The 1994 Spanish Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 29 May 1994 at the Circuit de Catalunya, Montmeló. It was the 36th Spanish Grand Prix and the fourth to be held at the Circuit de Catalunya, and the fifth race of the 1994 Formula One World Championship.
The 65-lap race was won by Englishman Damon Hill, driving a Williams-Renault. It was the first victory of the season for Hill and the Williams team, who were still recovering from the death of Ayrton Senna at Imola four weeks previously. Hill won by 24 seconds from German driver and championship leader Michael Schumacher, whose Benetton-Ford was stuck in fifth gear for most of the race. Another Englishman, Mark Blundell, finished third in a Tyrrell-Yamaha, which would turn out to be the final podium finish for him and the Tyrrell team.
The Grand Prix was additionally notable for the season-ending crash of debutant Italian driver Andrea Montermini in his Simtek S941 on the front straight. Montermini, elevated from test driver status after the death of Roland Ratzenberger at the San Marino Grand Prix crashed heavily into the outside wall exiting the final corner. It also marked the Formula One debut of future race winner David Coulthard, replacing Senna for Williams. The new Lotus 109 made its debut this weekend replacing the two-year-old 107.
Report
Pre-race
This was the first race for the newly formed Grand Prix Drivers Association (GPDA). Several top level names, including Michael Schumacher, Damon Hill, and Gerhard Berger, were instrumental in the setup and running of the GPDA, and they took the decision to install a temporary chicane before the Nissan corner. This was an attempt to improve safety, as well as limit speeds around the track, as the Nissan corner was generally taken at near flat-out speeds.
Sauber entered only one car for this race due to Karl Wendlinger's injury at the previous race.
Qualifying Michael Schumacher took the second pole position in succession and the second of his career. Damon Hill also lined up on the front row, his time had been beaten by Schumacher's by over half a second, and he was only one thousandth of a second ahead of Mika Häkkinen. The pair's respective Williams and McLaren teammates lined up eighth and ninth, McLaren's Martin Brundle on the fourth row in front of a disappointed David Coulthard for Williams. JJ Lehto, Schumacher's Benetton teammate had done a bit better for himself and lined up fourth. Rubens Barrichello's Jordan qualified in fifth, followed by the two Ferraris. Tyrrell driver Ukyo Katayama was the other driver in the top ten, while at the back Andrea Montermini crashed heavily in the Simtek previously driven by Roland Ratzenberger and broke his left heel and his right foot. He thus did not set a timed lap in the second session, and failed to qualify, although he would have been unable to start the race anyway.
Race Olivier Beretta retired when his Larousse-Ford's engine failed on the formation lap. Schumacher led from pole position at the start of the race whilst Barrichello and Berger touched at the first corner. Neither driver retired as a direct result of the collision, although both did retire eventually. Later in the race Berger ran across the grass and lost places and would retire on lap 28 with gearbox problems. Coulthard climbed up to fifth place from his ninth place starting spot, but his car stalled in the pits on lap 16. Despite retiring from twelfth place on lap 32 with electrical problems, he described his race as a "good debut overall". Michael Schumacher led comfortably for first 22 laps, but became stuck in fifth gear after his first pit stop which led to overtakes by Mika Häkkinen and Damon Hill. Rubens Barrichello retired after he went off the track on lap 40. After the pit stops, Mika Häkkinen was in third place for McLaren behind Hill and Schumacher, having temporarily been in front of Schumacher earlier in the race. Häkkinen's engine failed on lap 49, as did JJ Lehto's Benetton-Ford 5 laps later, granting the place to Hakkinen's teammate Martin Brundle. Brundle then retired himself after a transmission explosion from the back of his car at the first corner on lap 60 and was classified 11th. While Williams notched up their first victory of the season with Damon Hill, and first after the death of Ayrton Senna, championship leader Michael Schumacher finished a strong second, despite being stuck in fifth gear for most of the race. Knowing that he had a major problem, he managed to make a pitstop (and get away from the pit stop in 5th gear), and as the race unfolded gave nothing to the leading Hill's pace. He had to change his driving style to find new trajectories and corner apexes, and his past experience as a World Sports Car driver helped him to do so. Mark Blundell, for Tyrrell, completed the podium celebrations, scoring his 3rd and last podium of his career as well as Tyrrell's last Formula 1 podium. Jean Alesi, Pierluigi Martini and Eddie Irvine scored the remaining points. In a high attrition race only ten drivers took checkered flag and Martin Brundle was classified 11th as he completed more than 90% of the race distance.
Post-race After the race, the Williams team were very emotional with Hill's win.
