The Ligier team had Martin Brundle's car fitted with power steering for the first time and he chose to use it for the race, but teammate Olivier Panis, who had run with the system earlier in the season, decided against it.

McLaren revised its troubled MP4/10B chassis's suspension geometry, and Mika Häkkinen's car was equipped with a more powerful version of its Mercedes V10 engine for Sunday's warm-up session and the race itself.

[14] In the week leading up to the race, Williams chief designer Adrian Newey reignited the controversy over the similarities between the Benetton B195 and Ligier JS41 chassis, which had first flared up at the season-opening Brazilian Grand Prix.

[3][15] Despite the fact that a Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) investigation had declared the JS41 legal earlier in the season,[16] Newey stated that "as far as suspension geometry and aerodynamics are concerned, I'd say they are identical.

[18] Weather conditions for Friday qualifying were dry and sunny, albeit blustery, which meant that drivers had to cope with strong crosswinds in the circuit's many high-speed corners.

[6][14] Berger and Alesi set the fourth and sixth fastest times respectively for Ferrari, both drivers disadvantaged by a lack of straightline speed compared to the Renault-powered Williams and Benetton cars, and the fact that the Italian team was not allowed to take part in pre-event testing at the circuit as per the FIA's regulations.

[3] Eddie Irvine set the seventh quickest time in his Jordan despite suffering a recurring brake balance problem, ahead of Häkkinen in the faster of the two McLaren cars.

Behind Boullion, Papis set the 17th fastest time in his first Formula One qualifying session, split from teammate Taki Inoue by Luca Badoer in the second Minardi, who was unable to complete his allocated laps after spinning and breaking the car's gearbox.

[1][14] Saturday free practice took place in mixed weather conditions: the session was initially dry, but was then hit by a rain shower which dampened it somewhat; the times were thus slower and more spread out down the field than the previous day.

It continued to rain throughout Saturday's qualifying session; the slower conditions meant that none of the top 24 drivers could improve upon their times from the previous day, setting the order of the starting grid and guaranteeing Hill pole position.

[20] Coulthard set the quickest time of the session with a lap of 1:29.752, ahead of Schumacher, Alesi and Salo, with Hill, Barrichello, Brundle, Badoer, Irvine and Frentzen completing the top ten.

[1] Hill admitted that the wet session was "a bit of a let-down",[23] and was cautious on his race prospects, as he had failed to win from his two pole positions earlier in the season, but was delighted with the outcome nonetheless.

[1] Despite the fact that the time was set on brand-new tyres, unlike many of those recorded by the opposition, it was still an encouraging boost for the McLaren team, which had endured a troubled season thus far.

[1] Hill reported that his car handled well in race trim, whilst Schumacher concentrated on fuel consumption tests, and did not attempt to set a particularly quick time.

[1][14][29] At the end of the first lap, Hill led by 1.1 seconds from Alesi,[29] who was followed by Schumacher, Coulthard, Herbert, Häkkinen, Barrichello, Brundle, Berger, Frentzen, Blundell, Panis, Irvine, Martini, Katayama, Boullion, Salo, Papis, Inoue, Gachot, Badoer, Diniz, Montermini and Moreno.

[1] On the second lap, Irvine tried to pass Panis at the Abbey chicane, but spun in the process and dropped further back, shortly before his engine cut out, making him the first retirement of the race.

[1][14] As Hill extended his lead, the stewards informed the Jordan and Ligier teams that Barrichello and Panis had jumped the start, for which they were served with ten-second stop-go penalties.

On lap 17, Brundle spun out of seventh place at Luffield and beached his car in the gravel trap, and Inoue retired from 18th position after a similar mistake resulted in a stalled engine.

[1] On the following lap, Alesi made his pit stop from second position, releasing Schumacher, and rejoined in front of Coulthard, whilst Barrichello, recovering from his penalty, passed Frentzen for what had become eighth place.

[1][14] At the end of lap 23, the running order was Schumacher, Hill, Herbert, Alesi, Coulthard, Frentzen, Blundell, Barrichello, Martini, Papis, Panis, Badoer, Salo, Boullion, Gachot and Moreno.

[1] Salo began the second round of pit stops on the next lap, and was followed in due course by Alesi, Herbert, Barrichello, Boullion, Gachot, Blundell, Panis and Coulthard.

[29] At the completion of the scheduled pit stops by lap 44, the running order was Schumacher and Hill in close attendance, then a gap back to a similar battle between Herbert and Coulthard, then Alesi, Blundell, Barrichello, Panis, Frentzen—whom Panis had just passed for the third time—Martini, Badoer, Salo, Boullion, Gachot and Moreno, the last of whom retired four laps later with a lack of hydraulic pressure in his Forti's pneumatic engine valves.

[39] The retirement of the two leaders promoted their teammates into their own battle for the lead; the two almost colliding at the same corner as Coulthard attempted to pass Herbert by making a lunge up the inside of his car, as Hill had done to Schumacher.

[43] Thus Herbert took the chequered flag after 61 laps—at an average speed of 195.682 kilometres per hour (121.591 mph)[1]—to win his first Formula One race at his 74th attempt, a result that also moved him from sixth to fourth in the Drivers' Championship.

The support I got from the fans was fantastic, and I realise now what Nigel Mansell and Damon Hill meant when they talked about it.As soon as I was in the lead, the crowd starting waving Union Jacks all the way round the circuit, but I just concentrated on the job.

[44][47] For Coulthard, his result was bittersweet: he was pleased to finish the race despite the failure of his car's electronics, but disappointed to lose an almost certain victory due to his pit-lane speeding penalty.

It was more or less the same situation at Adelaide last year [the occasion of the 1994 Australian Grand Prix, in which a collision between the two settled the Drivers' Championship in Schumacher's favour], where he also tried to dive inside when there was no room.

"[49] Hill was more cautious in his assessment of the incident, commenting that: "I thought I saw an opportunity that I could take an advantage of, but I'm afraid Michael is a harder man to pass than that, and we had an accident—which I would describe as 'a racing accident'".

[50] Journalist Joe Saward was amongst those who speculated, however, that Schumacher had played a role in the collision by taking a wider line into the Priory corner than usual, and thus encouraging Hill to attempt the manoeuvre.

[58] The crash was still the main talking point throughout the sport by the time of the German Grand Prix, exacerbated by the fact that Hill's home race was immediately followed by Schumacher's.