On June 2nd, 1996, the Formula 1 grid went to the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for the 1996 Spanish Grand Prix.
It was the seventh round of the 1996 F1 campaign, and the Williams drivers (Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve) had won five of the first six events. At the 1996 Monaco GP, the sixth race of the season, Olivier Panis won for Ligier in a crazy wet race, which included mistakes from polesitter Michael Schumacher, who was competing in his first year with the Scuderia Ferrari.
At Barcelona, another wet Grand Prix came on, and Schumacher wouldn’t miss the chance to show his credentials as the Rainmaster. Although he started the race in third place, Schumacher had qualified nine-tenths behind Pole Position.
However, the German champion dominated the wet Grand Prix and won the race with a 45-second gap over Jean Alesi’s Benetton and 48 seconds ahead of third-placed Jacques Villeneuve.
#Schumacher lapped all finishers outside of the podium, although only six cars finished the event. It was Schumacher’s 20th F1 victory, the first of three wins in 1996, and the first of his 72 victories with Ferrari.
