1996 European Grand Prix
Going Into This Race
Pre-Race Report
Championship standings
Hill leads with three wins from the first three rounds. Villeneuve has been consistently close — second in Australia and Argentina — but has yet to convert pace into a win.
Previous race
At Buenos Aires, Hill completed his hat-trick of wins to open the season, with Villeneuve second for Williams’s second one-two of the year. Two incidents involving Pedro Diniz marked the afternoon: a collision with Luca Badoer flipped Badoer’s Forti onto its roof in the gravel, bringing out the safety car; marshals were criticised for their delayed response in helping Badoer escape — the Italian ultimately had to crawl out from under the car himself. Diniz rejoined but his Ligier burst into flames when a jammed fuel valve allowed fuel to pour out as he accelerated back onto the circuit.
Adapted by AI summarisation from “1996 European Grand Prix” on Wikipedia . This adapted text is licensed under CC-BY-SA-4.0 . Modifications: summarised and spoiler-trimmed.
Last 3 Races
Full season →| # | Date | Grand Prix | Pole | P1 | P2 | P3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10 Mar | 🇦🇺 Australian Grand Prix | Villeneuve | Hill | Villeneuve | Irvine |
| 2 | 31 Mar | 🇧🇷 Brazilian Grand Prix | Hill | Hill | Alesi | Schumacher |
| 3 | 7 Apr | 🇦🇷 Argentine Grand Prix | Hill | Hill | Villeneuve | Alesi |
Drivers' Championship
Full standings →| Pos | Driver | Team | Pts | Wins |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Damon Hill | Williams | 30 | 3 |
| 2 | Jacques Villeneuve | Williams | 12 | 0 |
| 3 | Jean Alesi | Benetton | 10 | 0 |
| 4 | Eddie Irvine | Ferrari | 6 | 0 |
| 5 | Mika Häkkinen | McLaren | 5 | 0 |
| 6 | Michael Schumacher | Ferrari | 4 | 0 |
| 7 | Gerhard Berger | Benetton | 3 | 0 |
| 8 | Rubens Barrichello | Jordan | 3 | 0 |
| 9 | Mika Salo | Tyrrell | 3 | 0 |
| 10 | Olivier Panis | Ligier | 1 | 0 |