1995 Belgian Grand Prix

1995 Belgian Grand Prix
Race 11 of 17 in the 1995 Formula One World Championship ← Previous race Next race →
Race details
Date	27 August 1995
Official name	LIII Grand Prix de Belgique
Location	Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps Francorchamps, Wallonia, Belgium
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	6.968 km (4.330 miles)
Distance	44 laps, 306.856 km (191.785 miles)
Weather	Cloudy, then heavy rain
Pole position
Driver	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari
Time	1:54.392
Fastest lap
Driver	David Coulthard	Williams-Renault
Time	1:53.412 on lap 11
Podium
First	Michael Schumacher	Benetton-Renault
Second	Damon Hill	Williams-Renault
Third	Martin Brundle	Ligier Mugen-Honda
Lap leaders

The 1995 Belgian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 27 August 1995 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, near the village of Francorchamps, Wallonia. It was the eleventh race of the 1995 Formula One World Championship.

The 44-lap race was won by Michael Schumacher, driving a Benetton-Renault. Despite qualifying only 16th, Schumacher took his sixth victory of the season after an intense battle with Damon Hill in the Williams-Renault. Hill settled for second, with Martin Brundle third in a Ligier-Mugen-Honda, which would be his last podium finish.

Race report

The race was attended by in excess of 100,000 people. Schumacher and Hill both qualified further down the grid than usual in a wet-dry qualifying session, but fought back during the race. Both Jean Alesi and Johnny Herbert briefly led the race, but Alesi broke down and Herbert struggled for pace once the track was dry. Polesitter Gerhard Berger struggled before dropping out.

David Coulthard pulled away at the front for Williams before suffering a gearbox problem, leaving Hill to lead the race. When Hill made his first pit stop for fresh slick tyres, Schumacher took over at the head of the field. It then started to rain and while Hill went back to the pits for wet weather tyres, Schumacher stayed out on his dry weather slicks. The Williams driver rapidly caught up with the German, but despite lapping six seconds a lap slower, Schumacher was able to keep Hill behind him until he went off the wet track and Hill passed him. Almost immediately the changing track conditions began to favour slicks once more and Schumacher re-passed Hill who pitted again, this time for slicks.

The rain intensified again and the field levelled out when the safety car appeared. Both drivers pitted for wets and returned to the track with Schumacher narrowly ahead of Hill. This appeared to set the two title rivals up for a battle for the lead going into the last ten laps, but Hill then had to pit again to serve a ten-second stop-go penalty for pit lane speeding, a penalty he served with six laps to go, and which put him down to third. Hill recovered to pass Martin Brundle on the Kemmel straight on the final lap to regain second place.

