1995 Pacific Grand Prix

Damon has to do two things. First, he has to establish himself as the No1 at Williams for next year so the team can give him their full support. Second, he has to re-establish himself as a racer. Maybe he needs to lose a front wheel once or twice to re-establish himself. [ 10 ]

Schumacher, his title-rival, said that Hill made "half-hearted attempts" to overtake, which led to him "getting into trouble". [ 9 ] The comments were prompted after a series of battles between Hill and Schumacher in previous race meetings, most notably at the Belgian Grand Prix , where Hill accused Schumacher of blocking him. [ 11 ] At a Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) World Motor Sport Council meeting on October 19 to discuss driver etiquette, they opted against introducing new...

"For me it was just a case of going out for my last run and trying to do better just in case Michael improved. But it was so close to the end of the session that I had to be out on the circuit; there wasn't time to see if Michael went quicker, then go out and try for a time if he did."

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 . [ 19 ] Coulthard clinched his fourth consecutive pole position , in his Williams, with a time of 1:14.013. [ 1 ] [ 20 ] He was joined on the front row by teammate Hill, who was two-tenths of a second behind. [ 1 ] Schumacher was third in the Benetton, edging closer to the W...

Berger took fourth despite going off into the gravel late in the second part of qualifying. [ 21 ] Berger's teammate Alesi was fifth, with Irvine completing the top six for his best qualifying position of the season. Rookie Magnussen qualified 12th, only two places behind teammate Blundell, after not making a mistake in either of the two sessions. [ 22 ] Returning drivers Suzuki, Katayama, Morbidelli and Gachot qualified 13th, 17th, 19th and 24th respectively, with the grid covered by 7.392 seco...

Alesi, Hill and Schumacher all made pit stops for their first of three stops on lap 18. The Benetton pitcrew made a quick stop for Schumacher, allowing him to get out ahead of Alesi and Hill. [ 9 ] Hill lost additional time with a sticking refuelling valve, causing his stop to last almost twice as long as Schumacher's. [ 12 ] Schumacher exited the pit stop in fourth place (behind Coulthard, and the yet-to-stop Berger and Herbert), with Alesi in seventh place (split from Schumacher by Irvine) and...

Schumacher made his second stop on lap 38, and came out of the pit lane just in front of third-placed Alesi, but over twenty seconds behind Coulthard. Schumacher immediately began setting fastest laps and began to close in on Coulthard once more. [ 1 ] [ 26 ] Hill managed to move up to third, in front of Alesi, during their second pit stops on laps 38 and 39 respectively. The Ferrari of Alesi then dropped further back as teammate Berger passed him at the hairpin for fourth position on lap 45. [ ...

Despite Hill's comments, he endured continued criticism by the British media after the poor performance; speculation brewed that Williams were going to replace him with Frentzen for the 1996 season. [ 29 ] Despite the rumours, Williams team boss Frank Williams gave Hill "an unequivocal vote of confidence" heading into the next race, the Japanese Grand Prix. [ 30 ] Schumacher subsequently changed his opinion of the incident after watching video footage prior to the Japanese race and no longer bla...

During an interview Coulthard, who finished second, revealed that it was his decision to change to a two-stop strategy from a three-stop strategy, telling the Williams pitcrew to delay his stop. Afterwards, he said that in hindsight he would have stayed on a three-stop strategy, and wished he could "blame someone else for this decision, but I can't". [ 12 ] The 1995 race was the last held at the Aida circuit, and the last Formula One race to date held under the Pacific Grand Prix banner, with th...