This weekend’s British Grand Prix leaves the home crowd in confident mood, with Lewis Hamilton leading the World Drivers’ Championship, but there was once a time when a whopping six Brits participated in the British Grand Prix, with two on the podium.
Back when Stevenage-born Hamilton was merely ten years old, two of the era’s finest drivers were fighting it out for the title. For the second season running Michael Schumacher of Benetton and Williams’ Damon Hill were battling for the championship. The enigmatic German was the reigning champion at the time, defeating Hill in controversial circumstances at the 1994 Australian Grand Prix.
The pair collided and sent Hill out, while Schumacher continued, but there was an outrage as many believed, and still do to this day, that Schumacher drove into the Brit on purpose. However the British Grand Prix of 1995 loomed, and Schumacher was leading the championship by 11 points, with his 46 to Hill’s 35. Heading into the eighth race of the season, Schumacher had stuttered in his 1995 campaign, but went on to win three of the last four races going into the race at Silverstone.
Damon, son of double world champion Graham, won the 1994 race in Britain and was eager for a second successive win. He started well as he secured pole position from Schumacher in what were contrasting dry and wet qualifying sessions. The two championship protagonists exchanged times before Hill went fastest with a 1:28:124, nearly three tenths better off than the Benetton man.
A plethora of home-grown talent
The encouraging thing for British fans was the vast amount of home talent on show. There was Hill, his Williams team-mate David Coulthard, Schumacher's team mate Johnny Herbert, Ligier man and current Sky F1 commentator Martin Brundle, McLaren’s Mark Blundell and Eddie Irvine, driving for Jordan.
Race day soon came, and Hill made a great start, holding Schumacher at bay, but the best start was that of Ferrari’s Jean Alesi, the Frenchman went from sixth to second before the first corner at Copse. 110,000 spectators watched as Irvine became the first retirement of the race. The Ulsterman tried to overtake Olivier Panis at Abbey but spun, soon after his engine cut out, making him the first casualty.
Schumacher was stuck in third behind a slower Alesi for most of the race, and with Hill flying ahead of him, the chance for his fourth consecutive win was fading fast. Lap 17 saw the second British retirement as Brundle span out at Luffield and beached his car in the gravel, he was running seventh. A few significant retirements followed, such as Mika Hakkinen, who was fastest in the Sunday warm up in his McLaren, as electrical failures stopped him, while Gerhard Berger in the Ferrari went out due to a wheel issue.
This left Alesi as the sole Scuderia man, but when he pitted he released Schumacher into second, who was running a one stop strategy, in order to try and undercut Hill, who was being caught by the Benetton at some rate. Hill pitted and Schumacher took the lead, and pulled away due to the lighter fuel load. However on lap 31 the German made his only stop, giving Hill the lead. Damon pitted again on lap 41 losing his 27 second lead as Schumacher and Hill were level as he exited the pits.
The battle came to a head...
Lap 46 saw the highlight of the race as a lapped car stopped Hill getting past at Stowe corner, but at Priory things came to a head as Hill dove down the inside, with Schumacher taking the racing line the pair collided, sending them both into the gravel trap and subsequently out. Their team-mates Herbert and Coulthard assumed the fight for the lead, something all Brits were excited to see.