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1994 Japanese Grand Prix

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1994 Japanese Grand Prix
Race 15 of 16 in the 1994 Formula One World Championship
Race details[1]
Date 6 November 1994
Official name XX Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix
Location Suzuka Circuit
Suzuka, Mie, Japan
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 5.860 km (3.641 miles)
Distance 50 laps, 293.000 km (182.062 miles)
Scheduled distance 53 laps, 310.580 km (192.985 miles)
Weather Heavy rain, followed by light showers
Attendance 357,000[2]
Pole position
Driver Benetton-Ford
Time 1:37.209
Fastest lap
Driver United Kingdom Damon Hill Williams-Renault
Time 1:56.597 on lap 24
Podium
First Williams-Renault
Second Benetton-Ford
Third Ferrari
Lap leaders

The 1994 Japanese Grand Prix (officially the XX Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 6 November 1994 at the Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka. It was the fifteenth and penultimate race of the 1994 Formula One World Championship. In wet conditions, the 50-lap race was won by Damon Hill, driving a Williams-Renault, after he started from second position. Hill's Drivers' Championship rival Michael Schumacher finished second in his Benetton-Ford, having started from pole position, with Jean Alesi third in his Ferrari. The win left Hill just one point behind Schumacher in the Drivers' Championship with one race remaining. This also proved to be the last Grand Prix for Érik Comas. This was also the last time in Formula 1 history when the race was split in two parts due to race stoppage and final classification has been set by aggregate time.

Report

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Going into the race, Benetton driver Michael Schumacher led the Drivers' Championship with 86 points, five ahead of rival Damon Hill in the Williams on 81.[3] Schumacher felt he was "very confident" about the race,[4] and Hill similarly declared that he was "positive".[4]

There were several changes of driver for this race: Johnny Herbert moved from Ligier to Benetton after just one race for the French team, replacing Jos Verstappen. His place at Ligier was taken by Franck Lagorce. Eric Bernard lost his seat at Lotus to Mika Salo who had been racing in Japanese Formula 3000, and likewise Simtek hired Taki Inoue on a one-race deal, replacing Domenico Schiattarella. Finally, JJ Lehto returned to Sauber to replace Andrea de Cesaris after the Italian's sudden retirement from Formula One.

The race started in torrential rain, and as a result, several cars spun out of the race by aquaplaning, including Schumacher's team-mate Herbert on lap 4, Lagorce, the Minardis of Pierluigi Martini and Michele Alboreto, and all three Japanese drivers by the end of lap 3 (with both Ukyo Katayama and Hideki Noda being injured in separate crashes). Lehto also retired at the start with an engine failure. As did Gerhard Berger in the second Ferrari with battery problems by lap 11.

On lap 13, Gianni Morbidelli crashed his Footwork at one of the Esses at the first sector. Shortly afterwards, Martin Brundle spun his McLaren off the track and crashed at the same spot, and as he bounced off the tyre barriers, hit a track marshal who was moving Morbidelli's car off the gravel trap. The marshal suffered a broken leg, adding to the huge list of injuries of the 1994 season, and the race was immediately stopped, as both Brundle and Morbidelli were fortunately able to escape uninjured. Rubens Barrichello soon retired in the pits with transmission problems by lap 17, Blundell was also forced to retire from 10th position when his engine failed on lap 27, which ended an appalling weekend for Tyrrell.[5] This left 13 runners, and there were no further retirements for the remaining 23 laps.

As the rain eased, it was decided to run the remainder of the race, with around one hour to the time limit, on aggregate corrected time. Schumacher had been leading by 6.8 seconds when the red flag was shown, but Hill had a bigger lead (10.1 seconds) at the chequered flag, and thus took the win by 3.3 seconds on aggregate. This remains the last instance of aggregate race time being used in Formula One to determine the winner.[6]

