9 days left until the Australian GP. Starting from P14 in his #9 Ligier, Olivier Panis emerged as the unlikely winner of a surreal 1996 Monaco GP. Only three cars saw the chequered flag and Panis became the last French winner until Gasly’s Monza miracle. Ligier was sold to Alain Prost in early 1997.

This was the sixth race of the 1996 season. So far, Williams had won all the other races, four of those courtesy of eventual World Champion Damon Hill, while his rookie teammate Jacques Villeneuve hit back with a victory on the Nürburgring. Meanwhile, Ligier had a disappointing start to the campaign with only a single point so far, scored by Panis in Brazil. Things didn't look peachy at the prestigous prinicipality pole battle either, as Panis and teammate Pedro Diniz only found themselves in P14 and P17. At the front, Michael Schumacher won his second consecutive, somewhat controversial pole position and was looking to convert it into his first win in Ferrari red.

Come race day, Olivier Panis impressed with the fastest time in the warm-up session. Subsequently, a heavy rain shower hit the circuit. As the rest of the weekend had been dry before, the drivers were granted another short outing on the track to get used to the new conditions. Here, a crash by Forti's Andrea Montermini already reduced the grid to 21 starters, which then became 20 after Jos Verstappen's heroics into Sainte Devote at the start. By the end of the first lap, the two Minardis, Rubens Barrichello and – most notably – Michael Schumacher were out of the race as well.

In the following laps, accidents by Ukyo Katayama and Ricardo Rosset as well as mechanical failures for Diniz and Gerhard Berger decimated the field even further. With now only 12 survivors still in the mix, the chaos calmed down for a while. The next retirement hit Martin Brundle who spun into the barrier on Casino Square. Meanwhile, Hill and Alesi were driving a lonely race at the front. The Brit had briefly lost his lead after a pit stop for slicks, but quickly retook it from the still wet-shod Benetton driver.

Damon Hill wanted to emulate his father's outstanding five victories in Monte Carlo and was ready to die on that hill, however his engine died on Hill first. A broken oil pump caused clouds of smoke to emerge from his Williams on lap 41, ending his dream. A bit further back, eyes were now set on Olivier Panis. The Frenchman was somehow running in second place after Hill's DNF and thanks to overtaking Eddie Irvine in the hairpin. Incredibly, he then inherited the lead from Alesi whose suspension had given up on lap 60.

The Ligier driver now was leading a Grand Prix for the first time, but McLaren's David Coulthard kept nipping at Panis' rear tyres. Fun fact: Coulthard was driving with a spare Schumi helmet as he had experienced fogging issues with his own one. Behind the pair, the battle of attrition continued. Jacques Villeneuve collided with Luca Badoer while trying to lap him and elsewhere, Eddie Irvine spun out at the same corner as his teammate on the opening lap. While Irvine was trying to rejoin, Mika Salo drove into the back of his Ferrari which then caused the other Mika, namely Häkkinen, to rear-end his compatriot.

This left only four cars in contention for the win. Panis, Coulthard and the two Saubers of Herbert and Frentzen. As the German was running far behind everyone else, he decided to retire early with classification secured after having completed more than 90% of the race distance. By the way, there wasn't a single safety car deployment despite all the chaos. Still, the two-hour limit shortened the race to 75 laps instead of the intended 78. The first driver to take the chequered flag was the elated Panis, followed by Coulthard and Johnny Herbert. That's it.

This was the last of nine wins for the long-standing Ligier team. The 15-year span between their eighth and this final win stands as the longest period of time between two wins of an uninterruptedly existing team. Also, Ligier is still the last now-defunct team to win a race. It was sold to Alain Prost in 1997 who then operated Prost Grand Prix until the French legacy ended in 2001.

Talking about French, Panis' win remained the most recent victory for a French driver until Pierre Gasly's win in Monza and the last fully French car-and-driver combo to win a race until Esteban Ocon's surprise in Hungary. He remained with the revamped Prost team and had an impressive start to 1997 with two podiums from the first six races. Unfortunately, he broke his legs at the Canadian GP and was ruled out for most of the remaining season. Panis stayed in Formula 1 until 2004, driving for Prost, BAR and Toyota, but never returned to his early 1997 form. After several years in sportscar racing, he started his own team that recently won the European Le Mans Series. Check out Panis' appearance on the Beyond the Grid podcast if you want to learn more about his eventful career.