[Sun Aug-11 16h10 CET] - Jacques Villeneuve took his third win of the season in a thrilling
Hungarian Grand Prix. Multiple pits stops, being stuck behind slower cars
and mechanical problems all made for an interesting race whose lead changed nearly
10 times. Villeneuve even after losing 10 seconds with a wheel problems in the pits
managed to stay ahead of his team mate Damon Hill who finished second.
Hill looked like the faster driver but seemed to spend most of his race sitting behind the slower car of Jean Alesi whilst Schumacher diced with Villeneuve at the front. Michaels race ended 7 laps from the end with mechanical failure, his Ferrarri lasting much longer than team mate Eddie Irvines who retired before half of the race was completed.
Jean Alesi took a surprising third place after first Berger and then Schumacher retired in front of him.
This one two for the Williams team confirms their victory in the 1996 Constructors Championship with their two drivers now racing for the Drivers Championship.
[Sun Aug-11 10h10 CET] - Michael Schumacher continues to stamp his dominance on this
event by being the fastest car in the morning warm-up session.
Hill was second fastest with Villeneuve third.
Story of the top time: 8m 1m 20.848s Schumacher 12m 1m 20.712s Hill 14m 1m 18.971s SchumacherVerstappen took a trip through the gravel then drove back to the pits 23 minutes into the session, two minutes later Diniz retired off the track with a mechanical problem.
[Sat Aug-10 14h10 CET] - Michael Schumacher really never looked like ending todays qualifying session
on anything other than pole position. The Williams held pole for a while but
each time he went out Schumacher just pushed a little further. Hill is second on the grid
despite having been behind Villeneuve who will start in third for most of the session.
All three provided last minute drama. Villeneuve aborted his final fast lap after a mistake near the end. Schumacher and Hill were both on flying laps when the chequered flag came out but neither could improve.
These first three were all within 0.077s - a massive gap of 1.3s separates them from the fourth place of Eddie Irvine and a further 0.137s takes us to the Benettons of Alesi and Berger - themselves separated by 0.04s. The top 10 are completed by Hakkinen, Herbert, Coulthard and Frentzen.
All 20 cars will run in the race with the Miniardi of Lavaggi slipping in at 106.92% of pole time.
[Fri Aug- 9 14h10 CET] - Damon Hill finished the afternoon free session just in front of Michael Schumacher. A thrilling last 10 minutes
saw many changes in the driver positions on a circuit which was improving all the time.
Brief history of the session:
0m 1m 23.790s - Irvines pole from the morning session 8m 1m 23.465s (Pole-0.325s) - Hill moves up to pole 14m 1m 21.563s (Pole-1.902s) - Schumacher blows away Hills time 18m 1m 23.343s (Pole+1.780s) - Irvine moves past Hill into 2nd 30m 1m 23.142s (Pole+1.579s) - Hill moves back into 2nd 42m 1m 22.928s (Pole+1.365s) - Hill tries harder 43m 1m 22.272s (Pole+0.709s) - Hill tries harder 48m 1m 21.610s (Pole+0.047s) - Schumacher tries to push pole further 49m 1m 21.166s (Pole-0.397s) - Schumacher pushes pole further 49m 1m 22.889s (Pole+1.723s) - Panis passes Irvine into 3rd 53m 1m 22.332s (Pole+0.166s) - Irvine retakes 3rd 55m 1m 21.144s (Pole-0.022s) - Hill takes pole 57m 1m 22.066s (Pole+0.924s) - Villeneuve takes 3rd 58m 1m 21.369s (Pole+0.225s) - Villeneuve still in 3rd
Both Jordan and McLaren ran a small center wing in front of the large rear wing.
This circuit is not used much during the year and the surface in the morning was in very poor race condition. This caused many drivers to skip the morning session and let the others put some rubber down and clean the race line. Some drivers (including Villeneuve) ran on wet tyres to conserve their limited supply.
The Forti team are not present for this Grand Prix.