Date 4 July 1993 Course length 4.250 km (2.651 mi) | Course Permanent circuit | |
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Distance 72 laps, 306.000 km (190.892 mi mi) | ||
The 1993 French Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the Magny-Cours on 4 July 1993. The race was the eighth round of the 1993 Formula One season and was contested over 72 laps. It was won by Williams driver, and home favourite, Alain Prost, who extended his lead in the Drivers' Championship; his team-mate Damon Hill was second, and Michael Schumacher completed the podium for Benetton. The race was also the last for Fabrizio Barbazza.
Contents
Qualifying
With local hero Prost taking pole in all of the previous seven races, there was a massive turnout for qualifying where the Williams were usually dominant. The Williams did take 1-2 in qualifying, but it was Hill who took his first Formula One pole ahead of Prost. The Ligier team, in its home race, filled the second row with Martin Brundle ahead of Mark Blundell, and thus completed a 1-2-3-4 for Renault-powered cars. Ayrton Senna in the McLaren and Jean Alesi in the Ferrari were on the third row, Schumacher in the Benetton and Rubens Barrichello in the Jordan made up the fourth, and the Larrousse team, also contesting its home race, took up the fifth with Érik Comas ahead of Philippe Alliot.
Race
At the start, the top 5 stayed the same while Schumacher got ahead of Alesi. Hill led from Prost, Brundle, Blundell, Senna and Schumacher.
The Williams pulled away while Brundle pulled away from Blundell who was holding up Senna and Schumacher. However, this ended when Blundell, under pressure from Senna spun off on lap 21 into retirement. It was time for the mid-race stops during which Prost got ahead of Hill and Senna and Schumacher closed up on Brundle.
During the second stops, Prost stayed ahead - just by two-tenths while Senna and Schumacher got ahead of Brundle. Schumacher passed Senna when the two were going through traffic and pulled away. Prost won with Hill right behind to make it a Williams 1-2 ahead of Schumacher, Senna, Brundle and Andretti.
Thus, at the halfway stage of the season, Prost led the World Championship with 57 points. Senna was a further 12 points behind in second with 45, Hill was third with 28, Schumacher was fourth with 24, Brundle fifth with 9, Blundell sixth with 6, Herbert seventh with 6 and Lehto eighth with 5. There were no real battles in the Constructors Championship with Williams comfortably leading with 85 points with McLaren 37 points behind in second with 48. Benetton were third with 29 and Ligier were fourth with 15.
Following the death of former world champion James Hunt, former British driver Jonathan Palmer moved from Pit Lane reporter and took Hunt's place in the BBC commentary booth for the race. Palmer would continue to partner Murray Walker in the booth until the end of the 1996 season.