The 1994 British Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Silverstone on 10 July 1994. It was the eighth race of the 1994 Formula One World Championship.
The 60-lap race was won from pole position by local driver Damon Hill, driving a Williams-Renault. Drivers' Championship leader, German Michael Schumacher, crossed the line second in his Benetton-Ford, but was subsequently disqualified for overtaking Hill on the formation lap and failing to serve a stop-go penalty in time; he was also given a two-race ban that he served at the Italian and Portuguese Grands Prix. Frenchman Jean Alesi was thus classified second in his Ferrari, with Finn Mika Häkkinen third in a McLaren-Peugeot.
Report
Pre-race Going into this race, Benetton's Michael Schumacher led the Drivers' Championship with 66 points out of a possible 70. Williams' Damon Hill was second on 29 points, followed by Ferrari drivers Gerhard Berger and Jean Alesi on 17 and 13 respectively. Benetton led the Constructors' Championship with 67 points, followed by Ferrari on 36 and Williams on 31.
Following his appearance at the previous round in France, Nigel Mansell had returned to his CART commitments in America, so David Coulthard returned in the second Williams to partner Hill.
Qualifying Qualifying was extremely close with Hill, Schumacher and Berger in competition for pole position. Berger collided with the barrier at the end of the pitlane as he attempted to have another lap. Hill took pole position with a time of 1:24.960. Schumacher took second position on the grid, three thousandths of a second slower than Hill and Berger third, two hundredths of a second behind Hill.
Race On the formation lap, Schumacher overtook Hill twice (once when leaving the dummy grid, and then once more further round the lap), before dropping back to take his second place on the grid for the start.
David Coulthard stalled on the grid at the start, forcing him to start from the back of the grid – he fought back to finish 5th. This prompted another formation lap, on which Eddie Irvine's car broke down. Again on this second formation lap, Schumacher overtook Hill twice. The Peugeot V10 engine in Martin Brundle's McLaren MP4/9 failed on the second start in a huge fireball.
Hill led opening laps of the race, until he pitted at the end of lap 14. On same lap Michael Schumacher was handed a five-second stop-go penalty for overtaking Hill on the first formation lap. Schumacher pitted on lap 17, but he didn't serve the penalty. That put Berger into the lead, with Schumacher now ahead of Hill. Berger led until Schumacher passed him on lap 22, but since he failed to serve the penalty Schumacher was shown the black flag, requiring him to stop immediately at the pits. Schumacher did not acknowledge the black flag and was shown it again on both of the next two laps, he later claimed that he had not seen it. Benetton told the race officials that there had been a misunderstanding over the 5-second stop-go penalty, and after discussing the issue with the team the officials withdrew the black flag and Schumacher finally served the stop-go penalty at the end of lap 27.Formula 1 Grand Prix: 1994 Season Review (video) This gave Hill the lead, where he remained for the rest of the race. Schumacher rejoined second, almost 20s behind Hill.
Mika Häkkinen and Rubens Barrichello collided while battling for 4th place at the final corner. Barrichello pulled his damaged car into the pits, without realising that he was on the final lap. This allowed Häkkinen to limp over the finish line before Barrichello reached it, despite his car being more severely damaged. Hill won the race 15 seconds ahead of Schumacher and Jean Alesi took last step on the podium.
Behind them, Ukyo Katayama was seventh, but following Schumacher's disqualification he scored what proved to be his final point.
Post-race The stewards fined Benetton $25,000 and gave the team and their driver Michael Schumacher a severe reprimand for ignoring Schumacher's five-second stop-go penalty and the subsequent black flag. On 26 July, the FIA World Motorsport Council increased the penalty to a $500,000 fine for the team and a two race ban for Schumacher. The WMSC also disqualified Schumacher from his second place at the British Grand Prix. The penalty was upheld on appeal on 30 August.
