Nürburgring, April 28, 1996.

On this day, exactly 26 years ago, the son of one of F1’s most revered drivers won his first GP in motorsport’s highest category. The Canadian Jacques Villeneuveson of Gilles Villeneuve (died May 8, 1982), triumphed in the fourth round of the championship, the European GP, ​​held on German territory.

It was the first of his 11 seasons in F1. Jacques was contesting his fourth race of the season, for Williams-Renault where he had finished on the podium in the Australian and Argentine GPs and had retired from the Brazilian GP.

Second on the grid, Jacques Villeneuve took advantage of the poor start of his teammate, the Englishman Damon Hill, to take the lead and win from start to finish on the German circuit, crossing the checkered flag with Michael Schumacher in his wake, less than a kilometer behind. second behind, with the Ferrari.

Jacques and Michael ran a separate race. Third place, which climbed onto the podium alongside the two, went to Englishman David Couthard (McLaren-Mercedes), who finished more than 32 seconds behind the winner.

Villeneuve would win three more races in 1996: the British GP (Silverstone); Hungary (Hungaroring) and Portugal (Estoril), closing his first season in F1 with a second place, 19 points behind Damon Hill, the champion.

Although he was close to the title in 1996, the championship that many thought his father would win had it not been for the Zolder tragedy in 1982 finally came the following year, beating Michael Schumacher by three points.

In his F1 career, Jacques Villeneuve has totalled 11 victories, all with 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 more races in his year of death).

In F1 he has also driven for BAR, Renault, Sauber and BMW Sauber. With BAR he has finished on the podium the last two times, in 2001, in the Spanish (Catalunya) and German (Hockenheim) GPs.

In addition to the F1 title, Jacques Villeneuve also won the Indy championship in 1995, the year he also won the Indianapolis 500.

He was in Brazil for two editions of Stock Car. The Milhão Race in 2011 (in Interlagos) and the Doubles Race in 2015, in partnership with Ricardo Zonta from Paraná, in Goiânia.

His most recent motorsport adventure was in FE, competing in the first three races of the 2015/2016 season, for the Venturi team. He failed to score in China and Malaysia and did not take part in the Uruguayan race after a training accident damaged his car. By mutual agreement with the team, Jacques left the team and was replaced by Englishman Mike Conway.

BELOW, WITH THE NARRATION OF GALVÃO BUENO, THE LAST LAP OF THE EUROPEAN GP, DISPUTED ON APRIL 28, 1996.

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