Classification

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Qualifying

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Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Time Q2 Time Gap
1 5 Germany Michael Schumacher Benetton-Ford 1:37.209 1:57.128
2 0 United Kingdom Damon Hill Williams-Renault 1:37.696 1:57.278 +0.487
3 30 Germany Heinz-Harald Frentzen Sauber-Mercedes 1:37.742 1:56.935 +0.533
4 2 United Kingdom Nigel Mansell Williams-Renault 1:37.768 2:00.963 +0.559
5 6 United Kingdom Johnny Herbert Benetton-Ford 1:37.828 1:59.729 +0.619
6 15 United Kingdom Eddie Irvine Jordan-Hart 1:37.880 1:57.760 +0.671
7 27 France Jean Alesi Ferrari 1:37.907 1:58.610 +0.698
8 7 Finland Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Peugeot 1:37.998 1:58.204 +0.789
9 8 United Kingdom Martin Brundle McLaren-Peugeot 1:38.076 1:56.876 +0.877
10 14 Brazil Rubens Barrichello Jordan-Hart 1:38.533 2:01.905 +1.324
11 28 Austria Gerhard Berger Ferrari 1:38.570 1:58.926 +1.361
12 10 Italy Gianni Morbidelli Footwork-Ford 1:39.030 2:07.293 +1.821
13 4 United Kingdom Mark Blundell Tyrrell-Yamaha 1:39.266 2:02.266 +2.057
14 3 Japan Ukyo Katayama Tyrrell-Yamaha 1:39.462 2:04.187 +2.253
15 29 Finland JJ Lehto Sauber-Mercedes 1:39.483 1:59.943 +2.274
16 23 Italy Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 1:39.548 2:01.929 +2.339
17 12 Italy Alessandro Zanardi Lotus-Mugen-Honda 1:39.721 2:02.077 +2.512
18 9 Brazil Christian Fittipaldi Footwork-Ford 1:39.868 2:00.084 +2.659
19 26 France Olivier Panis Ligier-Renault 1:40.042 2:00.575 +2.833
20 25 France Franck Lagorce Ligier-Renault 1:40.577 2:02.780 +3.368
21 24 Italy Michele Alboreto Minardi-Ford 1:40.652 2:02.219 +3.443
22 20 France Érik Comas Larrousse-Ford 1:40.978 2:01.035 +3.769
23 19 Japan Hideki Noda Larrousse-Ford 1:40.990 2:05.354 +3.781
24 31 Australia David Brabham Simtek-Ford 1:41.659 2:09.453 +4.450
25 11 Finland Mika Salo Lotus-Mugen-Honda 1:41.805 2:01.637 +4.596
26 32 Japan Taki Inoue Simtek-Ford 1:45.004 no time +7.795
DNQ 34 France Bertrand Gachot Pacific-Ilmor 1:46.374 no time +9.165
DNQ 33 France Paul Belmondo Pacific-Ilmor 1:46.629 no time +9.420
Sources:[7][8][9]

Race

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Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 0 United Kingdom Damon Hill Williams-Renault 50 1:55:53.532 2 10
2 5 Germany Michael Schumacher Benetton-Ford 50 + 3.365 1 6
3 27 France Jean Alesi Ferrari 50 + 52.045 7 4
4 2 United Kingdom Nigel Mansell Williams-Renault 50 + 56.074 4 3
5 15 United Kingdom Eddie Irvine Jordan-Hart 50 + 1:42.107 6 2
6 30 Germany Heinz-Harald Frentzen Sauber-Mercedes 50 + 1:59.863 3 1
7 7 Finland Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Peugeot 50 + 2:02.985 8  
8 9 Brazil Christian Fittipaldi Footwork-Ford 49 + 1 Lap 18  
9 20 France Érik Comas Larrousse-Ford 49 + 1 Lap 22  
10 11 Finland Mika Salo Lotus-Mugen-Honda 49 + 1 Lap 25  
11 26 France Olivier Panis Ligier-Renault 49 + 1 Lap 19  
12 31 Australia David Brabham Simtek-Ford 48 + 2 Laps 24  
13 12 Italy Alessandro Zanardi Lotus-Mugen-Honda 48 + 2 Laps 17  
Ret 4 United Kingdom Mark Blundell Tyrrell-Yamaha 26 Engine 13  
Ret 14 Brazil Rubens Barrichello Jordan-Hart 16 Gearbox 10  
Ret 8 United Kingdom Martin Brundle McLaren-Peugeot 13 Spun Off 9  
Ret 10 Italy Gianni Morbidelli Footwork-Ford 13 Spun Off 12  
Ret 28 Austria Gerhard Berger Ferrari 10 Battery 11  
Ret 25 France Franck Lagorce Ligier-Renault 10 Collision 20  
Ret 23 Italy Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 10 Collision 16  
Ret 24 Italy Michele Alboreto Minardi-Ford 10 Spun Off 21  
Ret 6 United Kingdom Johnny Herbert Benetton-Ford 3 Spun Off 5  
Ret 3 Japan Ukyo Katayama Tyrrell-Yamaha 3 Spun Off 14  
Ret 32 Japan Taki Inoue Simtek-Ford 3 Spun Off 26  
Ret 29 Finland JJ Lehto Sauber-Mercedes 0 Engine 15  
Ret 19 Japan Hideki Noda Larrousse-Ford 0 Spun Off PL  
Source:[10]

Championship standings after the race

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References

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  1. ^ "1994 Japanese Grand Prix | Motorsport Database".
  2. ^ "Formula 1 Honda Japanese Grand Prix 2022 – Media Kit" (PDF). Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. 5 October 2022. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
  3. ^ Murray Walker, Jonathan Palmer (1994). Grand Prix (Television Presentation). London, England: BBC. Event occurs at 01:30-01:41. Rundown of Drivers Championship table
  4. ^ a b Murray Walker (1994). Grand Prix (Television Presentation). London, England: BBC. Event occurs at 01:58-02:13 02:28-02:45.
  5. ^ "Japanese Grand Prix: Down to the wire". Motor Sport. December 1994. p. 10. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
  6. ^ "1994 Japanese Grand Prix". F1 since 81. September 2018. Retrieved 23 May 2019.[permanent dead link]
  7. ^ "Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix – Qualifying 1". Formula1.com. Retrieved 29 December 2023.
  8. ^ "Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix – Qualifying 2". Formula1.com. Retrieved 29 December 2023.
  9. ^ "1994 Japanese GP – Qualifying". ChicaneF1. Retrieved 29 December 2023.
  10. ^ "1994 Japanese Grand Prix - Race Result". Formula1.com. 2020-02-16. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  11. ^ a b "Japan 1994 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 18 March 2019.


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