The start of the race was catastrophic for the Sauber team, with both of their drivers Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Johnny Herbert eliminated immediately at the first corner after a collision following an incident also involving Olivier Panis' Ligier and Rubens Barrichello's Jordan. Panis was also forced to retire on the spot; Barrichello was able to continue, although he had to pit to repair his suspension, putting him two laps behind; however, this proved all to no avail, as his suspension collapsed completely on lap 29, forcing him out of the race altogether.
On lap 10, Jos Verstappen pitted with a sticking throttle. No damage was found and the Dutchman was released from the pits, but spun straight off on his return. The incident brought out the safety car for seven laps, during which time all the drivers besides the McLarens of Mika Häkkinen and David Coulthard (both running a one-stop strategy) made pit stops.
Williams driver Jacques Villeneuve, leading the race when the safety car came out, missed his stop on lap 13 (later explaining that he misunderstood the radio instruction to come in due to the confusion brought about by the arrival of the safety car). As a result, he lost the lead to the Ferrari of Michael Schumacher, who eventually won the race, with Villeneuve finishing second.
As a further consequence of Villeneuve's error, his team-mate Damon Hill, then running fifth in the sister Williams, was already on his way into the pits when he was radioed by the team to stay out on the following lap. Hill was briefly held by the marshalls and then returned to the circuit, but heavily delayed. He went down to thirteenth when he finally got to make his pit stop on lap 16; however, he eventually recovered to 5th place by the end of the race, partly due to David Coulthard spinning his McLaren out of 5th place six laps from the end due to a wheel bearing failure.
With his one-stop strategy having been thwarted by the appearance on the safety car, Hakkinen eventually finished in third place, only 18 seconds adrift of Schumacher. Had the safety car not been deployed, the Finn could easily have been in the lead by the end of the race.
Footwork/Arrows' team boss Tom Walkinshaw confirmed after the race that the throttle problem that had caused Verstappen to stop shortly before his crash had not recurred, and that the crash was caused by a faulty wheel.
The Tyrrells of Mika Salo and Ukyo Katayama finished in seventh and eighth places respectively. A fast early stop during the safety car period saw Salo running as high as third at one point.
Running in fourth place at half distance, Gerhard Berger spun off in his Benetton while trying to pass Eddie Irvine's Ferrari, an error which dropped him to 12th place. After setting a string of fastest laps he eventually recovered, coincidentally thanks in part to Irvine's retirement with gearbox problems, to 6th place by the end of the race. Berger's teammate Jean Alesi finished fourth in the sister Benetton, after a largely uneventful race on his part.
Championship standings after the race
Bold text indicates who still has a theoretical chance of becoming World Champion.
Gerhard Berger
