1995 Monaco Grand Prix

Championship standings

Heading into Monaco, Schumacher leads the Drivers’ Championship with 24 points, one ahead of Hill. Alesi and Berger are third and fourth with 14 and 13 points respectively. Coulthard and Herbert have 9 points each. In the Constructors’ Championship, Ferrari (27) leads Williams (26) and Benetton (23) with just four points covering the top three teams.

Previous race

Schumacher dominated Spain from pole to flag on a two-stop strategy. Hill was running second on the final lap when a hydraulic failure dropped him to fourth, promoting Herbert to second in his first career podium finish. Berger was third. Mansell retired his McLaren in the pits with handling problems.

Between-race developments

Mansell and McLaren have agreed to a mutual termination of their contract after just two races. Having struggled to match Häkkinen’s pace and found the car difficult to drive, Mansell and team principal Ron Dennis parted ways. Mark Blundell is restored to the race seat on a race-by-race basis.

Sauber has released Karl Wendlinger, who has not recovered his pre-accident form since his serious crash in Monaco qualifying last year. His seat goes to Jean-Christophe Boullion, Williams’ test driver and the reigning International Formula 3000 champion. Williams boss Frank Williams is keen to evaluate Boullion as a potential future race driver, using Monaco to assess Frentzen’s performance as a benchmark.

Simtek faces imminent closure. Team principal Nick Wirth acknowledged at a Thursday press conference that the outfit faces a budget shortfall of several million dollars needed to complete the season, the result of “a broken deal” with a sponsor. Wirth has said the team will not travel to the Canadian Grand Prix unless a rescue package is negotiated over the race weekend.

Entrants

Blundell returns in place of Mansell. Boullion makes his Formula One début in place of Wendlinger.

Practice

In Thursday free practice, Alesi set the pace (1:25.457) ahead of Schumacher and Hill, with both McLarens impressively placed. Schumacher was unhappy with his car’s handling and the Benetton’s rear end was stripped for a precautionary check before qualifying. Boullion crashed at the Nouvelle Chicane but was unhurt.

The main incident of the weekend came on Saturday morning. Inoue’s Footwork had stalled and was being towed back to the pits when a Renault Clio safety car — driven at speed by rally driver Jean Ragnotti on demonstration laps — struck the towed car from behind in the Piscine complex, overturning the Footwork. Inoue was still in the cockpit; a chunk was taken out of his helmet. He was taken to the Princess Grace Hospital Centre with a slight concussion and was not permitted to participate in afternoon qualifying. Footwork principal Jackie Oliver called the incident “just lack of discipline” and wrote formally to the Automobile Club de Monaco: “I understand he [Ragnotti] had accomplished a couple of laps at a million miles an hour with handbrake turns at the Loews hairpin. What was the purpose?”

In Saturday qualifying, Hill was dominant — fastest in every sector and every run. He secured pole (1:21.952) almost a full second ahead of Schumacher (1:22.742). Alesi’s car lost hydraulic pressure on his first qualifying out-lap and he had to share Berger’s chassis; with time to fit only one flying lap, Alesi drops to fifth behind Coulthard (1:23.109) and Berger. Hill described the session as “a fantastic lap.” Schumacher blamed a morning collision with Frentzen, which damaged his suspension, for the gap.