1994 British Grand Prix

Report

Pre-race

Going into this race, Benetton's Michael Schumacher led the Drivers' Championship with 66 points out of a possible 70. Williams' Damon Hill was second on 29 points, followed by Ferrari drivers Gerhard Berger and Jean Alesi on 17 and 13 respectively. Benetton led the Constructors' Championship with 67 points, followed by Ferrari on 36 and Williams on 31.

Following his appearance at the previous round in France, Nigel Mansell had returned to his CART commitments in America, so David Coulthard returned in the second Williams to partner Hill.

Qualifying

Qualifying was extremely close with Hill, Schumacher and Berger in competition for pole position. Berger collided with the barrier at the end of the pitlane as he attempted to have another lap. Hill took pole position with a time of 1:24.960. Schumacher took second position on the grid, three thousandths of a second slower than Hill and Berger third, two hundredths of a second behind Hill.

Race

On the formation lap, Schumacher overtook Hill twice (once when leaving the dummy grid, and then once more further round the lap), before dropping back to take his second place on the grid for the start.

David Coulthard stalled on the grid at the start, forcing him to start from the back of the grid – he fought back to finish 5th. This prompted another formation lap, on which Eddie Irvine's car broke down. Again on this second formation lap, Schumacher overtook Hill twice. The Peugeot V10 engine in Martin Brundle's McLaren MP4/9 failed on the second start in a huge fireball.

Hill led opening laps of the race, until he pitted at the end of lap 14. On same lap Michael Schumacher was handed a five-second stop-go penalty for overtaking Hill on the first formation lap. Schumacher pitted on lap 17, but he didn't serve the penalty. That put Berger into the lead, with Schumacher now ahead of Hill. Berger led until Schumacher passed him on lap 22, but since he failed to serve the penalty Schumacher was shown the black flag, requiring him to stop immediately at the pits. Schumacher did not acknowledge the black flag and was shown it again on both of the next two laps, he later claimed that he had not seen it. Benetton told the race officials that there had been a misunderstanding over the 5-second stop-go penalty, and after discussing the issue with the team the officials withdrew the black flag and Schumacher finally served the stop-go penalty at the end of lap 27. This gave Hill the lead, where he remained for the rest of the race. Schumacher rejoined second, almost 20s behind Hill.

Mika Häkkinen and Rubens Barrichello collided while battling for 4th place at the final corner. Barrichello pulled his damaged car into the pits, without realising that he was on the final lap. This allowed Häkkinen to limp over the finish line before Barrichello reached it, despite his car being more severely damaged. Hill won the race 15 seconds ahead of Schumacher and Jean Alesi took last step on the podium.

Behind them, Ukyo Katayama was seventh, but following Schumacher's disqualification he scored what proved to be his final point.

Post-race

The stewards fined Benetton $25,000 and gave the team and their driver Michael Schumacher a severe reprimand for ignoring Schumacher's five-second stop-go penalty and the subsequent black flag. On 26 July, the FIA World Motorsport Council increased the penalty to a $500,000 fine for the team and a two race ban for Schumacher. The WMSC also disqualified Schumacher from his second place at the British Grand Prix. The penalty was upheld on appeal on 30 August.

Classification

Qualifying

Race

Championship standings after the race

;Drivers' Championship standings

;Constructors' Championship standings

References

| Previous_year's_race = 1993 British Grand Prix | Next_year's_race = 1995 British Grand Prix

References

1. Matchett, Steve. (1995). "Life in the Fast Lane". [[Weidenfeld and Nicolson]].
2. Formula 1 Grand Prix: 1994 Season Review (video)
3. "Schumacher ban upheld on appeal". Motorsport.com.
4. (2020-10-22). "1994 British Grand Prix - Qualifying 1".
5. (2020-10-22). "1994 British Grand Prix - Qualifying 2".
6. "1994 British GP – Qualification". ChicaneF1.
7. (2020-02-08). "1994 British Grand Prix - Race Result".
8. "Britain 1994 - Championship • STATS F1".