Nuerburgring, April 28, 1996.
On this day, exactly 27 years ago, the son of one of F1’s most revered drivers won his first Grand Prix in motorsport’s premier class. the canadian Jacques Villeneuveson of Gilles Villeneuve (died May 8, 1982), triumphed in the fourth stage of the championship, the European GP, contested on German territory.
It was the first of his 11 seasons in F1. Jacques competed in his fourth race of the season, for Williams-Renault where he was on the podium at the Australian and Argentine GPs and retired from the Brazilian GP.
Second on the grid, Jacques Villeneuve took advantage of the poor start of his teammate, Englishman Damon Hill, to take the lead and win from start to finish on the German track, receiving the checkered flag with Michael Schumacher in his wake. , less than a second behind, with Ferrari.
Jacques and Michel did a separate race. The third, who took the podium alongside the two, was the Englishman David Couthard (McLaren-Mercedes), who finished more than 32 seconds behind the winner.
Villeneuve would win three more events in 1996: the British GP (Silverstone); Hungary (Hungaroring) and Portugal (Estoril), closing his first season in F1 with the runner-up, 19 points behind Damon Hill, the champion.
While he was close to the title in 1996, the championship many thought his father would have won had it not been for the tragedy at Zolder in 1982 ended up coming the following year, overtaking Michael Schumacher by three points.
In his F1 career, Jacques Villeneuve totaled 11 victories, all for Williams, the same number of triumphs as Brazilians Rubens Barrichello and Felipe Massa and five more than his father, Gilles Villeneuve (the latter with five full seasons and four races more in his year). of death).
In F1 he was also a driver for BAR, Renault, Sauber and BMW Sauber. For BAR, he was on the podium for the last two times, both in 2001, during the GP of Spain (Catalonia) and Germany (Hockenheim).
In addition to the F1 title, Jacques Villeneuve also won the IndyCar championship in 1995 when he also won the Indianapolis 500.
He was in Brazil for two editions of Stock Car. The Corrida do Milhão in 2011 (in Interlagos) and the Corrida de Duplas in 2015, in partnership with Ricardo Zonta from Paraná, in Goiânia.
His most recent motorsport adventure was with FE, contesting the first three races of the 2015/2016 season, for the Venturi team. He failed to score in China and Malaysia and missed the Uruguayan race after a training accident damaged his car.
By mutual agreement with the team, Jacques leaves the team and is replaced by the Englishman Mike Conway.
BELOW, WITH NARRATION BY GALVÃO BUENO, THE FINAL ROUND OF THE EUROPEAN GP, PLACED ON APRIL 28, 1996.
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