1995 Canadian F1 Grand Prix Race Report & Results

Event: Canadian Grand Prix
Track: Circuit Gilles Villeneuve

Weather: overcast, drying after morning rain

Jean Alesi won his first F1 World Championship race at the 1995 Canadian F1 GP today. The Ferrari driver started from fifth and won on the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve for the first time. It was also his first win of the season and the 105th win for the Ferrari F1 team, a new all-time record.

Villeneuve at Indianapolis, F1 at the door

Montreal opened with Bernie Ecclestone visibly courting Jacques Villeneuve. The 24-year-old son of Gilles had just won the Indianapolis 500 for Team Green; the Canadian crowd's enthusiasm had reached new heights; the local IndyCar promoters were now openly talking to Montreal politicians about taking the city's premier race. Ecclestone, characteristically, posed for press photographs with Villeneuve's manager Craig Pollock and made sure the agencies received them. Frank Williams, more privately, watched proceedings closely; Renault Sport's Christian Contzen and Bernard Dudot would attend Portland's IndyCar race two weeks later to take their own measure.

Simtek had folded. After accumulating £6 million in debt, with Hideki Noda's Tenoras sponsorship vaporised in the Kobe earthquake and the XTC banking statements found to be falsified, Nick Wirth conceded that the team could not travel to Montreal. Both Simtek cars were absent. The grid was down to 24.

Schumacher's third pole, Friday's best

The Saturday qualifying session brought heat that left the Friday times standing. Schumacher took pole at 1m27.661s, Renault's 100th F1 pole, with Hill second 0.4s back, Coulthard third, Berger fourth (after having his Saturday times briefly invalidated for completing thirteen flying laps rather than the regulation twelve), Alesi fifth, Herbert sixth. The Jordan-Peugeots qualified eighth (Irvine, after a Saturday spin) and ninth (Barrichello, after hitting the wall at Turn 5).

Schumacher leads, Schumacher fails

Schumacher led from the lights with Hill second, Coulthard third, Berger fourth. On lap 1 Häkkinen attempted an over-ambitious pass on Herbert at the Casino hairpin, wheels touched, both retired. On lap 2 Coulthard, third in his Williams T-car following Saturday's spin, lost his rear at the Casino exit and beached in the gravel, his third successive retirement. Alesi passed Berger by lap 2 for fourth, then Hill on lap 17 for second.

By lap 35 Schumacher had a fifty-two-second lead with the field running clean. Berger, ahead on his pit stop, ran out of fuel on the run to the chicane and barely coasted into the pit lane, Ferrari's calculations had been disastrously tight. He lost 25 seconds and slipped to eighth. Hill's W17 lost hydraulic pressure on lap 51, the gearbox locked, and the championship contender stopped at the pit wall in furious frustration. Williams retired its second car in the most ignominious manner.

On lap 58, with Schumacher leading by 32 seconds, a short-circuit on the Benetton's gear-selection electronics jammed the box in third. The German limped to the pit lane; the mechanics changed the steering wheel; he rejoined a minute and a half later in seventh, with Alesi now leading at last. Alesi, suddenly and unexpectedly the leader on his 31st birthday, in the Ferrari numbered 27 in tribute to Gilles Villeneuve, started watching his own fuel gauge with mounting nervousness.

Berger and Brundle, the gravel

The final twist came on lap 62. Berger, recovered to seventh, dived inside Brundle at the first corner with too much speed, hit the kerb, and tangled with the Ligier. Both retired into the gravel. Alesi had clear track ahead. He crossed the line for his first F1 victory in 91 starts, weeping into his helmet.

Behind him, Rubens Barrichello and Eddie Irvine took a sensational Jordan-Peugeot double podium, second and third. Olivier Panis fourth for Ligier-Mugen-Honda. Schumacher salvaged fifth. Gianni Morbidelli sixth for Arrows-Hart's first point of the year. Alesi's car ran out of fuel a few hundred metres after the line; Schumacher, fittingly, picked him up. Alesi climbed onto the Benetton's airbox and was paraded round the circuit to a packed crowd, Quebecois fans pouring onto the track before the chequered flag, the first proper F1 fan invasion since Italy in 1991.

