1994 Belgian Grand Prix
Race 11 of 16 in the 1994 Formula One World Championship
Race details
Date 28 August 1994
Official name LII Grand Prix de Belgique
Location Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
Francorchamps, Wallonia, Belgium[1]
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 7.001 km (4.350 miles)
Distance 44 laps, 308.044 km (191.410 miles)
Weather Sunny
Pole position
Driver Jordan-Hart
Time 2:21.163
Fastest lap
Driver United Kingdom Damon Hill Williams-Renault
Time 1:57.117 on lap 41 (lap record)
Podium
First Williams-Renault
Second McLaren-Peugeot
Third Benetton-Ford
Lap leaders

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.

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

Andrea de Cesaris exiting the Bus Stop chicane in his Sauber C13.

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.[2]

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

Local driver Philippe Adams spun his Lotus 109 out of the race on lap 16.

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 3 laps to go and was classified 14th, leaving 13 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

Bottom view of the Benetton B194.
Michael Schumacher celebrating his race win before being disqualified.

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 1mm was permitted; any greater would make the ride height too low and result in an illegal aerodynamic advantage.[3] 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.

Schumacher's lead over Hill in the Drivers' Championship was reduced to 21 points with five races remaining.

Classification

Qualifying

PosNoDriverConstructorQ1 TimeQ2 TimeGap
1 14 Brazil Rubens Barrichello Jordan-Hart 2:21.163 no time
2 5 Germany Michael Schumacher Benetton-Ford 2:21.494 2:25.501 +0.331
3 0 United Kingdom Damon Hill Williams-Renault 2:21.681 2:25.570 +0.518
4 15 United Kingdom Eddie Irvine Jordan-Hart 2:22.074 no time +0.911
5 27 France Jean Alesi Ferrari 2:22.202 2:25.099 +1.039
6 6 Netherlands Jos Verstappen Benetton-Ford 2:22.218 2:28.576 +1.055
7 2 United Kingdom David Coulthard Williams-Renault 2:22.359 2:27.180 +1.196
8 7 Finland Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Peugeot 2:22.441 2:28.997 +1.278
9 30 Germany Heinz-Harald Frentzen Sauber-Mercedes 2:22.634 2:28.026 +1.471
10 23 Italy Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 2:23.326 2:30.896 +2.163
11 28 Austria Gerhard Berger Ferrari 2:23.895 2:29.391 +2.732
12 4 United Kingdom Mark Blundell Tyrrell-Yamaha 2:24.048 2:28.164 +2.885
13 8 United Kingdom Martin Brundle McLaren-Peugeot 2:24.117 2:28.428 +2.954
14 10 Italy Gianni Morbidelli Footwork-Ford 2:25.114 2:31.403 +3.951
15 29 Italy Andrea de Cesaris Sauber-Mercedes 2:25.695 2:30.475 +4.532
16 25 France Éric Bernard Ligier-Renault 2:26.044 2:31.025 +4.881
17 26 France Olivier Panis Ligier-Renault 2:26.079 2:31.501 +4.916
18 24 Italy Michele Alboreto Minardi-Ford 2:26.738 2:32.286 +5.575
19 19 France Philippe Alliot Larrousse-Ford 2:26.901 2:31.350 +5.738
20 12 United Kingdom Johnny Herbert Lotus-Mugen-Honda 2:27.155 2:32.610 +5.992
21 31 Australia David Brabham Simtek-Ford 2:27.212 2:41.593 +6.049
22 20 France Érik Comas Larrousse-Ford 2:28.156 2:30.524 +6.993
23 3 Japan Ukyo Katayama Tyrrell-Yamaha 2:28.979 2:29.925 +7.816
24 9 Brazil Christian Fittipaldi Footwork-Ford 16:56.162 2:30.931 +9.768
25 32 France Jean-Marc Gounon Simtek-Ford 2:31.755 2:40.280 +10.592
26 11 Belgium Philippe Adams Lotus-Mugen-Honda 2:33.885 2:34.733 +12.722
DNQ 34 France Bertrand Gachot Pacific-Ilmor 2:34.582 2:34.951 +13.419
DNQ 33 France Paul Belmondo Pacific-Ilmor 2:35.729 no time +14.566
Source:[4][5][6]

Race

PosNoDriverConstructorLapsTime/RetiredGridPoints
1 0 United Kingdom Damon Hill Williams-Renault 44 1:28:47.170 3 10
2 7 Finland Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Peugeot 44 + 51.381 8 6
3 6 Netherlands Jos Verstappen Benetton-Ford 44 + 1:10.453 6 4
4 2 United Kingdom David Coulthard Williams-Renault 44 + 1:45.787 7 3
5 4 United Kingdom Mark Blundell Tyrrell-Yamaha 43 + 1 Lap 12 2
6 10 Italy Gianni Morbidelli Footwork-Ford 43 + 1 Lap 14 1
7 26 France Olivier Panis Ligier-Renault 43 + 1 Lap 17  
8 23 Italy Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 43 + 1 Lap 10  
9 24 Italy Michele Alboreto Minardi-Ford 43 + 1 Lap 18  
10 25 France Éric Bernard Ligier-Renault 42 + 2 Laps 16  
11 32 France Jean-Marc Gounon Simtek-Ford 42 + 2 Laps 25  
12 12 United Kingdom Johnny Herbert Lotus-Mugen-Honda 41 + 3 Laps 20  
13 15 United Kingdom Eddie Irvine Jordan-Hart 40 Alternator 4  
Ret 9 Brazil Christian Fittipaldi Footwork-Ford 33 Engine 24  
Ret 31 Australia David Brabham Simtek-Ford 29 Wheel 21  
Ret 29 Italy Andrea de Cesaris Sauber-Mercedes 27 Throttle 15  
Ret 8 United Kingdom Martin Brundle McLaren-Peugeot 24 Spun Off 13  
Ret 14 Brazil Rubens Barrichello Jordan-Hart 19 Spun Off 1  
Ret 3 Japan Ukyo Katayama Tyrrell-Yamaha 18 Engine 23  
Ret 11 Belgium Philippe Adams Lotus-Mugen-Honda 15 Spun Off 26  
Ret 28 Austria Gerhard Berger Ferrari 11 Engine 11  
Ret 19 France Philippe Alliot Larrousse-Ford 11 Engine 19  
Ret 30 Germany Heinz-Harald Frentzen Sauber-Mercedes 10 Halfshaft 9  
Ret 20 France Érik Comas Larrousse-Ford 3 Engine 22  
Ret 27 France Jean Alesi Ferrari 2 Engine 5  
DSQ 5 Germany Michael Schumacher Benetton-Ford 44 Worn Skid Block 2  
Source:[7]

Championship standings after the race

References

  1. "1994 Belgian GP". Motor Sport. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  2. "Statistics Drivers – Pole positions – By age". statsf1.com. Retrieved 24 April 2022.
  3. "Grand Prix Results: Belgian GP, 1994". GrandPrix.com. Retrieved 7 June 2008.
  4. "Belgian GP Friday Qualifying". motorsport.com. Retrieved 2 July 2011.
  5. "Belgian GP Saturday Qualifying". motorsport.com. Retrieved 2 July 2011.
  6. "1994 Belgian GP – Qualifying". ChicaneF1. Retrieved 29 December 2023.
  7. "1994 Belgian Grand Prix – Race Result". Formula1.com. 8 February 2020. Retrieved 8 February 2020.
  8. 1 2 "Belgium 1994 – Championship • STATS F1". statsf1.com. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
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