1996 Portuguese Grand Prix

  1996 Portuguese Grand Prix

Race details
Race 15 of 16 in the 1996 Formula One season
Date	September 22, 1996
Official name	XXV Grande Prémio de Portugal
Location	Autódromo do Estoril in Estoril, Portugal
Course	Permanent racing facility 4.360 km (2.725 mi)
Distance	71 laps, 309.560 km (193.475 mi)
Weather	Sunny
Pole position
Driver	Damon Hill	Williams-Renault
Time	1:20.330
Fastest lap
Driver	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams-Renault
Time	1:22.873 on lap 37
Podium
First	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams-Renault
Second	Damon Hill	Williams-Renault
Third	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari

The 1996 Portuguese Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on September 22, 1996 at Autódromo do Estoril in Estoril, Portugal. It was the 15th and penultimate race of the 1996 Formula One season.

Williams' Jacques Villeneuve won the race from team-mate Damon Hill and Ferrari's Michael Schumacher, having overtaken the latter on the outside of the final corner while the two were lapping the slow-moving back-marking Minardi of Giovanni Lavaggi (who at the time was described by BBC TV commentator Jonathan Palmer as "desperately slow, and there because of his money"). This victory, Villeneuve's fourth of the season, ensured that the Drivers' Championship battle between him and Hill went to the final round in Japan three weeks later.

Benetton's Jean Alesi finished fourth, just behind Schumacher, while Eddie Irvine in the second Ferrari and Gerhard Berger in the second Benetton survived a last-lap collision to take fifth and sixth respectively.

As of 2013, this Portuguese Grand Prix was the last to be held. Though the event was on the 1997 calendar, it was cancelled as renovation work at Estoril could not be completed in time.

Classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	6	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams-Renault	70	1:40:22.915	2	10
2	5	Damon Hill	Williams-Renault	70	+ 19.966	1	6
3	1	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	70	+ 53.765	4	4
4	3	Jean Alesi	Benetton-Renault	70	+ 55.109	3	3
5	2	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari	70	+ 1:27.389	6	2
6	4	Gerhard Berger	Benetton-Renault	70	+ 1:33.141	5	1
7	15	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Sauber-Ford	69	+ 1 Lap	11
8	14	Johnny Herbert	Sauber-Ford	69	+ 1 Lap	12
9	12	Martin Brundle	Jordan-Peugeot	69	+ 1 Lap	10
10	9	Olivier Panis	Ligier-Mugen-Honda	69	+ 1 Lap	15
11	19	Mika Salo	Tyrrell-Yamaha	69	+ 1 Lap	13
12	18	Ukyo Katayama	Tyrrell-Yamaha	68	+ 2 Laps	14
13	8	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	68	+ 2 Laps	8
14	16	Ricardo Rosset	Footwork-Hart	67	+ 3 Laps	17
15	21	Giovanni Lavaggi	Minardi-Ford	65	+ 5 Laps	20
16	20	Pedro Lamy	Minardi-Ford	65	+ 5 Laps	19
Ret	7	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	52	Collision	7
Ret	17	Jos Verstappen	Footwork-Hart	47	Engine	16
Ret	10	Pedro Diniz	Ligier-Mugen-Honda	46	Collision	18
Ret	11	Rubens Barrichello	Jordan-Peugeot	41	Spun Off	9

Notes

• Last start: Giovanni Lavaggi

Standings after Grand Prix

• Bold text indicates who still has a theoretical chance of becoming World Champion.

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Damon Hill 87 2 Jacques Villeneuve 78 3 Michael Schumacher 53 4 Jean Alesi 47 5 Mika Häkkinen 27

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Williams-Renault 165 2 Benetton-Renault 65 3 Ferrari 64 4 McLaren-Mercedes 45 5 Jordan-Peugeot 20

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

References

Previous race: 1996 Italian Grand Prix	FIA Formula One World Championship 1996 season	Next race: 1996 Japanese Grand Prix
Previous race: 1995 Portuguese Grand Prix	Portuguese Grand Prix	Next race: none

This page uses some content from Wikipedia. The original article was at 1996 Portuguese Grand Prix. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Autopedia, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.