1994 San
Marino Grand Prix
Report
Before the Grand Prix.
Lehto was back in action for Benetton and Verstappen returned to his test-driver obligations. And in Jordan team Aguri Suzuki was replaced by Italian veteran Andrea de Cesaris, while Irvine was still serving his three-race ban for causing a crash at Brazilian GP. Nicola Larini again substituted for Alesi.Also there were talks after Briatore's interview and Senna's words on previous Grand Prix (he was watching how Schumacher's Benetton was passing the corners and after returning to the pits said: "Something's wrong here...") that Benetton team was still using banned electronical aids.
Friday.
On Friday the weather was hot and sunny, nothing portended imminent tragedy. Ayrton Senna won the first practice session with 1'21.598. This time the second result had instead of Michael Schumacher Senna's team mate - Damon Hill. German clocked the third time, loosing to Senna's more than 1.2 s. Ferrari's pilots - Nicola Larini and Gerhard Berger - who had the most powerful engine in peloton and should have, thanks to it, an advantage on fast Imola track, but their times were just 7th and 4th.First qualifying began with Senna's improving his morning time on 0.05 s., but it was enough to take provisional pole. The second result, this time showed Schumacher 1'22.015. Hill due set-up problems had only the 7th time, which was more than 0.4 s. slower than his morning's. The third time had Berger on Ferrari. Lehto qualified in his first session this year on 4th provisional position. Larini was 5th. Heinz-Harald Frentzen again surprised everyone with his 6th result (Karl Wendlinger was only 11th), but not himself:"I have a good reason to be happy. At the beginning of qualifying I had trouble getting into a rythm because I had done so little running this morning. With my second set, things started to go much better. We have slightly modified the car since the race in Japan and it's aleready beginning to bring results."
But the main event of Friday was not all this. Rubens Barrichello - first pilot of Jordan team - crashed in the Variante Bassa corner. Apparently he crashed, because he was trying to pass the corner at higher speed than it was possible (about 220 km/h insted of 195-210 km/h). His car touched the kerb, took off and hit the top of the tire wall. Then it was launched back onto the track where it came to rest upside down. The session was immediately stopped. Barrichello was unconscious but quick intervention from the medical teams saved him although he was out for the rest of the weekend.
Saturday.
Barrichello's state was almost fine, he had just broken nose, arm injury, couple of scratches and small brain concussion, also he couldn't recall the moment of crash. That's what he said: "I feel good. I'm moving a bit slow motion but really I feel very well and I have no pain. I don't know exactly what caused the accident; it could have been oil or it could have been my problem. I remember the moment before I touched the barrier, waiting for the crash and then everything went into darkness."So Rubens felt good and everything was OK. The morning practice passed without nothing unusual - Senna clocked the 1st time, Schumacher - 2nd. But qualifying resulted in another more terrifying accident - Roland Ratzenberger went off the track in Villeneuve corner at about 315 km/h and hit the wall... Soon he was taken to the Bolonga hospital, but there was nothing what could doctors do to save his life.
However after the accident (there were left about 40 minutes) qualifying session was resumed and many teams and drivers decided to continue.
For example, Gerhard Berger - Scuderia Ferrari's pilot and another Austrian - commented on his decision so:"Most of you are going to ask whether it was right to continue to drive. Honestly, I saw the accident. I saw it in repeat and I know what happened. I know how heavy it was, how bad it was for the driver. I knew before I went out that the situation was critical. But without even knowing, I could feel it myself. I went out from the car. I felt sick. I went to the motorhome and I was shaking, all my body. Then the difficult situation was coming, to say if I was going to drive or not. I told myself that it was not whether I was going to drive now. The question was whether I would drive tomorrow and in the future, or if I was not going to drive at all. It was not related to this afternoon, it is related to whether you are prepared to have this risk or not. It was not going to make any difference to Roland if I drove or not. But I had to decide if I am prepared to still take risks like this. Honestly, yesterday, when Barrichello went off, it gave me apicture of how close sometimes we are between life and death. I saw it today. I was really on the limit. But I said to myself, 'Do you want to race tomorrow or are you not going to race ?' And I said I was going to race."
But others thought that it was wrong to race after it and didn't appeared on the track.
"Roland Ratzenberger was a friend of mine. We had a good time together in Japan, this is a very sad day." - said Heinz-Harald Frentzen from Sauber team. Neither he, or neither his Austrian team mate - Karl Wendlinger - drove on the track that day.
The qualifying ended with Ayrton Senna on pole position (65th and the last in his life) with Friday's time. Schumacher shared the first row with Brazilian ace. Berger, Hill, Lehto, Larini, Frentzen, Hakkinen, Katayama and Wendlinger took all other places in top ten.
Ratzenberger's time was 26th.
Sunday.
Suday was another good spring day, the weather, like before, was hot and sunny, nevertheless it didn't made everyone happy. It seemed that "F1 circus" lost some part of its lustre, on the other hand 100,000 fans didn't pay too much attention on it.On warm-up Williams pair - Senna and Hill - had the best times. Larini and Wendlinger had 3rd and 4th. Schumacher cloked only 11th.
The grid this time was completed only by 25 cars insted of usual 26 (Belmondo wasn't allowed to take Ratzenbeger's place).
At the start of the race Lehto stalled his Benetton. Most pilots who started after him saw it and could avoid the car N6, but Lamy who started from the right side of the grid didn't see the stantionary car and trying to overtake others went to left and collided with Lehto: "As we left the grid the car I was behind - de Cesaris I think - suddenly dived to the right. I saw a space to the left and went for it. That is when I hit JJ. I had no chance to avoid him as until that point I was unable to see that there was a stationary car on the grid at all. I feel fine - not stiff, no headache - nothing. I am very lucky. I have seen JJ and he is okay too."
