Damon Hill, who started the race from pole position, spun out while leading on lap 30 with an apparent gearbox problem, which was later found to be a suspension failure.

Other notable performances came from Berger, who took the final podium position despite being delayed during one of his routine pit stops due to a problem with a loose wheel nut, from Mika Häkkinen, who finished fourth for the McLaren team despite its new car proving to be uncompetitive in pre-season testing, and from Mika Salo, who drove strongly in the first half of the race to run third in his first Grand Prix for the Tyrrell team, only to suffer from a cramp and drop back to seventh place at the finish.

Blundell was standing in for regular driver Nigel Mansell in the second McLaren until the team could produce a wider chassis in which to accommodate him, as the car's initial cockpit design had proved to be too narrow for him to drive comfortably.

[4] Local Jordan driver Rubens Barrichello was even more vocal in his criticism of the track's condition, declaring that the circuit organisers were "a bunch of idiots.

The São Paulo city authorities had planned to rename the circuit after Senna, but the family of Carlos Pace, the existing dedicatee, objected.

[14] Hill arrived at the event with the psychological advantage of having set the fastest time at the final pre-season testing session at the Autódromo do Estoril, 0.35 seconds faster than Schumacher's best around the circuit.

[16] Mansell's arrival at McLaren was due to demand from the team's sponsors, including Philip Morris, whose brand, Marlboro, was on the car, who wanted to enjoy the publicity associated with the 1992 World Champion's return even if it meant him performing worse than teammate Häkkinen.

[13][16] McLaren were also concerned about the standard refuelling equipment provided for 1995 by suppliers Intertechnique, having suffered a major leak in a test of the new rig outside of its factory.

Intertechnique had redesigned the fuel equipment, which was used by all of the teams, in the wake of a pit lane fire suffered by driver Jos Verstappen during the previous year's German Grand Prix.

[18] Intertechnique traced the problem to a faulty valve within the equipment, which caused 10 kilograms (22 lb) of fuel to leak, and modified the parts accordingly.

As before, all cars were subject to routine fuel tests as part of the scrutineering process throughout the weekend to ensure compliance with the sport's technical regulations.

[4] Williams Technical Director Patrick Head estimated that a weight penalty of 7 kilograms (15 lb) could cost 14 seconds over the course of 70 laps of the circuit.

[4] Schumacher explained the weight gain as a consequence of a fitness regime over the winter that had converted excess fat to muscle, and also admitted to eating and drinking heavily, in addition to refraining from using the toilet, prior to the weigh-in.

[27] Blundell in the McLaren was sixth, with teammate Häkkinen finishing the session in 14th position, the Finnish driver complaining of steering problems with the car.

[13] "Michael's done a good job to show that he can get over setbacks like that and I've learnt from last year never to underestimate the guy so, the only thing I could say is with reference to the grid is that at least we've got him surrounded as far as the British are concerned, we've got two behind him, one alongside and one ahead."

Hill set a provisional pole position time of 1:20.081 during the first qualifying session, ahead of Berger, Coulthard, Alesi, Häkkinen and Schumacher.

[32][33] Replacement steering components were sourced from São Paulo by Benetton engineer Tim Wright, and the team did not encounter any problems over the remainder of the weekend.

[35] However, a hole was punched in the bottom of Herbert's monocoque chassis during the session as a result of damage, leading to a night of repairs in order for him to be able to take the start in his designated race car.

[13] The work required to repair both Benetton cars caused Schumacher's race engineer, Pat Symonds, to describe the weekend as "one of the hardest [...] I can remember for many years".

Wendlinger took 19th position, the Sauber cars handling particularly badly on the bumpy track,[9] ahead of Bertrand Gachot and Montermini (both Pacific drivers), who sandwiched Inoue in the second Footwork.

[36] The Simtek team did not take part in the session, as both drivers waited for stronger suspension components flown out from the United Kingdom to be fitted to the cars for the race.

[34] Panis, who started from tenth position in a Ligier, spun at the first corner after a nudge from Katayama, hitting the wall in the process and retiring from the race.

[7] Henceforth, Schumacher and Hill began to gradually pull away from Coulthard, who realised that he could not match the pace of the leaders and settled into his own rhythm, albeit one that was still comfortably faster than the cars behind him.

[1] Häkkinen and Berger were the final drivers of the leading teams to pit, however, the McLaren mechanics had trouble getting the fuel hose off the Finn's car when he stopped on lap 23, losing him ten seconds.

[1][7] Once in front of Schumacher, Hill was able to gradually extend his lead to 3.4 seconds by lap 30 despite carrying a heavier fuel load for one fewer planned pit stop.

"[6] After the Grand Prix, Schumacher's Benetton and Coulthard's Williams cars were excluded from the race classification as a result of the illegal fuel sample "fingerprints", and Berger declared the new victor.

[9] In addition to Benetton and Williams, fuel samples were taken from the Ferrari (Agip) and McLaren (Mobil) cars during the event, all of which were declared legal after FIA analysis.

[2] It was generally agreed that the illegal fuel did not offer a performance advantage or break any of the regulations relating to chemical composition, only that it did not precisely match the sample that had previously been lodged with the FIA.

Mosley also commented on the weight issue surrounding Schumacher saying that "it is a pity that it became a matter for public discussion, whether he drank a huge amount of water, didn't go to the loo or had a heavy helmet.

[2] Elf was also unhappy with the way in which the episode had been handled, the company's Commercial Director Michel Bonnet declaring that "We believe the FIA acted in a high-handed manner in disqualifying our two cars so quickly.