Formula one Monaco GP 1996

The 54th Monaco Grand Prix on 19 May 1996 turned into a Grand Prix of inconsistencies and oddities, of things which had not happened before or only a long time in the past.
This began with the time set for the start. By hallowed custom it had been set at 3.30 pm in order not to disturb the siesta of the Grimaldis; but, bowing to almighty television, it had been moved forward by an hour. Once again the spring heavens opened like sluice gates and the track took some time to dry out. The result of that was a quarter-hour-long qualifying session for orientation purposes towards midday, and the reduction of the race to 75 laps so that the limit of two hours could be maintained.
That affected Michael Schumacher's role, who in the meantime had been signed up by Ferrari as a doer of great deeds. During qualifying he did indeed fully meet the tremendous expectations placed in him: pole position for the F 310, the first here for a red racer from Maranello for 17 years. When the German subsequently received the applause of the tifosi, when travelling at a leisurely pace at the approach to the chicane, Benetton driver Gerhard Berger burst out of the tunnel at full speed and went into frightening pirouettes in an attempt to avoid the obstacle.
Worse was to happen on Sunday. Schumacher, one of the best on a wet track, and the rain hero of Barcelona two weeks later, left the straight and narrow as early as the first lap at Portier, crumpling the nose and other exposed parts of the red car as he bounced like a ping-pong ball against the barriers. It had been his own fault and he was sorry, as he said later for the record. And Ferrari team boss Jean Todt responded in kind by saying that so much honesty and self-criticism did honor to his star.
That also applied not least to the surprise victor, Olivier Panis, in his Ligier JS 43, the young Frenchman having started the race on the seventh row of the grid. But without wishing to belittle his success, the leaders first had to fall by the wayside before the path was cleared for him. Williams driver Damon Hill was leading by half a minute in front of Jean Alesi in the second Benetton when his engine expired in the tunnel on lap 41. This was the first sudden death for one of the robust V10s from Renault since a similar thing had happened to Alain Prost in Monza in 1993. Alesi now appeared to be driving towards certain success, but during the 60th lap the roadholding of his car suddenly became spongy. The driver suspected that air might be escaping from a rear tyre, only to be informed from the pits that his rear suspension had collapsed.
A festive mood, in the meantime, had invaded the Ligier-Gauloises Blondes team. Success had truly become a rare event for them, the last victory of the marque having been dated 27 September 1981, when Jacques Laffite won the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal.
A further parallel also had to be sought in the semi-darkness of history: the last time a mere four drivers were flagged down by the black-and-white chequered flag in Monaco had been in 1966.