Classification
Qualifying Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Time Q2 Time Gap 1 0 Damon Hill Williams-Renault 1:26.894 1:24.960 2 5 Michael Schumacher Benetton-Ford 1:26.323 1:24.963 +0.003 3 28 Gerhard Berger Ferrari 1:26.738 1:24.980 +0.020 4 27 Jean Alesi Ferrari 1:26.891 1:25.541 +0.581 5 7 Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Peugeot 1:27.983 1:26.268 +1.308 6 14 Rubens Barrichello Jordan-Hart 1:27.890 1:26.271 +1.311 7 2 David Coulthard Williams-Renault 1:27.698 1:26.337 +1.377 8 3 Ukyo Katayama Tyrrell-Yamaha 1:27.936 1:26.414 +1.454 9 8 Martin Brundle McLaren-Peugeot 1:28.224 1:26.768 +1.808 10 6 Jos Verstappen Benetton-Ford 1:29.142 1:26.841 +1.881 11 4 Mark Blundell Tyrrell-Yamaha 1:28.510 1:26.920 +1.960 12 15 Eddie Irvine Jordan-Hart 1:27.890 1:27.065 +2.105 13 30 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Sauber-Mercedes 1:27.284 1:28.231 +2.324 14 23 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 1:28.517 1:27.522 +2.562 15 26 Olivier Panis Ligier-Renault 1:29.381 1:27.785 +2.825 16 10 Gianni Morbidelli Footwork-Ford 1:28.159 1:27.886 +2.926 17 24 Michele Alboreto Minardi-Ford 1:29.403 1:28.100 +3.140 18 29 Andrea de Cesaris Sauber-Mercedes 1:30.034 1:28.212 +3.252 19 11 Alessandro Zanardi Lotus-Mugen-Honda 1:29.240 1:28.225 +3.265 20 9 Christian Fittipaldi Footwork-Ford 1:28.816 1:28.231 +3.271 21 12 Johnny Herbert Lotus-Mugen-Honda 1:29.268 1:28.340 +3.380 22 20 Érik Comas Larrousse-Ford 1:30.274 1:28.519 +3.559 23 25 Éric Bernard Ligier-Renault 1:30.058 1:28.955 +3.995 24 19 Olivier Beretta Larrousse-Ford 1:29.971 1:29.299 +4.339 25 31 David Brabham Simtek-Ford 1:31.437 1:30.690 +5.730 26 32 Jean-Marc Gounon Simtek-Ford 1:31.225 1:30.722 +5.762 34 Bertrand Gachot Pacific-Ilmor 1:31.496 1:31.877 +6.536 33 Paul Belmondo Pacific-Ilmor 1:34.631 1:32.507 +7.547Source:
Race Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 0 Damon Hill Williams-Renault 60 1:30:03.640 1 10 2 27 Jean Alesi Ferrari 60 + 1:08.128 4 6 3 7 Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Peugeot 60 + 1:40.659 5 4 4 14 Rubens Barrichello Jordan-Hart 60 + 1:41.751 6 3 5 2 David Coulthard Williams-Renault 59 + 1 lap 7 2 6 3 Ukyo Katayama Tyrrell-Yamaha 59 + 1 lap 8 1 7 30 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Sauber-Mercedes 59 + 1 lap 13 8 6 Jos Verstappen Benetton-Ford 59 + 1 lap 10 9 9 Christian Fittipaldi Footwork-Ford 58 + 2 laps 20 10 23 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 58 + 2 laps 14 11 12 Johnny Herbert Lotus-Mugen-Honda 58 + 2 laps 21 12 26 Olivier Panis Ligier-Renault 58 + 2 laps 15 13 25 Éric Bernard Ligier-Renault 58 + 2 laps 23 14 19 Olivier Beretta Larrousse-Ford 58 + 2 laps 24 15 31 David Brabham Simtek-Ford 57 + 3 laps 25 16 32 Jean-Marc Gounon Simtek-Ford 57 + 3 laps 26 24 Michele AlboretoMinardi-Ford 48 Engine 17 28 Gerhard BergerFerrari 32 Engine 3 4 Mark BlundellTyrrell-Yamaha 20 Gearbox 11 20 Érik ComasLarrousse-Ford 12 Engine 22 29 Andrea de CesarisSauber-Mercedes 11 Engine 18 10 Gianni MorbidelliFootwork-Ford 5 Engine 16 11 Alessandro ZanardiLotus-Mugen-Honda 4 Engine PL 8 Martin BrundleMcLaren-Peugeot 0 Engine 9 15 Eddie IrvineJordan-Hart 0 Engine 12 5 Michael Schumacher Benetton-Ford 60 Ignored black flag 2 Source:
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings PosDriverPoints 1 Michael Schumacher 66 2 Damon Hill 39 3 Jean Alesi 19 4 Gerhard Berger 17 5 Rubens Barrichello 10Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Benetton-Ford67 2 Williams-Renault43 3 Ferrari42 4 McLaren-Peugeot14 5 Jordan-Hart14Source:
References