The fortnight between the French and British Grands Prix had seen Arrows give in to financial desperation and replace Gianni Morbidelli with pay-driver Max Papis, but otherwise the field was the same as usual and the battle for pole position was a familiar one as Damon Hill in his Williams-Renault pipped Michael Schumacher in his Benetton-Renault to pole by 0.2s. David Coulthard was third in the second Williams while Gerhard Berger took fourth in his Ferrari edging out the second Benetton driven by Johnny Herbert. Jean Alési's Ferrari was sixth but it was the Frenchman who made the best start to take second behind Hill at the first corner. Hill built a 20sec lead while Alési held up everyone for 18 laps.

Benetton decided to go for a one-stop strategy while Hill went for two stops and this meant that Hill dropped behind after his second stop. He was much faster than Schumacher and tried a risky move on lap 46. The German turned into his path. This left Herbert in the lead, Benetton having beaten Williams and Ferrari in the pits. Behind him were Alési and Coulthard, the Williams driver having been unable to get past the Ferrari because of electronic trouble during his first stop. At his second stop he did get ahead and closed quickly on Herbert but he was awarded as 10sec stop-go penalty for speeding in the pitlane. His automatic speed limiter was out of action.

Coulthard took the lead briefly before he pitted for the penalty. He rejoined third. Further back Rubens Barrichello's Jordan and Mark Blundell's McLaren collided on the penultimate lap while fighting for fourth place. Blundell had to do the last lap on three wheels which meant he lost fourth to Olivier Panis's Ligier, while Heinz-Harald Frentzen finished sixth for Sauber. Johnny Herbert, whose future at Benetton is uncertain, obtained his first Grand Prix victory, in front of his home crowd.