As the race got underway Hill, Berger and Alesi seemed to be going backwards. Alesi had a very bad start, Berger set off smoking his front tyres !! with a locking brake problem and Hill seemed to stutter and dropped back to fifth.

David Coulthard set off like a rocket and nearly outran Villeneuve for the first corner, the young Canadian had the racing line and he led into and out of the first corner.

The order was Villeneuve, Coulthard, Barrichello, Schumacher, Hill, Hakkinen.

On lap two Alesi, trying to make up for lost ground, overtook one of the newly painted Arrows and rammed into the side of Mika Salo. Salo managed to continue, but Alesi damaged his front left suspension and retired.

Damon Hill fought his way past Michael Schumacher and we were then treated to some fantastic racing as Hill tried to get by Barrichello. Everytime he had a look, Schumacher tried to overtake Hill and while this was going on Hakkinen was trying to get past Schumacher.!! Brilliant stuff.

Hill went in for a pit stop and spent 20 seconds under the scrutiny of Patrick Head, it seems that he felt he had a problem with the rear of his car. Hill rejoined in 11th position and a win was now out of the question.

Coulthard came out of the pits right in front of Schumacher, who went past him and into second place.

Shortly afterwards the two McLarens were running with each other, and both were in the points (something that has been missing for a while). Hakkinen's nightmare was just beginning however. He was called in for a stop go penalty for speeding in the pit lane.

Hill had a collision with Diniz and dropped back to 13th, he would now be lucky to score points. Meanwhile at the front Schumacher was beginning to press Villeneuve, Coulthard was a safe third and Barrichello, Hakkinen and Frentzen made up the rest of the points runners.

HIll managed to get to eighth, behind Brundle and then the pit stops started again. Villeneuve kept his lead, Schumacher remained second, though he had pitted earlier he came out behind Coulthard had was held up by the McLaren, Coulthard remained third, Barrichello fourth, Hakkinen fifth and Hill sixth.

Then Hakkinen's nightmare started again, he was given a second stop go penalty for pit lane speeding, and he was now out of the running. This gifted Hill with fifth and moved Brundle up into sixth.

The closing stages of the race saw Schumacher pushing Villeneuve very hard, but the Ferrari just didn't have enough power to get by the Williams. Hill passed Barrichello for fourth place and was really pushing Coulthard for third. They finished nose to tail with Brundle scoring his first points in sixth.

The Nurburgring provided us with easily the best race of the season so far and to pick out the best driver is a very difficult task. Villeneuve was faultless, Schumacher was on top form, Coulthard drove the best race of McLaren's season and Hill charged from 11th to fourth. Honours fairly even, but I feel Coulthard did the most to impress, lets hope McLaren can keep it up.