Yes. Finally. You'll have to excuse me for a while as I'm still pretty happy about Damon Hill winning the FIA Formula One World Drivers' Championship and the Japanese GP. Much of the world doubted that "our" Damon could do it but I think the way he won the race has proved that he is one of the best F1 drivers on the planet.

Back to the business in hand and the Japanese GP was the end of many long running associations. The biggest by far was the Marlboro McLaren split after over 20 years together. West have replaced the Philip Morris owned cigarette brand as title sponsor but it was with sadness that I watched Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard cross the line ending the era of the distinctive red and white cars. The second biggest split was, obviously Damon Hill and Williams, parting after 4 years of racing and a further 2 of testing. Enough has been said about this so I won't ponder any further. The next split has been overlooked but can also be classed as the end of an era; Elf is no longer supplying fuel for Formula One cars, the French petroleum giant having decided to call it a day a year before their technical partner Renault. Elf's departure means that Tyrrell have lot both their fuel supplier and engine supplier. Yamaha have moved to the TWR run Arrows team, leaving Tyrrell with the new Ford ED customer engine that Minardi have been using recently. All I can say is so long... its been nice knowing you (yet another team with a great history looks about to disappear).

Before the race

Qualifying was a bit of a let down as far as excitement went as Jacques Villeneuve decided to show everyone how it was done and, to be honest, annihilated the opposition. Even Damon and Michael Schumacher had no answer the French Canadian's speed (apparently F3 and F1 at Suzuka aren't as different as he'd like us to believe).

Jean Alesi was disappointing, failing to get his Benetton-Renault into the top 8, Heinz-Harald Frentzen managed a superb job in his last race in the Sauber-Ford and unfortunate Giovanni Lavaggi failed to make the cut despite the improved engine.

The Race

The formation lap passed without incident, but as the red lights started to light up, David Coulthard stalled his car, aborting the start and increasing the tension for viewers, drivers and team personnel alike. As the field moved away for the second formation lap, it looked like the McLaren-Mercedes driver would be obliged to start the race in the spare car from the pitlane, but the crew managed to get the car going and he started from the back of the grid (nineteenth).

As the lights went out for the start, Villeneuve made what has to be his worst start of the season and lost five places to drop him down to sixth. He said,

"At the start I didn't give enough throttle so the engine bogged down. It was my mistake. Then I gave it some clutch and the engine went too high. So, I made a dreadful start. It was just very bad. But I am happy because when I came to F1, everyone was telling me it wasn't fun and you cannot overtake. It is not true. I have had fun this year and learnt a lot. "

Regardless of the reason, at the first corner, Hill has leading, followed by Gerhard Berger in the Benetton-Renault, Mika Hakkinen in the McLaren-Mercedes, and Ferrari team-mates Michael Schumacher and Eddie Irvine fourth and fifth respectively.

When the field cleared the first corner, there was a little wheel banging and Jean Alesi spun off the track ending his race and the 1996 season sitting in a wrecked B196. This accident promoted Martin Brundle to seventh place, ahead of his Jordan-Peugeot team-mate, Rubens Barrichello.

As the leaders crossed the line, it was clear that Hill wasn't going to have it all his own way. Gerhard Berger was pushing hard and was only 0.4 seconds behind having opened up a 1.3 second lead over third place. Schumacher, for his part was 0.6 seconds behind Hakkinen and looking like he was going to be able to keep up with the Finn.

The end of this lap also saw Coulthard stopping for more significant repairs to his MP4/11, and he duly emerged in a sound last position.

The end of the second lap indicated who was holding up whom with the leading pair 1.7 seconds ahead of the Hakkinen-Schumacher battle who were a similar distance ahead of the Irvine-Villeneuve scrap. Jacques was clearly being held up but the Ferrari seemed to have better acceleration out of the corners and Irvine was in no mood to relinquish his position without a fight as second place in the Constructors' Championship was still at stake.

On lap 3, the Berger chose the entry to the chicane to stop merely threatening Damon and make a real effort at passing. For a moment it looked as if the Benetton would get past and possibly be in a position to win the race, but Damon firmly closed the door, forcing Gerhard turn in across the curb and break his front wing. This damage proved to be a double benefit for Damon as it got the Benetton out from under him and delayed the rest of the front-runners when they caught Berger (before he entered the pits).

This delay gave Damon an extra second over Mika and meant that at the end of the fifth lap the top 6 was:

Hill->4.644s->Hakkinen->0.583s->Schumacher->0.815s->Irvine->0.753s->Villeneuve->1.019s->Brundle

The order remained the same for an almost unheard of 7 more laps until Villeneuve again showed that it is possible to overtake in F1 by successfully carrying out the same manoeuvre on Irvine that had caused Berger to ruin his chance of victory (or, indeed a podium finish). I must admit at this point that while Villeneuve isn't the most charismatic of drivers in the world, he certainly knows how to overtake and takes his chances where he can find them.

Within a lap, Villeneuve had opened up a 2 second gap to Irvine and had taken 1.5 seconds out of Schumacher's lead. In addition to this the Williams-Renault driver made the current fastest race lap. Leaving the timings for the top 6 as:

Hill->4.050s->Hakkinen->2.037s->Schumacher->1.587s->Villeneuve->2.416s->Irvine->3.500s->Brundle

On lap 14, Pedro Diniz ended his last race for Ligier (Diniz is now confirmed at TWR Arrows next year) by spinning on the exit from the chicane. This was pure driver error and it's a shame that now I've finally managed to change my mind about him, he goes and does something like he used to do.

