The 1996 Monaco Grand Prix (formally the LIV Grand Prix Automobile de Monaco) was a Formula One motor race held at Monaco on 19 May 1996. It was the sixth race of the 1996 Formula One season. The race was run in wet conditions, and set a record for the fewest cars to be running at the end of a Grand Prix race, with the three podium finishers being the only drivers who finished the race.
Olivier Panis scored his first and only win of his Formula One career, earning the last Formula One victory for the Ligier team, and the first win for engine manufacturer Mugen-Honda, after switching to slick tyres in a well-timed pitstop. Second place went to David Coulthard in a McLaren-Mercedes. Johnny Herbert was the last finisher in a Sauber, scoring his only points of the season.
This was the last win by a French Formula One driver until Pierre Gasly won the 2020 Italian Grand Prix. This was also the only win by a team outside the "Big Four" teams (McLaren, Williams, Benetton, and Ferrari) between the and the season and the last Grand Prix win by a car built in France.The French-licensed teams Renault (in the period of -) and Alpine built their winning cars in England.
Practice and qualifying Michael Schumacher had taken pole position but had caused controversy on his slowing down lap when he impeded Gerhard Berger right at the end of the session. Coming out of the tunnel Schumacher was cruising slowly, acknowledging the crowd, while Berger was on a fast lap. Schumacher tried to get out of Berger's way but the Austrian had to spin at high speed to avoid the Ferrari, entering the chicane backwards.
The Ligiers were 14th and 17th in qualifying, both below their expectations after the team had mis-firing issues, preventing a top six position.
Qualifying classification Pos No Driver Constructor Time 1 1 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:20.356 2 5 Damon Hill Williams-Renault 1:20.866 3 3 Jean Alesi Benetton-Renault 1:20.918 4 4 Gerhard Berger Benetton-Renault 1:21.067 5 8 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 1:21.460 6 11 Rubens Barrichello Jordan-Peugeot 1:21.504 7 2 Eddie Irvine Ferrari 1:21.542 8 7 Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 1:21.688 9 15 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Sauber-Ford 1:21.929 10 6 Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Renault 1:21.963 11 19 Mika Salo Tyrrell-Yamaha 1:22.235 12 17 Jos Verstappen Footwork-Hart 1:22.327 13 14 Johnny Herbert Sauber-Ford 1:22.346 14 9 Olivier Panis Ligier-Mugen-Honda 1:22.358 15 18 Ukyo Katayama Tyrrell-Yamaha 1:22.460 16 12 Martin Brundle Jordan-Peugeot 1:22.519 17 10 Pedro Diniz Ligier-Mugen-Honda 1:22.682 18 21 Giancarlo Fisichella Minardi-Ford 1:22.684 19 20 Pedro Lamy Minardi-Ford 1:23.350 20 16 Ricardo Rosset Footwork-Hart 1:24.976 21 22 Luca Badoer Forti-Ford 1:25.059 22 23 Andrea Montermini Forti-Ford 1:25.393107% time: 1:25.981Source:
Warm up Olivier Panis was fastest in the warm-up. Jacques Villeneuve was 18th after running a wet-setup in preparation for the expected rain. Between the warm-up session and the race, heavy rain fell at the circuit, and an additional 15-minute session was added to allow the drivers to get used to the changed conditions. It was the first time rain had fallen over the race weekend. The session took place at 13:15 CEST (GMT +2). Several drivers went off during the session, including Pedro Lamy, Pedro Diniz and Giancarlo Fisichella, but all continued. Mika Häkkinen and Andrea Montermini both damaged their cars. The damage that Montermini's caused his car, crashing coming out of the tunnel, prevented him from taking the start, due to the team lacking spare components. Jean Alesi suffered a puncture at the end of the session, but was able to return to the pitlane. Several drivers opted to skip the session. The Footwork team chose not to participate as they did not have any spare parts, and any crash would have marked the end of their weekend. Häkkinen was fastest, setting his time before his crash, with Alesi, Rubens Barrichello and Johnny Herbert behind. The two Williams cars were 7th and 8th, Villeneuve ahead of Damon Hill with Schumacher behind them in 9th.
