1996 Monaco Grand Prix

1996 Monaco Grand Prix
Race 6 of 16 in the 1996 Formula One World Championship
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Race details
Date 19 May 1996
Official name LIV Grand Prix Automobile de Monaco
Location Circuit de Monaco, Monte Carlo
Course Street circuit
Course length 3.328 km (2.068 miles)
Distance 75 laps, 249.600 km (155.094 miles)
Scheduled distance 78 laps, 259.584 km (161.298 miles)
Weather Overcast, mild, wet at first, drying later, light rain at finish
Pole position
Driver Ferrari
Time 1:20.356
Fastest lap
Driver France Jean Alesi Benetton-Renault
Time 1:25.205 on lap 59
Podium
First Ligier-Mugen-Honda
Second McLaren-Mercedes
Third Sauber-Ford
Lap leaders
JS43 of the type driven by Olivier Panis at the 1996 Monaco Grand Prix, on display.
Formation lap

The 1996 Monaco Grand Prix (formally the LIV Grand Prix Automobile de Monaco) was a Formula One motor race held at Monaco on 19 May 1996. It was the sixth race of the 1996 Formula One season. The race was run in very wet weather, and set a record for the fewest cars to be running at the end of a Grand Prix race, with the three podium finishers being the only cars left.

Olivier Panis scored his first and only win of his Formula One career, earning the last Formula One victory for the Ligier team, and the first ever for engine manufacturer Mugen-Honda, after switching to slick tyres in a well-timed pitstop. Second place went to David Coulthard in a McLaren-Mercedes. Johnny Herbert was the last finisher in a Sauber, scoring his only points of the season.

This was the last win by a French Formula One driver until Pierre Gasly won the 2020 Italian Grand Prix and also the last Grand Prix win by a French-licensed Formula One constructor until Renault won the 2003 Hungarian Grand Prix.