August 24 1996

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All of the information in this section was obtained from a bloke down the pub, which means that while we believe all the following information to be true, we couldn't swear that it is.

What we will say however, is that usually, "there's no smoke without fire".....

Previous Issues

Schumacher Wins
Jacques Takes Pole
Berger Quickest As Schumacher Crashes
17 Races Next Year ?
McLaren Sponsorship Deal
Hill Start
Williams Top Testing
New Gearbox For Ferrari
Forti To Turn Up !!
Belgian GP Preview
Driver Rumours (latest)





Schumacher Wins

Michael Schumacher scored his and Ferrai's second win of the year at Spa. This is the fourth time in five years that he has finished first at this circuit, and is his third win (he was disqualified in 1994).

Jacques Villeneuve finished second with Mika Hakkinen and impressive third for a much improved McLaren team.

Jean Alesi finished an untroubled fourth, while behind him his team mate was pushing Damon Hill for fifth. Hill just held on to the two points and his lead has now been cut to just 13 points with three races left.

Sauber had a terrible race with both cars going out on a first lap accident.

Jos Verstappen had a high speed crash (possibly caused by his throttle sticking open) which needed the safety car to slow the race while the stricken Arrows was removed. He was flown to a nearby hospital for precautionary X-rays.

Headlines

Jacques Takes Pole

Jacques Villeneuve secured the second pole position of his Formula1 career with a blistering lap during qualifying.

Team mate Damon Hill was second quickest. Hill was denied his usual late assult on the pole position when rain effectively finished the qualifying while most drivers still had their final runs to complete.

Michael Schumacher recovered from his accident to finish third fastest.

McLaren continue their improvement and qualified fourth and sixth.

Once again a much improved Gerhard Berger finished ahead of Jean Alesi in the battle of the two Benetton drivers.

Headlines

Berger Quickest As Schumacher Crashes

Michael Schumacher's Belgian GP got off to a poor start when he spun at 130 mph and crashed into a tyre wall. He was not seriously hurt, though he did sustain an injury to his right knee and missed the afternoon session.

Gerhard Berger proved to be the star of the day, setting the fastest time overall, he qualified on pole position here last year and maybe it is time for Benetton's fortunes to improve. The McLarens also went well with David Coulthard second fastest and MIka Hakkinen fourth fastest.

Jacques Villeneuve coped brilliantly with one of the more difficult circuits on the calendar and ended up third fastest nearly 0.800ths of a second ahead of Damon Hill who was only seventh fastest.

Headlines

17 Races Next Year ?

The FIA and FOCA are believed to have agreed a deal which will see 17 races until at least 2001. Williams, McLaren and Tyrrell have not signed the agreement for various reasons and it is not clear how the deal can be pushed through without three major teams agreeing.

Headlines

McLaren Sponsorship Deal

The possibility of a Silver McLaren took a step nearer this week. It is believed that they may be about to announce a new sponsorship deal with West cigarettes. Probably promoting the West lights brand on a mainly silver car.

Headlines

Hill Start

Damon Hill has been practising his starts while at Barcelona. He spent some time refining his starts with different clutch components. The start line test session was called to a halt on Friday though when his clutch finally gave out.

Headlines

Williams Top Testing

The two Williams drivers topped the recent testing at Barcelona. Damon Hill was fastest with a best time of 1.21.50 with Jacques Villeneuve managing 1.21.79. They were the only cars below 1.22.00.

Headlines

New Gearbox For Ferrari

Ferrari will be running their new seven speed gearbox at Spa in an attempt to get closer to the Williams cars.

Headlines

Forti To Turn Up !!

Forti boss Guido Forte has said that he hopes his team will be able to compete at Spa. There have been problems with one of the teams major sponsors (Shannon) over the ownership of the team. These were to be settled in court. It is still unclear what the outcome has been.

Headlines

Belgian GP Preview

This weekend it is off to Spa, one of the best tracks in the calendar. Where Hungary is criticised and held up as an example of everything a GP circuit should not be. Spa is the exact opposite, it is long, fast, has slow parts, has overtaking opportunities and frequently has odd weather. It is not unusual for rain to be falling on one part of the circuit while other parts are bone dry. In 1985 the race had to be postponed (from June 2 to September 15) when unusually hot weather made the track surface crack. Last year was the first time since 1989 that it had rained during the race and this year could have rain again (judging by the recent weather forecasts). The last four years have belonged to Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill who have both won twice. Damon must be the favourite for a win this year. His team mate has to finish before him to keep alive hopes of a challenge for the title and the circuit nature could favour the McLaren cars.

Headlines

Driver Rumours (latest)

Ralf Schumacher will definitely be driving for Jordan next year......or McLaren.Mika Hakkinen, Jean Alesi, Heinz Harald Frentzen and Jan Magnussen will also be joining Ralf Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello at Jordan. It is understood that the new sponsorship deal with Benson and Hedges will allow Jordan to run six cars next year as they make a serious assault on the constructors championship.Ricardo Rosset will be joining Mika Salo at Tyrrell.

Headlines