The 1993 Italian Grand Prix (formally the Pioneer 64º Gran Premio d'Italia) was a Formula One motor race held at Monza on 12 September 1993. It was the thirteenth race of the 1993 Formula One World Championship.
The 53-lap race was won by British driver Damon Hill, driving a Williams-Renault, after he started from second position. Frenchman Jean Alesi finished second in a Ferrari, while American Michael Andretti finished third in a McLaren-Ford, in his final F1 race before returning to IndyCar. Hill's teammate, Frenchman Alain Prost, took pole position and led until suffering an engine failure with five laps to go, allowing Hill to take his third consecutive victory.
Report The Williams cars dominated qualifying, locking out the front row of the grid with Alain Prost on pole and Damon Hill alongside him. Jean Alesi took third in his Ferrari; he was joined on the second row by Ayrton Senna in the McLaren. Michael Schumacher in the Benetton and Gerhard Berger in the second Ferrari made up the third row. Further down the grid, Pedro Lamy was making his Grand Prix debut for the cash-strapped Lotus outfit, taking the place of the injured Alessandro Zanardi, while the Jordan team, needing a replacement for Thierry Boutsen following the Belgian's retirement from F1, had decided to evaluate Japanese Formula 3000 driver Marco Apicella, after their test driver Emanuele Naspetti had turned down the opportunity to race.
At the start, Alesi got ahead of a sluggish Hill and Senna tried to do the same, but there was contact between Hill and Senna, resulting in both drivers dropping back, with Senna ending up in 9th and Hill in 10th. Further back, two separate incidents saw five cars eliminated at the first chicane. In the first incident, the Footworks of Derek Warwick and Aguri Suzuki collided and took each other out. In the second incident, Sauber driver JJ Lehto, who had to start from the back of the grid, took himself and the Jordans of Rubens Barrichello and Apicella out of the race. Apicella's debut, which would also turn out to be his only Grand Prix start, had lasted no more than 800 metres, unofficially making him the driver with one of the shortest careers in Formula One. Prost led Alesi, Schumacher, Berger, Johnny Herbert and Martin Brundle into lap 2. On lap 4 Schumacher passed Alesi to take second position.
On lap 8, Senna collided with Brundle's Ligier, putting them both out. Prost's championship ambitions received a major boost with Senna's retirement. Johnny Herbert spun off and hit the tyre barriers at Parabolica as he retired from 5th position since Berger pitted for tyres on lap 15, putting Berger back in 5th position but soon retired from 5th position with suspension problems 1 lap later. Hill in the meantime had moved up to fourth place and passed Alesi for third on lap 10, as Blundell in the remaining Ligier like Herbert had clipped the barrier at Parabolica and retired with a left-rear puncture and damaging his left-rear suspension on lap 21 whilst battling Wendlinger for 7th. Before Hill moved up to second on lap 22 when Schumacher's engine failed. At this point, Prost led by nearly 20 seconds, but by lap 48 Hill had reduced this lead to two seconds. Then, on lap 49, five from the end, the Renault engine in Prost's car blew. Hill took his third consecutive win by 40 seconds from Alesi, with Michael Andretti third (achieving his only podium) and Karl Wendlinger, Riccardo Patrese (scoring his final points in F1) and Érik Comas completing the top six.
The Minardis of Pierluigi Martini and Christian Fittipaldi had approached the chequered flag with Fittipaldi closely following Martini. Fittipaldi's left front wheel made contact with his teammate's right rear wheel, and the contact launched Fittipaldi's car into the air. The car completed a back flip before landing back on its wheels and skidded across the line. Neither driver was hurt and both finished the race without losing a position.
This was the Williams team's seventh consecutive victory. Prior to the race weekend, Andretti and McLaren mutually agreed to part ways and that this would be his final race with the team. He would be replaced by the team's test driver, Mika Häkkinen. His final Formula One race returned his best result of the season with his third-place finish. By winning in Italy, Hill became the first Formula One driver to take their first three wins at consecutive Grands Prix, a feat only that has only been repeated twice, by Mika Häkkinen and Kimi Antonelli.
As of 2025, Andretti's podium finish remains the last for an American driver in Formula One.
