Damon Hill Gets Checkered Flag at Australian Grand Prix

03/11/96

The Associated Press reported that Williams-Renault driver Damon Hill won the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne by passing his rookie teammate Jacques Villeneuve with just five laps left in the race. The race marked Hill's second consecutive Australian Grand Prix victory and his 14th Formula One win. Hill's time was provisionally clocked at 1:32.50.491, an average speed of 123.492 mph.

Villeneuve started out the race on the pole position and led for all but two laps of the race until Hill passed him. If he had won he would have been the first F1 driver to win a world championship debut in 35 years. Villeneuve is last season's IndyCar champ and Indy 500 winner, this is his first season racing formula one cars.

Eddie Irvine came in third in his Ferrari. He was followed by Austrian Gerhard Berger (Benetton-Renault) and Finninsh Mika Hakkinen (McLaren-Renault). Another racing Finn, Mika Salo (Tyrrell-Yamaha), rounded out the top six drivers in the race.

A high speed crash on lap 1 caused the race to be re-started after 30 minutes delay. Martin Brundle (Jordan-Peugeot) was the driver who crashed; he was unhurt after his car flipped and flew over Johnny Herbert's (Sauber-Ford) car. Last year's world champion Michael Schumacher (Ferrari) withdrew from the race on lap 34.

Paul Dever -- The Auto Channel