• My Favourite Race - Jacques Villeneuve

'He lifted a little and I went flat-out around the outside'

Jacques Villeneuve knew he had to win the 1996 Potuguese Grand Prix © Sutton Images

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• Race:
• Portuguese Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Damon Hill
• |
• Michael Schumacher
• |
• Jacques Villeneuve

• Teams:
• Williams

Where: 1996 Portuguese Grand Prix - Estoril
When: September 22, 1996

It was the penultimate race of the season, and Damon Hill had 13 points more than championship rival Jacques Villeneuve. If rookie Jacques wanted to stay in the chase, he knew he had to win in Portugal.

Villeneuve was behind Hill on the front row of the grid but made a poor start and was passed by Jean Alesi and Michael Schumacher. The Canadian had to get ahead of Schumacher as soon as he could, and was prepared to take a huge risk to do it: Pass the reigning champ around the outside of the fast, curling final corner.

"Once, during testing, I'd told the team that the final corner was a bit like an oval, and I was convinced it was possible to overtake on the outside," remembers Villeneuve. The previous year, he had seized victory in the Indy 500 and the CART championship. He felt at home around this particular Estoril turn.

As for using it as a passing place - on the outside no less - nobody but him thought it could be done. Soon, his race engineer Jock Clear was calling for a load of cutlery to be delivered to the garage. "When it came to the race weekend it became like a bet. Jock asked that I let the team know before I did it so they could be ready with the spoons to pick up all the little pieces… I just didn't think it would happen with Michael."

Yes, as if passing on the outside wasn't audacious enough, to do so on Schumacher was certifiable. Should Villeneuve get alongside, the tarmac ahead of him would likely run out.

"There was a slow car ahead of Michael [Giovanni Lavaggi's Minardi], and Michael didn't want to be stuck behind it through the corner because he was afraid I would try to overtake him on the straight. So he lifted a little, and I went flat-out around the outside."

Jacques Villeneuve puts pressure on Micheal Schumacher © Getty Images

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Villeneuve burst out from the Ferrari's shadow and pulled alongside Schumacher. As the two cars swept around the clockwise kerb, his right-front Goodyear was just inches from the Ferrari's bargeboard.

He remembers those few seconds like it was yesterday: "Halfway through the corner I got ahead of him, but I was a little bit too wide and started sliding on the marbles, so Michael pulled next to me again. It was very close because at some points our wheels were interlocking. It was fun. I'm just pissed off the camera missed it from the outside."

Instead, the world saw the move from the in-car cameras. It was, simply, jaw-dropping.

As the straight opened up, Villeneuve won the line and stole Schumacher's position, catching a tow from the Minardi ahead. He then steered to pass the backmarker, darting across Schumacher's nose so that he could defend his position. "We got into the straight side-by-side, but I was in the tow and got ahead of him. Moments like that you remember."

Villeneuve had won the bet with his pit crew. He went on to achieve a fabulous victory, which took the championship down to the wire.

"Michael was angry," he says, with a smile. "It's very annoying when something like that happens to you, because you don't think it's possible, and he got caught out. If someone had done that to me I would have been really really pissed off. I didn't do it just to prove a point. I did it because it was the best way to overtake him. That's what kept the championship alive until the last race - it was that move. It was very risky, but very important and it paid off."

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