The 1996 Australian Grand Prix (officially the 1996 Transurban Australian Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held at Melbourne on 10 March 1996. It was the first race of the 1996 Formula One World Championship, and the first Australian Grand Prix to be held at Melbourne, taking over from Adelaide.
The 58-lap race was won by Damon Hill, driving a Williams-Renault. Hill's teammate Jacques Villeneuve, making his Formula One debut, took pole position and led for most of the race, before an oil leak enabled Hill to catch and pass him in the closing laps. Eddie Irvine finished third in a Ferrari.
Report
Background
This was the second Grand Prix in a row held in Australia, the previous race being the conclusion to the 1995 season.
Taki Inoue was scheduled to race for the Minardi team as a pay driver but when no money materialised prior to the race he was replaced by Giancarlo Fisichella. Marlboro had expressed interest in Fisichella running early on.
The race was the first to use the new race-start system, still used in Formula 1 today, replacing the old red to green light system. Under the new system, five red lights would come on at one second intervals, starting after the last driver reached his grid box. There would then be a pre-determined pause, and then the five lights would go off simultaneously. This was also the first race to have a single qualifying session on Saturday afternoon; the Friday session was dropped.
Qualifying
Jacques Villeneuve, the reigning IndyCar champion, took pole position for his first Grand Prix ahead of team mate Hill. The second row of the grid was taken by the two Ferrari cars, with Eddie Irvine surprisingly ahead of Michael Schumacher.
Both Forti cars failed make the race due to the new 107% rule for qualifying, which stated that any car that qualified 107% slower than the pole time (1:38.837 in this race) would be excluded. The measure was introduced as excessively slow entrants presented potential safety hazards due to a high speed difference. Incidentally, the team had logged its best result of 7th one race earlier at the season-ending 1995 Australian Grand Prix.
Race
Pedro Lamy started from the pit lane due to a clutch problem, while on the formation lap Heinz-Harald Frentzen stopped with an electrical problem. It was an all-Williams front row with Damon Hill and debutant Jacques Villeneuve in the blue and white Rothmans cars. As the red lights went out, a flurry of yellow flags revealed that both Tyrrell cars had stalled meaning 16 cars actually got away.
In the first corner Hill momentarily lost control and slid wide, losing momentum and enabling Irvine and Schumacher to overtake through Turn 2. On the run down to the third corner, the field bunched to the right hand side of the track with Rubens Barrichello fending off Olivier Panis. This began a chain reaction of heavy braking as drivers tried to avoid colliding with one another, and David Coulthard veered left under braking and his McLaren hit the side of Johnny Herbert's Sauber. Herbert tried to avoid the car and braked heavily. Martin Brundle was behind them and unable to slow sufficiently, hitting the rear of Herbert's and Coulthard's cars and was launched into a barrel roll, ending in a sand trap at turn 3 and breaking his car in two. Brundle was unhurt. The race was halted to allow the circuit to be cleared.
|}
Race
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size: 95%;"
|-
! Pos !! No !! Driver !! Constructor !! Laps !! Time/Retired !! Grid !! Points
|-
! 1
| 5
| Damon Hill
| Williams-Renault
| 58
| 1:32:50.491
| 2
| 10
|-
! 2
| 6
| Jacques Villeneuve
| Williams-Renault
| 58
| +38.020
| 1
| 6
|-
! 3
| 2
| Eddie Irvine
| Ferrari
| 58
| +1:02.571
| 3
| 4
|-
! 4
| 4
| Gerhard Berger
| Benetton-Renault
| 58
| +1:17.037
| 7
| 3
|-
! 5
| 7
| Mika Häkkinen
| McLaren-Mercedes
| 58
| +1:35.071
| 5
| 2
|-
! 6
| 19
| Mika Salo
| Tyrrell-Yamaha
| 57
| +1 lap
| 10
| 1
|-
! 7
| 9
| Olivier Panis
| Ligier-Mugen-Honda
| 57
| +1 lap
| 11
|
|-
! 8
| 15
| Heinz-Harald Frentzen
| Sauber-Ford
| 57
| +1 lap
| 9
|
|-
! 9
| 16
| Ricardo Rosset
| Footwork-Hart
| 56
| +2 laps
| 18
|
|-
! 10
| 10
| Pedro Diniz
| Ligier-Mugen-Honda
| 56
| +2 laps
| 20
|
|-
! 11
| 18
| Ukyo Katayama
| Tyrrell-Yamaha
| 55
| +3 laps
| 15
|
|-
!
| 20
| Pedro Lamy
| Minardi-Ford
| 42
| Safety belt
| 17
|
|-
!
| 1
| Michael Schumacher
| Ferrari
| 32
| Brakes
| 4
|
|-
!
| 21
| Giancarlo Fisichella
| Minardi-Ford
| 32
| Clutch
| 16
|
|-
!
| 11
| Rubens Barrichello
| Jordan-Peugeot
| 29
| Engine
| 8
|
|-
!
| 8
| David Coulthard
| McLaren-Mercedes
| 24
| Throttle
| 13
|
|-
!
| 17
| Jos Verstappen
| Footwork-Hart
| 15
| Engine
| 12
|
|-
!
| 3
| Jean Alesi
| Benetton-Renault
| 9
| Collision
| 6
|
|-
!
| 12
| Martin Brundle
| Jordan-Peugeot
| 1
| Collision
| 19
|
|-
!
| 14
| Johnny Herbert
| Sauber-Ford
| 0
| Collision
| 14
|
|-
!
| 22
| Luca Badoer
| Forti-Ford
|
| 107% rule
|
|
|-
!
| 23
| Andrea Montermini
| Forti-Ford
|
| 107% rule
|
|
|-
!colspan="8"|
|}
;Notes
- – Herbert is listed as 'Did Not Start' () in the official results, despite having taken the first start prior to the race being stopped. Regulations at the time were such that in the event of a stoppage being ordered on the first lap, that start would be deemed null and void, and the second start would take place as if the first had never occurred. As he did not make the second start, he’s classified as . His place on grid was left vacant.
Championship standings after the race
;Drivers' Championship standings
{|class="wikitable" style="font-size: 95%;"
|-
! Pos
! Driver
! Points
|-
| 1
| Damon Hill
|align="right"| 10
|-
| 2
| Jacques Villeneuve
|align="right"| 6
|-
| 3
| Eddie Irvine
|align="right"| 4
|-
| 4
| Gerhard Berger
|align="right"| 3
|-
| 5
| Mika Häkkinen
|align="right"| 2
|-
!colspan="3"|Source:
|}
;Constructors' Championship standings
{|class="wikitable" style="font-size: 95%;"
|-
! Pos
! Constructor
! Points
|-
| 1
| Williams-Renault
|align="right"| 16
|-
| 2
| Ferrari
|align="right"| 4
|-
| 3
| Benetton-Renault
|align="right"| 3
|-
| 4
| McLaren-Mercedes
|align="right"| 2
|-
| 5
| Tyrrell-Yamaha
|align="right"| 1
|-
!colspan="3"|Source: