1996 Australian GP – Williams dominates as Villeneuve takes pole on F1 debut

Damon Hill won his first race of the season for Williams in Australia where Williams was dominant on the new street track in Melbourne while his team-mate and debutant Jacques Villeneuve wrote F1 history after he secured pole position in the first ever F1 appearance.

The 1995 Champ Car series winner and the 1995 Indy 500 winner Jacques Villeneuve, 24, had his Formula 1 debut with Williams team which in 1994 and 1995 was beaten by Benetton headed by Michael Schumacher and the son of legendary Gilles impressed already in his first race, winning pole position on the new track in Albert Park.

Williams dominated the qualifying, leaving Ferrari drivers Irvine and Schumacher more than half a second behind, and they were no less dominant in the race as they ended up in the first two positions while third placed Irvine was for more than a minute behind them.

Villeneuve led 50 laps, but due to the oil leak, he had to slow down and was overtaken by his team-mate Hill.

In this race, a starting procedure with only red lights is introduced and is used in Formula 1 since then. The new system has been introduced in with the five red lights turn on every second, and after the fifth light is on, all the lights are simultaneously turned off after a certain period of time. Before that, green lights would appear after the red lights.

Also, there was only one qualifying session on Saturday and the 107% rule saying that a driver who does not set his time within 107% of the fastest time does not have the right to compete in the race.

Interestingly, the last race in 1995 was also held in Australia (Adelaide) and was also won by Damon Hill in Williams.

STARTING GRID

RACE RESULTS

Fastest lap: Jacques Villeneuve – 1:33.421 (lap 27)