It was on lap 15 the first of the important stops happened. Jacques Villeneuve pulled into the Williams pits for fuel and tyres. The stop was lengthened as Barrichello came in for his stop and the Williams crew had to keep Jacques in for another 2 seconds while the Jordan passed. As he rejoined the track, he dropped behind Berger's Benetton, which was probably the only car on that area of the track that could keep him from getting the jump on Schumacher after the pits.

There was only one lap to wait until the millions of fans world-wide would find out as Schumacher came in and went through the usual, polished Ferrari stop and roared out of the pitlane well ahead of Villeneuve. The next time round the remaining cars from the top 6 came in and went out, the only change being that Hakkinen and Schumacher swapped positions.

So, at the end of the first round of stops the top 10 was Hill, Schumacher, Hakkinen, Villeneuve, Irvine, Brundle, Berger, Barrichello, Frentzen, and Panis. Hill lead by 2 seconds and a further 2 seconds covered Hakkinen and Villeneuve.

For a while at least, it looked like Schumacher would reel Hill in and have a crack at taking the lead, but Hill managed to get himself going again and stretch the lead out.

Ricardo Rosset (TWR Arrows-Hart) fell foul of the marshals by holding up Ukyo Katayama (Tyrrell-Yamaha), earning himself a 10 second stop-go penalty. This seemed a little lenient as the Arrows driver had caused the breaking of Katayama's front wing, costing the Japanese driver at least 30 seconds on the track.

By lap 28 Gerhard Berger had clawed his way up from his accident to take Brundle's sixth spot and giving the Benetton team at least a glimmer of hope that they would manage to take the runner up place in the Constructors' Championship.

It was around this point that Villeneuve reported to his engineer that he thought he might have a slow puncture in his right rear tyre. As a consequence of this his stop was (allegedly) brought slightly forward so that he would no suffer too much.

The earlier stop meant that he came in just after the outgoing World Champion (Schumacher if my English isn't clear enough, but there are only so many times that you can write a name and not get bored) and, after a slow stop, emerged behind both Berger and Irvine.

After Hakkinen had stopped, a lap later, it was clear that Villeneuve now had no hope of securing the title at his first attempt as he was almost 10 seconds behind Hakkinen (himself 5 seconds off the lead) with two fast cars in front of him. All this was soon to become academic because after being trapped behind Ukyo Katayama for almost a lap on lap 36 (10 second stop-go for Katayama) he lost his rear right wheel and spun off. It was clear straight away that the "puncture" was in fact a failing wheel hub and his engineer confirmed this shortly after the incident. The biggest cause for concern however, was the rogue wheel. For anyone who has never lifted a Formula One wheel and tyre, they are quite heavy (a good deal heavier than a road car wheel and tyre). This particular wheel could be clearly seen from the in car camera, hitting the barriers and vaulting the fence into the spectator area.

As far as the Championship went, that was it, all over because of one of the cheaper parts on the car failed (now Jacques knows hoe Damon felt at Silverstone). Having said this, the race was still going and there was still some chance that Damon might not win.

The top 6 at this point were:

Hill->2.598s->Schumacher->1.411s->Hakkinen->23.612s->Irvine->0.974s->Berger, Brundle

Berger was being his usual self, shadowing Irvine's scarlet machine through every turn (slightly too closely as it turns out). On lap 39, Gerhard tried to overtake Irvine at the chicane, just as he had tried with Hill at the start of the race. This time, Berger was the lucky one and even though he hit Irvine quite hard, the usually fragile Benetton sped off undamaged and still in the chase for points. Irvine, on the other hand was not so lucky. The Ferrari was flung into the air and yet again the luck of the Irish was certainly not with the Ulsterman as he stalled and finished his season precariously parked in the middle of the chicane. Hopefully, 1997 will prove a better season for Irvine and Ferrari will give him the testing he deserves and needs to turn both Ferrari's into winners.

Regular readers will know that I usually get bored at this point as the race seems to die off as everyone apparently decides that crashing with l2 laps to go would be stupid. I'll be honest, I had hoped that this race at least would produce a few desperate maneuvers and exciting racing in the closing laps (being the last race and all) but nobody made much of a move (in the top 6 at least). David Coulthard had made it back up to eighth (Frentzen rounded out the top 6) and under the circumstances should have been relatively happy with his performance.

Damon must have been having a few apprehensions about joining Arrows on the last few laps as he passed both Arrows (Verstappen for the first time and Rosset for the second) but it didn't put him off his stride and he won the race in the best manner (a lights to flag victory).

As Damon crossed the line, I can't have been the only one sitting there with a big grin on my face. I remember Mansell winning in 1992 and another compatriot winning in 1993 (Prost) but I can't recall being as pleased to see either of those take their places in F1 history. Maybe it is national pride, but I genuinely think that Damon Hill deserves the race win, the Championship and recognition for his achievements. After all even Schumacher had to say that nobody wins 8 races in a season through luck.

After the race, Damon dedicated his win to the team but added cheekily that the Championship was for himself.

Once again, regular readers will know that I like to leave the last word to the victor, and this race will be no exception. Before I do this I have to make a personal thank you to Damon Hill for winning me a small amount of money and a goodly amount of beer from Atlas's Managing Editor, Paul (and I expect the second part of it at least Paul).

Back to the man of the moment...

When questioned by a reporter after the race and asked if winning the Championship was his greatest achievement he answered "Oh, I don't know about that. But it has certainly been the most difficult thing I've ever done in my life. . . you should try it sometime."

The chance would be a fine thing Damon