At the start, David Coulthard got away well, leaving Schumacher
to battle it with Hill. Despite a brave attempt, Schumacher
failed, and ended up down in 5th place, behind Alesi (who got up
to 2nd), Hill and Berger. By the end of the first lap, Coulthard
had built a 2.8 second lead. Hill was on the tail of the
Ferrari, looked, but got nowhere near to getting by. Coulthard,
meanwhile, was striding away with a 4.2 second lead by the end
of lap 2. By lap 3, Gachot (driving for Pacific again) was out.
On lap 4, Schumacher out dragged Berger on the straight and take
4th. Positions on lap 5:

Coulthard
Alesi +8.426
Hill +9.117
Schumacher +10.973
Berger +12.110
Herbert +12.914

On lap 8, J-C Boullion retired. By lap 10, Schumacher was all
over the Williams of Hill, who was falling behind from Alesi.
Schumacher made a daring move to go around the outside of Hill
at the hairpin, but it didn't pay off. Suzuki spun off on lap
12. By lap 14, the 2-3-4 trio came up upon the Forti of Diniz.
Barrichello, clearly inspired by Schumachers attempt on Hill,
tries the same thing on Magnusson. Like Schumachers' attempt it
failed. Meanwhile, in the pits, Ferrari and Williams were
preparing for stops. Hill had a look at Alesi, but failed again.
Benetton now had also joined the preparations for stops. The
trio all enter the pits together. Once again, the Benetton team
showed how they manage to make the most of every opportunity, 
giving Schumacher only as much fuel as would go in whilst tyres
were fitted. Hill was last out, a problem with the left rear
tyre hampering his progress. Positions on lap 20:

Coulthard
Berger
Herbert
Schumacher
Irvine
Frentzen

Hill manages to get by Frentzen for 5th place (Herbert has now
also pitted). Was Coulthard on a 2 stopper? Alesi makes a
wonderful tyre-smoking dive on Irvine, and gets by. Hill tries
to follow (rather unwisely) and taps the rear of the Jordan. In
the process Hill manages to damage his left-front end plate.
Hill must ask Father Christmas for stronger wings for his
present. Coulthard finally pits, 11.3 seconds, a clear 2 stop
strategy was in place. Positions on lap 25:

Coulthard
Schumacher +7.528
Alesi +26.859
Hill +28.213
Irvine +30.239
Berger +31.302

Hill is once again over Alesi, trying to get by, but failing.
Meanwhile, there was drama in the Benetton pit. When the tyres
from both cars were removed it was found that something was
fouling the wheels and machining them away. On lap 27, Hill was
in a position again to challenge Alesi, but once again nothing
happened. Further up the field, Schumacher was tearing into
Coulthards lead. On lap 33, Schumacher comes in for his second
stop. Barrichello, meanwhile, takes 10th place from Magnusson.
Williams, Benetton and Ferrari were once again ready for a stop.
This time it was for Hill, Herbert & Alesi. The former two pit
together, Ferrari waiting another lap. Schumacher sets a fastest
lap of 1m16.374, and Inoue retires from 18th place. On lap 44,
Berger takes his stop, whilst Coulthard was seeing his lead
being eaten by Schumacher at a tremendous rate. On lap 48, Diniz
retires - nothing spectacular there, except that he decided to
make it noticeable by going all over the edge of the track
kicking mud all over the track. Nice one. The Williams team were
once again ready for a stop. Coulthard pitted in 11.8 seconds,
hoping to remove the performance deficit to Schumacher.
Schumacher now had the lead again. It would be a few laps before
he pitted, and when he did, he didn't lose the lead again.
Everything went rather quiet from then on, with Barrichello
retiring on lap 69, and Irvine had a rear puncture on lap 75,
but rejoined the race. 


And so to the end. 
Schumacher won. 
Hill didn't. 
Schumacher champion. 
Hill isn't.

Schumacher
Coulthard
Hill
Berger
Alesi
Herbert

-- 
Stephen M Baines

 "[The Autosport sticker] started to peel off in the middle of Eau Rouge
 and it distracted me. In fact it was the first thing to hit the barrier"
    Tiff Needell - Jaguar XJR-15 Challenge - Interview with Autosport

       F1/TouringCars http://turnpike.net/metro/vollans/index.html