1995 Japanese Grand Prix

Background

Heading into the penultimate race of the season, Benetton driver Michael Schumacher had already won the season's Drivers' Championship, having clinched the title at the previous race, the . Schumacher led the championship with 92 points; Damon Hill was second with 59 points. A maximum of 20 points were available for the remaining two races, which meant that Hill could not catch Schumacher. Although the Drivers' Championship was decided, the Constructors' Championship was not. Benetton were leading on 123 points and Williams were second with 102 points heading into the 16th race, with a maximum of 32 points available. In the week leading up to the race, Hill was criticised by the British media after poor performances in previous races; there was continued speculation that Williams were going to replace him with Heinz-Harald Frentzen or Gerhard Berger for the 1996 season. Despite the rumours, Williams team boss Frank Williams gave Hill "an unequivocal vote of confidence" heading into the race.

There were two driver changes heading into the race. Having been in one of the two Sauber cars since the fifth race of the season at Monaco, Jean-Christophe Boullion was released from the team and replaced by Karl Wendlinger. The Austrian was given another chance to prove himself after suffering an accident at the 1994 Monaco Grand Prix, which left him in a coma for weeks. The second driver change was Mika Häkkinen's return to McLaren after missing the Pacific Grand Prix because of an operation for appendicitis.

Practice and qualifying

Two practice sessions were held before the race; the first was held on Friday morning and the second on Saturday morning. Both sessions lasted 1 hour and 45 minutes with weather conditions dry throughout. Schumacher was fastest in the first session, posting a time of 1:40.410, two-tenths of a second quicker than Häkkinen. The Williams and Ferrari cars occupied the remaining top six positions; Williams drivers Hill and David Coulthard third and fifth respectively. The Ferrari cars were fourth and sixth fastest; Jean Alesi ahead of Berger. Häkkinen lapped faster than Schumacher in the second practice session with a time of 1:40.389. Eddie Irvine took second place in the Jordan car, three-tenths of a second behind Häkkinen. Hill was third in the Williams, two-tenths behind Häkkinen, with Schumacher fourth behind Hill. The Ferrari cars were fifth and eighth; Alesi in front of Berger. Frentzen's Sauber and Coulthard's Williams split the Ferrari drivers.

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. Schumacher was particularly pleased with the performance of his Benetton, saying that "I have rarely had such a good car ... I think I can be confident for the race". Alesi was satisfied about his performance, but worried about a mechanical problem which had caused him to crash on Friday, accusing the Ferrari team of withholding information from him. Häkkinen was third in the McLaren, with Hill fourth, a second slower than Schumacher. Despite Häkkinen's best qualifying effort of the season alongside his Belgium third place, his teammate, Mark Blundell, had a disappointing qualifying session. In the first part of qualifying, Blundell crashed into the wall, meaning he could not set a time as his car was too badly damaged. Blundell had his second crash of the weekend at the 130R corner in Saturday practice, which was more serious than the first. Following medical advice, Blundell did not participate in the second qualifying session. He was unable to set a time, leaving him at the back of the grid. Aguri Suzuki crashed his Ligier during Saturday qualifying; he was unable to start the race since he was in a hospital with a broken rib.

Qualifying classification

Warm-up

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.

Race

The track surface was damp for most of the race, which meant that lap times were slower than the previous days' qualifying sessions. For the first time since the Japanese Grand Prix was held at Suzuka in 1987, tickets for the race did not sell out, despite the fact that three Japanese drivers entered the race.

The race started at 14:00 JST. All of the drivers opted to start on wet-weather tyres as the track was damp from the morning rain. On returning to the race, he began to make his way through the field constantly recording fastest laps; the first of which was 1:54.416, five seconds faster than the remainder of the field. Schumacher made a pit stop on lap 10 for slicks, handing the lead to Häkkinen for a lap before he too pitted. Alesi's progress was interrupted when he spun attempting to pass Pedro Lamy's Minardi for 15th place,

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. Johnny Herbert was fifth in the second Benetton car after the second round of pit stops, with Irvine rounding out the point-scoring places in sixth.

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. The win, along with Herbert's third place and the retirements of Hill and Coulthard, gave Benetton the 1995 Constructors' Championship. Häkkinen finished second in his McLaren, 20 seconds behind Schumacher. Irvine was fourth in his Jordan with Olivier Panis fifth in his Ligier. Mika Salo took sixth place and the final point in his Tyrrell. Despite starting last, Blundell finished in seventh, just 1.6 seconds behind Salo. The delayed Frentzen, Luca Badoer, Wendlinger, Lamy and Taki Inoue completed the finishers.

Post-race

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

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).

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".

Race classification

Championship standings after the race

• Bold text indicates the World Champions. ;Drivers' Championship standings

;Constructors' Championship standings

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

| Previous_year's_race = 1994 Japanese Grand Prix | Next_year's_race = 1996 Japanese Grand Prix

References

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