Race The race started at 14:30 CEST. At the start, Hill overtook Schumacher into Sainte-Dévote, while further back Jos Verstappen slid straight into the wall, having opted to start the race on slicks. The two Minardis of Pedro Lamy and Giancarlo Fisichella were then eliminated when they tangled coming out of the first corner. Hill began to pull away while polesitter Schumacher lost control coming out of Lower Mirabeau and hit the wall. Coming into the Rascasse, Barrichello spun and retired. After five laps, there were 13 cars remaining as Ukyo Katayama (accident), Ricardo Rosset (accident) and Diniz (transmission) also retired. A significant gap began to open between the leaders and Eddie Irvine in fourth with a queue of eight cars forming behind him. Berger retired from third place on the 10th lap with gearbox trouble leaving 12 cars, while Heinz-Harald Frentzen damaged his front wing trying to pass Irvine, dropping to second to last position, ahead of Luca Badoer.
On lap 31, Martin Brundle spun off, which left 11 cars in the race. Three laps later, Irvine was passed when Panis forced his way through at the Loews hairpin. Irvine lost control, became stuck and had undone his seatbelts before he restarted his car with the assistance of the marshals. Hill had briefly lost the lead to Alesi when he made a pit stop on lap 30 to change to slicks as the track began to dry, but regained it a lap later when he reovertook Panis (who was still on wet tyres) on the track. Alesi made his pit stop shortly afterwards, allowing Hill to extend his lead to nearly 30 seconds and continue untroubled at the front until the 40th lap, when a failed oil pump caused his engine to blow coming out of the tunnel, his first retirement of the season. Alesi then led for 20 laps before his suspension failed, handing the lead to Panis. Luca Badoer was running six laps down in the Forti when he collided with Villeneuve at Mirabeau on lap 66, retiring both drivers.
The race did not run its full distance as the two-hour time limit came into effect. Panis was leading David Coulthard by a small margin with only five other cars behind them. Irvine spun at the same point that his teammate Schumacher had crashed, and as he tried to rejoin, he was hit by Mika Salo, who was in turn hit by Häkkinen. All three of them retired, leaving only four cars circulating, with Frentzen running last. The German decided to pull into the pits on the final lap as he was already last anyway, far behind everyone else who had taken the chequered flag. Panis thus won his one and only Grand Prix, taking Ligier's first win in 15 years. Frentzen, Salo and Häkkinen were classified in the final points positions while Irvine was credited with seventh place. Race classification Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 9 Olivier Panis Ligier-Mugen-Honda 75 2:00:45.629 14 10 2 8 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 75 +4.828 5 6 3 14 Johnny Herbert Sauber-Ford 75 +37.503 13 4 4 15 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Sauber-Ford 74 Withdrawn 9 3 5 19 Mika Salo Tyrrell-Yamaha 70 Collision 11 2 6 7 Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 70 Collision 8 1 7 2 Eddie Irvine Ferrari 68 Collision 7 6 Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Renault 66 Collision 10 22 Luca Badoer Forti-Ford 60 Collision + Electrical 21 3 Jean Alesi Benetton-Renault 60 Suspension 3 5 Damon Hill Williams-Renault 40 Engine 2 12 Martin Brundle Jordan-Peugeot 30 Accident 16 4 Gerhard Berger Benetton-Renault 9 Gearbox 4 10 Pedro Diniz Ligier-Mugen-Honda 5 Transmission 17 16 Ricardo Rosset Footwork-Hart 3 Accident 20 18 Ukyo Katayama Tyrrell-Yamaha 2 Accident 15 1 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 0 Accident 1 11 Rubens Barrichello Jordan-Peugeot 0 Spun off 6 20 Pedro Lamy Minardi-Ford 0 Collision 19 21 Giancarlo Fisichella Minardi-Ford 0 Collision 18 17 Jos Verstappen Footwork-Hart 0 Accident 12 23 Andrea Montermini Forti-Ford Warm-up crash 22 Source: - Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Mika Salo, Mika Häkkinen and Eddie Irvine did not complete the race but were classified as they had completed 90% of the race distance. Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Damon Hill 43 2 Jacques Villeneuve 22 3 Michael Schumacher 16 4 Olivier Panis 11 5 Jean Alesi 11Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Williams-Renault 65 2 Ferrari 25 3 Benetton-Renault 18 4 McLaren-Mercedes 16 5 Ligier-Mugen-Honda 11Source:
Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
References
External links F1 Rejects – Last Hurrah for Les Bleus: Monaco 1996