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1996 Belgian Grand Prix
Race 13 of 16 in the 1996 Formula One World Championship ← Previous race Next race →
Race details
Date	25 August 1996
Official name	LIV 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, 306.592 km (190.507 miles)
Weather	Overcast and dry with temperatures reaching up to 17 °C (63 °F)
Pole position
Driver	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams-Renault
Time	1:50.574
Fastest lap
Driver	Gerhard Berger	Benetton-Renault
Time	1:53.067 on lap 36
Podium
First	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Second	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams-Renault
Third	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes
Lap leaders

The 1996 Belgian Grand Prix (formally the LIV Grand Prix de Belgique) was a Formula One motor race held on 25 August 1996 at Spa-Francorchamps. It was the thirteenth race of the 1996 FIA Formula One World Championship.

The 44-lap race was won by Michael Schumacher, driving a Ferrari. Schumacher had crashed heavily in Friday practice, but recovered to qualify third before taking his second win of the season. Jacques Villeneuve, who had started from pole position, finished second in his Williams-Renault, with Mika Häkkinen third in a McLaren-Mercedes. Villeneuve's teammate and Drivers' Championship leader, Damon Hill, finished fifth.

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Time	Diff.
1	6	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams-Renault	1:50.574
2	5	Damon Hill	Williams-Renault	1:50.980	+0.406
3	1	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	1:51.778	+1.204
4	8	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	1:51.884	+1.310
5	4	Gerhard Berger	Benetton-Renault	1:51.960	+1.386
6	7	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:52.318	+1.744
7	3	Jean Alesi	Benetton-Renault	1:52.354	+1.780
8	12	Martin Brundle	Jordan-Peugeot	1:52.977	+2.403
9	2	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari	1:53.043	+2.469
10	11	Rubens Barrichello	Jordan-Peugeot	1:53.152	+2.578
11	15	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Sauber-Ford	1:53.199	+2.625
12	14	Johnny Herbert	Sauber-Ford	1:53.993	+3.419
13	19	Mika Salo	Tyrrell-Yamaha	1:54.095	+3.521
14	9	Olivier Panis	Ligier-Mugen-Honda	1:54.220	+3.646
15	10	Pedro Diniz	Ligier-Mugen-Honda	1:54.700	+4.126
16	17	Jos Verstappen	Footwork-Hart	1:55.150	+4.576
17	18	Ukyo Katayama	Tyrrell-Yamaha	1:55.371	+4.797
18	16	Ricardo Rosset	Footwork-Hart	1:56.286	+5.712
19	20	Pedro Lamy	Minardi-Ford	1:56.830	+6.256
107% time: 1:58.314
DNQ	21	Giovanni Lavaggi	Minardi-Ford	1:58.579	+8.005
Sources:

Race

The start of the race saw the two Saubers of Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Johnny Herbert eliminated immediately when they collided at the La Source hairpin, following an incident that also involved Olivier Panis' Ligier and Rubens Barrichello's Jordan. Panis also retired on the spot; Barrichello was able to continue, pitting to repair his suspension, although it eventually failed altogether on lap 30. On lap 10, Jos Verstappen pitted with a sticking throttle. The Footwork Arrows pit crew found no damage and sent Verstappen back out, only for the Dutchman to crash almost immediately. Team boss Tom Walkinshaw confirmed after the race that the throttle problem had not recurred, and that the crash was caused by a faulty wheel.

The incident brought out the safety car for seven laps, during which time all the drivers besides the McLarens of Mika Häkkinen and David Coulthard (both running a one-stop strategy) made pit stops. Jacques Villeneuve, leading the race when the safety car came out, missed his pit stop on lap 13. As a result, he lost the lead to Michael Schumacher, who eventually won the race by 5.6 seconds from Villeneuve. The Canadian driver later explained that he had misunderstood the radio instruction to come in, due to the confusion brought about by the deployment of the safety car. As a further consequence of Villeneuve's error, teammate Damon Hill was instructed to pit by the Williams engineers, only to then be told to stay out just as he was heading into the pit lane. Hill was driving the spare Williams following a misfire in the Sunday morning warm-up session. By the time he finally got to make his pit stop, he had fallen to 13th, but he recovered to finish fifth.

Running in fourth place at half distance, Gerhard Berger spun off in his Benetton while trying to pass Eddie Irvine's Ferrari, an error which dropped him to 12th. After setting a string of fastest laps he recovered to sixth by the end of the race, thanks in part to Irvine's retirement with gearbox problems. Berger's Benetton teammate Jean Alesi finished fourth after Coulthard had spun off into retirement and crashed on lap 38.

The Tyrrells of Mika Salo and Ukyo Katayama finished in seventh and eighth places respectively; however, a fast early stop during the safety car period saw Salo running as high as third at one point.

Race classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	1	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	44	1:28:15.125	3	10
2	6	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams-Renault	44	+ 5.602	1	6
3	7	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	44	+ 15.710	6	4
4	3	Jean Alesi	Benetton-Renault	44	+ 19.125	7	3
5	5	Damon Hill	Williams-Renault	44	+ 29.179	2	2
6	4	Gerhard Berger	Benetton-Renault	44	+ 29.896	5	1
7	19	Mika Salo	Tyrrell-Yamaha	44	+ 1:00.754	13
8	18	Ukyo Katayama	Tyrrell-Yamaha	44	+ 1:40.227	17
9	16	Ricardo Rosset	Footwork-Hart	43	+ 1 Lap	18
10	20	Pedro Lamy	Minardi-Ford	43	+ 1 Lap	19
Ret	8	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	37	Spun Off	4
Ret	12	Martin Brundle	Jordan-Peugeot	34	Engine	8
Ret	2	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari	29	Gearbox	9
Ret	11	Rubens Barrichello	Jordan-Peugeot	29	Suspension	10
Ret	10	Pedro Diniz	Ligier-Mugen-Honda	22	Electrical	15
Ret	17	Jos Verstappen	Footwork-Hart	11	Accident	16
Ret	15	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Sauber-Ford	0	Collision	11
Ret	14	Johnny Herbert	Sauber-Ford	0	Collision	12
Ret	9	Olivier Panis	Ligier-Mugen-Honda	0	Collision	14
Source:

Championship standings after the race

• Bold text indicates the World Champions.

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Damon Hill 81 2 Jacques Villeneuve 68 3 Michael Schumacher 39 4 Jean Alesi 38 5 Mika Häkkinen 23 Source:

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Williams-Renault 149 2 Benetton-Renault 55 3 Ferrari 48 4 McLaren-Mercedes 41 5 Jordan-Peugeot 15 Source:

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

References

1. "1996 Belgian GP". Motor Sport. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
2. Weather info for the 1996 Belgian Grand Prix at Weather Underground
3. "Grand Prix Results: Belgian GP, 1996". Grandprix.com. Retrieved 18 October 2017.
4. "Belgium 1996 – Qualifications". StatsF1. Retrieved 29 December 2023.
5. "1996 Belgian Grand Prix Classification Qualifying". Motorsport Stats. Retrieved 29 December 2023.
6. "1996 Belgian Grand Prix Weekend Results". ESPN. Retrieved 2024-07-09.
7. "1996 Belgian Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 1 November 2014. Retrieved 24 December 2015.
8. ^ "Belgium 1996 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 13 March 2019.

• 1996 Formula One races
• Belgian Grand Prix
• 1996 in Belgian motorsport
• August 1996 sports events in Europe