520racer's Alternate F1 Universe - 1996 Rounds 5-8 - 520racer's Blog

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520racer's Alternate F1 Universe - 1996 Rounds 5-8

Posted on January 13, 2019 at 05:42 PM.

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Hello again. This is the second quarter of the 1996 Alternate F1 season. After a lengthy delay, mostly regarding me playing Gran Turismo sport in the hopes of finally getting a $20 million prize car from the daily carousel, but I have such horrible luck to begin with. I have decided to conduct the next four rounds of the 1996 season and see what else could happen.

Round 5 Spain
We are now back at a familiar venue, the Catalunya circuit.

Pre-Q: Brundle, Irvine, Salo, Berger, Panis, Sospiri

Pole Position: Jacques Villeneuve by a full second over Michael Schumacher

Top 6 Results:

1 Villeneuve
2 Schumacher
3 Barrichello
4 Alesi
5 Lamy
6 Coulthard

Villeneuve lead from flag to flag to claim a dominant win over his teammate.

Round 6 Monaco

The annual Monaco GP is a big deal for everyone involved in the f1 circus.

Pre-Q: Berger, Salo, Badoer, Fisichella, Verstappen, Diniz

Pole Position: Jacques Villeneuve

Top 6 Results:
1 Villeneuve
2 Hill
3 Hakkinen
4 Alesi
5 Herbert
6 Salo

That makes it back-to-back wins for the 1995 CART champion.

Round 7 Canada

With Villeneuve officially leading the championship for the first time entering his home race. Can he start to open the gap?

Pre Q Result: Irvine, Fontana, Larini, Sospiri, Collard, Berger

Pole Position: Damon Hill

Top 6 Race Results

1 Schumacher
2 Hill
3 Alesi
4 Herbert
5 Villeneuve
6 Lavaggi

The biggest shock here is that pay driver Giovanni Lavaggi did something that he failed to do in real life, score a point!

Round 8 France

Pre-Q Results: Brundle, Irvine, Berger, Sospiri, Badoer, Collard

Pole Position: Jean Alesi

Top 6 Race Results:

Race Forecast: Wet start but drying before the first round of stops

1 Alesi
2 Hill
3 Lavaggi
4 Schumacher
5 Hakkinen
6 Coulthard

For the second race in a row, Lavaggi scores points for TWR. Furthermore, he got on the third step on the podium, meaning he got himself off the reject list in this universe! It's partly due to the crazy drying track and the fact that he started the TWR within the top 5 in Qualifying. Now for the driver�s and team�s tables at the halfway point of the season

Driver�s Standings after Round 8 of 16

Schumacher 42
Hill 34
Alesi 34
Villeneuve 33
Frentzen 11
Barrichello 10
Herbert 9
Hakkinen 9
Marques 6
Lamy 6
Lavaggi 5
Boullion 4
Coulthard 2
Rosset 1
Fisichella 1
Salo 1

At the midway point of the 1996 season. It�s shaping up to be a four way fight between Schumacher and Villeneuve for Ferrari, Damon hill for McLaren and Jean Alesi for Ligier.

Teams Standings after Round 8 of 16

1 Ferrari 75
2 McLaren-Mercedes 44
3 Ligier-Peugeot 38
4 Williams-Mercedes 20
5 TWR-BMW 14
6 Jordan-Peugeot 6
7 DAMS-Honda 6
8 Piquet-BMW 3
9 Benetton-Renault 1
10 Tyrrell-Yamaha 1
11 Minardi-Honda 0 best finish 7th x3
12 Larrousse-Cosworth 0 best finish 8th x2
13 Forti-Ferrari 0 best finish 8th
14 Lotus-Rolls Royce 0 best finish 10th
15 Sauber-Renault 0 Best finish 11th
16 Durango-Hart 0 best finish 12th
17 Volvo 0 best finish 13th

Over at the team�s standings, Ferrari has opened up a sizeable buffer over McLaren and Ligier, who looks like they are battling for 2nd in the championship yet again. Williams holds 4th right now, but are facing a somehow feisty challenge from TWR. Despite Tyrrell scoring their first point of the season, it wasn�t enough for them to get out of Pre-qualifying. As a matter of fact, there were no changes to the pre-q lists after round 8. Recall that only the top 13 teams at the end of the season can earn prize money from the FIA.

The next four races will be posted shortly.