1994
Brazilian Grand Prix
Report
Friday.
On Friday morning Damon Hill looked more optimistic then anyone else. Had he any reason for it or not it's up to you, however he told to press: "I am really excited about the prospects for the season. It is going to be extra competitive, and I don't think there will be any let up from the pressure. As I came second last year I feel I have got to do better this year. I think if you can beat Ayrton on his home ground in Brazil then there is no stopping after that! You couldn't think of a better place to start the Grand Prix season than Brazil."
So before the season have even started Hill thought that he would win the first race in Brazil and then the whole championship. Nevertheless the first practice session Damon spent in pits - his Williams-Renault wasn't able to complite even a single fast lap.On first qualifying Hill's optimism decreased "a little" - his time was only 7th, two seconds behind his team mate who got the first (1'16.386). The second was surprising Schumacher with 1'16.575. Michael said that he would be verry happy if he could keep that position tomorrow. The third fastest, but more than a second (!) behind the German was Jean Alesi. For Frenchman this season was the third in Scuderia Ferrari and along the rumors could be the last, so he had to something - this result was that thing that he really needed, especially comparing with Gerhard Berger's 13th. But Austrian had too much mechanical problems with his "prasing horse", like Martin Brundle who ended first qualifying on 12th position. Sauber team after first day grabed 4th and 6th justifying fears of Franck Williams and Ron Dennis (whose first car with Mika Hakkinen in a cockpit occupied 5th position). Top-ten was complited by Martini's Minardi (8th) and two Brazilians: Cristian Fittipaldi on Footwork (9th) and Rubens Barrichello on Jordan (10th).
Satuday.
The final qualifying session was divided by the rain into two parts: the part one, when pilots had a chance to improve Friday's result and position on starting grid and the part two, when everybody were discussing the positions on the start line and watching how the water was filling the track.During the first part many drivers beat their Friday's times, but on the other hand many drivers wasn't able to do the same and so the final qualifying result wich formed the starting grid on Sunday was the small sensation. The pole position occuped, improving his first qualifying time and making glad his home crowd, Ayrton Senna. Michael Schumacher, who lost only three tenth of a second, was sharing the fist line with three-times World Champion. German commeted his result so:"I wasn't really sure how things were going to work out during final qualifying. But for rain halfway through the session, there might have been the chance for a big fight for pole and I'm sure everyone would have enjoyed that ! But I'm more than happy with second place. We're very close to Senna's time and, obviously, we're competitive at this stage."
The third fastest like on Friday was Jean Alesi and like on Friday he was a second behind Schumacher's result. Hill who wanted so to beat his Brazilian team mate was on fourth position, he could improve his Friday's time on a second, but it wasn't enough to make his dream come true. The third row occuped the sensational Sauber of F1 newcomer Heinz-Harald Frentzen (he lost near 0.25 s to Hill's Williams) and even more sensational Footwork of Giani Morbidelli (during mid-season Footwork team made 300 km of testining of its new chasis FW15, so Morbidell's result was perfect at this point of view). Karl Wendlinger was able to do only one clear flying lap on qualifying and so his result was only 7th. He shared the fourth line with Mika Hakkinen from McLaren team, new engine didn't add to much speed to McLaren and thanks to it the second team driver - Martin Brundle - was only 18th (he had no chance to improve Friday's time). The next row occuped Schumacher's new partner Jos Verstappen and Ukyo Katayama on Tyrrell. Erik Comas did his best on a year old chasis and grabed 13th spot, his team mate - Olivier Beretta - was able to qualify only 23rd on the same car.
At the rear the main battle was between Simtek and Pacific to qualify their cars. Bertrand Gachot from Pacific team did what ever he could do and outstriped both Simteks. However Belmondo's Pacific didn't want to do any fast lap and in qualifying he had no result. In Simtek the story was just the same David Brabham hadn't so many technical problems like his partner - Roland Ratzenberg - had and could qualify his car on the last place of starting grid. Of course Austrian wasn't happy with this fact: "What can I say? I had a misfire this morning so I didn't get any fast laps. Then there was a damper problem at the start of qualifying. We changed it and I was about to go out when the rain came. There was nothing I could do. The Pacific Grand Prix will be a different story."
Sunday.
