The 1994 Belgian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 28 August 1994 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, near the village of Francorchamps, Wallonia. It was the eleventh race of the 1994 Formula One World Championship.
The 44-lap race was won by British driver Damon Hill, driving a Williams-Renault. After Brazilian Rubens Barrichello took the first pole position for the Jordan team, German Michael Schumacher crossed the finish line first in his Benetton-Ford, only to be disqualified due to excessive wear on the wooden skid block underneath his car. Hill was thus awarded the win, his third of the season, with Finn Mika Häkkinen second in a McLaren-Peugeot and Schumacher's Dutch teammate Jos Verstappen third.
This was the last time a race-winning driver was disqualified in Formula One until George Russell thirty years later at the same event.
Report Background Having deputised for a suspended Mika Häkkinen at McLaren at the previous race in Hungary, Philippe Alliot now returned to his old Larrousse team for this race, taking the place of Olivier Beretta. Meanwhile, the cash-strapped Lotus replaced Alessandro Zanardi with local driver Philippe Adams, who brought significant funding to the team.
Following the deaths of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna at Imola earlier in the season, a chicane was installed at Eau Rouge to slow the cars.
Qualifying
The Friday qualifying session was held in wet but drying conditions. Towards the end of the session, the Jordan cars were sent out on slick tyres, and Rubens Barrichello duly put his car on provisional pole with teammate Eddie Irvine fourth. More rain fell on Saturday, with most of the drivers lapping several seconds slower than the day before, and only Christian Fittipaldi improving his time. Thus, Barrichello took the first pole position of his career and the first for Jordan. At 22 years and 98 days, Barrichello became the youngest ever F1 polesitter up to that point, beating the record set by Andrea de Cesaris at the 1982 United States Grand Prix West.
Drivers' Championship leader Michael Schumacher was second in his Benetton, with Damon Hill third in his Williams. After Irvine came Jean Alesi in the Ferrari, Jos Verstappen in the second Benetton, David Coulthard in the second Williams and the returning Häkkinen, with Heinz-Harald Frentzen in the Sauber and Pierluigi Martini in the Minardi completing the top ten.
Race
In dry conditions, Barrichello led away from Schumacher and a fast-starting Alesi. Schumacher passed Barrichello at Les Combes, and Alesi soon followed, only for his engine to fail on lap 3. With the Jordans struggling to hold on to track position against faster cars, Hill moved into second, ahead of Coulthard and Häkkinen. Gerhard Berger in the remaining Ferrari also retired with engine failure by lap 12. Philippe Adams who made his debut Grand Prix appearance at his home circuit soon spun out into the gravel trap, five laps after Berger retired.
Coulthard overtook teammate Hill during the first round of pit stops, while Barrichello moved back up to second before making his stop. On lap 19, Schumacher spun exiting Fagnes but retained the lead; the following lap, Barrichello spun into retirement at Pouhon and clipped the armco barrier giving his Jordan 194 terminal suspension damage. Martin Brundle moved into fifth in the second McLaren, before he himself had spun off and clipped the armco like Barrichello by lap 25.
When Schumacher and Hill made their second pit stops on lap 28, Coulthard led a lap for the first time in his F1 career. After making his own second stop, he remained ahead of Hill until the Williams team called him in on lap 37 to check his rear wing. He then developed gearbox problems and was passed by Häkkinen, Verstappen and Mark Blundell in the Tyrrell. On lap 40, Coulthard hit the back of Blundell's car going through La Source; both were able to continue, with Coulthard apologising to Blundell afterwards. Eddie Irvine was the final retirement with the result of an alternator failure with only three laps to go and was classified fourteenth, leaving thirteen runners left in the race up to the finish.
Though Hill set the fastest lap of the race on lap 41, Schumacher crossed the finish line some 13 seconds ahead, with Häkkinen a further 51 seconds back and Verstappen, Coulthard, Blundell and Morbidelli completing the top six.
Post-race
Shortly after the race, excessive wear was found on the wooden skid block on the underside of Schumacher's car. The skid block was a mandatory requirement on all cars, introduced two races before in Germany, to increase ride height and reduce ground effect advantages. Wear on the skid block of up to one millimetre was permitted; any greater would make the ride height too low and result in an illegal aerodynamic advantage. The Benetton team claimed that the excessive wear resulted from Schumacher's spin on lap 19, but the stewards rejected the claim because of the wear pattern. Schumacher was thus disqualified and Hill awarded the victory, with Häkkinen second, Verstappen third, Coulthard fourth, Blundell fifth and Gianni Morbidelli sixth in the Footwork. Verstappen achieved his second and last podium in Formula One.
Schumacher's lead over Hill in the Drivers' Championship was reduced to 21 points with five races remaining.
