Grand Prix Results: Belgium GP, 1995". GrandPrix.com. Inside F1. Archived from the original on 3 April 2007. Retrieved 20 March 2007.
  12. ^
    ISBN 1-874557-36-5
    .
  13. ^ Saward, Joe (1 December 1995). "News Feature – 1995 Formula 1 Review". GrandPrix.com. Inside F1. Archived from the original on 28 November 2008. Retrieved 17 August 2008.
  14. ^ "Magnussen impresses for McLaren". GrandPrix.com. Inside F1. 23 October 1995. Archived from the original on 11 October 2012. Retrieved 17 April 2008.
  15. ^ "Tyrrell drive up for grabs". GrandPrix.com. Inside F1. 2 October 1995. Archived from the original on 12 October 2012. Retrieved 17 April 2008.
  16. ISBN 1-874557-36-5
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  17. ISBN 2-940125-06-6
    .
  18. ^ Dodgins, Tony (26 October 1995). "Pacific GP: F1 team by team". Autosport. 141 (4): 41, 43.
  19. ^ a b "Pacific Grand Prix - 95". Gale Force F1. Archived from the original on 20 August 2006. Retrieved 17 April 2008.
  20. ^ "1995 – Coulthard, David". The Official Formula 1 Website. Archived from the original on 9 July 2008. Retrieved 19 August 2008.
  21. ^ "Pacific Grand Prix: 2nd Qualifying". Gale Force F1. Archived from the original on 20 August 2006. Retrieved 17 April 2008.
  22. ^
    ISBN 1-874557-36-5
    .
  23. ^ Walker, Murray (Commentator) (22 October 1995). Grand Prix: Pacific (Television production). BBC Sport. Event occurs at 13:30–14:00. And this morning, Michael Schumacher went off the track and damaged his race car tore off the barge board part of the aerodynamics on the left side of the car
  24. ISBN 2-940125-06-6
    .
  25. ^ Walker, Murray (Commentator) (22 October 1995). Grand Prix: Pacific (Television production). BBC Sport. Event occurs at 19:15–19:40. Information from on-screen rundown of lead positions at the end of lap one.
  26. ^
    EAN-13 5 017559 034955. Archived
    from the original on 27 June 2008. Retrieved 20 August 2008.
  27. ^ a b c Holt, Oliver (23 October 1995). "Angry Hill fuels Pacific war of words - Pacific Grand Prix". The Times. Times Newspapers.
  28. ^
    ISBN 1-874557-36-5
    .
  29. ISBN 1-874557-36-5
    .
  30. ^
    ISBN 1-874557-36-5
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  31. ^ "Finally a 1996 Formula 1 calendar!". GrandPrix.com. Inside F1. 16 October 1995. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 26 August 2008.
  32. ^ a b "Pacific 1995 - Championship". Stats F1. Archived from the original on 29 March 2019. Retrieved 20 March 2019.
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