Schumacher's performance did not impress Hill after his defensive moves forced Hill to either back off or go off the track. Schumacher claimed that he had only blocked Hill at the low-speed corners, but video evidence suggested that Schumacher had blocked Hill on some of the high speed corners, such as the Radillion and Blanchimont. Hill later commented that "We (he and Schumacher) had some pretty hairy moments and I am not satisfied with being driven into; I don't think that was acceptable. That is all well and good but if it was meant on purpose I would be very upset, F1 cars are not go-karts. I think there are some things which are acceptable and some things which are not." Schumacher defended himself by agreeing that touching wheels in high-speed corners is "not acceptable" but added that at the speed he and Hill were doing, he thought it was acceptable. Schumacher was given a one-race suspended ban for driving aggressively in order to stop Hill from passing.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Gap
1	28	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari	2:14.744	1:54.392	—
2	27	Jean Alesi	Ferrari	2:15.077	1:54.631	+0.239
3	8	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	2:15.848	1:55.435	+1.043
4	2	Johnny Herbert	Benetton-Renault	—	1:56.085	+1.693
5	6	David Coulthard	Williams-Renault	2:15.232	1:56.254	+1.862
6	7	Mark Blundell	McLaren-Mercedes	2:18.136	1:56.622	+2.230
7	15	Eddie Irvine	Jordan-Peugeot	2:16.540	1:57.001	+2.609
8	5	Damon Hill	Williams-Renault	2:15.143	1:57.768	+3.376
9	26	Olivier Panis	Ligier-Mugen-Honda	2:17.579	1:58.021	+3.629
10	30	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Sauber-Ford	2:15.533	1:58.148	+3.756
11	4	Mika Salo	Tyrrell-Yamaha	2:18.104	1:58.224	+3.832
12	14	Rubens Barrichello	Jordan-Peugeot	2:17.144	1:58.293	+3.901
13	25	Martin Brundle	Ligier-Mugen-Honda	2:17.207	1:58.314	+3.922
14	29	Jean-Christophe Boullion	Sauber-Ford	2:17.406	1:58.356	+3.964
15	3	Ukyo Katayama	Tyrrell-Yamaha	2:18.194	1:58.551	+4.159
16	1	Michael Schumacher	Benetton-Renault	2:14.962	1:59.079	+4.687
17	23	Pedro Lamy	Minardi-Ford	2:18.547	1:59.256	+4.864
18	10	Taki Inoue	Footwork-Hart	2:23.311	2:00.990	+6.598
19	24	Luca Badoer	Minardi-Ford	2:17.335	2:01.013	+6.621
20	9	Massimiliano Papis	Footwork-Hart	2:19.300	2:01.685	+7.293
21	17	Andrea Montermini	Pacific-Ford	2:25.291	2:02.405	+8.013
22	22	Roberto Moreno	Forti-Ford	2:23.417	2:03.817	+9.425
23	16	Giovanni Lavaggi	Pacific-Ford	2:26.311	2:06.407	+12.015
24	21	Pedro Diniz	Forti-Ford	2:25.699	2:09.537	+15.145
Sources:

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	1	Michael Schumacher	Benetton-Renault	44	1:36:47.875	16	10
2	5	Damon Hill	Williams-Renault	44	+ 19.493	8	6
3	25	Martin Brundle	Ligier-Mugen-Honda	44	+ 24.998	13	4
4	30	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Sauber-Ford	44	+ 26.972	10	3
5	7	Mark Blundell	McLaren-Mercedes	44	+ 33.772	6	2
6	14	Rubens Barrichello	Jordan-Peugeot	44	+ 39.674	12	1
7	2	Johnny Herbert	Benetton-Renault	44	+ 54.043	4
8	4	Mika Salo	Tyrrell-Yamaha	44	+ 54.548	11
9	26	Olivier Panis	Ligier-Mugen-Honda	44	+ 1:06.170	9
10	23	Pedro Lamy	Minardi-Ford	44	+ 1:19.789	17
11	29	Jean-Christophe Boullion	Sauber-Ford	43	+ 1 lap	14
12	10	Taki Inoue	Footwork-Hart	43	+ 1 lap	18
13	21	Pedro Diniz	Forti-Ford	42	+ 2 laps	24
14	22	Roberto Moreno	Forti-Ford	42	+ 2 laps	22
Ret	3	Ukyo Katayama	Tyrrell-Yamaha	28	Spun off	15
Ret	16	Giovanni Lavaggi	Pacific-Ford	27	Gearbox	23
Ret	24	Luca Badoer	Minardi-Ford	23	Accident	19
Ret	28	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari	22	Electrical	1
Ret	15	Eddie Irvine	Jordan-Peugeot	21	Fire	7
Ret	9	Massimiliano Papis	Footwork-Hart	20	Spun off	20
Ret	17	Andrea Montermini	Pacific-Ford	18	Out of fuel	21
Ret	6	David Coulthard	Williams-Renault	13	Gearbox	5
Ret	27	Jean Alesi	Ferrari	4	Suspension	2
Ret	8	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	1	Spun off	3
Source:

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Michael Schumacher	66
2	Damon Hill	51
3	Jean Alesi	32
4	David Coulthard	29
5	Johnny Herbert	28
Source:

Constructors' Championship standings

Pos	Constructor	Points
1	Benetton-Renault	84
2	Williams-Renault	74
3	Ferrari	57
4	Ligier-Mugen-Honda	16
5	Jordan-Peugeot	14
Source:

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.