Crossing the line at the end of the first lap, Hill was 1.148s ahead of Alesi, and he was 1.886s ahead at the end of the second. Going into the first corner he had a minor scare as he came upon the Minardi of Lamy re-emerging from the pits, but was only slightly held up. At the end of the third, he was 2.581s ahead. It looked to be Hill's for the taking, as he set the second of his fastest laps of the race.

Behind, Alesi was pulling away from Schumacher, who was trying to fend off the attention of Villeneuve, the Williams driver only 0.3s back. On the ninth lap he had a look down the inside of Schumacher at the first corner, but Schumacher easily shut the door, and it looked like they would have to wait for the pit-stops.

Until lap 17 that is. Schumacher and Villeneuve, running nose to tail, came upon the Minardi of Giovanni Lavaggi (who may not be good at F1 racing, but was good at picking up micro-skirted beauties in the paddock) as they were approaching the final parabolica. Schumacher got slightly held up, lost momentum, and Villeneuve seized the initiative. Jinking to the left, dirty side of the track, he drew alongside, and it was a side by side drag around the corner. Villeneuve just held on and on (at over 150 mph), and on the exit of the corner Schumacher was forced to allow Villeneuve through and up into third. It was the overtaking manouevre of the race, and possibly the season.

It was pit stop time, and on lap 17 Hill came in for the first of three stops, Villeneuve having his a lap later. The rest of the top six took their's during the next five laps, and come the end of it the positions were unchanged, until Alesi pitted on lap 23, and ran over the kerb on the pit-lane entry. This cost him precious time, and he re-emerged behind Villeneuve. The positions at the end of lap 23 were Hill, Villeneuve (@ 7.155s), Schumacher (@11.197), Alesi (@21.507), Irvine (@32.101) and Berger (@33.621).

The front of the field was static, but there was action further back. 7th, 8th and 9th places were filled by Barrichello, Coulthard and Hakkinen, and they were all running nose to tail. This was to continue on through the race.

The second pit stops came around lap 35, Hill and Villeneuve again pitting on successive laps. The pit stop seemed to give Villeneuve second wind, and how! Being 3.026s behind at the end of lap 36, he reeled off a fastest lap to reduce the gp tp 2.137s, which became 1.479s, and then 0.802s. It again looked as though we would have to either wait for a mistake, traffic or pit stops. Lavaggi kept out of the way this time, and the lead pair kept on battling through to the next pit stops. Meanwhile, on lap 43, we had the first retirement of the race, Rubens Barrichello spinning out into the kitty litter. Considering the usual rate of attrition in grand prix, and the problems with tyre wear at this track, this was somewhat of a miracle.

By lap 44, Schumacher was being held up by Alesi, but there was nothing he could do to get by. Lap 45 and his pit-stop window was enterred, and in he came, and just to confuse him, so did Alesi. Both sets of pit crew worked frantically to get their cars out first, but the Ferrari crew got there just in front, and got their car out first. Schumacher sailed up the pit road with a frustrated Alesi behind, and on to an easy third place.

Hakkinen and Coulthard were still scraping closely in seventh and eighth, but on lap 48 it got too close, Hakkinen running into the back of Coulthard, tipping him into a spin. Coulthard went up the kerb and appeared to be beached, but he got going again. Hakkinen suffered a broken front wing, and as he came into the pits, Coulthard had caught up and dived in too. Formula One pit areas are only big enough to service one car at a time, and as Hakkinen was there first, he got first service. Coulthard was forced to sweat it out behind as the cars went past, and Hakkinen was sent on his way. Five laps later though and Hakkinen was back in, and out.

Coulthard was impatient to be away, and quickly hurried out to rejoin the race. He was too quick, however, and received a ten second penalty for pit-lane speeding. Once he had taken the penalty he rejoined two laps down, his race chances over.

Hill pitted for the third time on lap 49, and Villeneuve on lap 50. Villeneuve's stop was only 0.8s faster than Hill's, but it was enough, and he rejoined inches in front of Hill, and held him off around the first corner. And that was it. Next time around he was 1.507s ahead, and he gradually eased out the gap, aided by the fact that Hill had a clutch problem with 8 laps to go. The pits radioed Hill to changes his clutch setting, and he toured around preserving his car and a safe second place.

The positions were settled, and Villeneuve gratefully took the chequered flag, having gained four points on Hill in the title chase, enough to take it to the final round. However, Villeneuve needs an outright win at Suzuka with Hill out of the points. Anything less and the championship trophy goes to England.