1995 Japanese Grand Prix

The 1995 Japanese Grand Prix (formally the XXI Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix ) was a Formula One motor race held at the Suzuka Circuit , Suzuka on 29 October 1995. It was the sixteenth and penultimate race of the 1995 Formula One World Championship . [ 1 ] The 53-lap race was won from pole position by German Michael Schumacher , driving a Benetton - Renault , with Finn Mika Häkkinen second in a McLaren - Mercedes and Schumacher's British teammate Johnny Herbert third. [ 5 ]

Jean Alesi , driving for Ferrari , started second, alongside Schumacher. However, Alesi was forced to serve a 10-second stop-and-go penalty because his car moved forward before the start. Alesi climbed back up to second, before retiring on lap 25. Schumacher's rival in the Drivers' Championship , Damon Hill , started fourth amidst pressure from the British media after poor performances at previous races. Hill moved up to second because of Alesi's retirement, but spun off the track on lap 40. [ 6...

Schumacher's win was his ninth of the season, matching the record set in 1992 by Nigel Mansell . [ 7 ] Benetton was confirmed Constructors' Champions as Williams could not pass its points total in the one remaining race. [ 6 ]

"Nobody is more disappointed than myself and the team. We have to investigate why we were not competitive. I was surprised by the performance of the McLaren and even more impressed by Michael's [Schumacher] performance at the end of the session."

The qualifying session was split into two one-hour sessions; the first was held on Friday afternoon with the second held on Saturday afternoon. The fastest time from either sessions counted towards their final grid position . [ 15 ] Schumacher clinched his tenth career pole position , in his Benetton B195 , with a time of 1:38.023. He was joined on the front row by Alesi, who was eight-tenths of a second behind. [ 1 ] [ 18 ] Schumacher was particularly pleased with the performance of his Benetto...

The drivers took to the track at 09:30 JST ( GMT +9) for a 30-minute warmup session. Despite underperforming in qualifying, both Williams cars performed better in the wet weather warmup session; Hill had the fastest time of 2:00.025. Coulthard was third in the other Williams car; Schumacher split them in second position. Alesi completed the top four, eight-tenths of a second behind Hill. [ 1 ]

The two Jordan cars collided on lap 15. Rubens Barrichello spun in the final chicane when he attempted to brake later than his teammate Irvine. Barrichello hit a wall, which damaged his car's rear wing and caused him to retire from the race. Irvine was involved in another collision at the chicane on lap 20 when Frentzen hit him from behind. Irvine continued without damage, but Frentzen had to pit for a new front wing. [ 27 ] At the front, Alesi was lapping faster than Schumacher, even though Sch...

At this stage, the rain began to fall again, but only at the Spoon Curve end of the track. The Williams drivers were second and third until Hill ran off the track at Spoon Curve two laps after his pit stop. He damaged his front wing in the process and returned to the track in fourth. [ 25 ] Hill returned to the pits to let his pit crew replace the damaged wing. He rejoined fifth, but was then given a ten-second stop-and-go penalty for speeding in the pitlane. [ 6 ] Coulthard made the same mistak...

"It's a really great feeling now, because I fulfilled the promises that I made to the team at the beginning of the season to get both titles [Drivers' and Constructors']."

This was Schumacher's last win for Benetton, as he moved to the Ferrari team for the 1996 season . [ 31 ] Herbert reiterated Schumacher's opinion by stating that Benetton did "a fantastic job". [ 28 ] Hill was disappointed about the race and the season as a whole; he said afterwards:

Just when you think that it couldn't get any worse, it does. There is no easy way out of this, you just have to keep pressing on. The easiest thing to do is to give up, and it would probably be less painful that way, but that is not an option. While we were in the race we were competitive and I was in with a shout, I suppose, all the time I was on the track. But things took a massive turn for the worse, I am afraid. I drove through the rain and the second time I spun off I think it was oil rathe...

As a result of Hill not taking his 10-second stop-and-go penalty because of his retirement, Williams were fined $ 10,000 by Formula One's governing body , the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). [ 28 ] In an interview with Motor Sport magazine in 2008, Hill said that the 1995 season, as a whole, "went down, mentally, and it all just got to me". He also said he believed that it was in 1995 that Frank Williams and Patrick Head decided to replace him for the 1997 season. [ 32 ]

1980 Formula One World Champion Alan Jones praised Alesi's performance, saying that it "will go down as one of the great drives in Grand Prix racing". [ 18 ] Alesi stated that if his driveshaft had not failed, he would "have fought for it, all the way to the end". Alesi added that he believed he did not jump the start, but admitted that "the car crept forwards by a few centimetres" because of the downhill slope of the grid. [ 27 ] In an interview with Autosport magazine in 2009, Alesi said that ...

34°50′35″N 136°32′26″E  /  34.84306°N 136.54056°E  / 34.84306; 136.54056