F1: Damon Hill Wins Fourth Victory at San Marino Grand Prix.

05/06/96

Britain's Damon Hill won Sunday's San Marino Grand Prix in Imola, Italy. It was his fourth victory out of five races this season, and the fifth victory for his Williams-Renault team. Hill's Canadian teammate, Jacques Villeneuve, won the previous weekend's European Grand Prix at Nurburgring, Germany. .

Hill took the lead on lap 21 of 63 and never gave it up. The race's other lap leaders were the Scottish driver David Coulthard and German driver Michael Schumacher (who started from the pole).

Hill averaged about 120 mph (193.761 kph) and had the fastest lap at approximately 123 mph (198.032 kph). Hill was able to pass leaders Schumacher and Coulthard when they made their first pit stop.

Coulthard retired on lap 45 with mechanical difficulty, and Schumacher ran into traffic, fighting for two laps to get past a ninth place battle between Pedro Diniz and Mika Hakkinen. Diniz and Hakkinen were both given 10 second stop-and-go penalties for ignoring the blue flag (overtake indicator).

Schumacher ended up in second place, sixteen seconds behind Hill. Gerhard Berger Benetton's Austrian driver rounded out the podium with a third place finish. Eddie Irvine (Ferrari) took fourth, Rubens Barrichello (Jordan) finished fifth, and Jean Alesi (Benetton) placed sixth.

Check out more coverage of the event.

Paul Dever -- The Auto Channel