Man of the match ..... Schumacher

In what now seems almost a traditional style, Damon Hill again failed to clear the grid in a satisfactory manner. Recent starting practice in Spain seems to have paid off however, as this time he only lost one place going into the first corner. Obviously unsure of why he was running as high as third so close to the start he let Coulthard past and then settled in to a more familiar fourth place.

Up at the front Villeneuve had got away well and Schumacher was chasing him in second place. Hill now fourth, was sandwiched between the two McLaren cars followed by the two Benettons.

The first corner saw a collicion between the two Sauber cars and Olivier Panis, all three going out.

Jacques Villeneuve and Michael Schumacher then began to pull away from Coulthard and the two lead drivers swapped fastest lap times for the first eight laps.

Jos Verstappen came in to the pits with a problem, but returned to the race after a somewhat lengthy 1 minute 30 seconds stop. It turned out that the problem was a sticking throttle as on lap 11 he left the circuit at high speed and crashed heavily into a tyre wall.

The safety car was called out and almost immediately Schumacher dived into the pits for fresh tyres and fuel, other cars followed suit and within three laps all the cars had been in except the two McLarens.

This left the running order Coulthard, Hakkinen, Schumacher. The World champion's decision to pit as soon as the safety car came out looked like being a race winning one.

The safety car went in and the race recommenced, by lap 19 the two McLaren cars still led, Schumacher was still third, Villeneuve had passed Salo and Alesi to go up into fourth. Damon Hill was now running tenth behind Irvine Berger and Brundle.

Berger spun at the Bus Stop which allowed Brundle and Hill past and on lap 20 the order was still Coulthard, Hakkinen, Schumacher, Villeneuve, Alesi and Salo.

While Coulthard came in for fuel on lap 22, his team mate set a fastest lap of 1.54.198, Hakkinen then came in himself rejoining in sixth place ahead of Brundle and Hill. Damon moved up a place when he managed to get past the Jordan and when Irvine came into the pits Hill found himself back in the points.

Schumacher and Villeneuve then began to push each other harder with Schumacher setting the fastest lap of 1.54.164 on lap 27, followed by Villeneuve with 1.53.928 on lap 28.

Ferrari's miserable season then hit another low note when Eddie Irvine pulled over at the Bus Stop with small traces of smoke coming from the back of his Ferrari.

Mika Hakkinen and Damon Hill both managed to get past the Tyrrell of Mika Salo and this was followed by another flurry of pit stops. Schumacher (7.8), Villeneuve (7.6), Alesi (7.5), Salo (7.6) and Hill (6.7) did very little to the running order. Hakkinen who was on a one stop strategy moved ahead of Alesi and Salo dropped back behind Coulthard, Brundle and Berger.

Brundle then toured in to the pits to retire with suspected engine failure while Damon Hill and Gerhard Berger put on a charge, Berger setting a fastest lap of 1.53.896 on lap 35, Hill followed this with 1.53.847 on lap 36 and Berger reduced it further also on lap 36 to 1.53.354.

When David Coulthard went out on lap 38, Berger was promoted to sixth and he kept pushing Damon Hill right to the finish, another fastest lap set on lap 41 was followed by the fastest lap of the day, 1.53.067, which Berger set on lap 42.

Just as Schumacher held off Villeneuve, so too Hill held off Berger. Hakkinen's third place is awelcome result for them and Alesi ran in an untroubled fourth.

With Ferrari winning and McLaren sharing the podium in a race that was not tainted with misfortune, things look good for F1.

Belgian GP Results