The Sunday's weather had nothing common with Saturday's - the sky was almost clear, the temperature was high.On final practice session Ayrton Senna had the first time (1'18.667), his team mate was just 6th with 1'19.884 and his main opponent in the cooming race - Michael Schumacher - was only 10th. Of course it's hard to make any conlusion of pilots skills looking through the warm-up results - for example the second time clocked Sauber of Karl Wendlinger.
At the start Ayrton Senna kept his first place and began extend his lead from Jean Alesi - who got second after great start - and Michael Schumacher whose start wasn't really good. Another poor start had Morbidelli - at the first corner he fell down to eighth. On the contrary Gerhard Berger, who started just from 17th position at the first corner was not far behind from Morbidelli and soon overtook Italian.
So at the beginning of the second lap the order of the first ten was the following: Senna was leading, after him, more than two seconds behind were Alesi and Schumacher; Hill fourth; Frentzen 5th; Hakkinen 6th; Wendlinger 7th; Berger 8th; Verstappen 9th and Morbidelli 10th struggling with Barrichello. At the rear Bernard, who was 22nd, attempted to hold his position under attacks of Beretta and Lamy. Before Ferradura corner Beretta for not colliding with Bernard braked too hard and Gachot, who was at Larrousse's rear, collided with Beretta. Bernard also got envolved in this collision, but he was the only one who could continue the race after it.
Also at that lap Schumacher finally overtook Alesi and grabed second. But race leader - Ayrton Senna - was more than four seconds ahead of German. Nevertheless after a couple laps Schumacher began approaching to Senna. On lap 10 Schumacher was two seconds behind Senna. Nine laps latter Brazilian could see Schumacher's Benetton in his mirrows.
On lap 21 both leaders went to pits for fuel and tyres. At that time they run nose to tail and so the speed of mechanics work could help Schumacher to go into the lead or could help Senna to keep the lead. However Williams pit crew was known for its 'feats' and that time wasn't an exception - after pit stop Schumacher was nearly two seconds ahead of Senna. This situation became stable neither Senna and neither Schumacher could go faster.
On lap 44 Schumacher and Senna pitted together again, but this time the leader didn't change and Schumacher's lead even extended more, up to eight seconds. And twelve laps latter the name of GP winner definitively was known - Ayrton Senna the only man, who could resist to Schumacher's win, spun and stalled the engine in Juncao corner. That's what Brazilian said about the race:"It was a good race. Fast and very, very quick. Michael was a little bit quicker than us and only at the end was I able to push a little bit more and go with him. I was driving right on my limit, and then I was caught out at the exit of a third gear corner into the main straight. The rear went around, I spun and then I tried to restart I stalled the engine. There was nothing wrong with the car it was my own mistake as I was pushing a bit too hard."
After Senna's retirement Schumacher remained the only contender for win in the race, because the nearest driver - Hill - was more than one lap behind the German. This didn't changed till the end of the race, wich Schumacher unexpectedly won. Hill finished second. Alesi third. Rubens Barrichello finished fourth, delighting home crowd. Ukyo Katayama finished two laps behind the winner on 5th place, 5.6 seconds ahead of Karl Wendlinger, who was having engine problem since the last third of the distance and due to the tyre wear had to make one unplaned pit stop earlier.
But these were not all events of the Brazilian GP. On lap 35 there was a big collision between one Benetton, one McLaren, one Jordan and even one Ligier.
That was beginning so: Jos Verstappen after a slow (!) pit stop occupied 9th position, but was going very fast and soon began to catch up Eddie Irvine. At that time Martin Brundle (he was 7th) at the beginning of Reta Oposta straight laped Eric Bernard (who was last). Shortly after it his transmission failed and Brundle began to lose the speed. At the same time Irvine catch up Bernard and began to overtake him, however Verstappen wasn't far behind and in his turn began to overtake Irvine. But Bernard trying to avoid the slowing McLaren went to wright, where were Irvine and Verstappen... there wasn't enough room for the four cars and Verstappen find himself at the grass. Some tenth of a second latter Dutchman spun and collided with Irvine, than they both hit Brundle's McLaren and Verstappen's Benetton lauched to the sky. Bernard could avoid all these, but spun and stalled his engine. Incredibly, but everyone emerged unscathed after collision, which happened nearly at 300 km/h. However stewards gave one race ban and 10,000 $ fine to Eddie Irvine. Jordan team immediately appealed to FIA.
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TBFOC, 2003.