There had been further rule changes as a result of the Imola accidents, the most significant being the decision that teams must use pump fuel. Until then they had used specially formulated fuel nicknamed "rocket fuel" which bore no relation to ordinary gasoline. This seemed to have a dramatic effect on the performance of Ferrari and Michael Schumacher (Benetton) only just beat Ferrari drivers Jean Alési and Gerhard Berger to pole position. Damon Hill and David Coulthard were fourth and fifth in their Williams-Renaults and then came Rubens Barrichello (Jordan-Hart), Mika Häkkinen (McLaren-Peugeot) and Eddie Irvine in the second Jordan. The top 10 was completed by Ukyo Katayama in the Tyrrell-Yamaha and Heinz-Harald Frentzen in the first of the Saubers. The Swiss team was back up to two cars again, veteran Andrea de Cesaris standing in for Karl Wendlinger, injured in Monaco.

At the start of the race the top three remained in grid order while Coulthard made a good start to overtake Hill. Further back Gianni Morbidelli (Arrows) overtook both Katayama and Frentzen and battled with Irvine. Schumacher remained in control while behind him Alési began to edge away from Berger, the Austrian having to work hard to keep Coulthard and Hill behind him. On lap four Hill went ahead of Coulthard but the Scotsman retook the place by driving around the outside of Damon at the hairpin. Coulthard fought on until lap nine. He then allowed Hill through and drifted backwards towards the duelling Barrichello and Häkkinen. Hill managed to pass Berger on the 15th lap and chased after Alési.

Rain began to fall down at mid-distance and on lap 40 Irvine, who had dropped back because of a slow pit stop, spun off at the last corner. When the pit stops were over the main excitement was the battle for fourth place between Berger and Häkkinen although this came to an end on lap 62 when the Finn suffered an engine failure. Schumacher duly won the race from Hill, Alési and Berger. Coulthard was fifth, a good effort in his second F1 race, while sixth place went to Christian Fittipaldi (Arrows) after a wild battle ended up when Barrichello and Mark Blundell (Tyrrell) both spun. Later Fittipaldi's car was disqualified for being underweight and so J.J. Lehto (Benetton) scored his first point of the year.