1994 Belgian Grand Prix

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.

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	Rubens Barrichello	Jordan-Hart
Time	2:21.163
Fastest lap
Driver	Damon Hill	Williams-Renault
Time	1:57.117 on lap 41 (lap record)
Podium
First	Damon Hill	Williams-Renault
Second	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Peugeot
Third	Jos Verstappen	Benetton-Ford
Lap leaders

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.

This was the last time a race winning driver was disqualified until George Russell 30 years later at the same circuit.

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

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1 Time	Q2 Time	Gap
1	14	Rubens Barrichello	Jordan-Hart	2:21.163	no time
2	5	Michael Schumacher	Benetton-Ford	2:21.494	2:25.501	+0.331
3	0	Damon Hill	Williams-Renault	2:21.681	2:25.570	+0.518
4	15	Eddie Irvine	Jordan-Hart	2:22.074	no time	+0.911
5	27	Jean Alesi	Ferrari	2:22.202	2:25.099	+1.039
6	6	Jos Verstappen	Benetton-Ford	2:22.218	2:28.576	+1.055
7	2	David Coulthard	Williams-Renault	2:22.359	2:27.180	+1.196
8	7	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Peugeot	2:22.441	2:28.997	+1.278
9	30	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Sauber-Mercedes	2:22.634	2:28.026	+1.471
10	23	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Ford	2:23.326	2:30.896	+2.163
11	28	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari	2:23.895	2:29.391	+2.732
12	4	Mark Blundell	Tyrrell-Yamaha	2:24.048	2:28.164	+2.885
13	8	Martin Brundle	McLaren-Peugeot	2:24.117	2:28.428	+2.954
14	10	Gianni Morbidelli	Footwork-Ford	2:25.114	2:31.403	+3.951
15	29	Andrea de Cesaris	Sauber-Mercedes	2:25.695	2:30.475	+4.532
16	25	Éric Bernard	Ligier-Renault	2:26.044	2:31.025	+4.881
17	26	Olivier Panis	Ligier-Renault	2:26.079	2:31.501	+4.916
18	24	Michele Alboreto	Minardi-Ford	2:26.738	2:32.286	+5.575
19	19	Philippe Alliot	Larrousse-Ford	2:26.901	2:31.350	+5.738
20	12	Johnny Herbert	Lotus-Mugen-Honda	2:27.155	2:32.610	+5.992
21	31	David Brabham	Simtek-Ford	2:27.212	2:41.593	+6.049
22	20	Érik Comas	Larrousse-Ford	2:28.156	2:30.524	+6.993
23	3	Ukyo Katayama	Tyrrell-Yamaha	2:28.979	2:29.925	+7.816
24	9	Christian Fittipaldi	Footwork-Ford	16:56.162	2:30.931	+9.768
25	32	Jean-Marc Gounon	Simtek-Ford	2:31.755	2:40.280	+10.592
26	11	Philippe Adams	Lotus-Mugen-Honda	2:33.885	2:34.733	+12.722
DNQ	34	Bertrand Gachot	Pacific-Ilmor	2:34.582	2:34.951	+13.419
DNQ	33	Paul Belmondo	Pacific-Ilmor	2:35.729	no time	+14.566
Source:[4][5][6]

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	0	Damon Hill	Williams-Renault	44	1:28:47.170	3	10
2	7	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Peugeot	44	+ 51.381	8	6
3	6	Jos Verstappen	Benetton-Ford	44	+ 1:10.453	6	4
4	2	David Coulthard	Williams-Renault	44	+ 1:45.787	7	3
5	4	Mark Blundell	Tyrrell-Yamaha	43	+ 1 Lap	12	2
6	10	Gianni Morbidelli	Footwork-Ford	43	+ 1 Lap	14	1
7	26	Olivier Panis	Ligier-Renault	43	+ 1 Lap	17
8	23	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Ford	43	+ 1 Lap	10
9	24	Michele Alboreto	Minardi-Ford	43	+ 1 Lap	18
10	25	Éric Bernard	Ligier-Renault	42	+ 2 Laps	16
11	32	Jean-Marc Gounon	Simtek-Ford	42	+ 2 Laps	25
12	12	Johnny Herbert	Lotus-Mugen-Honda	41	+ 3 Laps	20
13	15	Eddie Irvine	Jordan-Hart	40	Alternator	4
Ret	9	Christian Fittipaldi	Footwork-Ford	33	Engine	24
Ret	31	David Brabham	Simtek-Ford	29	Wheel	21
Ret	29	Andrea de Cesaris	Sauber-Mercedes	27	Throttle	15
Ret	8	Martin Brundle	McLaren-Peugeot	24	Spun off	13
Ret	14	Rubens Barrichello	Jordan-Hart	19	Spun off	1
Ret	3	Ukyo Katayama	Tyrrell-Yamaha	18	Engine	23
Ret	11	Philippe Adams	Lotus-Mugen-Honda	15	Spun off	26
Ret	28	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari	11	Engine	11
Ret	19	Philippe Alliot	Larrousse-Ford	11	Engine	19
Ret	30	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Sauber-Mercedes	10	Halfshaft	9
Ret	20	Érik Comas	Larrousse-Ford	3	Engine	22
Ret	27	Jean Alesi	Ferrari	2	Engine	5
DSQ	5	Michael Schumacher	Benetton-Ford	44	Worn skid block	2
Source:[7]

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Michael Schumacher 76 2 Damon Hill 55 3 Gerhard Berger 27 4 Jean Alesi 19 5 Mika Häkkinen 14 Source:[8]

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Benetton-Ford 85 2 Williams-Renault 62 3 Ferrari 52 4 McLaren-Peugeot 23 5 Jordan-Hart 14 Source:[8]

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. "Belgium 1994 – Championship • STATS F1". statsf1.com. Retrieved 13 March 2019.

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