[Sun Sep-22 17h10 CET] - After an inspired victory by Jacques Villeneuve the World Championship
decider moves on to the final round in Japan. Damons second place
leaves him just 9 world championship points in front of his Canadian team mate.
A cool Michael Schumacher finished third after fighting off a tough
challenge from Jean Alesi. Eddie Irvine finished 5th (his first finish
since Monaco) and Gerhard Berger was 6th.
Starting from pole Hill swept into the first corner ahead of Alesi, Schumacher and in fourth Villeneuve (after starting from 2nd). Hill continued to stretch his lead which was up to 11 seconds by lap 15. On lap 16 Villeneuve made the pass of the season sliding under Schumacher on the fast pit straight. In the next 7 laps most of the top 6 made pit stops - the result - Hill in first and Villeneuve second. By lap 41 Villeneuve was just 0.3s behind Hill. They pitted on laps 49,50 and Villeneuve came out in front. This was Hills last real view of Jacques, as by the end of lap 70 he was nearly 20 seconds in front of the Brit.
Surprisingly 16 cars finished, the 4 retirements were Barrichello and Diniz spinning off, (not related) Verstappens engine blowing up and Hakkinen losing out after a bizarre incident when the two Mclarens seemed to hit each other.
[Sun Sep-22 11h10 CET] - Michael Schumacher came out top of the tree after
this mornings 30 minute warm up session in bright
sunny weather. Mika Hakkinen surprised everyone
by being 3rd fastest, the rest of the top 7 were made
up of Williams, Ferrari and Benetton.
Story of the fastest lap:
8m 1m 24.542s Panis 10m 1m 24.137s Hill 12m 1m 23.369s Schumacher 21m 1m 23.166s Villeneuve 23m 1m 22.666s Schumacher
[Sat Sep-21 15h10 CET] - In a qualifying session influenced heavily by the weather Damon
Hill took pole position just 0.009s in front of team mate
Jacques Villeneuve.
It rained just before the session was due to start, within the first few minutes 15 cars were on track trying for a good time before it rained again. The rain clouds hovered but the sun came back. Within 25 minutes many drivers had been out twice and the top four were Hill, Villeneuve, Berger, Irvine. The next 10 minutes saw Hill push a little further and beat last years pole time then Schumacher jump from 7th to 2nd only to have Alesi bump him back to 3rd. The penultimate act came with 13 minutes left when a flying Jacques Villeneuve ran within 0.009s of Hill. The usual last minute blast from the top drivers was cancelled when the rain finally returned with just 4 minutes left.
The Sauber team have announced that Johnny Herbert will be again driving for them in 1997.
[Sat Sep-21 12h10 CET] - Michael Schumacher ended the last of todays free practice sessions
just 0.009s in front of championship leader Damon Hill. Their two
team mates completed the top four with Villeneuve in 3rd and
Irvine in fourth.
Estoril started the day wet. Although the rain had stopped by the start of the first free session the track was still damp. Everyone first went out on wet tyres. The first fast laps were by Michael Schumacher and in the 1m 40s range. At the end of the first part of the session Rubens Barrichello on a now dry track was fastest with a 1m 26s.
The second part of the session started with a blistering 1m 21.867s from Damon Hill, this stayed as the top time until the last few seconds when Schumacher popped a 1m 21.858s.
Poor old Jos, after losing some of yesterdays session when he spun, today his engine blew after 11 laps.
[Fri Sep-20 15h10 CET] - In the second of todays free qualifying sessions Michael Schumacher
moved from 20th to 1st place on the provisional grid. In the
first session he decided to only run 3 gentle laps this left him with the
slowest lap time. In contrast team mate Eddie Irvine took the fastest
time.
After 23 minutes of the second session Schumachers first fast lap put him way ahead of his team mate. This remained the fastest lap of the day.
Eddie Jordan officially announced that Ralph Schumacher (Michaels younger brother) would be driving for his team in 1997.