The 1995 San Marino Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 30 April 1995 at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, Imola. It was the third race of the 1995 Formula One season.
Following the deaths of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna at Imola the previous year, the track was heavily modified for 1995. New chicanes were built at Tamburello and Villeneuve corners, Acque Minerali chicane was removed and replaced by a right-hand corner, Rivazza was eased and the final corner became a single chicane, rather than the 5th-gear sweep previously.
Williams-Renault driver Damon Hill scored an emotional victory at the track at which his teammate Senna died a year earlier, while the Ferraris of Jean Alesi and Gerhard Berger finished second and third respectively. Despite being teammates from 1993 to 1997, this was the only occasion Alesi and Berger shared a podium racing for the same team. This race was also the first for Nigel Mansell at McLaren and his first Grand Prix start overall since winning for Williams in Adelaide at the end of the previous season.
Race report Michael Schumacher secured pole position with his time on Friday, in an exciting qualifying session. David Coulthard had looked to have set the fastest time on Friday but it only lasted for a few seconds before it was snatched back by Schumacher. Moments later Gerhard Berger - who was on a stupendously fast lap in his Ferrari - screamed towards the start-finish line and looked set to send the local Ferrari fans into raptures. Berger came agonisingly close to securing pole position and a mere 0.008 seconds separated the Austrian's Ferrari from Schumacher's Benetton.
Berger's performance guaranteed massive crowds for the rest of the weekend but on Saturday the weather was hotter and the track a lot slower. None of the fast men improved. Nigel Mansell, making his return to F1 with McLaren, qualified ninth, three places down on teammate Häkkinen.
Before the race, all the drivers participated in a one-minute silence in the memory of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna who had died a year earlier at the same track.
The weather took a turn on race day and Sunday morning was greeted with steady rain but the rain did not deter the fans and the hillsides of Imola were packed with the joyful Ferrari fans from dawn onwards. As the grid lined up teams had to decide whether to race on slick tyres or on wets. Six drivers chose wet tyres: the first five on the grid and Rubens Barrichello in 10th place. By the end of the first lap the men on wet tyres were lying 1-2-3-4-5-6 and everyone else was waiting for the track to dry. The drivers on wets gained about five seconds a lap on their rivals. Then they started coming in. Schumacher's race lasted only half a lap after his pit stop because, on the way up to the top of the circuit, the Benetton snapped suddenly to the right and hit the wall hard. It looked like a driver of a very sensitive car making a mistake on slicks in damp conditions, but Schumacher said it was a car problem.
With Schumacher out of the way Berger led Hill, Coulthard and Jean Alesi. The latter pair put on a good show, ducking and weaving as they dived through the backmarkers.
The fight became more significant when Berger's Ferrari stalled during his next pit stop. This left Hill in the lead with Coulthard and Alesi on his tail. During the exciting pit stop sequence Coulthard and Alesi brushed but the Williams team did not spot a damaged front wing. An over-eager Coulthard exceeded the speed-limit when exiting the pits, resulting in the Williams driver receiving a 10-second penalty. Unfortunately for Coulthard the rules meant that the Williams team would be unable to change his now obviously damaged front wing when he returned to the pits to serve his penalty and so had to make a third trip to the pits to replace his damaged front wing, by which time his race was ruined. There was nearly disaster for Hill when a refuelling hose stuck during his final pit stop but he managed to get out ahead of Alesi.
In the midfield the returning Mansell collided with Eddie Irvine in the Jordan and both had to pit. The race ended up being 1992 champion Mansell's last race finish.
Hill won, with Alesi and Berger coming second and third. Coulthard was fourth and Häkkinen fifth, the McLaren a lap down, while Heinz-Harald Frentzen gave Sauber another unexpected point by finishing sixth. The Ferrari fans and the team itself were left asking what might have been had Berger not stalled in the pits while he was involved in a titanic struggle with Hill.
