The 1995 Canadian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on June 11, 1995 at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal. It was the sixth race of the 1995 Formula One season.
It is notable for having produced the only Grand Prix victory for French driver Jean Alesi. This was seen as a popular victory, as Alesi had waited over five years for a victory and he was driving the red number 27 Ferrari, as famously driven by Canadian hero Gilles Villeneuve. Adding to the victory was the fact that the win also occurred on Alesi's 31st birthday.
Michael Schumacher led until a late problem with his gearbox necessitated a long pit stop. Several other regular front-runners had problems, allowing both Jordans to finish on the podium for the first time in their history. Jordan had scored their first-ever GP points in Montreal 4 years earlier.
After Alesi crossed the finished line, race fans broke through the fences and charged the pit area. Race officials put out the black flag, effectively requiring all drivers to immediately stop on the track. However, Alesi was now entering the hairpin at the far end of the circuit on his victory lap. Running out of fuel, he removed his steering wheel, stood on top of the car and "surfed" it to a stop. Schumacher, approaching from behind, stopped and famously gave Alesi a lift back to the pits on top of his car.
Also, that Sunday evening, the first rumours started circulating that Michael Schumacher had signed a multi-million dollar contract with Ferrari for 1996.
The race was run over 69 laps, but the results were declared after 68 laps because of crowd invasion just after Alesi had finished. In original results, Luca Badoer finished in 7th, ahead of Mika Salo who had stopped next to the pit wall to avoid hitting spectators.
Read more about 1995 Canadian Grand Prix: Standings After The Race
Famous quotes containing the words canadian and/or grand:
“We’re definite in Nova Scotia—’bout things like ships ... and fish, the best in the world.”
—John Rhodes Sturdy, Canadian screenwriter. Richard Rossen. Joyce Cartwright (Ella Raines)
“Philosophy is written in this grand book—I mean the universe—
which stands continually open to our gaze, but it cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and interpret the characters in which it is written. It is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometrical figures, without which it is humanly impossible to understand a single word of it.”
—Galileo Galilei (1564–1642)