Classification Qualifying Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Time Q2 Time Gap 1 5 Michael Schumacher Benetton-Ford 1:23.426 1:21.908 2 0 Damon Hill Williams-Renault 1:24.716 1:22.559 +0.651 3 7 Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Peugeot 1:24.580 1:22.660 +0.752 4 6 JJ Lehto Benetton-Ford 1:25.587 1:22.983 +1.075 5 14 Rubens Barrichello Jordan-Hart 1:25.990 1:23.594 +1.686 6 27 Jean Alesi Ferrari 1:24.997 1:23.700 +1.792 7 28 Gerhard Berger Ferrari 1:26.121 1:23.715 +1.807 8 8 Martin Brundle McLaren-Peugeot 1:26.614 1:23.763 +1.855 9 2 David Coulthard Williams-Renault 1:27.428 1:23.782 +1.874 10 3 Ukyo Katayama Tyrrell-Yamaha 1:27.017 1:23.969 +2.061 11 4 Mark Blundell Tyrrell-Yamaha 1:25.863 1:23.981 +2.073 12 30 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Sauber-Mercedes 1:25.115 1:24.254 +2.346 13 15 Eddie Irvine Jordan-Hart 1:26.368 1:24.930 +3.022 14 24 Michele Alboreto Minardi-Ford 1:26.595 1:24.996 +3.088 15 10 Gianni Morbidelli Footwork-Ford 1:27.459 1:25.018 +3.110 16 20 Érik Comas Larrousse-Ford 1:26.097 1:25.050 +3.142 17 19 Olivier Beretta Larrousse-Ford 1:28.011 1:25.161 +3.253 18 23 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 1:25.502 1:25.247 +3.339 19 26 Olivier Panis Ligier-Renault 1:27.872 1:25.577 +3.669 20 25 Éric Bernard Ligier-Renault 1:28.289 1:25.766 +3.858 21 9 Christian Fittipaldi Footwork-Ford 1:27.631 1:26.084 +4.176 22 12 Johnny Herbert Lotus-Mugen-Honda 28:05.683 1:26.397 +4.489 23 11 Alessandro Zanardi Lotus-Mugen-Honda 1:30.379 1:27.685 +5.777 24 31 David Brabham Simtek-Ford 1:30.797 1:28.151 +6.243 25 34 Bertrand Gachot Pacific-Ilmor 1:34.318 1:28.873 +6.965 26 33 Paul Belmondo Pacific-Ilmor 1:31.750 1:30.657 +8.749 32 Andrea Montermini Simtek-Ford 1:31.111 No time +9.203 Sources:
Race Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 0 Damon Hill Williams-Renault 65 1:36:14.374 2 10 2 5 Michael Schumacher Benetton-Ford 65 + 24.166 1 6 3 4 Mark Blundell Tyrrell-Yamaha 65 + 1:26.969 11 4 4 27 Jean Alesi Ferrari 64 + 1 lap 6 3 5 23 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 64 + 1 lap 18 2 6 15 Eddie Irvine Jordan-Hart 64 + 1 lap 13 1 7 26 Olivier Panis Ligier-Renault 63 + 2 laps 19 8 25 Éric Bernard Ligier-Renault 62 + 3 laps 20 9 11 Alessandro Zanardi Lotus-Mugen-Honda 62 + 3 laps 23 10 31 David Brabham Simtek-Ford 61 + 4 laps 24 11 8 Martin Brundle McLaren-Peugeot 59 Clutch 8 6 JJ Lehto Benetton-Ford 53 Engine 4 7 Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Peugeot 48 Engine 3 12 Johnny Herbert Lotus-Mugen-Honda 41 Spun off 22 14 Rubens Barrichello Jordan-Hart 39 Spun off 5 9 Christian Fittipaldi Footwork-Ford 35 Gearbox 21 2 David Coulthard Williams-Renault 32 Electrical 9 34 Bertrand Gachot Pacific-Ilmor 32 Broken wing 25 28 Gerhard Berger Ferrari 27 Gearbox 7 10 Gianni Morbidelli Footwork-Ford 24 Fuel system 15 30 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Sauber-Mercedes 21 Gearbox 12 20 Érik Comas Larrousse-Ford 19 Radiator 16 3 Ukyo Katayama Tyrrell-Yamaha 16 Engine 10 24 Michele Alboreto Minardi-Ford 4 Engine 14 33 Paul Belmondo Pacific-Ilmor 2 Spun off 26 19 Olivier Beretta Larrousse-Ford 0 Engine 17 Source:
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings PosDriverPoints 1 Michael Schumacher 46 2 Damon Hill 17 3 Gerhard Berger 10 4 Jean Alesi 9 5 Rubens Barrichello 7Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Benetton-Ford 46 2 Ferrari 25 3 Williams-Renault 17 4 Jordan-Hart 11 5 McLaren-Peugeot 10Source:
References