Classification Qualifying Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Time Q2 Time Gap 1 14 Rubens Barrichello Jordan-Hart 2:21.163 no time 2 5 Michael Schumacher Benetton-Ford 2:21.494 2:25.501 +0.331 3 0 Damon Hill Williams-Renault 2:21.681 2:25.570 +0.518 4 15 Eddie Irvine Jordan-Hart 2:22.074 no time +0.911 5 27 Jean Alesi Ferrari 2:22.202 2:25.099 +1.039 6 6 Jos Verstappen Benetton-Ford 2:22.218 2:28.576 +1.055 7 2 David Coulthard Williams-Renault 2:22.359 2:27.180 +1.196 8 7 Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Peugeot 2:22.441 2:28.997 +1.278 9 30 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Sauber-Mercedes 2:22.634 2:28.026 +1.471 10 23 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 2:23.326 2:30.896 +2.163 11 28 Gerhard Berger Ferrari 2:23.895 2:29.391 +2.732 12 4 Mark Blundell Tyrrell-Yamaha 2:24.048 2:28.164 +2.885 13 8 Martin Brundle McLaren-Peugeot 2:24.117 2:28.428 +2.954 14 10 Gianni Morbidelli Footwork-Ford 2:25.114 2:31.403 +3.951 15 29 Andrea de Cesaris Sauber-Mercedes 2:25.695 2:30.475 +4.532 16 25 Éric Bernard Ligier-Renault 2:26.044 2:31.025 +4.881 17 26 Olivier Panis Ligier-Renault 2:26.079 2:31.501 +4.916 18 24 Michele Alboreto Minardi-Ford 2:26.738 2:32.286 +5.575 19 19 Philippe Alliot Larrousse-Ford 2:26.901 2:31.350 +5.738 20 12 Johnny Herbert Lotus-Mugen-Honda 2:27.155 2:32.610 +5.992 21 31 David Brabham Simtek-Ford 2:27.212 2:41.593 +6.049 22 20 Érik Comas Larrousse-Ford 2:28.156 2:30.524 +6.993 23 3 Ukyo Katayama Tyrrell-Yamaha 2:28.979 2:29.925 +7.816 24 9 Christian Fittipaldi Footwork-Ford 16:56.162 2:30.931 +9.768 25 32 Jean-Marc Gounon Simtek-Ford 2:31.755 2:40.280 +10.592 26 11 Philippe Adams Lotus-Mugen-Honda 2:33.885 2:34.733 +12.722 34 Bertrand Gachot Pacific-Ilmor 2:34.582 2:34.951 +13.419 33 Paul Belmondo Pacific-Ilmor 2:35.729 no time +14.566
Race Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 0 Damon Hill Williams-Renault 44 1:28:47.170 3 10 2 7 Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Peugeot 44 + 51.381 8 6 3 6 Jos Verstappen Benetton-Ford 44 + 1:10.453 6 4 4 2 David Coulthard Williams-Renault 44 + 1:45.787 7 3 5 4 Mark Blundell Tyrrell-Yamaha 43 + 1 Lap 12 2 6 10 Gianni Morbidelli Footwork-Ford 43 + 1 Lap 14 1 7 26 Olivier Panis Ligier-Renault 43 + 1 Lap 17 8 23 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 43 + 1 Lap 10 9 24 Michele Alboreto Minardi-Ford 43 + 1 Lap 18 10 25 Éric Bernard Ligier-Renault 42 + 2 Laps 16 11 32 Jean-Marc Gounon Simtek-Ford 42 + 2 Laps 25 12 12 Johnny Herbert Lotus-Mugen-Honda 41 + 3 Laps 20 13 15 Eddie Irvine Jordan-Hart 40 Alternator 4 9 Christian Fittipaldi Footwork-Ford 33 Engine 24 31 David Brabham Simtek-Ford 29 Wheel 21 29 Andrea de Cesaris Sauber-Mercedes 27 Throttle 15 8 Martin Brundle McLaren-Peugeot 24 Spun off 13 14 Rubens Barrichello Jordan-Hart 19 Spun off 1 3 Ukyo Katayama Tyrrell-Yamaha 18 Engine 23 11 Philippe Adams Lotus-Mugen-Honda 15 Spun off 26 28 Gerhard Berger Ferrari 11 Engine 11 19 Philippe Alliot Larrousse-Ford 11 Engine 19 30 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Sauber-Mercedes 10 Halfshaft 9 20 Érik Comas Larrousse-Ford 3 Engine 22 27 Jean Alesi Ferrari 2 Engine 5 5 Michael Schumacher Benetton-Ford 44 Worn skid block 2 Source:
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings PosDriverPoints 1 Michael Schumacher 76 2 Damon Hill 55 3 Gerhard Berger 27 4 Jean Alesi 19 5 Mika Häkkinen 14Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Benetton-Ford 85 2 Williams-Renault 62 3 Ferrari 52 4 McLaren-Peugeot 23 5 Jordan-Hart 14Source:
References