Classification Qualifying
Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Time Q2 Time Gap 1 1 Michael Schumacher Benetton-Renault 1:27.274 1:27.413 2 28 Gerhard Berger Ferrari 1:27.282 1:38.801 +0.008 3 6 David Coulthard Williams-Renault 1:27.459 1:27.600 +0.185 4 5 Damon Hill Williams-Renault 1:27.537 1:27.512 +0.238 5 27 Jean Alesi Ferrari 1:27.813 1:28.431 +0.539 6 8 Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 1:28.343 no time +1.069 7 15 Eddie Irvine Jordan-Peugeot 1:28.516 1:41.247 +1.242 8 2 Johnny Herbert Benetton-Renault 1:29.403 1:29.350 +2.076 9 7 Nigel Mansell McLaren-Mercedes 1:29.517 1:29.966 +2.243 10 14 Rubens Barrichello Jordan-Peugeot 1:29.580 1:29.551 +2.277 11 9 Gianni Morbidelli Footwork-Hart 1:29.582 1:31.147 +2.308 12 26 Olivier Panis Ligier-Mugen-Honda 1:30.801 1:30.760 +3.486 13 4 Mika Salo Tyrrell-Yamaha 1:31.221 1:31.035 +3.761 14 30 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Sauber-Ford 1:31.358 1:31.423 +4.084 15 3 Ukyo Katayama Tyrrell-Yamaha 1:31.630 1:31.736 +4.356 16 25 Aguri Suzuki Ligier-Mugen-Honda 1:32.297 1:31.913 +4.639 17 12 Jos Verstappen Simtek-Ford 1:32.156 1:32.425 +4.882 18 23 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 1:32.445 1:33.832 +5.171 19 10 Taki Inoue Footwork-Hart 1:32.988 1:32.710 +5.436 20 24 Luca Badoer Minardi-Ford 1:33.071 1:33.430 +5.797 21 29 Karl Wendlinger Sauber-Ford 1:33.494 1:33.554 +6.220 22 16 Bertrand Gachot Pacific-Ford 1:33.892 1:35.253 +6.618 23 11 Domenico Schiattarella Simtek-Ford 1:33.965 1:34.064 +6.691 24 17 Andrea Montermini Pacific-Ford 1:35.169 1:35.282 +7.895 25 22 Roberto Moreno Forti-Ford 1:37.612 1:36.065 +8.791 26 21 Pedro Diniz Forti-Ford 1:36.686 1:36.624 +9.350 Sources:
Race Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 5 Damon Hill Williams-Renault 63 1:41:42.522 4 10 2 27 Jean Alesi Ferrari 63 + 18.510 5 6 3 28 Gerhard Berger Ferrari 63 + 43.116 2 4 4 6 David Coulthard Williams-Renault 63 + 51.890 3 3 5 8 Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 62 + 1 Lap 6 2 6 30 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Sauber-Ford 62 + 1 Lap 14 1 7 2 Johnny Herbert Benetton-Renault 61 + 2 Laps 8 8 15 Eddie Irvine Jordan-Peugeot 61 + 2 Laps 7 9 26 Olivier Panis Ligier-Mugen-Honda 61 + 2 Laps 12 10 7 Nigel Mansell McLaren-Mercedes 61 + 2 Laps 9 11 25 Aguri Suzuki Ligier-Mugen-Honda 60 + 3 Laps 16 12 23 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 59 + 4 Laps 18 13 9 Gianni Morbidelli Footwork-Hart 59 + 4 Laps 11 14 24 Luca Badoer Minardi-Ford 59 + 4 Laps 20 21 Pedro Diniz Forti-Ford 56 + 7 Laps 26 22 Roberto Moreno Forti-Ford 56 + 7 Laps 25 29 Karl Wendlinger Sauber-Ford 43 Wheel 21 16 Bertrand Gachot Pacific-Ford 36 Gearbox 22 11 Domenico Schiattarella Simtek-Ford 35 Suspension 23 14 Rubens Barrichello Jordan-Peugeot 31 Transmission 10 3 Ukyo Katayama Tyrrell-Yamaha 23 Spun Off 15 4 Mika Salo Tyrrell-Yamaha 19 Engine 13 17 Andrea Montermini Pacific-Ford 15 Gearbox 24 12 Jos Verstappen Simtek-Ford 14 Gearbox 17 10 Taki Inoue Footwork-Hart 12 Spun Off 19 1 Michael Schumacher Benetton-Renault 10 Accident 1
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Damon Hill 20 2 Michael Schumacher 14 3 Jean Alesi 14 4 David Coulthard 9 5 Gerhard Berger 9Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Williams-Renault 23 2 Ferrari 23 3 Benetton-Renault 7 4 McLaren-Mercedes 6 5 Sauber-Ford 3Source:
Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
References