RaceFans has reported:

Damon Hill won the world championship at Suzuka on Oct. 13, 1996, after his Williams team-mate Jacques Villeneuve retired. The result gave Hill the title in his final race for Williams, which had announced earlier that season that it would not race with him the following year.

The race was also the final grand prix appearance for Martin Brundle. Hill’s championship win followed his father Graham Hill’s achievement as a Formula One title winner, a connection highlighted in a RaceFans feature about the race.

The event was marked on Oct. 13, 2026, with RaceFans publishing its item at 12:01 a.m. that day. The page also carried a timestamp of Oct. 12, 2026, at 9:29 p.m. Keith Collantine wrote the item.

Collantine, a lifelong motor sport fan and former motoring journalist, established the site in 2005 under its original name, F1 Fanatic. He began running it full-time in 2010, pursuing his long-held ambition to devote his attention to motor racing.