Over the previous 5 many years, just one driver has turn out to be a Formulation 1 race winner inside the first 5 grands prix of his profession. This was , on 28 April 1996.
Quickly to be 25 on the time, Villeneuve joined F1 because the reining IndyCar champion and Indy 500 winner, together with his late father Gilles’ aura weighing on his shoulders.
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The Canadian was snapped up by 1995 constructors’ runner-up alongside , with discovering shelter at .
The Adrian Newey-designed FW18 proved to be dominant, and Villeneuve took pole on debut in Melbourne, with victory eluding him due to an oil leak – although he later claimed that he was requested to decelerate for ‘crew concord’ causes.
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It was only a matter of time till Villeneuve broke his duck, and he took his maiden win at spherical 4, the European Grand Prix.
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Williams locked out the entrance row on the Nurburgring, for simply the second time that yr, with Villeneuve 0.78s slower than Hill. However the latter’s sluggish getaway allowed his team-mate to simply transfer into the lead firstly, because the Briton tumbled all the way down to fifth behind Coulthard, ’s and reining champion , now at .
Jacques Villeneuve, Williams
Jacques Villeneuve, Williams
As Hill laboriously tried to discover a method out of site visitors – he handed Schumacher into Flip 1 however encountered stern resistance from Barrichello – Villeneuve shortly pulled away, together with his benefit over Coulthard reaching 13 seconds forward of the primary spherical of pitstops.
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However the Quebecois wasn’t out of attain. Schumacher undercut his rivals and introduced his nine-second deficit to Villeneuve down to at least one second in simply 9 laps. The Williams driver withstood the Ferrari’s stress – together with one other undercut try – over the remaining 30 excursions.
“I used to be pondering the entire time about final yr, as a result of I believed ‘there needs to be a state of affairs coming now the place I can cross him and make the identical’,” Schumacher commented, referring to the 1995 Nurburgring race, when he overtook race chief with two laps remaining.
Jacques Villeneuve, Williams
Jacques Villeneuve, Williams
“However truthfully, Jacques has achieved a improbable race, with out errors, and there was simply no method for me to cross him. We had a terrific race collectively, very shut preventing, and I’m very happy to come back second.”
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Villeneuve added: “Michael was pushing very arduous. He was fast the entire race, however he received near me halfway by way of the second run. He was a bit faster than me, so it was powerful, principally after we received behind a backmarker, nevertheless it was enjoyable. That’s how racing needs to be.”
Curiously, this was the primary of six instances Villeneuve and Schumacher ended up on the rostrum collectively – none of which occurred within the 1997 season, throughout which they battled for the title.
Jacques Villeneuve and Michael Schumacher on the rostrum alongside David Coulthard
Jacques Villeneuve and Michael Schumacher on the rostrum alongside David Coulthard
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