1996 Australian Grand Prix

This was the second Grand Prix in a row held in Australia, the previous race being the conclusion to the 1995 season.

Taki Inoue was scheduled to race for the Minardi team as a pay driver but when no money materialised prior to the race he was replaced by Giancarlo Fisichella.[2] Marlboro had expressed interest in Fisichella running early on.[3]

The race was the first to use the new race-start system, still used in Formula 1 today,[4] replacing the old red to green light system. Under the new system, five red lights would come on at one second intervals, starting after the last driver reached his grid box. There would then be a pre-determined pause, and then the five lights would go off simultaneously.[5] This was also the first race to have a single qualifying session on Saturday afternoon; the Friday session was dropped.

Jacques Villeneuve, making his début in Formula One, took pole position.

Both Forti cars failed make the race due to the new 107% rule for qualifying, which stated that any car that qualified 107% slower than the pole time (1:38.837 in this race) would be excluded. The measure was introduced as excessively slow entrants presented potential safety hazards due to a high speed difference.[6] Incidentally, the team had logged its best result of 7th one race earlier at the season-ending 1995 Australian Grand Prix.[7]

It was an all-Williams front row with Damon Hill and debutant Jacques Villeneuve in the blue and white Rothmans cars. In the first corner Hill was squeezed by Irvine, lost momentum and was overtaken by both Ferraris in the run down going into the third corner. Behind Hill, Alesi sliced across in front of Hakkinen and Barrichello to claim the corner and began a chain reaction of heavy braking as drivers tried to avoid colliding with one another. David Coulthard veered left under braking and his McLaren hit the side of Herbert's Sauber. Herbert tried to avoid the car and braked heavily. Martin Brundle was behind them and unable to slow sufficiently, hitting the rear of Herbert's and Coulthard's cars and was launched into a barrel roll, ending in a sand trap at turn 3 and breaking his car in two. Brundle was unhurt. The race was halted to allow the circuit to be cleared.[8][4]

The race was restarted. Brundle (in the spare car) spun off after light contact with Pedro Diniz. The Williams dominated again, with Jacques Villeneuve leading Hill. Schumacher held on in third place, but dropped back half a minute with his second pit stop. He developed brake problems on lap 28 and retired five laps later. Irvine assumed third, despite contact with Jean Alesi's Benetton on lap 6, when Alesi had attempted to pass him. Towards the end of the race Villeneuve was slowed by an oil leak, which allowed Hill to catch and pass him. Hill took his 14th Grand Prix victory, equaling his father Graham's overall number of wins. Hill took back to back Australian victories, the previous race being the last round of 1995, in Adelaide. In the end, the podium was Hill–Villeneuve–Irvine.

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	5	Damon Hill	Williams-Renault	58	1:32:50.491	2	10
2	6	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams-Renault	58	+38.020	1	6
3	2	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari	58	+1:02.571	3	4
4	4	Gerhard Berger	Benetton-Renault	58	+1:17.037	7	3
5	7	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	58	+1:35.071	5	2
6	19	Mika Salo	Tyrrell-Yamaha	57	+1 lap	10	1
7	9	Olivier Panis	Ligier-Mugen-Honda	57	+1 lap	11
8	15	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Sauber-Ford	57	+1 lap	9
9	16	Ricardo Rosset	Footwork-Hart	56	+2 laps	18
10	10	Pedro Diniz	Ligier-Mugen-Honda	56	+2 laps	20
11	18	Ukyo Katayama	Tyrrell-Yamaha	55	+3 laps	15
Ret	20	Pedro Lamy	Minardi-Ford	42	Safety belt	17
Ret	1	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	32	Brakes	4
Ret	21	Giancarlo Fisichella	Minardi-Ford	32	Clutch	16
Ret	11	Rubens Barrichello	Jordan-Peugeot	29	Engine	8
Ret	8	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	24	Throttle	13
Ret	17	Jos Verstappen	Footwork-Hart	15	Engine	12
Ret	3	Jean Alesi	Benetton-Renault	9	Collision	6
Ret	12	Martin Brundle	Jordan-Peugeot	1	Collision	19
DNS	14	Johnny Herbert	Sauber-Ford	0	Collision1	14
DNQ	22	Luca Badoer	Forti-Ford		107% rule
DNQ	23	Andrea Montermini	Forti-Ford		107% rule
Source:[9]

Notes

• ^1 – Herbert is listed as 'Did Not Start' (DNS) in the official results, despite having taken the first start prior to the race being stopped. Regulations at the time were such that in the event of a stoppage being ordered on the first lap, that start would be deemed null and void, and the second start would take place as if the first had never occurred. As he did not make the second start, he’s classified as DNS.