Luca Badoer stalled on the formation lap. At the start of the
race, Damon got away well. Coulthard, however, got away better
still, and was into the lead by the first corner. Schumacher,
meanwhile, had made an awful start, and was down to 5th place -
behind the two Ferraris. Finally, Schumacher takes Alesi for 4th
place. Frentzen was 6th for Sauber. On lap 3, Montermini spins
on the start/finish area, but manages to get going again. Lap 4:

Coulthard
Hill +1.668
Berger +8.514
Schumacher +8.908
Alesi +11.213
Frentzen +12.337
Herbert
Irvine
Barrichelo
Brundle
Blundell

Finally, Schumacher takes Berger for 3rd place, and it starts to
look like the inevitable will happen. Gachot, meanwhile spins
off, but manages to rejoin, briefly. Herbert was fighting with
Frentzen for 6th place, whilst Frentzen's team-mate, Wendlinger,
was into the pits to retire. Positions on lap 12:

Coulthard
Hill
Schumacher
Berger
Alesi
Frentzen
Herbert
Irvine
Barrichelo
Brundle
Blundell
Panis
Morbidelli
Salo
Katayama
Lamy
Inoue
Moreno
Diniz
Gachot
Wendlinger (lap 8)
Montermini (lap 3)
Badoer (lap 0)

By lap 14, Coulthard came up to lap Katayama in 15th place.
Inoue, meanwhile, entertains the crowd by spinning off in front
of a Benetton. Herbert, meanwhile, decides that 6th place should
be his, and dives for Frentzen, and takes it, all be it briefly,
as Fretzen manages to regain the place on the exit of Adelaide
Hairpin. Hill makes the first of his 3 pit stops, allowing
Schumacher to take the place. Berger also pits at the same time.
Coulthard then his turn to pits, and crashes into the pit entry
wall. He later said that the car didn't slow down properly, and
so he couldn't take the corner. Either way, Coulthard was out.
An highly embarassing end to his stay at Williams, and with it
he lost his wager with Ron Dennis on his wages for next season.
On lap 22, Barrichelo retires. On lap 22, Schumacher comes in,
allowing Hill to take the lead. As Schumacher exits the pit
lane, Alesi spead by, demoting Schumacher down to 3rd. Frentzen
also stops, and rejoins in 7th place. Schumacher gets ahead of
Alesi, and then Alesi barges back in front of the German. In the
process, Alesi tore off the right front portion of his wing.
Alesi was forced to pit for a new nose cone. Lamy, meanwhile,
takes his turn to entertain the crowd by spinning off the track,
then spinning onto the track the wrong way, then spinning again
the wrong way, before finally getting it going in the right
direction. Schumacher also pits to inspect the rear of the car
where the Ferrari had got intimate. Alesi also pitted and
retired. Moreno joins Coulthard in the new novelty act of
coliding with pit walls on the entry - this wouldn't be the last
- but unlike Coulthard, Moreno made it to the pits. Lap 25:

Hill
Herbert
Berger
Frentzen
Brundle
Irvine
Schumacher
Blundell
Morbidelli
Panis
Salo
Katayama

Schumacher made another visit to the pits for a look. Again the
crew examine the rear of the car, and finally Schumacher steps
out of the Benetton. A rear wishbone had broken. On lap 31,
Johnny Herbert attempted to pit, but came in far too fast, and
flew across the entry kerbs, avoiding the pit wall and back onto
the track. He toured round, and then made a succesful entry. On
lap 34, Blundell pits for his first stop, whilst Gerhard Berger
retires with a rather cooked engine. Frentzen was now up to
second. By now, not even half distance, there were only 3 cars
on the lead lap. Lap 36:

Hill
Frentzen
Herbert
Irvine
Panis
Morbidelli

On the track, Blundell was busilty holding up second place man
Frentzen. That will surely do Markies attempt to drive for
Sauber the power of good. Hill meanwhile (remember, he's
leading) is 72 seconds ahead of the second place man. On lap 41,
Hill pits, and did one of Williams' cleanest pit stops of the
season. Frentzen, sadly, retires out of the race. The engine was
still going, but it appeared that all drive had gone. Irvine
pits, and rejoins in third place, 1 lap down on the leader. At
half distance, there were only 11 cars left, and only 2 on the
lead lap...... Lap 44:

Hill
Herbert +56.711
Irvine +1 lap
Panis +1 lap
Morbidelli +1 lap
Blundell +1 lap
Salo
Lamy
Katayama
Diniz
Gachot

On lap 55, Herbert pits. Hill now has lapped everyone. Oh the
fun and excitement of Grand Prix racing. On lap 61, Irvine pits,
and Hill pits for his third stop, but there is a drama. The left
front wheel doesn't go on properly, and takes 22 seconds to sort
out. By the time he got out, his lead was drastically cut to 1
minute. Next lap Irvine pits again. Next lap Irvine pits yet
again (honestly) and retires. On lap 71, Herbert retires with
the rear of the car on fire as a consequence of it. On lap 73 of
81, Panis pits for a routine(!) pit stop. On lap 75, Katayama
retires. On lap 78, Panis' Ligier threatens to retire by
sounding awful and belching out thick clouds of oil smoke. He
trundles around, and makes sure of his second place.

Hill
Panis +2 laps
Morbidelli
Blundell
Salo
Lamy
Diniz
Gachot (last finisher)


-- 
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