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1995-02-25
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233 lines
SATURDAY 10TH SEPTEMBER 1994
THE ITALIAN GRAND PRIX
After months of constant cancelling and uncancelling of this race, it is
finally here. Monza is Ferrari's official test circuit, and its long straights
are very nice for the V12 engines, so it is not too surprising that once again,
Ferrari are on the front row. Last year Alesi led for the first part of the
race, but couldn't keep it up in the then rather sad Ferrari car. I reckon he
could turn his pole position into his first ever win.
However, Alesi's pole wasn't the biggest surprise. You may know of a British
driver called Johnny Herbert. A couple of years ago, James Hunt (former World
Champion) predicted that Johnny would be a world champion, but his team, Lotus,
won't let anyone take him away from them, since he is the only good thing in
the entire team. This year, he has consistently been qualifying around 20th,
and his best qualifying position was 15th. Lotus have not yet scored any points
this season. It's not often I say 'Fucking hell!', but that was what I said
when I switched on the telly and found that Johnny Herbert was provisionally
third... Damon Hill later managed to move up in front of Johnny. Why has this
happened, you ask. It is because Johnny's car has the new Mugen-Honda engine,
which in an earlier test Johnny described as 'bloody good' (this was just after
he described the Lotus car as 'a bucket of shit')... He said that the new
engine was worth a second or two per lap faster than the old one, and in F1,
two seconds is an eternity... Unfortunately for Lotus's other driver,
Alessandro Zanardi, the second Lotus does not have the new engine, and no doubt
Zanardi (who is driving here because this is his home GP) is somewhere at the
back of the grid...
Micheal Schumacher is missing out on this race, and the next one. JJ Lehto is
replacing him, but Lehto is somewhere at the back of the grid. This could be
fatal for his career, and Jonathan Palmer even said that this could be Lehto's
last race...
1) ALESI (Ferrari)
2) BERGER (Ferrari)
3) HILL (Williams)
4) HERBERT (Lotus)-*** STARTED FROM PITS ***
5) COULTHARD (Williams)
6) PANIS (Ligier)
7) HAKKINEN (McLaren)
8) DE CESARIS (Sauber)
9) IRVINE (Jordan)-*** STARTED FROM BACK ***
10) VERSTAPPEN (Benetton)
11) FRENTZEN (Sauber)
12) BERNARD (Ligier)
13) ZANARDI (Lotus)
14) KATAYAMA (Tyrrell)
15) BRUNDLE (McLaren)
16) BARRICHELLO (Jordan)
17) MORBIDELLI (Arrows)
18) MARTINI (Minardi)
19) FITTIPALDI (Arrows)
20) LEHTO (Benetton)
21) BLUNDELL (Tyrrell)
22) ALBORETO (Minardi)
23) DALMAS (Larrousse)
24) COMAS (Larrousse)
25) GOUNON (Simtek)
26) BRABHAM (Simtek)
NQ) GACHOT (Pacific)
NQ) BELMONDO (Pacific)
Anyway, see you when I find out the rest of the qualifying results (I don't
know all of them yet).
Sunday...
As you can see, Yannick Dalmas drove for Larrousse, replacing Olivier Beretta
(who is almost certainly not going to race again this season).
Whoops, I forgot. This morning, in practise, Gerhard Berger had an extremely
fast crash. Ben Price phoned me up to tell me, but he didn't know anything
except that Gerhard had been taken to hospital, which didn't sound very
promising. Well, when I watched the news, there was absolutely nothing about
it. So I turned over to Grandstand, where, after watching ages of athletics, we
were told that Berger was perfectly okay.
Anyway, here's the race:
Well, Alesi led into the first corner, and Berger followed him. However, then
things got a bit complicated. The first corner, Rettifilo, is famous for being
very nasty at the start of the race. Irvine crashed into Herbert, starting off
a massive chain reaction taking about 5 cars and leaving debris all over the
track. The race was stopped. After this, there were fears that Johnny Herbert
would have to use the spare Lotus car, without the new Mugen-Honda engine. It
turned out that his own car was too damaged, and so he had to use the old car,
and he also had to start from the pits. Eddie Irvine, who, I predict, has a
pretty good chance of having a clip round the ear from the FIA, had to start
from the back of the grid. Damon Hill had to use the spare car, and David
Coulthard had to use Damon's car (which was not set up to his liking).