Lamy's Lotus hit the left rear of Lehto's Benetton. The Lotus's right side wheels and other wreckage was thrown high into the air, over the debris fence and into the grandstand. Eight spectators and one policeman (latter he died) were hit. The start-finish straight filled with debris of Lotus and Benetton. Stewards decided to bring out the Safety Car, but not to stop race with the red flag.
So from the beginning of the 2nd lap till the end of 5th Safety Car was leading the peloton, while marshals were removing cars and thier debris from the track and doctors were evacuating the wounded. This time the race positions were the followings: Senna on 1st, Schumacher - 2nd, Berger - 3rd, Hill - 4th, Frentzen - 5th, Hakkinen - 6th, Larini - 7th, Wendlinger - 8th, Katayama - 9th, Brundle - 10th, Morbidelli - 11th, Blundell - 12th, Martini - 13th, Fittipaldi - 14th, Herbert - 15th, Panis - 16th, Comas - 17th, de Cesaris - 18th, Beretta - 19th, Brabham - 20th, Gachot - 21st, Bernard - 22nd and Alboreto on the last 23rd position.
After the Safety Car has pulled to pits almost nothing changed - Senna was leading with Schumacher being not far behind. But on the lap 7 blue Williams of three-times champion goes straight to the wall in the fast Tamburello corner (pilots approached there 290-310 km/h). The car was smashed and after hitting the wall bounced back to the track, where it finally stopped. Senna was sitting in the car and shaking his head. One lever of front suspension made a hole in his helmet and thrust into his head.
This time race was stopped and medical crews began their work, soon he was taking to Bologna's hospital by helicopter, where some houres latter he was officially certified dead.
Meanwhile, some forty minutes latter the Senna's accident, race, as it was decided, restarted from the grid. So in spite of Berger took the lead at the start from Schumacher on agregate he was still on second behind the German.
At Tosa - the first slow corner of the track - there was some kind of traffic jam, in which Schumacher blocked Hill's Williams and deprived British of his car's nose and of any chanses to win that race. Thus at the beginning of the second lap after the restart (or of the 6th lap of the race) Berger was first on a track trying not let Schumacher, who was leading the race on agregate, ahead. Behind the leaders pair were: Pacific GP 'hero' - Mika Hakkinen - on McLaren and Nicola Larini on Ferrari. After them were both Saubers of Wendlinger and Frentzen split by Tyrrell-Yamaha of Katayama. But Frentzen occupied the 7th place only on time, on the track he was at the rear of peloton, thanks to an extra pit stop which he had to make after his tire caught debris of Senna's Williams (so he restarted the race from the pit lane).
On 11th lap Berger made a mistake in Acque Minerali that was all Schumacher needed to become the race leader not only on time, but on the road too. However this didn't lasted for too long - on the next lap German turned to boxes for fuel and tires. He returned at the track about 13 seconds behind the new leader - Berger, with Hakkinen ahead of him on one second and Larini with Wendlinger not far behind. But this was just on time, on the track the situation was the other both Larini and Wendlinger were ahead of Schumacher.
Soon on lap 15 Berger went to the pit lane but not for the fresh tires or for refueling, his car was damaged (or he said so). And for the first time this season McLaren goes into the lead, Mika Hakkinen became the fourth leader of that hard race, nevertheless soon Finn like two previous leaders turned to the pits for his first stop. So on agregate Michael Schumacher returned to the lead, but on the track Larini's Ferrari was ahead of him.
Thanks to 3 stop strategy against 1, German without any difficulties passed Italian five laps latter and quickly began to pull out. Since it became clear that only some mechanical failure could prevent Schumacher from making it three wins from three.
On lap 44 there was another nasty twist of this horrible GP. Michele Alboreto, who was on last position, turned to pit for his last refueling and tire changing. Everyrthing was OK untill he started moving - the rear right wheel fell off knocking three mechanics from Ferrari and one from Lotus. Alboreto was happy to escape collision with the pit wall.
On lap 58 of 61 planed, two hours and five minutes after the first start, the race was stopped. Schumacher the third time became the winner: "There is no satisfaction at all for me. This win certainly should make me satisfied, but for me too many things happened this weekend to let me feel satisfied."
Larini finished about 55 seconds latter, it was his best ever result in F1 and the best result for 2nd place finishers this year: "I am very happy with this result because I have been looking for something like this all through my career in Formula 1. Maybe it is the last opportunity, because next week I will be back in a touring car and Jean will get his car back for Monaco. Although I'm very happy for myself, it is difficult to be happy when I think about my injured mechanics."
The third was Hakkinen, which meant that McLaren team for the first time this year scored something: "After all the work that we have done since the start of the season, and after the bad luck which we had in Brazil and Aida, this time it was good. We finished the race and we got on to the podium. I have to admit I was pleased. It was good run: I pushed very hard all the way, unfortunately it wasn't enough to get a better position."
Karl Wendlinger was the last pilot who didn't lost a lap to winner. Some times he was very close to Hakkinen and even tried to overtake him, but at the last part of the race, like in Brazil, Mercedes engine began to lose its power and that's why Wendlinger finished only 4th. And like in Brazil Japanese driver Ukyo Katayama grabed 5th place, this time behind Austrian's black Sauber. Another Sauber team represantive - Heinz-Harald Frentzen - finished just 7th (the reason was his extra pit stop after Senna's crash), losing about one second to Hill, who occupied with Barrichello 2nd place in the championship with only 7 points.
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TBFOC, 2003.