1995 Portuguese Grand Prix

Previous race

At Monza, Coulthard spun off on the formation lap and retired before the start. When the race was red-flagged after a first-lap collision at the same corner, Coulthard was permitted to take the restart in the spare car from pole. He led until a wheel bearing failure on lap 13. Schumacher and Hill then clashed: as Hill attempted to lap Inoue’s Footwork, Inoue slid in front of Hill under braking, causing Hill to run into the back of Schumacher. Both retired. Schumacher initially confronted Hill trackside, but apologised after Inoue confirmed the collision was his fault. The Ferraris were running first and second in the closing stages until a TV camera mounted on Alesi’s rear wing broke loose and destroyed Berger’s suspension; Alesi retired shortly after with a wheel bearing failure. Herbert inherited a second victory for Benetton; Häkkinen and Frentzen achieved their best results of the season in second and third.

Between-race developments

Hill was given a one-race suspended ban for his part in the Monza collision. Like Schumacher’s ban from Belgium, it is suspended.

Car upgrades

Williams has introduced an upgraded FW17B chassis for the first time, which will be used for the remainder of the season.

Practice

Practice took place in dry conditions throughout the weekend. In the first session, Häkkinen set the pace (1:23.073), one tenth ahead of Hill and Schumacher. In the second session, Hill was fastest (1:21.443) by 0.8 seconds from Coulthard, with Schumacher third. Coulthard takes pole position.