Classification
Qualifying
Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap 1 2 Alain Prost Williams-Renault 1:22.163 1:21.179 2 0 Damon Hill Williams-Renault 1:22.283 1:21.491 +0.318 3 27 Jean Alesi Ferrari 1:22.625 1:21.986 +0.807 4 8 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Ford 1:23.310 1:22.633 +1.454 5 5 Michael Schumacher Benetton-Ford 1:23.888 1:22.910 +1.731 6 28 Gerhard Berger Ferrari 1:23.750 1:23.150 +1.971 7 12 Johnny Herbert Lotus-Ford 1:25.463 1:23.769 +2.590 8 10 Aguri Suzuki Footwork-Mugen-Honda 1:26.127 1:23.856 +2.677 9 7 Michael Andretti McLaren-Ford 1:25.348 1:23.899 +2.720 10 6 Riccardo Patrese Benetton-Ford 1:26.082 1:23.918 +2.739 11 9 Derek Warwick Footwork-Mugen-Honda 1:24.673 1:24.048 +2.869 12 25 Martin Brundle Ligier-Renault 1:24.608 1:24.137 +2.958 13 30 JJ Lehto Sauber 1:24.298 1:24.419 +3.119 14 26 Mark Blundell Ligier-Renault 1:25.238 1:24.344 +3.165 15 29 Karl Wendlinger Sauber 1:25.016 1:24.473 +3.294 16 19 Philippe Alliot Larrousse-Lamborghini 1:25.529 1:24.807 +3.628 17 3 Ukyo Katayama Tyrrell-Yamaha 1:26.300 1:24.886 +3.707 18 4 Andrea de Cesaris Tyrrell-Yamaha 1:25.482 1:24.916 +3.737 19 14 Rubens Barrichello Jordan-Hart 1:26.664 1:25.144 +3.965 20 20 Érik Comas Larrousse-Lamborghini 1:26.323 1:25.257 +4.078 21 21 Michele Alboreto Lola-Ferrari 1:26.287 1:25.368 +4.189 22 24 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 1:25.903 1:25.478 +4.299 23 15 Marco Apicella Jordan-Hart 1:51.300 1:25.672 +4.493 24 23 Christian Fittipaldi Minardi-Ford 1:26.135 1:25.699 +4.520 25 22 Luca Badoer Lola-Ferrari 1:26.049 1:25.957 +4.778 26 11 Pedro Lamy Lotus-Ford 1:26.380 1:26.324 +5.145 Source:
Race Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 0 Damon Hill Williams-Renault 53 1:17:07.509 2 10 2 27 Jean Alesi Ferrari 53 + 40.012 3 6 3 7 Michael Andretti McLaren-Ford 52 + 1 lap 9 4 4 29 Karl Wendlinger Sauber 52 + 1 lap 15 3 5 6 Riccardo Patrese Benetton-Ford 52 + 1 lap 10 2 6 20 Érik Comas Larrousse-Lamborghini 52 + 1 lap 20 1 7 24 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 51 + 2 laps 22 8 23 Christian Fittipaldi Minardi-Ford 51 + 2 laps 24 9 19 Philippe Alliot Larrousse-Lamborghini 51 + 2 laps 16 10 22 Luca Badoer Lola-Ferrari 51 + 2 laps 25 11 11 Pedro Lamy Lotus-Ford 49 Electrical 26 12 2 Alain Prost Williams-Renault 48 Engine 1 13 4 Andrea de Cesaris Tyrrell-Yamaha 47 Oil pressure 18 14 3 Ukyo Katayama Tyrrell-Yamaha 47 + 6 laps 17 21 Michele Alboreto Lola-Ferrari 23 Suspension 21 5 Michael Schumacher Benetton-Ford 21 Engine 5 26 Mark Blundell Ligier-Renault 20 Accident damage 14 28 Gerhard Berger Ferrari 15 Suspension 6 12 Johnny Herbert Lotus-Ford 14 Spun off 7 25 Martin Brundle Ligier-Renault 8 Collision 12 8 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Ford 8 Collision 4 10 Aguri Suzuki Footwork-Mugen-Honda 0 Collision 8 9 Derek Warwick Footwork-Mugen-Honda 0 Collision 11 30 JJ Lehto Sauber 0 Collision 13 14 Rubens Barrichello Jordan-Hart 0 Collision 19 15 Marco Apicella Jordan-Hart 0 Collision 23
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings PosDriverPoints 1 Alain Prost* 81 1 2 Damon Hill* 58 1 3 Ayrton Senna* 53 4 Michael Schumacher 42 5 Riccardo Patrese 20Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Williams-Renault 139 2 Benetton-Ford 62 3 McLaren-Ford 60 4 Ligier-Renault 21 5 Ferrari 20Source:
Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. Bold text indicates the 1993 World Constructors' Champions. Competitors in bold and marked with an asterisk still had a mathematical chance of becoming World Champion.
References