Damon Hill won the Hungarian Grand Prix with ease and was followed home by his Williams-Renault team mate David Coulthard. Everyone else was a lap down.

Qualifying was crucial but there wasn't much of a fight as Damon Hill took his fourth consecutive pole with Coulthard right behind him. Schumacher was third, but a long way off the pole time, despite pushing over the limit on several occasions - notably when he indulged in a high-speed 360-degree spin on the pit straight. Ferrari was in trouble with Alési crashing very heavily on Friday - a little desperation seemed to have been the cause. Berger qualified fourth and Alési managed sixth, the pair split by Häkkinen's McLaren, a brave lap, but evidence that the McLaren-Mercedes combination was finally on the move - or so it seemed. For once Mika was not just battling Jordans.

In the race Hill simply drove away from his rivals, led by Coulthard and Schumacher. Häkkinen's Mercedes V10 went kaputt early on and the only overtaking manoeuvre was when David made a mistake under pressure from Michael and the Benetton driver blasted through.

Schumacher chased after Hill - who had built a 15-second lead. The pair pitted at the same time but this time Benetton's normally-impressive pitwork went badly wrong. In the back of the garage the refuelling machine suddenly begun to fountain petrol. A sealed union in the pressurised piping had not been properly connected. Michael's fuel was not in his car, it was on the floor of the garage. This sort of thing is very scary because fuel vapour can be explosively dangerous. Mercifully, the mess was cleaned up without a spark.

Whatever the case Schumacher did not have enough fuel and by the time he did he was half a minute behind Hill. During the next pit stop sequence the pair had a tussle but Schumacher soon had to pit again. At the third stop Hill was too far ahead to have to worry about Schumacher. Three laps from home, Michael's bad afternoon came to a miserable end when his engine suffered an electrical failure. Would Michael would have caught Damon if he had not had the fuel rig problem? We will never know.

Further back there was some good battling between the Ferraris, Jordans, McLarens, Ligiers, Johnny Herbert's Benetton and Heinz-Harald Frentzen's Sauber. Gradually they began to drop out: Alési with a spark plug failure; Blundell with a fuel pressure problem; Brundle with a blown engine; Irvine with clutch failure and - on the last lap when he was running third - Barrichello with electrical trouble. He was passed by Berger, Herbert, Frentzen and Panis - all covered by 1.2secs - within sight of the chequered flag.