The 27 carries home

"This happiness is very difficult to express," Alesi said, voice still cracking. "I have just lived my dream, to win in F1. Since arriving in this category, you have seen me live enormous hopes and difficult moments. The road has been long and winding, but here we are arrived." That evening at Buona Notte in Montreal, Alesi celebrated with Kumiko Goto, his brother José and Alain Prost. In Avignon, his parents Franco and Marcella unplugged the phone. The Scuderia's 105th career victory was a new F1 all-time record, edging McLaren's mark from Adelaide 1994.

Eddie Jordan partied with Jean-Pierre Jabouille at the Peugeot motorhome. "This double podium is the best gift in F1 with Peugeot!" Jabouille phoned Jacques Calvet in Paris. The McLaren-Peugeot disappointment of 1994 was, twelve months later, beginning to look like Eddie Jordan's gain.

Schumacher led the championship 36-29 over Hill. Williams had thrown two clear chances of points away in five weeks. Frank Williams was now openly considering Villeneuve for 1996. Coulthard's position was suddenly less secure than it had appeared in April. Magny-Cours in two weeks, and Schumacher's home-of-Renault appearance, would be the next test.

Event: Canadian Grand Prix
Track: Circuit Gilles Villeneuve

Classification 1995 Canadian F1 GP

Pos	#	Driver	Team	Time	Laps	Grid	Pts
1	27	Jean Alesi	Ferrari	1:44:54.171	68	5	10
2	14	Rubens Barrichello	Jordan	1:45:25.858	68	9	6
3	15	Eddie Irvine	Jordan	1:45:27.441	68	8	4
4	26	Olivier Panis	Ligier	1:45:30.677	68	11	3
5	1	Michael Schumacher	Benetton	1:45:31.231	68	1	2
6	9	Gianni Morbidelli	Footwork	+1 lap	67	13	1
7	4	Mika Salo	Tyrrell	+1 lap	67	15	0
8	24	Luca Badoer	Minardi	+1 lap	67	19	0
9	10	Taki Inoue	Footwork	+2 laps	66	22	0
10	25	Martin Brundle	Ligier	Collision	61	14	0
11	28	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari	Collision	61	4	0
DNF	23	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi	Throttle	60	17	0
DNF	22	Roberto Moreno	Forti	Fuel system	54	23	0
DNF	5	Damon Hill	Williams	Gearbox	50	2	0
DNF	7	Mark Blundell	McLaren	Engine	47	10	0
DNF	3	Ukyo Katayama	Tyrrell	Engine	42	16	0
DNF	16	Bertrand Gachot	Pacific	Battery	36	20	0
DNF	30	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Sauber	Engine	26	12	0
DNF	21	Pedro Diniz	Forti	Gearbox	26	24	0
DNF	29	Jean-Christophe Boullion	Sauber	Spun Off	19	18	0
DNF	17	Andrea Montermini	Pacific	Gearbox	5	21	0
DNF	6	David Coulthard	Williams	Spun Off	1	3	0
DNF	2	Johnny Herbert	Benetton	Collision	0	6	0
DNF	8	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren	Collision	0	7	0

Fastest lap: 1:29.174 min by Michael Schumacher (Benetton B195) in lap 67

✅ Check out 1995 F1 Championship Standings
✅ Check out 1995 F1 Teams & Drivers

✅ Check out All Time F1 Drivers Rankings
✅ Check out All Time F1 Driver Records
✅ Check out All Time F1 Teams Rankings

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Leopold

Leopold Pleijsier founded F1-Fansite.com in 2001 and has followed Formula 1 since the early 1980s. He writes about daily F1 news, race weekends, drivers and the sport’s history.

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