Watch as Eddie Irvine wrestles the ungainly Ferrari F310 around the principality of Monaco in the qualifying session for the 1996 Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix, eventually achieving a solid seventh place on the grid with a time of 1’21.542, albeit somewhat overshadowed by team leader Michael Schumacher’s stunning pole position time of 1’20.356. In the race, Michael Schumacher dropped behind Damon Hill off the line and then slid into the barriers at Portier. Eddie Irvine motored on, holding fourth place and then third when Gerhard Berger retired early on with a gearbox problem, but his wet-weather pace was poor and only the tightness of the track and his defensive driving skills prevented a queue of cars stretching well back into the midfield from passing.
He survived an assault from Heinz-Harald Frentzen which left the Sauber driver with a broken front wing, but on lap 35 he was dive-bombed by eventual winner Olivier Panis, who lunged his Ligier down the inside at the hairpin, forcing Eddie into the barriers. After receiving a push from the marshals and bump-starting his engine on the incline down to the harbour-front, he returned to the pits for repairs before rejoining several laps down. On lap 69 he spun at Portier, and was collected by the battling pair of Mika Hakkinen and Mika Salo as he attempted to rejoin, eliminating all three drivers. All were classified, however, as they had completed more than 90% of the race distance, shortened to 75 laps by the two-hour time limit.
— see video above —
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