Second start, and Alesi zoomed off in front, with Berger, Hill and Coulthard
behind him. He soon built up a massive lead, while the two Williams cars stayed
behind Berger. Meanwhile, Mark Blundell was producing lap times close to those
of Alesi...
Then Alesi had his first - and last - pit stop. The tyre's were changed, the
fuel was put in, then the car left the garage at around 3 mph, and was then
pulled back. Alesi got out, threw his gloves on the floor and then went to the
back of the garage and sulked for the rest of the day. Which is what any good
driver would do in those circumstances - after all, this had been his first
pole position, and he would almost certainly have won the race - in front of
the most enthusiastic fans in the world - the 'tifosi'. (Who, unlike Germany's
'Schumaniacs', don't threaten to kill people and set fire to the track if they
don't get their way).
When race leader Berger had his pit stop, all went well until, as Berger left
the Ferrari pit, Olivier Panis almost chopped his front wing off entering the
Ligier pit... Hill took the lead.
The rest of the notes I have on this race (I make notes on every race, I have
millions of bits of paper...) are all about pit stops, so here they are (you
should be able to work out what they mean):
Hill pits, Coult leads
Coult pits, Hak leads
Hak pits, Coult leads
Hill takes Coult
Well, as you can see, David Coulthard led the race for a while, as did Mika
Hakkinen. On the last lap, the order was: Hill, Coulthard, Berger. However,
suddenly, Coulthard was overtaken by Eric Bernard, then Berger... He stopped
the car and was classified sixth...
Hill has got half the job done - he needed to win this and the next race to
have a realistic chance of winning the championship, and now he is within 11
points of Micheal Schumacher...
1) Damon Hill (Williams) 10 Points
2) Gerhard Berger (Ferrari) 6 Points
3) Mika Hakkinen (McLaren) 4 Points
4) Rubens Barrichello (Jordan) 3 Points
5) Martin Brundle (McLaren) 2 Points
6) David Coulthard (Williams) 1 Point
7) Eric Bernard (Ligier)
8) Erik Comas (Larrousse)
9) JJ Lehto (Benetton)
10) Olivier Panis (Ligier)
Bet Peugeot are pleased...
DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIP TABLE:
1) Micheal Schumacher 76 Points
2) Damon Hill 65 Points
3) Gerhard Berger 33 Points
4) Jean Alesi 19 Points
5) Mika Hakkinen 18 Points
6) Rubens Barrichello 13 Points
7) Martin Brundle 11 Points
8) Mark Blundell 8 Points
Jos Verstappen 8 Points
David Coulthard 8 Points
11) Olivier Panis 7 Points
12) Nicola Larini 6 Points
Christian Fittipaldi 6 Points
14) Heinz-Harald Frentzen 5 Points
Ukyo Katayama 5 Points
16) Karl Wendlinger 4 Points
Pierluigi Martini 4 Points
Andrea de Cesaris 4 Points
Eric Bernard 4 Points
20) Gianni Morbidelli 3 Points
21) Erik Comas 2 Points
22) Michele Alboreto 1 Point
Eddie Irvine 1 Point
JJ Lehto 1 Point
CONSTRUCTORS CHAMPIONSHIP TABLE:
1) Benetton-Ford 85 Points
2) Williams-Renault 73 Points
3) Ferrari 58 Points
4) McLaren-Peugeot 29 Points
5) Jordan-Hart 17 Points
6) Tyrrell-Yamaha 13 Points
7) Ligier-Renault 11 Points
8) Sauber-Mercedes 10 Points
9) Arrows-Ford 9 Points
10) Minardi-Ford 5 Points
11) Larrousse-Ford 2 Points
Retirements: Morbidelli, Zanardi, Verstappen, Herbert, Alesi, Dalmas, De
Cesaris, Frentzen, Gounon, Irvine, Alboreto, Martini, Blundell, Fittipaldi,
Katayama and Brabham.
(I don't know anything about what happened to Gounon and Irvine, those
positions are incorrect...)
David Coulthard's last race this season is in Estoril, Portugal. You can read
about the race in ARG-ST - or alternatively, you could stick your head down a
toilet.
- End of Sockument -
@e