As the Formula 1 teams gathered in Belgium it was becoming increasingly clear that Team Lotus was struggling for money. Alex Zanardi was dropped to make way for pay-driver Philippe Adams but he failed to impress and qualified only 26th. Mika Häkkinen was back in action with McLaren after his one-race ban and Philippe Alliot, who had driven for McLaren in Hungary, had moved to Larrousse since pay-driver Olivier Beretta's money had run out.

Qualifying was disrupted by rain and the final minutes of the final session were in drying conditions. The result was a grid which was much more scrambled than usual with Rubens Barrichello taking pole position in his Jordan-Hart ahead of Michael Schumacher's Benetton, Damon Hill's Williams-Renault, Eddie Irvine's Jordan, Jean Alési's Ferrari and Jos Verstappen's Benetton. The top 10 was completed by David Coulthard (Williams-Renault), Mika Häkkinen (McLaren-Peugeot), Heinz-Harald Frentzen's Sauber and Pierluigi Martini in his Minardi.

At the start of the race the track was dry and Barrichello led only as far as the run up the hill after Eau Rouge. He was overtaken by both Schumacher and Alési in the course of the first lap and Hill followed them through soon afterwards. Alési soon went out with engine failure and so it was back to the usual battle between Schumacher and Hill. On this occasion, however, the German was unbeatable and even had time to survive a spin on his way to victory. After the race however the scrutineers discovered that the wooden "stepped flat bottom" of Schumacher's car had been worn away too much and so he was excluded from the results. These are planks of special hard wood which are fitted under the cars. They must show no significant wear at the end of the race as this would indicate that the car was running illegally low. The lower the car, the greater the aerodynamic advantage for better speed and cornering. Victory was given to Hill with Häkkinen second, Verstappen third and Coulthard fourth.